Vivaldi And The Women of The Pieta

Vivaldi wrote Juditha Triumphans for the musically talented women of the Ospedale della Pieta, the Venetian orphanage with which he was associated on and off throughout most of his working life. The librettist, Giacomo Cassetti, described the work as a ''sacred military oratorio performed in times of war by the chorus of virgin singers, to be sung in the church of the Pieta''. The war was that into which Venice had entered against the Ottoman Empire and to which reference is made both in the body of the Latin text and in a ''Carmen Allegoricum'' which accompanied the text of the work's first performance.

‘Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes’ is the only survivor of the four oratorios that Vivaldi is known to have composed. The work was commissioned to celebrate the victory of the Republic of Venice over the Turks during the siege of Corfu. All characters, male and female, are interpreted by women (originally the singers of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice). Although the rest of the oratorio survives completely intact, the overture has been lost and Jordi Savall has selected two existing concertos as introduction, of which the key, mode and no doubt date of composition coincide most closely with the subject of the oratorio.

One of the causes of the ‘crisis’ in the music industry is the fact that too many works are recorded over and over again. There are innumerable CDs with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or Pergolesi’s Stabat mater. But once in a while someone has the imagination to perform and record a completely unknown piece by a composer hardly anybody has ever heard about. Antonio Florio is one of those creative minds who concentrates on little-known repertoire. In the last decade or so he has explored the musical past of his city, Naples. This time he presents a composition by an Italian who, for the largest part of his life, worked in Vienna. Badia was born in Verona and went to Innsbruck at a young age.

No less than five brilliant countertenors – including Max Emanuel Cencic and Philippe Jaroussky – join conductor Diego Fasolis and Concerto Köln for Artaserse by Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730). In early 18th century Italy, the Neapolitan-born composer was one of the brightest stars in opera, and Artaserse is considered his masterpiece.