Ruggieri: Cantatas, Op. 5

Giovanni Maria Ruggieri (ca. 1669–1714) lived and worked in Venice. His Cantate con violini, e senza, op. 5, was published by Giuseppe Sala in Venice in 1706, and the only surviving exemplar is preserved in the library of the Royal College of Music, London. Although Ruggieri was an amateur musician, this set of cantatas reveals a highly accomplished composer who excelled in his treatment of the voice and also wrote sympathetically and idiomatically for violins and continuo. His text-setting uses standard musical-rhetorical devices to depict images and ideas, while also respecting the prosody. This edition includes all of the works of the original print: six multi-movement cantatas for solo soprano or alto and basso continuo, another four with two violins added, and two single-movement duets with unison violins and basso continuo.