Leonarda: Complete Trio Sonatas Ensemble Giardino di Delizie & Ewa Anna Augustynowicz

• Isabella Leonarda (1620 - 1704): Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Quarta:
• 1 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Quarta: I. Presto. Adagio. Presto. Solo. Allegro. Solo. Prestissimo. Adagio. Presto. Adagio. Presto. Adagio 11:13
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Settima:
• 2 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Settima: II. 4/4. Largo. 4/4. 6/8 07:33
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Prima:
• 3 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Prima: III. Allegro. Largo. Adagio. Aria, allegro. Solo. Vivace 10:58
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Undecima:
• 4 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Undecima: IV. 6/4. Allegro. 12/8. Adagio. Allegro 05:47
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Terza:
• 5 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Terza: V. Adagio. Presto. Adagio. Solo, largo. Presto. Solo. Prestissimo. Solo, largo. Presto. Adagio. Allegro 07:21
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Ottava:
• 6 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Ottava: VI. 6/8. 3/2. 4/4. 3/2. Spiritoso. 3/2 04:55
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Sesta:
• 7 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Sesta: VII. 4/4. 3/1. 4/4 03:20
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Quinta:
• 8 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Quinta: VIII. Adagio. Prestissimo. Adagio. Presto. 3/2. Adagio. Presto. Adagio. Presto. 3/2 05:00
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Nona:
• 9 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Nona: IX. Presto. Largo. 4/4. Prestissimo 03:43
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Seconda:
• 10 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Seconda: X. Largo. Spiritoso. Allegro. Adagio. Allegro. Largo 07:45
• Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Decima:
• 11 Leonarda: Trio Sonata, Op. 16, Sonata Decima: XI. Spiritoso. Presto. Presto. Adagio. Presto. Presto. Adagio. Presto. Presto. Spiritoso 04:36
• Total Runtime 01:12:11

Info for Leonarda: Complete Trio Sonatas

Born into a noble family, Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704) entered the Ursuline Convent in the Piedmontese city of Novara at the age of 16. Having taken holy orders she lived there for the rest of her life as a religious sister, later its director of music and Mother Superior. She evidently showed musical promise from an early age, as the first of her published collections of music dates from as early as 1640, when she was just 20 years old.

Following the Brilliant Classics portrait of Isabella Leonarda’s vocal output from Cappella Artemisia directed by Candace Smith (96626), the all-female ensemble of Giardino di Delizie presents a set of 11 Trio Sonatas which was published in 1683 as the composer’s Op.16. Isabella dedicated it to the Virgin Mary with a devotional preface: ‘If these pieces do not please the World, I shall be content if You like them, because You appreciate the heart above the intellect.’

In fact, Isabella’s music greatly pleased the rest of the world at the time: according to one French collector, ‘All the works of this illustrious and incomparable Isabella Leonarda are so beautiful, so charming, so brilliant, and at the same time so knowledgeable and so wise ... that my great regret is not to have them all.’

While the Sonatas do not exhibit the bold contrasts or rich harmony of her contemporary Corelli, they nonetheless rise above many other contemporary examples of the genre, not least in the improvisatory freedom of their writing, especially in the slow movements. They are written for two violins, violone and organ continuo, which makes them all trio sonatas in which the the violins. violone parte dialogues on equal terms with the violins.

Previous albums from this exciting early-music ensemble have all met with a warm critical response from the international press. ‘The performance sounds completely natural, full of spontaneity and bursting energy. It’s clear the group really likes this music and does not merely try and lecture it.’ (Lonati, 95590 theclassicreview.com). ‘Giardino di Delizie… take an energetic and imaginative approach to this fine music… playing with sensitivity and considerable musicality.’ (Colista, 96033, earlymusicreview.com). ‘A garden of delights, sensitively and beautifully performed, perfect for any lover of the Baroque.’ (Gems of the Polish Baroque, 95955, MusicWeb International).

The only instrumental works by Isabella Leonarda are the twelve sonatas for 1, 2, 3 and 4 instruments belonging to Opus 16. No woman prior to Leonarda produced so much non liturgical music, and she is the only woman in the 17th century to have published sonatas for the church. The first eleven sonatas in this recording are written for two violins, violone and organ continuo, which makes them all trio sonatas in which the violone part dialogues on equal terms with the violins. These excellent works show that Leonarda belongs to the group of composers of the 1600s who significantly contributed to the development of the trio sonata, a genre later perfected by Arcangelo Corelli.

Founded in 2014 by the violinist Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, Ensemble Giardino di Delizie is a female quartet of early-music experts based in Rome but working internationally, not only with each other but also within groups led by Christophe Coin, Enrico Onofri, Fabio Bondi and other luminaries of modern Baroque performance. Their previous recordings with music by Lonati (BC 95590), Colista (BC 96033) and Stradella (BC 96079)were reviewed enthusiastically by the international press.

Ensemble Giardino di Delizie
Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, direction

The Ensemble Giardino di Delizie
is a Roman Baroque Ensemble and was founded in 2014 by its artistic director Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, PhD. The ensemble is a collective of Polish, Italian and Eastern European musicians and has a varying structure from string duets to small chamber orchestra and its musicians specialized with internationally renowned masters, such as Enrico Onofri, Marco Ceccato, Enrico Gatti, Andrea Coen, Giovanni Togni, Dmitry Sinkowsky, Amandine Beyer, Marco Testori. Franco Pavan etc. In addition to the high level of training and specialization, the members of the group work regularly with different ensembles including Les Eléments, Divino Sospiro, Capella Cracoviensis, Accademia Montis Regalis, Europa Galante, Arianna Art Ensemble, Collegium Pro Musica, Quatuor Mosaiques, Concerto Romano, Accordone and Pomo d'Oro.

Alongside the musical activity, the ensemble also conducts research in the field of musicology with particular regard to the Roman and Polish Baroque repertoire, rediscovering forgotten authors and trying to draw bridge between these two countries. Due to its unique binational character, the ensemble is particularly interested in the peculiarities of their own musical languages. The musicians are strongly convinced of the need of “saper ben parlare per ben suonare”, thus their research starts with a proper phonetic analysis of each langugaes to make them present in the execution and interpretation of the musical pieces. Hence, their performances are rich in sweet tones of Italian Corellian passages on the one side and and vigorous and lively sounds of the Polish dances on the other side. The ensemble’s performances, particularly intense and exciting, are in fact the result of extensive historical surveys to rediscover masterpieces of Italian composers who have had the center of its activities in the Rome of Alessandro Stradella, Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti during the long poignant and bright sunset of the Roman polyphonic style and those of Polish and Italian composers such as Marcin Mielczewski, Adam Jarzebski, Tarquinio Merula who had their centre of activity at the court of the Polish kings.

The ensemble is based in Rome and since its foundation pursued its activity in important institutions such as the Circle of the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence in Rome, Umberto Theatre, the Polish Church of St. Stanislaus in Rome, different cultural associations and others. The group participated in festivals such as the Festival of Music Rome; Almisonis Melos Chivasso, Turin; Musica Antica a San Rufo, Rieti; Sulle Ombre del Cusanino Filottrano, Marche; Santa Rita Basilica of Cascia and Concerti di Campagna, Monte Compatri. In August 2016 the ensemble performed with a great success at two important European festivals: the BRQ Vantaa Music Festival (Helsinki) and the Oude Musik Festival (Utrecht). In February 2017 the ensemble went on tournee in Poland giving concerts as a special guest at the Schola Cantorum Early Music Festival in Kalisz, at the Wilanow Palace in Warsaw and for the Societa Dante Alighieri in Katowice. In August 2017 the ensemble played with a great succes at the festival Barok na Spiszu in Poland. In 2018 Giardino di Delizie performed Polish Baroque music in various occasions celebrating 100 anniversary of the Polish independence (Turin University, Societa’ del Giardino in Milan, Museum of Instruments in Rome). In December 2018 the ensemble played in Naples for the concert series organized by Centro della Pietà de’ Turchini. The ensemble has been invited to perform during the Festival de Música Antiga dels Pirineus in Spain in 2019.

Recently, as a result of intense musicological research, the ensemble recorded its first CD for Brilliant Classics with 10 Triosonatas by Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, a still quite unknown Roman Baroque composer. It is the first modern recording of all these sonatas and Carlo Ambrogio Lonati and Roman composers are in focus of ensemble's musicological survey. In April 2019 the group has recorded its second CD, this time of the 17th century Polish Baroque Composers. This CD should be published by Brilliant Classics at the beginning of 2020. The group is already working its 3d CD with never recorded music to be recorded in the Autumn 2019. The musicians of the Giardino di Delizie perform their repertoire on historical instruments, copies of important Italian manufacturers.

Booklet for Leonarda: Complete Trio Sonatas