Catherine Bott - To the Unknown Goddess: A Portrait of Barbara Strozzi (1997)

Several female composers achieved some slight renown in 17th-century Italy, but none was more widely known or praised than the extraordinary Barbara Strozzi. This famously virtuoso singer wrote herself truly imaginative, compelling music--the wide-ranging, fluttering runs of the wedding song "Gite, o giorni dolenti," the passionate anguish and the unsettling chromatic turns in the melody of "Lagrime mie," the coquettish humor of "La sol fa mi re do," and on and on. For this "portrait of Barbara Strozzi," Catherine Bott gives a spectacular performance, encompassing the wide range (both vocal and emotional) and technical challenges of this music with ease and dramatic flair. (The accompaniment--harp, lute, and harpsichord--is particularly attractive as well.) The cantatrice virtuosissima (as Strozzi's contemporaries called her) has met her match. -- Matthew Westphal