Bernabei

Printed in Rome in 1669, the fifteen pieces that make up the Concerto madrigalesco a tre voci diverse by Ercole Bernabei (1622-1687) are recorded here for the first time in their entirety. These madrigals transport us to Baroque Rome and the world of Flavio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, to whom they are dedicated. They afford a glimpse of the tastes that prevailed at that time among the aristocratic families, who were convinced that the arts, and music in particular, reflected not only the power and fortune, but also the sensitivity and refinement of those who patronised them.

Harmonies of Devotion is both an exploration of the Italian motet repertory of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and a celebration of the devotion to this sacred repertory displayed by English antiquarian collectors of the eighteenth century. Among the works recorded here for the first time are Giovanni Legrenzi’s six-voice masterpiece Intret in conspectu tuo, which survives thanks to a copy made in London by Handel, a five-voice Crucifixus by Legrenzi’s pupil Antonio Lotti, sent to London’s newly formed Academy of Ancient Music, a grand Marian motet written for the Academy by Agostino Steffani, and music by Steffani’s teacher Ercole Bernabei, again collected by members of London’s antiquarian music clubs.