Benedetto Marcello is known today for his satirical writing, Il teatro alla moda (1729), which criticized the excesses of Italian opera.
Performer Biography
Terry Wey, the countertenor on this album, was born in 1985 into a Swiss-American musical family and received his vocal training as a soloist with the Vienna Boys' Choir.
Compositional Technique
Marcello incorporated ancient Greek melodies and even melodies he heard from Spanish and German Jews in Italy into his psalm settings, some of which he recorded for the first time.
Instruments
The salterio, a stringed instrument, was very popular in 18th-century Italy and could be played by plucking with fingers or striking with small hammers, as on this recording.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Marcello's fame during his lifetime rested on his Estro poetico-armonico, a collection of the first fifty Psalms, which were praised for their dignified simplicity and original melodies.
Composer Biography
Benedetto Marcello, a Venetian nobleman, was a composer and poet who became a member of the Roman Accademia d'Arcadia in 1711 and the Bolognese Accademia Filarmonica in 1713.
Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Martini, a leading music scholar and counterpoint teacher, was a promoter of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a teacher of Johann Christian Bach.
