Giovanni Lorenzo Lulier:
Oratorio a 6 per la Nascita del Redentore:
“Di quei lampi che vanta l’aurora” (Maria Vergine)
“Tu dormi o Figlio…Figlio mio, se nel pensiero” (Maria Vergine)

Giovanni Battista Bononcini:
La conversione di Maddalena:
“Del favellar divino…Sinché ridon le rose” (Maddalena)
“Cor imbelle a due nemici”
“Si si, risolvo col mio dolore”
Sinfonia

Leopoldo I d’Asburgo:
Il Crocefisso per Grazia composed by Antonio Draghi:
“Ecco qui l’incomprensibile” (Maria Vergine)

Antonio Caldara:
La Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo:
Sinfonia
“Omai spezza quel nodo…Pompe inutili” (Maddalena)
“Deh, s’un tempo percossa…In lagrime stemprato” (Maddalena)

Giacomo Antonio Perti:
La sepoltura di Cristo - “Del Nazareno non era in seno” (Maria Vergine)
Gesu al Sepolcro - “Giovanni, ah tu del Figlio…Del campo il bel fiore” (Maria Vergine)

George Frideric Handel:
La Resurrezione

Alessandro Scarlatti:
La Santissima Annunziata - “Stesa a pie’ del tronco amaro…Mortali a voi consegno… Nella patria dei contenti” (Maria Vergine)

On her second PENTATONE album Maria & Maddalena, star soprano Francesca Aspromonte explores the Two Marys in oratorios by Lulier, Bononcini, Leopoldo I d’Asburgo, Caldara, Perti, Handel and Scarlatti, partly in new editions, documenting the extremely bloom of the genre in the years around 1700. She performs these works together with violinist Boris Begelman as well as the seasoned players of I Barocchisti under the baton of the eminent Diego Fasolis. Traditionally seen as two feminine opposites, with far-reaching moral implications, Aspromonte brings the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene together as two beautiful and strong women who turned their lives upside down by making the choice to dedicate themselves completely to an ideal. Her interpretation of these exceptional pieces explores all the emotions of the Two Marys, constituting a fascinating and profoundly moving portrait of what it means to be a woman.

Francesca Aspromonte first appeared on PENTATONE with Prologue (2018), a conceptual programme in which she presents various prologues of early-Baroque operas. Boris Begelman, I Barocchisti and Diego Fasolis all make their PENTATONE debut.

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This album was recorded at RSI Studios in Lugano, Switzerland, in July 2020, in collaboration with RSI Rete Due, Lugano.