Agostino Steffani's Stabat Mater, featured on this album, was likely his last composition, written shortly before his death in 1728.
Composer Biography
Agostino Steffani, in addition to his musical career, became an accomplished diplomat, politician, bishop, and Apostolic Vicar of Northern Germany.
Composition History
George Frideric Handel, another composer on this album, finished composing Dixit Dominus in Rome in April 1707, at the age of twenty-two.
Compositional Technique
Agostino Steffani's Stabat Mater is scored for six voices and six string instruments, producing a rich and sonorous texture, with vocal writing confined mainly to middle and lower registers.
Compositional Technique
Handel's Dixit Dominus, an early work, is scored for five voices and, unusually, five-part strings with two violas.
Composer Biography
Agostino Steffani, a composer featured on this album, was highly regarded in his lifetime but is relatively neglected today.
Performer Biography
Harry Christophers, the founder and conductor of The Sixteen, also serves as Artistic Director of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society.
