Two of the major works that made Claudio Monteverdi the innovator of the musical world of his time were concentrated between 1607 and 1608 in Mantua: Orfeo, Favola in musica in 5 acts (24th February 1607, libretto by Alessandro Striggio Jr.) and Arianna, Tragedia in a single act (28th May 1608, libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini). The disappearance of any of Arianna's scores remains an unsolved mystery. We do not know what the musical style of the opera was, but from Rinuccini's libretto, we can guess that it was a development of the Florentine model of the Musiche di Iacopo Peri […] sopra l'Euridice del signor Ottavio Rinuccini (Florence, 6th October 1600).

A 20 ans, avant d'être célèbre dans toute l'Europe et de venir à Londres se mesurer à Haendel, ce natif de Modène (1670-1747) composa cet oratorio précoce. Il y témoigne d'une capacité évidente à dépasser ses modèles: les airs sont inspirés, l'écriture instrumentale habile et la figure de Marie-Madeleine ainsi mise en musique a toute l'ambiguïté de la sensualité séductrice et du repentir édificateur.

Originally recorded in an Italian villa in 1992, this release covered German solo vocal music ranging over much of the 17th century, most of it with the melancholy tone suggested by the album's title. Its release by Spain's Glossa label in 2009 was likely due to the fact that it includes music that even by then remained unfamiliar. The biggest attraction is the sextet of songs, and songs are what they are, by Adam Krieger, the founder of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum Bach decades later. Some are secular, some sacred, and they sound very little like Schütz, Schein, or the comparable Italian works of the period; they're free in shape, rather light-hearted, and apparently written for the entertainment of aristocratic amateurs.