Occasioning the 400th anniversary of the publication of Primo Libro di Toccate (1615), Arcana makes this reference recording of Girolamo Frescobaldi’s most popular work available again. Rinaldo Alessandrini shows to full advantage his well-known skills as keyboard virtuoso as well as his familiarity with the madrigal repertoire of the time, so important for a proper approach to this revolutionary book, whose basic elements are the affetti and where rhetoric became the interpretive key. Two period Italian instruments are used here, offering colors appropriate to Frescobaldi’s music.
