Utwory na płycie:

• Sonata seconda
• Aria sopra il Ruggiero
• Aria sopra la Monica
• Sonata sesta
• Sonata terza
• Ciaccona
• Sonata quinta
• Aria sopra la Romanesca
• Ancor che col partire
• Canzone passaggiata
• Sonata prima
• Aria sopra la Monica
• Sonata quarta
• Toccata

Giovanni Battista Fontana:
Sonata seconda
Sonata sesta
Sonata terza
Sonata quinta
Sonata prima
Sonata quarta

Angelo Notari:
Aria sopra il Ruggiero
Aria sopra la Monica (Modi 8-10)
Ciaccona
Aria sopra la Romanesca
Ancor che col partire
Canzone passaggiata
Aria sopra la Monica (Modi 1-7)

Francesco Rovigo:
Toccata

Compared to the Italian centres of power – Milan, Florence and Rome – the Lombardian city of Mantua in the Po Valley is small in size. All the more prestigious was the commitment to the arts by the ruling Gonzaga dynasty: artists such as Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Romano and Leon Battista Alberti created lasting masterpieces in their paintings and architecture for them, whilst musicians such as Giaches de Wert and Claudio Monteverdi consolidated Mantua’s reputation throughout Europe. Their stage was within the grand complex of the ducal palace and the adjoining church of Santa Barbara: an impressive synthesis of the arts consisting of Mannerist architecture and painting – and an ideal space for music.

This magical place was chosen by recorder player Julia Fritz together with organist Johannes Hämmerle, soprano Magdalene Harer and harpist Reinhild Waldek to record works by Giovanni Battista Fontana and Angelo Notari, two contemporaries of Monteverdi. Fontana’s solo sonatas for violin and continuo, which Julia Fritz interprets on various recorders, belong to the canon of early baroque violin music, while the pieces by Notari, some of which are recorded here for the first time, hail from a British Library manuscript which the composer presumably produced for English music lovers in the circle of King Charles I. They are variations and arrangements of songs that demonstrate the high standard of solo and ornamental art of the time, which were as popular in Italy as in the rest of Europe.

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Recording: October 12 - 16, 2020, Basilica di Santa Barbara, Mantua. Instruments: Antegnati organ (1565), Basilica di Santa Barbara, Mantua