This splendid and authoritative recital by Elissa Edwards and Richard Kolb of arias and cantatas from Barbara Strozzi’s last published opus showcases the dramatically coloured, highly charged power of the composer’s expressive toolkit, lit by the emerging harmonic language of the Baroque, influenced by Monteverdi through her teacher Cavalli, as a serious precedent for the future of opera. In his booklet notes Kolb comments that in Strozzi’s time a taste for ‘indulgence in the sensual pleasure of vocal melody or as an esoteric manifestation of nothingness’ was growing – the future indeed. In performances that underline those connections, Edwards and Kolb respond to the sheer pleasures of aching emotions, vague desires, delightful comedy and quick-moving, intense melodrama with playing of sheer physical beauty and close attention to the texts, whether Edwards’s pliant, seductive, free-ranging voice or Kolb’s virtuosity on instruments made by Michael Schreiner after early Baroque models.

The light-hearted parody of ‘L’Astratto’ turns out to be a miniature 10-minute opera. The deeply felt cantata ‘Che si può fare’ begins with sheer poetry, introduces an unforgettable tune of sad beauty and ends with a warning addressed to beautiful women, ‘Che’l dolersi d’Amore e una follia’. In providing a theatrical variety of sounds as Edwards’s partner and in three instrumental Correntes by Bernardo Gianoncelli, Kolb’s playing swings with darkly intimate colours and suggestive rhythms.

In fact, the performances are based on Kolb’s Complete Works edition, published in 2019 by Cor Donato Editions. The audiophile sound was recorded at The Clarion performing arts centre at Brazosport College, 50 miles south of Houston.