Andrea Marcon’s seven-part series of organ recordings centered around the celebrated composer and organist Girolamo Frescobaldi, recorded on the “Historic Organs of Treviso” reaches its culmination with this present recording.

 

In the wide and variegated panorama of Italian organists of the 16th and 17th centuries, the figure of Frescobaldi rises to a height which would never again be attained in the field of Italian organ music. Born in 1583, Frescobaldi stood on the threshold of the Baroque era during his creative years, and, through his developing compositional style, provided major impulses for the technical innovations realised by the instrument makers of his time. With more refinded technical resources, these instrument builders gave rise to a new transparency of sound and more virtuoso playing techniques. Frescobaldi developed a personal style of writing that was freed from the liturgical voice leading that formerly determined the linear flow. His style is characterised by a profuse wealth of ideas and an exuberant sense of musicianship. Nevertheless, one also finds pieces with a deeply religious atmosphere inspired by Claudio Monteverdi.

 

Andrea Marcon is particularly fond of the pieces selected for this album, which can be attributed to various creative periods in Frescobaldi’s life and which were compiled from different collections of works.

 

The instrument used for this recording is a reproduction of a Renaissance organ (built in 1998 by Franco Zanin), with respect to the treatment of sound and the technical realisation, was modeled very closely along the original instruments of Frescobaldi’s time by organ specialists and historians. The organi is located in the Chiesa Auditorium di Santa Caterina in Treviso/Italy.