Baroque Music for Synagogue

The scene: the court of Mantua during the fullest flowering of the Renaissance enlightenment. The world has changed and the Dark Ages had passed… for a while. During this all too brief of respite from segregation and persecution, the Jews of Mantua experienced a new freedom and in response, a blossoming of art and music flowed from the ghetto. Perhaps the greatest representative of the Jewish participation in the Italian Renaissance is the composer and violinist, Salamone Rossi. Exceptional on many counts (the first Jewish polyphonic music to be published, one of the first composers to write instrumental sonatas, etc.), Rossi eagerly embraced the revolution taking place in the music of his gentile contemporaries, namely Monteverdi and Gastoldi. Here is the definitive collection of this great master’s works, meticulously researched, annotated and presented with the love and care they deserve.