Mother, Sister, Daughter
This album explores women’s lives and relationships through devotional and liturgical polyphony of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. With music newly identified with the convent of Galileo’s Daughter, more motets attributed to Suor Leonora d’Este, and a magnificent new work by British composer, Joanna Marsh. More…
From Darkness Into Light: The Complete Lamentations of Jeremiah for Good Friday by Antoine Brumel
Presenting another significant discovery from the archives, the complete setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah for Good Friday by Antoine Brumel, paired with anonymous works from a mid-sixteenth-century Florentine convent. More…
Lucrezia Borgia’s Daughter: Princess, Nun, and Musician
We are immensely proud of this disc. Winner of the 2016 Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, and generously supported by the Ambache Charitable Trust. Sixteen motets from the mysterious anonymous publication, Musica quinque vocum: motteta materna lingua vocata (1543) that may have been written by Suor Leonora d’Este, daughter of Duke Alfonso I of Ferrara and his duchess, Lucrezia Borgia. More…
Sacred Hearts, Secret Music
Palestrina is placed alongside Rore and a sense of scholarship as well as intense musicality runs through the whole: fascinating and lovely.
Get the book, get the CD. Yes, in what is either a clever marking idea or a genuine effort to provide a multi-dimensional artistic experience, this disc is the official soundtrack to Sarah Dunant’s book Sacred Hearts. Palestrina is placed alongside Rore and a sense of scholarship as well as intense musicality runs through the whole: fascinating and lovely. Gramophone EDITOR’S CHOICE. More…
Alessandro Grandi
This isn’t your run-of-the-mill recording of an early seventeenth century motet collection. Instead of merely accepting the music at face value, as originally published, we are invited to make a leap of faith and enter the cloistered world of an Italian convent and imagine the performances are given by an ensemble of nuns. More…
Dangerous Graces
After the sharp religious ecstasy of Cozzolani’s convent motets, Musica Secreta have turned to the madrigals of de Rore, Luzzaschi and de Wert, giving them, as ever, a feminine twist. Through judicious transposition, these erotic madrigals for mixed voices become densely entwined duets, trios and quartets for the female voice, suspended over a soft mattress of plucked and bowed continuo. Dangerous? No. But very seductive, whether in concert Dolci sospiri ardenti or alone Il dolce sonno. Were Botticelli’s Primavera to burst into song, she would probably sound like this.
Independent on Sunday More…
Dialogues With Heaven
This fine group strikes a balance between scholarly correctness and a real passion for music which is, after all, passionate.
Scotland on SundaySensual, rigorous and thoughtful…The pearly voices… entwine deliciously over the (all male) continuo section. Even if your tastes normally incline to musical bubble bath, this ravishing music of restrained passion should win you over.
The Independent on Sunday More…
Songs of ecstasy and devotion
There is no doubt about the integrity and intelligence of [the] performances, and the sound of the ensemble’s female voices is refined and exquisitely sweet.
BBC Music MagazineVizzana….frequently used her exceptional musical talent to celebrate the physical, sacramental presence of Christ in all its sensuous images …. The subtly variegated palette of Musica Secreta reveals her own spiritual secrets deliciously.
The Times More…
La virtuosissima cantatrice
This intriguing disc of virtuosic vocal music by Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi is an important release. Despite being the most successful female composer of her time, Strozzi’s vast output of vocal music has not hitherto had the recognition it deserves from the CD industry…. The vocal work on this disc is uniformly excellent, with each singer given the chance to display truly virtuosic technique…. This disc comes highly recommended… as an expertly and intelligently sung recording of some very fine music.
Soundscapes More…
The Secret Music of Luzzasco Luzzaschi
The purity of line and freedom from excessive vibrato of these singers, coupled with their agility in florid passages and the high musical merit of Luzzaschi’s influential and distinctive music, amounts to a listening experience that is nothing less than ravishing.
The Guide (Australia) More…
