Isabella Leonarda – 400 years in 2020

00:20 Ave suavis dilectio, op. 6 nr. 5
08:00 Sonata nona, op. 16 nr. 9
12:10 Placare Domine, op. 6 nr. 1
23:14 Sonata settima, op. 16 nr. 7
30:15 Nive puer, op. 7 nr. 1
39:02 Sonata prima, op. 16 nr. 1
49:13 Cara Regina, op. 20 nr. 2

Recorded at the church of Vaasa, Finland, on August 3–4, 2020.

Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704) was one of the most prolific Italian composers in the 17th century. She entered the Ursuline convent Collegio di Sant’ Orsola at the age of 16. Leonarda published more than 200 works, among them many sonatas for strings as well as vocal sacred music.

The early music ensemble Earthly Angels was founded by soprano Kajsa Dahlbäck in 2016 during her doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. Nowadays Earthly Angels consists of early music professionals from around Europe with a solid core of Finnish top players. It is an ensemble of high profile for vocal chamber music mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries and looks forward to many groundbreaking projects in the future. For its first album the ensemble received the prize ”YLE Album of the year 2018” by the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
Earthly Angels works as a part of Vaasa Baroque, an early music organisation in Vaasa, Finland.

Earthly Angels:
Kajsa Dahlbäck, soprano and artistic director
Tuomo Suni, Anthony Marini and Aira Maria Lehtipuu, violin
Heidi Peltoniemi, cello
Anna K Rinta-Rahko, violone
Andrew Lawrence-King, harp
Eero Palviainen, lute
Marianna Henriksson, organ


Recording team:
West Bay Entertainment
Frontline Audio


This project has kindly been funded by:
Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture
Finnish Cultural Foundation (Suomen kulttuurirahasto)
Swedish Cultural Foundation (Svenska kulturfonden)

Many thanks also to the congregation of Vaasa (Vaasan suomalainen seurakunta).

You can visit us at www.vaasabaroque.com