Works for Viola Bastarda by Orazio Bassani (c.1550-1615), Giovanni Bassano (1560/61-1617), Vincenzo Bonizzi (d.1630), Girolamo Dalla Casa (d.1601), Angelo Notari (1566-1663), Francesco Rognoni (d.c.1626), Richardo Rognono (c.1550-1620), Aurelio Virgiliano (16th/17th c.), Hernando Cabeçon (1541-1602), Andrea Gabrieli (1532/33-1585) and Antonio de Cabeçon (1510-1566).

Description: On the cusp of the eruption of the full baroque period, the viola bastarda was widely popular in Italy. In size between tenor and bass viols, it was able to be strung in such a way as to provide astonishingly high and low notes. Associated with the expressivity and power of the human voice, it was naturally used by many contemporary composers who took pre-existing madrigals and songs by such famous composers as Cipriano Rore, Palestrina, Alessandro Striggio and Jacques De Wert, and provided the "diminutions" or variations and quasi-fantasias which are recorded here (using two different violas). 2 CDs. Roberto Gini (viola bastarda), Mara Galassi (double harp), Giovanni Togni (harpsichord, organ), Il Concerto delle Viole.