Ghirlanda sacra / Ensemble Primi Toni

The collection of 44 motets for solo voice and basso continuo, published in Venice in 1625, is one of the most important works in the field of sacred solo-voice motets. The editor, a chorister in the Claudio Monteverdi-led Cappella Marciana, collected these pieces, choosing them among the most important ones produced by composers chiefly from the area of Venice and Veneto. This magnificent anthology of motets features, besides Monteverdi, other composers active in 16th c. Venice as choirmasters and organists in the churches of Frari, San Salvador, San Marco and in the Venetian Hospitals.