Luca Scandali - Veggio, Rodio, Bertoldo: Complete Organ Music '2021

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Veggio Recercar Del Primo Tono
02. Veggio Recercada Prima Del Primo Tono Per B Mole
03. Veggio Recercar Del Quinto Tono Per B Mole
04. Veggio La Fugitive
05. Veggio Recercada Per B Quadro Del Quarto Tono
06. Veggio Recercada Per B Mol Del Primo Tono
07. Veggio Recercada Per B Quadro Del Primo Tono
08. Rodio Ricercata Prima
09. Rodio Fantasia Sopra, Ave Maris Stella
10. Rodio Seconda Ricercata
11. Rodio Fantasia Sopra, Salve Regina
12. Rodio Terza Ricercata
13. Rodio Fantasia Sopra, La Mi Re Fa Mi Re, Sa Spagna
14. Rodio Quarta Ricercata
15. Rodio Fantasia Sopra, Iste Confessor
16. Rodio Quinta Ricercata
17. Bertoldo Toccata Prima
18. Bertoldo Ricercar Del Primo Tuono
19. Bertoldo Hor Vienza Vien
20. Bertoldo Ricercar Del Terzo Tuono
21. Bertoldo Canzon Francese
22. Bertoldo Un Gai Berger
23. Bertoldo Petit Fleur
24. Bertoldo Ricercar Del Sesto Tuono
25. Bertoldo Frais E Gagliard
26. Bertoldo Toccata Seconda



This recording presents three composers active in the 16th century: Claudio
Veggio, Rocco Rodio and Sperindio Bertolo. Their Canzones and Ricercatas are
intabulations (instrumental arrangements) of well-known chansons. The polyphonic
structure of the vocal models is intabulated and elaborated with
«passaggi» which tend to be concentrated for the most part in the upper
voice.

A trio of 16th-century Italian organist composers, two of them almost entirely
new to the record catalogues.

The name of Claudio Veggio (1510-1543) would hardly be known were it not for the
survival of the Manoscritto di Castell’Arquato, one of the earliest and
most important collections of Italian keyboard music from the first half of the
16th century. The manuscript’s many ricercari, mass movements,
Magnificats, motets, chansons, dances and madrigal intabulations are the work of
composers almost forgotten today, but Scandali’s performances on a
historically fitting organ give Veggio’s music a new lease of life. The
six ricercari show strong affinities with the works in the same genre by the
better-known Cavazzoni; his only other surviving work is a four-part
harmonisation of a song, La fugitiva.

Dating from the following generation, the Bari-born Rocco Rodio (c.1535-after
1615) enjoys marginally fuller representation on disc, but this is still the
first complete collection of his surviving work for organ, which is preserved by
a Libro di Ricercate published in Naples in 1575. This volume is a historical
landmark in its own right, as the first known printed edition of instrumental
music in open score. His vocal music was also published in Rome and Venice, but
Rodio appears to have made his career in Naples, and these organ works share the
extrovert quality and awareness of contemporary developments demonstrated by
Neapolitan composers which would in due course come to make the city known as
the ‘conservatoire of Europe’.

Our third composer is the Modenese composer Sperindio Bertoldo, born like Rodio
around 1530 but dying considerably earlier, in 1570. The Brilliant Classics
catalogue of Italian organ music is unrivalled in its reach and depth; this is
the label’s second recording of Bertoldo’s organ music after
Manuel Tomadin’s recent album (95874) which received an enthusiastic
welcome from the Dutch Klassieke Zaken journal: Tomadin’s performances
are ‘Imaginative, compelling and closely related to the vocal music that
is so important in the renaissance.’

Luca Scandali plays an organ built by Lorenzo da Prato (1471-75) in the Basilica
of San Petronio, Bologna. The organ has been well maintained through its history
and was sympathetically restored in the 1970s, making it an ideal instrument on
which to appreciate the colours and mixtures which these 16th-century
organist-composers had in mind. The booklet includes a specification of the
organ plus contextual notes on the lives and careers of the composers.

Luca Scandali, organ
Mauro Morini, sackbut

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