Salvatore Carchiolo Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: Les Pieces de Clavecin

Having introduced several 17th and 18th century female composers on our first CD entitled "Donne Barocche" I would like to elaborate briefly on my choice of the three composers (…) the most obvious trait shared by all three composers is the fact that music provided them not only with a means of gaining a living but also in their composing with a way of escaping lives of solitude and sadness. (Elena Russo)

The program on this recording provides a cross-section of pieces sung by Roberta Invernizzi & written by women in late seventeenth-century Italy and France (Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729), Barbara Strozzi (C.1619-1678), Antonia Bembo (1643-1715), Rosa Giacinta Badalla (1660-C.1715), Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704), Bianca Maria Meda (C.1665-C.1700) ).

The musical collection by Antonia Padoani Bembo entitled _Produzioni armoniche_ (Harmonic Productions) contains cantatas and arias that together establish an intriguing portrait of the singer-composer born around 1640 in the Veneto. She received help from the guitarist-composer Francesco Corbetta who most probably accompanied her when she sang for Louis XIV, thereby obtaining a life-long pension with which to live in a women's community in Paris.

Blandine Verlet, the noted French harpsichordist, studied with Ruggiero Gerlin and Ralph Kirkpatrick. She began recording in the late 1970s for Philips, switching to the Astree label in the 1990s. Her recordings range from J.S. Bach's keyboard works to Froberger to lesser known composers such as Louis Couperin and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre. This, her second recording of the Goldbergs, has been called "one of the finest harpsichord versions in the catalogue.

Blandine Verlet, a noted French harpsichordist, studied with Ruggiero Gerlin and Ralph Kirkpatrick. She began recording in the late 1970s for Philips, switching to the Astree label in the 1990s. Her recordings range from J.S. Bach's keyboard works to Froberger to lesser known composers such as Louis Couperin and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre. Her second recording of the Goldberg Variations, in 1992, has been called "one of the finest harpsichord versions in the catalog." With violinist Gerard Poulet she has recorded early violin sonatas by Mozart, using the older Baroque keyboard instruments rather than a fortepiano or modern piano. Verlet has also worked with flutist Stephen Preston and viola da gambist Jordi Savall. Her playing is noted for her control and restraint in not letting emotion carry her away.

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre is one of the most remarkable female musical figures in history. Rarely has a woman composer garnered such esteem in her own time, and her success, rather than provoking resentment in the hearts of her contemporaries, inspired the utmost admiration. One has to give credit to the Grand Siècle, a unique period in this regard, for granting Élisabeth the respect she truly deserved. This recording features works seldom heard but nonetheless of exceptional quality, exemplifying two genres in which Jacquet de La Guerre excelled: the French cantata and the suite for harpsichord. In these, we can discover the intrinsic and timeless value of her artistry, regardless of the anecdotal aspects of the historical and social conditions in which they were created.