Search - John Toll :: The Secret Music of Luzzasco Luzzaschi

"There can be no musical event so widely talked about... yet actually heard by so few." So wrote Anthony Rooley about the fabled Concerto delle Donne (Consort of Ladies) at the court of Ferrara in the years before 1600. These extraordinary singers were jealously guarded by Duke Alfonso d'Este and heard only by select invitees; the virtuosic music written for them by court composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi was called musica secreta. This "secret music" can certainly astonish: for example, at the opening of "Occhi del pianto mio", three sopranos sweetly warble like Renaissance Andrews Sisters--then one of them suddenly hurtles down an octave scale and back up again, followed in turn by each of the others. Deborah Roberts (of the Tallis Scholars) formed her own consort of ladies, Musica Secreta, specifically to explore the solos, duets, and trios composed for the Concerto delle Donne. She, fellow Tallis Scholar Tessa Bonner, and soprano Suzie LeBlanc (whose voice sounds a lot like Emma Kirkby's) are fully up to Luzzaschi's demands; Mary Nichols sounds uncomfortable singing solo, but she is wonderful in ensemble--a true contralto with an unusually youthful sound. --Matthew Westphal