Rare recordings of two settings of Mary’s passionate Easter lament. For their second L’Oiseau Lyre disc, Il Giardino Armonico, again under their director Giovanni Antonini, are joined by celebrated mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, for a project exploring the Passion of Christ as seen through the eyes of the Virgin Mary. The two central works are both vocal settings of the Virgin’s lament.

Discretion is a characteristic and impressive feature of Giovanni Battista Ferrandini’s life and works and it may be said, at least until twenty years ago, that he remained well hidden amongst the host of anonymous minor Italian musicians working abroad during the 18th century. He owed his good fortune to the Bavarian Wittelsbach electoral family in Munich.

Giovanni Ferrandini seems to have been something of a child prodigy. By the time he was 12 he had left his home town of Venice to take up a paid court appointment as oboist in Munich. What should be remarked upon is not just his age but that the Elector of Bavaria was paying him; this was an age when young people could be expected to take on the role of assistant or student without salary.

When in 2003 the 250th anniversary of the Residenz-Theater in Munich was to celebrated, it was decided to perform the same opera which was performed at the opening of the theatre in 1753: Catone in Utica by Giovanni Battista Ferrandini. That was a bold decision, as Ferrandini is not exactly a household name in our time. He isn't a completely unknown quantity, though; his lamento 'Pianto di Madonna' was once attributed to Handel. It is perhaps due to this misattribution that it was ever recorded.