In 1594 Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, arrived in Ferrara for his marriage to Donna Eleonora d’Este. His meeting with the musical circles of Ferrara, and in particular with Luzzasco Luzzaschi, was to make an important impact on the musical development of the young Girolamo Frescobaldi. In his maturity Frescobaldi arrived at a deeply personal fusion between the musical forms of North Italian (and more specifically Venetian) derivation and the musical experimentation of the southern school. The aim of this recording project is to explore the reciprocal influences between great keyboard master from Ferrara and his colleagues from the Kingdom of Naples.

Represented here in a dialogue with Frescobaldi’s works are not only the great experimental figures from the years bridging the 16th and 17th centuries (J. De Macque, Rodio, Stella), but also the composers from the following generation who absorbed and built on Frescobaldi’s example (Storace, Salvatore, L. Rossi), as well as contemporaries who adopted a parallel course (M. Rossi). This fertile musical exchange, which culminated in the profoundly distinctive innovations of Frescobaldi himself, fully exemplifies the spirit of experimentation and musical innovation typical of the early 17th century, a period that, like few others, sought out and celebrated aesthetic renewal.