Sirens & Soldiers. Song without Words from the Italian Seicento

Featuring

Giulia Genini
Concerto Scirocco
Tarquinio Merula
Samuel Scheidt
Giovanni Antonio Terzi
Philipp Friedrich Boddecker

Marco Uccellini
Ottavio Bargnani
Salomone Rossi
Francesco Cavalli
Marco Antonio Ferro
Biagio Marini
Andrea Falconieri
Maurizio Cazzati
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer

Did you know?

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Compositional Technique

The instrumental music of the 17th century, as featured on this recording, is rich in 'songs without words' and uses rhetoric to stir emotions, much like singers.

Historical Context

The first half of the 17th century, when this music was composed, saw both a renewal of musical language and the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War across Europe.

Recording & Production

Concerto Scirocco, the ensemble on this recording, has received significant international critical acclaim for its previous albums, including multiple 'Diapasons' and 'Choc Classica' awards.

Album & Artwork

The album title, 'Love and Mars', is a play on the Italian 'Amore e Morte' (Love and Death), and refers to the mythological adulterous relationship between Venus and Mars.

Performer Biography

Giulia Genini, the Swiss-Italian director of Concerto Scirocco, began her career as a poly-instrumentalist, specializing in recorder and historical bassoons.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The idea of war prompted composer Claudio Monteverdi to a profound stylistic innovation, aiming to represent the human passion of anger in music, as exhorted by Plato.