Following the international success of their first album on Resonus, Venice 1629, Jamie Savan with his acclaimed period group The Gonzaga Band continue their exploration of lesser-known music in the Baroque Venetian orbit. Here they uncover the Vespers (1616), a forgotten masterpiece by Amadio Freddi, maestro di cappella of Treviso Cathedral during Monteverdi’s tenure at St Mark’s in Venice.

This is a very different musical interpretation of Psalm 51 than we saw last week in Allegri’s Miserere. In Allegri’s composition the intensity of the soaring, unaccompanied voices lead us to contemplation of the Divine Mercy of God in Heaven. Here the urgent, dramatic orchestration pulls us down into King David’s turbulent emotions as he comes to acknowledge his sinfulness and his need for God’s mercy. This clip is only the first part of a much longer composition, and contains only the first line of the Psalm: Miserere mei, Domine, secundam misericordiam tuam, “Have mercy on me, Lord, according to your compassion”. As the focus of the Psalm moves from David’s sinfulness to the abundance of God’s mercy, the music in the later parts of the piece changes with it.

Jérôme Lejeune continues his History of Music series with this boxed set devoted to the Renaissance. The next volume in the series after Flemish Polyphony (RIC 102), this set explores the music of the 16th century from Josquin Desprez to Roland de Lassus. After all of the various turnings that music took during the Middle Ages, the music of the Renaissance seems to be a first step towards a common European musical style. Josquin Desprez’s example was followed by every composer in every part of Europe and in every musical genre, including the Mass setting, the motet and all of the various new types of solo song. Instrumental music was also to develop considerably from the beginning of the 16th century onwards.

War and Faith: a coupling that was not only related to Crusaders but to many aspects during the Renaissance and the early Baroque. And both War and Faith had a common denominator in the music. This disc tries to reconstitute the music which escorted warriors before, during and after two of those battles which stained Europe with blood in the 16th century.

The fifth release in the Rediscoveries series from Virgin Classics is the celebrated 1990 recording A Venetian Coronation 1595 by Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort & Players. The album presents a musical reconstruction of the coronation mass for Venetian Doge Marino Grimani. Gramophone wrote of the recording: "Without doubt, this is one of the finest records of Italian Renaissance polyphony to appear for a long time; imaginative in conception, varied in content, and both exciting and thought-provoking in execution."

Andrea Gabrieli (c. 1510-1586) was one of the first native Venetians to hold the positions of Second and then First Organist in the basilica of San Marco. These were the highest musical appointments in the city, and their holders was expected to compose much of the music they played. In the event, like his predecessor Merulo and his successor (his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli), Andrea was adept at all musical forms, especially the new and up-to-date (very secular) madrigal, a sort of vocal chamber music. A splendid selection of these, interspersed with instrumental canzoni (in which one can see the influence he had on his more-famous nephew) that offer welcome contrast to the vocal music. Manfred Cordes leads Weser-Renaissance Bremen in pungent period-instrument performances.

These performances bring out so much of the gorgeous sonority in Gabrieli's music. The marvelous singing of the soloists and choir demonstrate the lavish riches of Gabrieli's triadic harmonies. The sound of the trombones and cornets is neatly absorbed into the overall sound of the vocal ensemble.

It is well known that in Venice a "Golden Age" of compositional, vocal, and instrumental musical creativity and virtuosity emerged, and then flourished during the mid-1500s to the mid-1700s. The 16th century experienced a substantial development in the cappella ducale of Saint Mark's, which, until the end of the 17th century, remained the leading center of musical activity in the city. Evidence of this comes from the profusion of significant musicians that it received in that "Golden Age": either as maestri di cappella, or as organists (Claudio Merulo, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli), or as virtuoso instrumentalists (the cornet player Giovanni Bassano). Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli played a decisive role in the simultaneous emergence of Venetian keyboard and stile concertato music.

Many people imagine the music of 17th century Venice was so fabulous that the great 16th century polyphonists were forgotten. Not so–particularly in the case of Masses. (Indeed, after arriving at San Marco, Monteverdi ordered copies of Masses by Palestrina and Lassus.) Paul McCreesh's Venetian reconstruction reflects this practice, adding motets and canzonas by the Gabrielis to Lassus's Missa Congratulamini. Particularly interesting is the ceremony opening the service, where the Doge and the Archbishop reenact the arrival of the disciples at the empty sepulchre.

Andrea Gabrieli has always been something of a textbook composer, whose reputation falls under the shadow of his more famous nephew, Giovanni, the composer par excellence of the grand Venetian polychoral manner. Though Andrea's music may not plumb the depths of Giovanni's best pieces, his compositional range displays a versatility that the writing of his more considered relation surely lacks. Whereas Giovanni concentrated on liturgical composition, Andrea explored the gamut of contemporary styles and forms, from madrigals and lighter secular writing to dialect texts, church music, instrumental works, experimental theatre-pieces and music for Venetian festivities.