Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Ko?ená hasn't often sung Baroque music. Thus, it is all the more impressive that when she does, she devises really innovative programs with unusual music. Her enthusiasm for the project may be gauged by her comment here: "I could hardly imagine more passionate, savage, uninhibited yet loving and caressing companions for these desperate heroines than Vaclav Luks and the musicians of Collegium 1704." She's right about the musicians, yet the real spotlight is on Ko?ená herself. The program consists of ...
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Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Ko?ená hasn't often sung Baroque music. Thus, it is all the more impressive that when she does, she devises really innovative programs with unusual music. Her enthusiasm for the project may be gauged by her comment here: "I could hardly imagine more passionate, savage, uninhibited yet loving and caressing companions for these desperate heroines than Vaclav Luks and the musicians of Collegium 1704." She's right about the musicians, yet the real spotlight is on Ko?ená herself. The program consists of secular cantatas from the first half of the 18th century; this genre has been neglected amidst the general rediscovery of Baroque opera. They're short pieces with a full orchestra, and the middle-sized Collegium 1704 works well here; a good-sized group is needed to stand up to one of the Handelian sopranos or castrati who would have sung this music originally. Handel is the main attraction, with an early (1707) Italian cantata, Qual ti riveggio, oh Dio, HWV 150, presented in full....
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