This recording project – the culmination of a research work that started out in 2020 – follows the released record of the third book of madrigals (Tactus, TC531601, 2021) by the same author, which was the result of the first collaboration between conductor Elia Orlando, ensemble Tuscae Voces – that he conducts – and record label Tactus. It is safe to say that the outcomes confirm how the musical landscape in Renaissance Prato deserves way more attention than it has drawn so far, and that Biagio Pesciolini – besides being closely connected to the Florentine court – was an author whose vision went beyond the city walls of Prato. Although praised by peers Ludovico Zacconi and Antonio Brunelli for his mastery of those techniques that belong to Flemish-origin ars musica, he skilfully took on both “orthogonal” writing for double choir and winding compositions for five and six voices, which proves that Biagio Pesciolini was indeed open and receptive to the different tendencies of Italy’s most important musical centres.
