Reviewed 26 November 2025
A young ensemble in one of those intelligently put together programmes where the engaging performances draw you in and with many of the items on the disc I thought 'I'd like to hear more of that!'
The Bellot Ensemble is a young period instrument ensemble that in October 2025 began a two-year term s the New Generation Baroque Ensemble with BBC Radio 3. For their debut disc on FHR (First Hand Records), Cupid's Ground Bass the group explores the sound world of 17th-century Italy through the twin mirrors of love and the ground bass. Both popular subjects for 17th-century Italian music, the disc casts its net widely with arias by Barbara Strozzi, Francesco Cavalli and Claudio Monteverdi along with instrumental music by Marco Uccellini, Carlo Farina, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber.
For the disc, the ensemble features Lucine Musaelian (soprano, viola da gamba), Kieran White (tenor), Olivia Petryszak (recorder), Edmund Taylor and Maxim Del Mar (violin), Jacob Garside (cello), Nathan Giorgetti (viola da gamba), Daniel Murphy (theorbo, baroque guitar), and Matthew Brown (harpsichord, organ). We caught Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti, as Intesa Duo at the Handel Hendrix House back in 2023 [see my review]
What the disc is really exploring is the way that 17th-century Italian music expanded its range and freedom, yet the forms often remained. Dances and ground basses were very much the norm, yet focusing on the ground bass can be something of a challenge with a danger of everything seeming to come out of the same mould. The Bellot Ensemble's selection is both ingratiating and canny.
At the centre are arias by Barbara Strozzi, Amor dormiglione from her Op. 2 (1651) and Che si puro far? (1664) ; Francesco Cavalli from Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne (1640), Il Giasone (1649), and his Musiche sacre (1656); Claudio Monterverdi from L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1643) and Scherzi musicali (1632). But these are interspersed with instrumental works including ones that feature solos from Daniel Murphy's theorbo and Edmund Taylor's violin. On the one hand, the result is a finely engaging programme which is superbly played and sung, but on the other it is a fascinating exploration of the sheer imagination 17th-century composers brought to the repertoire.
The music by Cavalli forms the core of the disc with arias sung by Kieran White and Lucine Musaelian. Frankly I could listen to White's elegant, expressively plangent tenor all day. 'Misero Apollo' from Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne features the sort of long instrumental introduction over a circulating ground bass that is familiar from all manner of pieces. But here the instrumentalists make it their own and when White finally comes in, the results are pure magic. The sinfonia from Il Giasone features Olivia Petryszak's perky recorder, then 'Delizie, contente' from the opera is an ingratiating dance with violin solos duetting with White's clear yet expressive tenor. Finally, Musaelian gives us a neatly elegant and expressive account of 'Se dardo pungente' from the same opera, and despite the clarity of her line I liked the way she is not afraid to bend the notes slightly for expressive purposes
White also sings Arnalta's lullabye 'Oblivion soave' from Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea with Daniel Murphy's theorbo. An intimate, expressive and profoundly beautiful performance that made me wish that, for all the solecism, Musaelian and White had given us that opera's final duet. What we do have is the two duetting in Monteverdi's 'Zefiro torna', a piece of pure magic.
The disc begins with Musaelian singing Strozzi's 'Amor dormiglione' her bright tone making the aria engagingly immediate. And there is more Strozzi towards the end of the disc when Musaelian sings (and apparently plays the viola da gamba) for 'Che si puo fare?' Her clear yet plangent tones prove rather compelling as the vocal line unwinds over the circulating ground bass that you never want to end.
Marco Uccellini's Aria quinta sopra 'La Bergamasca' from his Op.3 (1643) proves to be a lively dance which gives Petryszak's recorder a chance to shine. In complete contrast Carlo Farina's Capriccio stravagante a 4: La Lira focuses to a remarkable degree on drones which take the piece into a different world.
Daniel Murphy displays fine virtuoso skills in the theorbo solo Toccata No. 1 by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger. It feels less like a toccata though and more a chance to show off! During the disc there are three theorbo solos by Kapsberger, the second two far shorter than the Toccata. Capona proves to be one of those catchy circulating ground basses with all manner of melody and divisions over, all played by Murphy. Canario is similar but different. Both are equally engaging and make catchy punctuation points.
There is more showing off from violinist Edmund Taylor in Biber's Rosary Sonata No.1 'The Annunciation'. Performed here with organ and theorbo continuo, it is however Taylor's finely engaged violin playing that draws us in to Biber's distinctive world, the music moving from free rhapsodic prelude to vivid divisions.
This is one of those intelligently put together programmes where the engaging performances draw you in and with many of the items on the disc I thought 'I'd like to hear more of that!' So please, a lot more Daniel Murphy showing off and a disc of duets for White and Musaelian. But this disc more than contents us. Delizie, contente indeed!
1. Cantate, ariette e duetti, Op. 2: No. 22. Amor dormiglione
Lucine Musaelian soprano
Marco UCCELLINI (1603–1680)
2. Sonate, arie et correnti, Op. 3: Aria quinta sopra ‘La Bergamasca’
Carlo FARINA (1600–1639)
3. Pavane, Gagliarde, Libro 2: Capriccio stravagante a 4: La Lira
Francesco CAVALLI (1602–1676)
4. Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne, Act III: Misero Apollo
Kieran White tenor
Il Giasone (1649)
5. Sinfonia
6. Act I: Delizie, contenti che l’alma beate
Kieran White tenor
7. Musiche sacre: Canzon à 3
8. Il Giasone: Act I: Se dardo pungente
Lucine Musaelian soprano
Giovanni Girolamo KAPSBERGER (1580–1651)
9. Intavolatura di chitarone, Libro 4: Toccata No. 1
Daniel Murphy theorbo
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644–1704)
Mystery (Rosary) Sonata No. 1 in D minor, ‘The Annunciation’
10. Præludium
11. Variatio – Aria allegro – Variatio – Adagio – Finale
Edmund Taylor violin
KAPSBERGER
12. Intavolatura di chitarone, Libro 4: Capona
Daniel Murphy theorbo
Claudio MONTEVERDI (1567–1643)
13. L’incoronazione di Poppea, SV308, Act II: Oblivion soave
Kieran White tenor
Daniel Murphy theorbo
KAPSBERGER
14. Intavolatura di chitarone, Libro 4: Canario
Daniel Murphy theorbo
STROZZI
15. Arie a voce sola, Op. 8: Che si può fare?
Lucine Musaelian soprano, viola da gamba
MONTEVERDI
Scherzi musicali cioè arie et madrigali, SV 246–251: No. 6. Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti, SV 251
Lucine Musaelian soprano
Kieran White tenor
BELLOT ENSEMBLE
Lucine Musaelian soprano, viola da gamba
Kieran White tenor
Olivia Petryszak recorder
Edmund Taylor, Maxim Del Mar violin
Jacob Garside cello
Nathan Giorgetti viola da gamba
Daniel Murphy theorbo, baroque guitar
Matthew Brown harpsichord, organ
FIRST HAND RECORDS FHR183 1CD [60.55]
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