The Italian composer-priest Giovanni Croce (1557-1609), who influenced English composers such as John Dowland and Thomas Morley, sang at St Mark’s, Venice as a boy soprano and became maestro di cappella there a few years before Monteverdi. Fluid, grand and immediate, Croce’s music may not quite match the Gabrielis or Monteverdi for invention, but it has all the splendour and spatial awareness of the best Venetian music of the period. Concerto Scirocco and Voces Suaves recorded the album in Santa Barbara, Mantua, making full use of its double choir lofts, lively acoustic and splendid Renaissance organ. With its detailed notes and texts, it will give any Croce novice all they need.
