Frescobaldi: 11 Toccatas Madrigale ‘Ancidetemi Pur’ – Ivana Valotti

Among the musicians who were active in the first half of the seventeenth century, Girolamo Frescobaldi (Ferrara, 1583 – Rome, 1643) stands out not only as an organist whose virtuosity and technical skill were superlative and incomparable, but also as a formidable musician who was able to interpret the artistic stirrings in the musical language of his time and to incorporate them, in an effective and significant way, into his vast production for keyboard instruments. This recording presents some instrumental pages (the eleven Toccatas and the Madrigale “Ancidetemi pur” d’Archadelt, passagiato) belonging to one of the best known and most admired (in Italy and in Europe) keyboard music collections by Girolamo Frescobaldi, i.e. the “Secondo libro di Toccate, Canzone, Versi d’Hinni, Magnificat, Gagliarde, Correnti et altre Partite d’Intavolatura di Cimbalo et Organo”. This music seduces by its spontaneity, by its freshness, by the naturalness of the melodic gesture. Each Toccata lives on an autonomous life, it has its own free and original structural basis, perfectly modelled on the expressive effect of an unwritten but implied word in order to rouse in the listener the broadest possible range of contrasting emotions and moods.