In the English musical landscape of the second half of the 18th century, the name Elizabeth Turner stands out as a rare example of a successful female musician on British soil. She was a successful singer on London's stages between 1740 and 1756 and was also a composer and harpsichordist. Only a few biographical details have come down to us: Her date of birth is unknown, and her year of death (1756) can be deduced from reports in English newspapers of the time. The number and dates of the printed references to her singing (the earliest is from March 1744) suggest a premature death that interrupted a celebrated singing career.

Only her fellow singer and composer and contemporary Elisabetta de Gambarini (1731-1765, a Londoner of Italian descent) could compete with her. Elizabeth Turner alternated her stage work with composing and published two volumes. The first, Twelve Songs, With Symphonies and a Thorough Bass for the Harpsichord (London, 1750), is a collection of English folk songs; the second, A Collection of Songs With Symphonies and a Thorough Bass. With Six Lessons for the Harpsichord (London, 1756), contains 19 songs with texts by British poets as well as 6 lessons for harpsichord. The genre of "lessons" was very fashionable in England in the mid-18th century, as Purcell's A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet (1696), Gambarini's Six Sets of Lessons for the Harpsichord (1748) and Thomas Arne's VIII Sonatas or Lessons for the Harpsichord (1756) prove.

Turner's Six Harpsichord Lessons are recorded here in their entirety for the first time. Each is divided into several movements, in the manner of a sonata. The style is often similar to that of the accompanying songs in her volume, whose melodies clearly refer to the models of the tradition (from Purcell to Boyce, via Thomas Arne and Maurice Greene). This is music intended for cultured and educated amateur performers, whose performances were moments of convivial sociability in which playing was pure pleasure. But in a society like the English one, which confined the role of women in music to the horizon of pleasure, entertainment and domestic pastime, the figure of Elizabeth Turner emerges with disruptive and revolutionary force. Her kind of revolution is not one that requires a paradigm shift, it does not seek to break convention, it has no vocation for destruction: it is a gentle revolution, composed of elegance and grace, and it is precisely in its gentleness that it calls out to be heard, an invitation we cannot refuse.

Further information:
- Recorded in March 2024 in Silvelle (Italy)
- The booklet in English contains liner notes by Maddalena Bonechi as well as a note from the performer and her biography
- Costanza Leuzzi plays a French harpsichord with two manuals (anonymous, after Pascal Taskin; renovated 2020, Andrea Di Maio), tuned to Young II at a=415
- Italian liner notes available at brilliantclassics. com

- Elizabeth Turner's (?-1756) Six Lessons for Harpsichord, published in 1756, the year of her death, is a significant contribution to 18th-century keyboard music and reflects the stylistic characteristics of the period. Little is known about Turner herself, but her work is one of the few harpsichord collections by a female composer from this period and thus a valuable historical artifact. The Six Lessons are structured as suites, each consisting of several short movements, such as minuets and gigues, which were popular dance forms in Baroque music.

- Turner's compositions show a mixture of French and Italian influences, which were prevalent in English harpsichord music of the time. The pieces are characterized by their elegant melodic lines and ornamentation, typical of the French style, alongside rhythmic vitality indicative of Italian practices. The works are accessible to amateur performers, suggesting that they were intended for home performance rather than professional concerts.

- The Six Lessons offer insights into musical tastes and domestic entertainment practices in 18th century England, particularly for women who were often encouraged to learn keyboard instruments. Turner's work is a rare example of a published female composer in a male-dominated field.

- Costanza Leuzzi, a student of Roberto Loreggian, wrote a dissertation on the life and work of Elizabeth Turner. With the aim of breathing new life into Turner's music, Costanza also founded an ensemble of young musicians and gives concerts in which she combines musical performance with the narrative of the English composer's life.

- An interest in unknown authors and forgotten musical literature is at the heart of Costanza's musical career, which aims to rediscover lost masterpieces that deserve to be rediscovered in our time.