Paolo da Col

Odhecaton & Paolo Da Col – Sabbato Sancto – Paolo Aretino: Lamentationes et Responsoria (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:03:08 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

Within the Italian polyphonic repertoire for Holy Week of the first half of the 16th century, a group of works that particularly stands out for its organic, comprehensive and unique qualities are the two books of four-voice Lamentations and responsories for the office of Tenebrae from the Triduum sacrum composed by Paolo Aretino (Paolo Antonio del Bivi, 1508-1584). They were published respectively in 1544 (the responsories: a first printed edition of its kind, to the best of our knowledge) and 1549 (the Lamentations). Both books were reprinted in 1563, a rare occurrence for a collection of this type.

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Odhecaton & Paolo da Col – Scarlatti: Missa Defunctorum, Salve Regina, Miserere & Magnificat (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:16:33 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

This recording is a discovery of Alessandro Scarlatti’s heretofore unknown sacred music, where Renaissance tradition meets Baroque sensibility for a unique and compelling recording. At the core of Odhecaton’s latest offering is the Missa defunctorum for four voices and basso continuo. It is in this magnificent score – recorded for the first time using the critical edition of Luca Della Libera – that primarily contrapuntal writing gives way to Scarlatti’s stylistic choices of great expressivity and rhetorical force, such as in the case of the astonishing Lacrimosa. The Miserere is also recorded for the first time. Written for nine voices for the Sistine Chapel, the score follows Allegri’s model only outwardly; Scarlatti, in fact, moves steadily away from it through his harmonic originality, formal richness, and expressivity. The Magnificat displays a unique synthesis of the Palestrinian model and the expressive language of the eighteenth century. In this score, Scarlatti exploits the great wealth and variety of the Marian text, particularly in the relationship between words and the emotional and descriptive spheres.

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Odhecaton & Paolo da Col – Monteverdi: In San Marco (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:36 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

Following their album largely devoted to sacred polyphonic works composed for the basilica of Santa Barbara during the period in which Claudio Monteverdi worked for the Gonzagas in Mantua, Odhecaton now presents sacred compositions from the composers later years, written for St Marks basilica where he became maestro di cappella in 1613. This new recording presents both sides of Monteverdis sacred style: the stile antico or strict contrapuntal style, exemplified in the Mass for four voices published posthumously in 1650; and the stile moderno, that is, concertato and solo vocal writing. The concertato style, which combines and intertwines voices and instruments in dialogue, characterizes the monumental Gloria a 7, which was conceived for a cappella rich in virtuoso singers and instrumentalists. But in this city of theaters, in the heyday of the canto a voce sola, Monteverdi transformed the famous Lamento dArianna (from his lost opera Arianna) into a sacred piece. The Litanies to the Virgin Mary, published in three collections between 1620 and 1650, represent the expression of a gentle Marian style, dominated by a cappella choral invocations alternating with brief solo passages.

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