Court And Tavern, Bruges To Venice

Every now and again, the BBC Music mag cover disk moves away from the usual perfectly acceptable level to produce a little gem of a recording and that is the case with this one. The disk is titled The Glory Of Venice and is performed by the ensemble Concordia directed by Mark Levy. The music featured is from the early to mid 16th century and reflects the arrival in Venice from Bruges of the catalyst Adrian Willaert, who paved the way for the achievements of Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi. It also concentrates on the sort of secular music that would have been heard away from the grandiose setting of St Mark's. There are quite bawdy street songs courtesy of Willaert and Francesco Silvestrino plus more courtly madrigals by Willaert, Andrea Gabrieli, Cipriano De Rore and Baldassare Donato. The solo voices and chorus of Concordia sing these with relish and sensitivity as appropriate and the songs are interspersed with beautifully played instrumental pieces for viols, lute and harpsichord from composers such as Claudio Merulo, Silvestro Ganassi, Giovanni Bassano and Diego Ortiz. Some of the songs are acapella but most feature accompaniment from various combinations of those instruments. A very classy disk.