Luogo e data di registrazione		Doopsgezinde Gemeente Kerk, Amsterdam (Olanda) - settembre 1978
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Gerd Berg / Johann-Nikolaus Matthes
	Prima Edizione LP		EMI Electrola "Reflexe" - 1C 165-45 643/44 - (2 lp) - durata 51' 50" / 44' 42" - (p) 1979 - Analogico
	Prima Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - CMS 7 63438 2 - (2 cd) - durata 51' 52" / 44' 39" - (c) 1991 - ADD
	Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - 8 26539 2 - (2 cd) - durata 51' 52" / 44' 38" - (c) 2000 - ADD
	Note		-

Alessandro Stradella is one of those composers whose name never fell into oblivion after his death, in contrast to most of his contemporaries. It is true that this cannot be credited to his musical output, but to the adventurous events of his life, which have constantly attracted the phantasy of romantic writers. Many times has Stradella been produced on the opera stage as a hero, and the writers of various papers on musical history did not fail at least to referto his violent end as the result of a love affair. All that, however, had but little effect on the knowledge and fostering of the extensive works which the thirty-eight year old composer left for posterity. It is only recently that his art has begun to be evaluated again and attract attention, just the same as his life, about which little was known apart from the sensational incidents. It is above all through the copious biography of Stradella by Remo Giazotto that today we know of his origins, the musical scene of his youth and what befell him later: other scholars, especially the American Owen Jander, made valuable contributions to the further knowledge of him, and above all of the works he composed. Alessandro Stradella was born in Rome an October lst 1644 and baptised three days later in the church of S. Celso e Giuliano, near the Piazza Navona, and he spent his childhood in that vicinity. His parents, Marcantonio and Simona Stradella, had only arrived in Rome shortly before, both came from the Modena district and had clearly left their home only reluctantly. Cavaliere Marcantonio Stradella had been Governor of the Modena fortress Vignola in the years 1642/43 and had fled in order to extricate himself from his duties there owing to the violent struggles between the Pope and the Duke of Modena, and it would appear that was in no way due to cowardice nor for his own advantage, but on the advice of Sig. Ugo Boncampagni of Vignola, who was in an awkward position as Roman lord and feudal lord of Modena, and clearly wanted to avoid a direct confrontation. The Stradellas first went to another estate of Boncampagni’s Montefestino, and there spent a difficult time in exile, with Simona already pregnant with the future composer. With a recommendation from Boncampagni to the powerful Pamfili family, of which, Giambattista had just ascended the Papal throne as Pope Innocence X. they went to Rome. The father was in fact entrusted with several commissions by the Pamfilis, without however being able to gain a firm appointment or regular salary. An attempt to extricate himself from this situation by seeking an act of grace from the Duke of Modena was unsuccessful, and in 1655 Marcantonia Stradella died in Rome. His youngest son Alessandro grew in the world of lay piety evolved by the spirit of the holy Filippo Neri, as was fostered at S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini, at Vallicella and other spiritual centres, and in which the musical oratorio also had its roots. It would appear that even as a child Stradella took part in musical performances in these circles and part of his training was due to them, and he then completed his musical education with the wellknown Roman master, Ercole Bernabei. The father tried in vain to get him accepted into the seminary of the Augustines in Acquapendente, where Alessandro's elder brother Francesco was already about to take his priest’s vows. In 1657, two years after his father, his mother died, who had also had no success in her desire to return to Modena or to obtain a grant from the duke. As Alessandro's middle brother had also left home and his sister had married, the young musician had to look around for lodgings, which he doubtless with the help of the powerful and rich families of the Roman nobility (such as the Pamfili). Some years later we find him, already a respected musician, in ecclesiastical music circles as the already-mentioned cultural centres of Phillipine spiritual learning and of the musical oratorio, in his connection as favourite of the Pamfili, Aldobrandini, Colonna and not least of Queen Christina of Sweden, who after abdicating the throne and being converted to the Catholic faith had chiefly lived in Rome, at first received in triumph by the pope and people, but who was later found to be a liability in many respects. In any case, Christina gathered around her a veritable court of the muses of all the arts, among which music played a leading part. The young Stradella was recommended to her as singer, lutenist and violin player. Stradella composed for the queen an Latin Motet in honour of Filippo Neri Chare Jesu soavissime which was performed on the saint’s birthday on July 21st, 1663. The text was also by Stradella, who was an accomplished poet in Italian and Latin. He scored a big success, Christina bestowed gifts on the eighteen-year-old, and appointed him as her “servitore da camera", which in fact was neither a position nor a providerof any income. In 1665 the Contestabile Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna and his wife Maria Mancini, although they were not really close friends of Christina, asked her for the young musician and this request was granted upon the advice of the gueen's confidants, Cardinal Decio Azzolino and Giacomo d’Alibert. Stradella got to know important people in Colonna’s circle, such as the future Vienna Court poet Nicolò Minato, the Roman Lelio Orsini (a member of the well-known family of the nobility), who was also active as a poet, and Giovanni Paolo Monesio, whose diaries today provide a valuable insight on Stradella’s life. True it must be said that this very Monesio, who had to flee from Rome for a time for fraud against the above-mentioned Orsini and later held court in Genoa with Stradella’s later benefactor Marchese Rodolfo Maria Brignole Sale, one of those personalities surrounding Stradella who did not always tray to achieve their aims by ethical means. To them must be added also the musician Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, who just like Monesio always seems to turn up at Stradella’s side in important phases of his life. At the same time the composer had the first of his love-affairs with the singer Pia Antinori, who was also in the service of Colonna. In December 1663, the Colonnas went to Venice, and with them Stradella, Antinori and Minato. However Stradella returned to Rome in April via Florence. But he did not stay here very long either and then went with Christina of Sweden’s young protegee Giorgina Cesi to Florence. The couple separated here and Stradella made a passionate acquaintance with a young nun called Lisabetta Marmorari, whom he had only seen on one single occasion during a religious ceremony. He remained true to this passion for years, and when Lisabetta left the nunnery, hoped to be able to marry her and in 1673 with Lonati made an attempt to abduct her, which was forcibly prevented. He then stayed in Florence, with a stop in Rome from February to April 1667, and returned to Rome at the beginning of 1668 with Colonna, who himself was returning from Venice to Rome. Here his fate began to take a downward turn. He left the service of the princely family, to allow himself to get involved in fraudulent affairs with the poet-monk Antonio Sforzy and the ever-present Lonati who were also accompanying Colonna to Rome. He sought to avoid the danger of detection by fleeing in 1670 he went with Monesio to Vienna, where he also met Lonati again. It would not seem that Stradella achieved any tangible successes at the imperial court. As it was only Sforzy who was brought to justice and sentenced to several years in prison in connection with the above-mentioned affair, Stradella was able to return to Rome in October 1670. He secured employmen tat the recently-opened Teatro Tordinona for whose foundation he had worked for years with d’Alibert and the librettist Flilippo Accajuoli. However, he did not succeed in obtaining the position he had hoped for as leading composer of this theatre: this in fact was given to Bernardo Pasquini, while Stradella had to content him self with the composition of Prologues and entractes. However, he wrote opera for other occasions, among them those commissioned by Colonna and Christina. In 1675 he composed for S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini one of his most famous works, the oratorio S. Giovanni Battista. Stradella's patrons, who were those who obtained performance of an oratorio there: Santa Edita, vergine e monaca, regina d'Inghilterra, probably written in 1665 and commissioned by Colonna. The text was probably by Lelio Orsini an is of interest in respect of Stradella’s life-style then, in that there is an open connection with Christina of Sweden. True it is not, as might at first be thought from the work’s contents, a homage to the queen - it is concerned with a queen who renounces all the world's power and honour (“spernere mundum" is part of Filippo Neri’s motto) and gives up her crown in favour of an ascetic life in a convent. Remo Giazotto thinks, on the contrary, that here Christina, who did in fact give up her crown but did not afterwards go on to lead ascetic life, was really to be presented as a contradictory example and the real main character was a poetic glorification of queen Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles the Second of England. In contrast to this work, however Susanna was really written in direct consultation with Christina and must have been composed at her behest. It is true that a performance of the work can first be traced to 1681 in the Oratorium S. Carlo in Modena by reason of the surviving text-book, and the only score of the work surviving there bears this date (which however can only refer this actual performance). On the other hand there is evidence which cannot be overlooked, that an oratorio written by Stradella, commissioned by Christina in 1666, was in fact Susanna. In fact when Stradella’s nephew in 1662 left the Duke of Modena various musical scores of his murdered uncle, among them was also La Susanna per la regina di Svezia, l'anno 1666. This was the year when Stradella had arrived in Rome shortly before Christina's departure for Hamburg, and had received the commission from her at short notice; the work must have been composed between May 7th and 16th. This work must have represented a long-nurtured wish by Christina and in its performances she must have seen a realisation of the phantasies which she had felt for many years. The performance took place on the evening before the departure of the queen. It is reported that she insisted that the title role be sung by a woman, which was then quite exceptional (the high voices were normally sung by castrati). The singer was Giorgina Cesi, with whom Stradella soon departed to Florence. He is said to have protested against her participation, but his doubts then turned to enthusiasmen, although this was in no way only due to Giorgina’s musical gifts. Out of regard for her Stradella is said to have replaced an aria already composed by a new one, which due regard is paid to Susanna's beauty. Furthermore, Stradella was not the only admirer of Giorgina; d'Alibert also had ambitions to play the role of her protector but was thwarted by Monesio, who managed to acquaint d’Alibert’s wife of what was going on, although he himself was similarly stricken. Many of the characteristics from which the importance of the composer today is constantly more and more recognised and explored crop up in the music of Susanna. It is above all his uncanny touch in portaying situations and characters, in which he made use of the means at his disposal in melody, rhythm, instrumentation etc. with utter freedom of variety and arrangement according to the needs of the moment. Thus he frequently changes from “dry” recitative (often the opera prologue, with its extensive pauses, resembles musical declamation) to more lively arioso passages: the being always governed by the requirements of the basic text at that moment, and of the inner and outer dramatic situation. Behind this lies Stradella's special affinity to the word, he being himself a poet, and also his passionate involvement which just as in his life also constantly characterised his art. Just as in the great work S. Giovanni Battista the art of characterisation comes out in the contrasting of the various personalities - John at the same time painful and triumphant, the seductive Herodias and her daughter, the tragic and tortured weakling Herod - in Susanna there exists a similar situation; the two voluptuous old people in their ceaseless drive with us of all available means, Susanna both heroic and sensitive, unshakable in her trust in God, and finally the vicotrious prophet Daniel, who brings about a solution to the conflict. The counterplay  of these characters which changes according to the point reached in the plot also makes its musical mark on the situations which follow each other; for instance in the trios of Susanna and the two judges at the beginning and end of the work, although Susanna is at first confronted in her resolution by the pressures of the old people, at the end she scores a complete triumph, musically as well, in sovereign style over the two, now wholly defeated. Naturally, just as did the entire music of the Baroque, Stradella makes use of specific turns of phrase and devices of composition, which he employs in fine style for the needs of the moment. As an example might be mentioned the various styles of the Ostinato technique (not, it is true, in the "literal" conception of the constant return of the same theme), where the relentless progress, as is were, of the musical motion reflects a preoccupation with the situation of the moment, and often its musical, inevitability. In whatever way he employs these means, Stradella always shows himself from the technical point of view to have a complete knowledge and command of the technique of movement-construction as is apparent, for example, in the contrapuntal nature of the instrumental part, always effected with artistry, but also in the chorus and ensembles. This universal ability, coupled with passionate inspiration enables us to understand why a contemporary of his, on the news of his tragic death, exclaimed “An Orpheus assassinated". Geoffrey Child
EMI Electrola "Reflexe"