Marco Marazzoli: Cantatas of Peace and Pleasure

The Boston Early Music Festival's newest recording explores the magnificent vocal cantatas of Roman composer Marco Marazzoli. Musical Directors Paul O'Dette & Stephen Stubbs lead an all-star roster of  singers and instrumentalists in Marazzoli's extravagant musical entertainments. These miniature dramas present a kaleidoscopic variety of arias, duets, trios, and quartets culminating in glorious choruses for six voices.

Marco Marazzoli was a harpist, tenor, and composer who wrote more than 380 cantatas for one to six voices, in addition to operas, oratorios, motets, and liturgical works. Each six-voice cantatas featured here treats a different subject: one features Bacchus and his followers overindulging in the grape harvest, another recounts Radamisto’s daring escape from the clutches of vengeful King Tiridate. Il Riposo conjures the peace and tranquility of the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, while another, La Guerra e la Pace, is an allegory of the struggle between War and Peace. The cantatas survive in nearly illegible autograph scores in the Vatican archives, which is undoubtedly the main reason these works have not been performed in modern times, despite the extraordinary quality of the music itself.

BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Carlotta Colombo, Danielle Reutter-Harrah & Alissa Magee soprano
James Reese & Aaron Sheehan tenor
Jesse Blumberg & Mauro Borgioni baritone

BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

Sarah Darling violin I
Jesse Irons violin II
Christel Thielmann viola da gamba
David Morris viola da gamba & lirone
Maxine Eilander Baroque harp
Paul O’Dette chitarrone
Stephen Stubbs Baroque guitar
Michael Sponseller harpsichord & organ