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Like two other cantatas by Vinaccesi,
Belve, se mai provaste contains three arias (rather than the more usual two), each of which is preceded by a recitative. The arias are attractively contrasted. The first, which dispenses with an introductory ritornello, adopts the fluid triple metre so characteristic of Seicento music. The second, the most substantial, employs a powerful ostinato figure in the bass. The third is light and popular in style, as if seeking a calmer mood after the impassioned outburst of the distraught lover. In addition, the first two recitatives include passages of eloquent arioso writing.
This cantata displays some of the most attractive features of the composer’s musical style, which include the sudden bursts of florid writing that seem to arrive from nowhere, the contrapuntal independence of voice and bass and the attractive, always thematically relevant, instrumental ritornellos.
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