A new release from organist Enrico Viccardi who also contributes the informative liner notes which introduces the organ music of the North Italian Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665) whose reputation is just behind that of Claudio Monteverdi yet whose organ music is seldom recorded. Considered highly original, the greatest organists such as Gustav Leonhardt considered Merula’s works among the most challenging works of Baroque era organ music. Playing an original 1647 organ, built by Giovanni Chiappani in the church of San Pietro Apostolo, Viccardi’s performance heroically manages the varying timbre of the organ, and gives an expressive performance in accord with Merula’s scores written with chromatic intensity.
