Giovanni Maria Ruggieri: Cantatas, Op. 5

Ruggieri's Canate con violini, e senza, op. 5, are preserved in the library of the Royal College of Music, London. This is the only known source of the music, which was published by Giuseppe Sala in Venice in 1706. Another complete example of the collectionwas once held by the Thüringische Landesbibliothek in Weimar, today known as the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, but this example was largely destroyed in the fire of 1774 that consumed the building. The first violin part alone was rescued from the flames but subsequently (and somewhat ironically) was destroyed in 2004 in a second fire.
Giovanni Maria Ruggieri (1669-1714) lived and worked in Venice. Until recently, his main claim to fame was the fact that Vivaldi borrowed extensively from his Gloria in D, RV Anh. 23. Although Ruggieri remained an amateur musician, this set of cantatas shows that he was a highly accomplished composer. He excels in his treatment of the solo voice or voices but also writes sympathetically and idiomatically for violins and continuo. He is receptive to the text, using standard musical-rhetorical devices to depict images and ideas, while also respecting the prosody. The present edition enables musicians to explore these fine works, aiding the rediscovery of an unjustly neglected composer.