Julia Lezhneva . Il Giardino Armonico . Giovanni Antonini

Right from the birth of polyphony, the motet functioned as the prime vehicle for artistic, religious music, retaining its popularity into the Baroque period and remaining a genre in which composers liked to display their skills. This also applies to the Italian baroque composers Porpora and Vivaldi, two masters of opera and motet. Porpora wrote the virtuoso 'In caelo stelle clare' in 1745 for Graziola, one of the leading soloists in the Ospedaletto of Venice. The impressive 'In furore' is a real masterpiece by Vivaldi. More of a cantata than a motet, the sadness is, as it were, musically embraced. Brilliant motets of this calibre also inspired later generations of composers. Among these was Mozart, who, with his 'Exsultate, jubilate', wrote a three-part motet that appears to owe a lot to the opera aria and the concerto. So watch out for the interpretation of the experienced musicians of Il Giardino Armonico and the vocal brilliance of Julia Lezhneva - barely out of the cradle, but already tipped as a 'grande dame'!