Cecilia's Circle - Peace in Her Mouth and War in Her Heart (2019)

Barbara Strozzi was an Italian singer and composer in the 1600s. Period vocal and instrumental ensemble Cecilia's Circle has performed this music for three decades. These are passionate, evocative songs, which are receiving here a worthy revival. Cecilia's Circle has been committed since its inception in 1991 to bringing new life to the long-buried brilliance of many women composers, and to finding meaningful, elevating ways of integrating their works into today's concert repertoire. Beyond this pursuit, Cecilia's Circle (named for the Patron Saint of Music who is celebrated especially in the exultant odes of Henry Purcell and G.F. Handel) has turned its attention frequently to the dramatic depiction of female figures found in works of renowned male composers of the Baroque era. Indeed, many of these probing portraits offer us as bold an insight into, and as vivid an image of women throughout the centuries as if the women portrayed had composed their own musical renderings. In this sense, the circle is one of inclusion, one of exploring and celebrating the roles of women across the musical languages of earlier eras.