After a bewitching recording dedicated to several motets (OP30579, 2023) by Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano continue their exploration of 17th century Italian motets. This time they bring their attention to a fascinating and highly rewarding composer: Alessandro Stradella (1643-1682), principally celebrated today for his oratorios and operas. This album presents five of his seventeen motets, deposited in the Bibliotheque Estense in Modena at the end of the seventeenth century. They are for the most part a world premiere. Rinaldo Alessandrini gathered together motets that are mainly relevant to the cult of the Virgin Mary, written for specific circumstances such as the Nativity (Nascere virgo), or the Immaculate Conception (Convocamini, congregamini), or for more generic feasts (Sixtite sidera, In tribulationibus), on texts chosen for each occasion, including one by Stradella himself (Exultate in Deo fideles).
