Among the few women composers whose music is still extant from the seventeenth century, the work of Milanese nun Chiara Margarita Cozzolani is a special case; she was the most prolific and gifted female musician of her time, a composer whose sacred music is of equal quality to that of her male contemporaries and capable of exceeding many of them. San Francisco's
Magnificat, under the direction of Warren Stewart, has thus far done more work on Cozzolani's behalf than any other ensemble, and the Musica Omnia release Cozzolani: Messa Paschale (Mass for Easter Day) is an ingenious reconstruction of a complete Easter service from Cozzolani. This is achieved through locating the correct chant incipits and winding them through a mass setting found in Cozzolani's Concerti Sacri (1642) with an Easter-themed motet, Maria Magdalene Stabat, with a solo part beautifully sung here by soprano Catherine Webster, added from Cozzolani's Psalmi (1650) to complete the cycle.
Cozzolani: Messa Paschale is a highly enjoyable indicator of what an authentic service sounded like at the musically famous monastery at St. Radegonda where Cozzolani was one of the principal music directors. While that is a historically desirable component and helps to set her work in the right context, this is not quite as compelling as the dazzling flights of fancy found on
Magnificat's earlier Musica Omnia release, Cozzolani: Vespro della Beata Vergine. Some of the chant incipits tend to be rather long and the mass movements more homophonic in texture than in her other work. Perhaps Cozzolani did not feel she had the same kind of freedom in setting the Gradual as she did the Office; furthermore, her mass movements are shorter than her psalm settings and motets, though Cozzolani's beautiful Credo here is an exception. Despite such middling concerns, Cozzolani: Messa Paschale still makes for terrific listening; in performance and recording it is easily the equal of the earlier album and certain pieces, such as those mentioned above and Cozzolani's setting of the "Gloria," do stand out as being exceptional.