Albinoni: 12 Cantatas for Soprano and Contralto, Op. 4

Featuring

Silvia Frigato
Elena Biscuola
L`Arte dell`Arco
Tomaso Albinoni

Did you know?

1/7

Compositional Technique

All cantatas in this collection follow an R-A-R-A (Recitative-Aria-Recitative-Aria) form, except for two that have a shortened A-R-A form, omitting the initial recitative.

Recording & Production

This recording utilizes a performance practice where certain sections of the basso continuo are performed with either a bowed instrument or a keyboard instrument alone, emphasizing primary features.

Composition History

Albinoni's Cantate a voce sola opera quarta (1702) was dedicated to Cardinal Francesco Maria de' Medici, uncle and advisor to the Grand Prince of Tuscany, Ferdinando de' Medici.

Composition History

The only surviving printed edition of Albinoni's Cantate opera quarta, long thought lost, was rediscovered in the early 1900s by Edward J. Dent and is now at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Composer Biography

Although Albinoni initially referred to himself as an 'amateur violinist,' he later dropped the term and lived solely from his music after making over the family business to his brothers.

Composer Biography

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, born in Venice in 1671, came from a prosperous family of paper manufacturers, which allowed him to study violin, singing, and counterpoint.