Toccata e Recercar Cromaticho post il Credo (from "Fiori musicali", Venice 1635)

My previous upload was György Ligeti's Ricercare per Organo (https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/61871), based on the subject from the Recercar Cromaticho post il Credo from Girolamo Frescobaldi's “Fiori Musicali.” As already announced there, I now present the famous original, supplemented by the introductory toccata.

Frescobaldi is considered a central figure in the history of organ music. He was born in Ferrara in 1583 and, as a young man, received lessons at the court of the Este family from the composer and organist Luzzasco Luzzaschi, who was then director of the ducal instrumental music. He soon attracted attention with his virtuoso organ playing.

Probably around 1600, Frescobaldi followed the future Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio of Ferrara to Rome, where he worked as organist at the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in 1607 before following Bentivoglio, who had since been appointed Apostolic Nuncio, to Flanders for a year. However, Frescobaldi had made such a strong impression in Rome – not least on influential patrons from the nobility and clergy – that he was elected organist of St. Peter's Basilica in absentia, a position he took up in November 1608. In addition, he worked repeatedly at other churches in Rome and in 1615 went to the court of Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga as a musician, which he left after only two months, disappointed by the lack of appreciation for his work.

In 1628, Frescobaldi was appointed court organist in Florence by Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici, but returned to Rome six years later, in 1634, to resume his position as organist at St. Peter's Basilica. Among the students he taught during these years was the young Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667), who had come to Rome in 1638 for a three-and-a-half-year study stay. In addition to his work as an organist, Frescobaldi was a sought-after musician in Roman musical life until his death in 1643 and belonged to the highest social circles.