Known for her dazzling and elegant displays in the music of the later Baroque the Milanese singer has also nurtured, across her career, the more delicate and nuanced art of the Italian song repertory from the early 17th century. It was a time when courtly and polyphonic expression were giving way to the “moving of the emotions” by a solo singer accompanied by a single instrument. Renato Dolcini guides us through the musical evolution of this form in his illuminating booklet essay.

‘La bella più bella’ sees Roberta Invernizzi sailing gracefully across the terrain of such monody in songs composed by the likes of Kapsberger (his Ninna nanna), Giulio Caccini and Barbara Strozzi, as well as Luigi Rossi, whose dream-like piece provides the album with its title. Three of Claudio Monteverdi’s later works conclude this recital, in which lutenist and theorbist Craig Marchitelli accompanies, and also contributes a number of solo pieces, by Kapsberger, Castaldi and Piccinini.