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Antonio Lotti Venice or Hanover,- 1667 Venice, 1740 Gloria [first and last choruses] from the Missa Sapientiae, for soloists, choir and orchestra (manuscript, about 1710) Dorothee Mields, soprano, Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble; Thomas Hengelbrock, conductor Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (4 min 25 s)

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While pursuing a career in opera for a time, Antonio Lotti kept the position of organist at San Marco for his whole life and became maestro di cappella a few years before he died. A noted pedagogue, he also taught at the Ospedale degli Incurabili. His religious compositions demonstrate a thorough knowledge of counterpoint. They are mainly for a cappella choir, sometimes including a basso continuo, but Lotti also composed masses and ceremonial motets with florid instrumental accompaniment and solo arias that betray the influence of opera.

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Anonymous Concerto turco nominatov "Izia semaisi," published by Giovanni Battista Toderini in Letteratura turchesca (Venice, 1787) Concerto Köln-Sarband Archiv (5 min 10 s)

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Ottoman music aroused a certain curiosity among musicians and travellers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Yet, it exerted no influence on Western music other than the episodic use of percussion instruments and melodic or rhythmic motives to create humour or exotic atmospheres. First transcribed by the Marquis Charles de Ferriol, France's ambassador to Istanbul around 1700, the Concerto turco nominato "Izia semaisi" (Turkish concerto in the Hijaz mode) was published by Giovanni Battista Toderini in Venice in 1787 in the treatise Letteratura turchesca.

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Giovanni Gabrieli Venice, about 1555–Venice, 1612 Canzona for 8 voices [cornetts and sackbutts] in 2 choirs (Sacrae Symphoniae, 1597) Concerto Palatino Accent (3 min 40 s)

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Highly prized in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for its sonority, which approached the human voice, the cornett is a leather-covered wooden instrument, usually slightly curved, with a cupped mouthpiece like that of the trumpet. The sackbut takes its name from the Old French verbs sacquer (pull) and bouter (push), which describe the movements of the person playing the instrument. Combining cornetts and sackbuts with the new violins, the Venetians—Giovanni Gabrieli foremost among them—created sumptuous compositions for instrumental ensembles—the first of their kind—to be played during various ceremonies.

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Antonio Vivaldi Venice, 1678–Vienna, 1741 Sonata in G minor, for cello and basso continuo, RV 42 (undated) [Second movement: Allemanda] Pieter Wispelwey, playing a cello by Barak Norman from 1710 Channel Classics Records (2 min 35 s)

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Developed in the early seventeenth century and perfected by Antonio Stradivari, the cello stepped out of its role as an exclusively accompanying instrument to cultivate a solo repertoire as well. Many musicians, especially in Bologna and Venice, exploited its supple expressiveness in a great number of sonatas.The first cello concertos were written by Vivaldi.

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Antonio Vivaldi Venice, 1678–Vienna, 1741 Concerto in F minor, for violin, strings and basso continuo, Op. 8, No. 4, RV 297, "L'Inverno" (Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione, Amsterdam, 1725) [Allegro non molto–Largo–Allegro] Federico Guglielmo, violin and conductor, L'Arte dell'Arco CPO (8 min 20 s)

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Antonio Vivaldi remained in the service of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice for nearly forty years. A virtuoso violinist, he became the violin teacher there in 1703, shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, and soon took on the role of maestro de' concerti. He left the ospedale about 1740 for a stay in Vienna, where he died the following year. Among his duties, the Red Priest–so nicknamed because of the colour of his hair–had to teach violin, cello and viola d'amore to the most talented orphan girls under the institution's care, see to the maintenance of the instruments and compose concertos every month, as well as pieces for particular occasions. He also directed vocal and instrumental ensembles of various sizes in concerts for noble visitors. The young residents performed behind grills that partially hid them from the public. Vivaldi wrote an extremely varied body of work for the musicians of La Pietà, only a small part of which was published during his lifetime. Although he composed for all the instruments of the period, he paid special attention to the violin concerto, of which he composed the earliest virtuoso examples. The collections of concertos he published in Amsterdam (the Dutch had the most advanced methods of printing music at that time) and his frequent contact with the courts of Vienna and Dresden contributed more to the spread of his compositions than his work with orphans in Venice did. The first four concertos from the collection Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione, better known as "The Four Seasons," were an immediate success when they were published in 1725.

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Anonymous Three Canzoni da battello (boat songs) Carlo Gaifa, tenor, Enrico Gatti, violin, Massimo Lonardi and Ugo Nastrucci, archlute and guitar ["Si la gondola avarè"–"Co' Checca, Betta e Cate"–"L'occasion de le mie pene"] Tactus TC 70010201 (9 min 20 s)

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Antonio Vivaldi Venice, 1678–Vienna, 1741 Armida's aria "Innocente esser vorresti" from Armida al campo d'Egitto, RV 699, (Venice, Teatro San Moisè, 1718) Sara Mingardo, contralto, Concerto Italiano; Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor Naïve (4 min 5 s)

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At the same time as his instrumental production and sacred music, Vivaldi composed many stage works, roughly thirty of which have survived. About half were performed at the Teatro Sant'Angelo, of which he was the impresario. But the Red Priest also spent time in Mantua, Rome and perhaps Amsterdam, among other places, staging his operas. After twenty years' success, his popularity waned with the arrival of the great masters of the Neapolitan school, Nicolà Porpora and Johann Adolph Hasse in particular, on whom the Venetian theatres lavished their attention.