Rck Beato

The fame of Father Giambattista Martini is largely due to the activity as a historiographer, theoretician and teacher of music unceasingly carried out by him in the Bolognese convent of S. Francesco: his monumental Storia della musica, the first history of music ever written in Italian and published in Italy, was hailed by the most distinguished personalities of that period, who unanimously praised his deep erudition; and a great number of young composers and musicographers from all over Europe, wishing to learn the secrets of this art, stopped in Bologna to receive a training or perfect their knowledge under his guidance.

Within this recording the reading of the 'Historia del Beato San Martino', a devotional text from the beginning of the sixteenth century is brought to light for the first time on CD. The music narrates in a fresh and popular language the events of San Martino of Tours, through a colourful account of his life, which plunges us into the typical mixed atmosphere of divine and profane of the end of Humanism and beginning of the Renaissance. The reciting voice of Roberto Cascio is flanked by the instrumental ensemble of the Cappella Musicale di San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna.