· Giovanni Legrenzi was an Italian composer of opera, vocal and instrumental music. He held several important posts as court musician and Maestro di Cappella in Ferrara, Mantua, Bologna and finally Venice, where he was appointed at the prestigious San Marco.

· Legrenzi was active in most of the genres current in northern Italy in the late 17th century, including sacred vocal music, opera, oratorio, and varieties of instrumental music. Though best known as a composer of instrumental sonatas, he was predominantly a composer of liturgical music with a distinctly dramatic character.

· This new recording presents secular Cantatas for bass solo and basso continuo. The texts deal with the classic topic of unhappy love, causing insufferable but sometimes also exquisite pain in the injured lovers. Legrenzi is a master in musically expressing the extreme emotions of the text.

· Mauro Borgiono is one of the most prominent young baritones of the moment. As a specialist in Early Music he worked with Jordi Savall, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Diego Fasolis. Musica Perduta, directed by Renato Criscuolo, consists of cornet, bass violin, theorbo and harpsichord.

The booklet contains extensive liner notes and the original sung texts.