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Compared to the Italian centres of power - Milan, Florence and Rome - the Lombardian city of Mantua in the Po Valley is small in size. All the more prestigious was the commitment to the arts by the ruling Gonzaga dynasty: artists such as Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Romano and Leon Battista Alberti created lasting masterpieces in their paintings and architecture for them, whilst musicians such as Giaches de Wert and Claudio Monteverdi consolidated Mantua's reputation throughout Europe. Their stage was within the grand complex of the ducal palace and the adjoining church of Santa Barbara: an impressive synthesis of the arts consisting of Mannerist architecture and painting - and an ideal space for music. This magical place was chosen by recorder player Julia Fritz together with organist Johannes Hämmerle, soprano Magdalene Harer and harpist Reinhild Waldek to record works by Giovanni Battista Fontana and Angelo Notari, two contemporaries of Monteverdi. Fontana's solo sonatas for violin and c
