Giovanni Paolo Cima:
Sonata a 4

Alessandro Grandi:
Salve Regina

Giovanni Rovetta:
Canzon seconda a 3

Francesco Cavalli:
Cantate Domino

Antonio Bertali:
Sonata a 2

Bartolomeo de Selma y Salaverde:
Canzon 22

Dario Castello:
Sonata Decima quarta a 4
Sesta Sonata a due

Claudio Monteverdi:
Confitebor tibi, Domine

Giovanni Battista Riccio:
Sonata a 4

Giovanni Battista Fontana:
Sonata Seconda

Tarquinio Merula:
Favus distillans a 4

Giuseppe Scarani:
Sonata Decimaottava sopra »La Novella«

Bartolomeo Barbarino:
Ave dulcissima Maria

In the early summer of 1630, Venice was struck by the plague for the last time and in a devastating way. The plague raged for 18 months and killed almost 50,000 people, more than a third of the population at the time! Doge Nicolo Cantarini vowed to build a large church for the deliverance from the plague, and even though he was unable to experience it himself, this vow was carried out. With the Santa Maria della Salute, one of the most magnificent churches in the city was built. Since the year of liberation in 1631, the festival in honour of 'Saint Mary of Health' has been celebrated every year in November.

The ensemble ecco la musica has set out to find out what the music of the first Festa della Salute in 1631 might have sounded like, combining what already existed with what was new at the time and commemorating the composers who died. With the end of the epidemic, there was also a musical change, from the wind-dominated polychoral music of Gabrieli, which had attracted all the important musicians to the Serenissima, to the style of the seconda prattica of Monteverdi and his successors with solo singers and virtuoso string accompaniment. These young modern composers now aspired from the city to the European courts, where they were welcomed with open arms.

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Recording: 9 - 11 December 2020, Evangelische Stadtkirche St. Veit, Waldenbuch (Germany). Instruments: violino - Michael Pilger after A. Amati 1574 (Köln 1996); viola da gamba - Martin Weghaus after G. Granciano, Milano 1697 (Würzburg 2002).