Luca Scandali - Tartini: Concerto Transcriptions for Organ (Leonhard Frischmuth, Amsterdam c. - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The name of Claudio Veggio (1510-1543) would hardly be known were it not for the survival of the Manoscritto di Castell'Arquato, one of the earliest and most important collections of Italian keyboard music from the first half of the 16th century. The manuscript's many ricercari, mass movements, Magnificats, motets, chansons, dances and madrigal intabulations are the work of composers almost forgotten today, but Scandali's performances on a historically fitting organ give Veggio's music a new lease of life. The six ricercari show strong affinities with the works in the same genre by the better-known Cavazzoni; his only other surviving work is a four-part harmonisation of a song, La fugitiva. Dating from the following generation, the Bari-born Rocco Rodio (c.1535-after 1615) enjoys marginally fuller representation on album, but this is still the first complete collection of his surviving work for organ, which is preserved by a Libro di Ricercate published in Naples in 1575. This volume is a historical landmark in it's own right, as the first known printed edition of instrumental music in open score. His vocal music was also published in Rome and Venice, but Rodio appears to have made his career in Naples, and these organ works share the extrovert quality and awareness of contemporary developments demonstrated by Neapolitan composers which would in due course come to make the city known as the 'conservatoire of Europe'. Our third composer is the Modenese composer Sperindio Bertoldo, born like Rodio around 1530 but dying considerably earlier, in 1570. The Brilliant Classics catalogue of Italian organ music is unrivalled in it's reach and depth; this is the tag's second recording of Bertoldo's organ music after Manuel Tomadin's recent album (95874).

Dead Sheriff - Rockapocalyptica [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/18/2002

The concerto played a leading role in the evolution of the language and style of instrumental music from the late 17th century onwards, with it's popularity and importance continuing to grow throughout the 18th century. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) did not invent the concerto grosso or solo concerto, but he can, without a shadow of a doubt, be considered the composer who gave the greatest boost to the genre, turning it into the dominant form of instrumental music in the first half of the 18th century without Vivaldi and his concertos, the history of music would surely have followed a different trajectory. La Stravaganza Op.4 was published in approximately 1714, and it's 12 concerti are almost entirely written for solo violin, with the sole exception of Concerto No.7, which is scored for two violins and cello. The curious title (which literally means 'extravagance' or 'eccentricity') that Vivaldi gave to this collection seems to refer to the early Italian baroque style, which remained dominant throughout the 1600s through to the early 1700s. This particular style sought to move and cajole audiences in various ways, including expert use of eccentric features, trickery and virtuosity, and it's influence was felt in all the 17th century's instrumental and vocal writing. Vivaldi's musical language and style also contained certain 'extravagant' elements, albeit interpreted in his own personal way. Numerous examples of stylistic originality marked a genuine departure from Corelli, while attesting to the bold experimentation and acrobatic virtuosity for which Vivaldi is renowned asymmetry in form; extensive and inventive harmonic progressions; sudden, theatrical breaks; and prominent, fast and virtuosic solo parts. The concertos on this recording come from the Anne Dawson's Book collection, held in the Henry Watson Music Library in Manchester (UK). In addition to arias for v