Andrea Gabrieli:
Ricercar del XII tuono
Pass’e mezzo antico
Caro dolce ben mio

Adrian Willaert:
Jouissance vous donneray
A la fontaine

Giulio Segni da Modena:
Ricercar 13
Ricercar 5

Girolamo Parabosco:
Ricercar 14 ‘Da pacem Domine’

Annibale Padovano:
Ricercar del VI tuono

Claudio Merulo:
Toccata 8

Girolamo Diruta:
Ricercar a 4

Vincenzo Bellavere:
Toccata per organo

Claude Gervaise:
Pavane ‘La venissiene’

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina:
Introduxit me rex

Gioseffo Guami:
Toccata del II tuono
La brillantina

Giacomo Gorzanis:
Il todeschino
Padoana del todeschino

El todescho

With the arrival of Adrian Willaert at St Mark’s Cathedral in 1527, Venice at last boasted a musician of international reputation to match its growing image as a ‘city rich in gold but richer in renown, mighty in works but mightier in virtue’. The establishment of Venice as the world leader in music publishing, and the coming and going of international musicians, made the Floating City anything but insular, and artistic competi- tion was order of the day, with organists duelling to outdo each other in invention and grace; while on the streets a different culture of lively dances gave rise to more opportunities for instrumentalists to show off their improvisation- al skills. Intimate yet exuberant, scholarly yet unre- strained, Gawain Glenton and Silas Wollston’s exploration of the often dazzlingly virtuosic repertoire shows how the enduring ‘myth of Venice’ was built in sound just as much as it was in marble.

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Recorded on 13-15 April 2021 at St Saviour’s Church, Hampstead. Played on Curved cornetto at A=465 by Paolo Fanciullacci, Mute cornetto at A=465 by Andrea Inghisciano, Virginals by Alan Gotto, after ‘Queen Elizabeth’s Virginals’ (c.1570).