Turco,

The most comprehensive collection of organ music by a major forerunner to Monteverdi, recorded on a historically significant instrument by an organist with a distinguished catalogue of 17th-century repertoire.

From an early age Benedetto Marcello proved to be a man of great versatility: a poet, writer, musician, lawyer, judge, administrator and philologist, holding important posts in these functions during his entire life. As a composer he wrote a substantial oeuvre, covering all important fields of composition: sacred and secular choral works, opera and a large body of instrumental music.

Giovanni Battista Fasolo (1598-1680) was born in Asti (Italy) and spent his life as a Franciscan Friar in Rome, Naples and finally as Maestro di Cappella at the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily. He is mainly known for his “Annuale”, the largest compendium of organ music for liturgical use written in the 17th century.

Following the recent, essential compendium of great organ music on 50CD (95310), Brilliant Classics turn to a valuable but lesser-known light in the early history of the organ, Giovanni Salvatore. Active in the middle of the 17th century, this Neapolitan musician was greatly esteemed during his lifetime. One contemporary commentator even placed him above Frescobaldi on the grounds that he could compose fine vocal works without confusing their style with organ music.