Gramophone Magazine
August 2026
Editor's Choice
The Breathtaking Collective, Cappella Mariana, Bruce Dickey
Cima, G: Concerti Ecclesiastici: No. 40, "Assumpta est Maria"
Taeggio: Messa, salmi intieri e spezzati: "O Rex Gloriae"
Cima, A: Concerti Ecclesiastici: No. 51, "Capriccio d'Andrea Cima"
Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio: Canzoni a 4 e 8 voci: "Quemadmodum desiderat"
Taeggio: Il primo libro de madrigali (Selections)
Cima, A: Partito de ricercari & canzoni alla francese: No. 15, "La Scabrosa"
Soderini: Canzoni a 4 e 8 voci: "Egredimini filiae Sion"
Giuseppe Gallo: Sacri operis musici alternis: No. 68, "Veni in hortum meum"
Gussago: Sonate a quattro, sei et otto: No. 13, "Sonata La Badina"
Soderini: Canzoni per sonar a 4 e 8 voci: "Ipse sum desponsata"
Taeggio: Selva de varii passaggi: "Vestiva i colli" (madrigale da Palestrina passaggiato)
Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio: Canzoni a 4 e 8 voci: "La Niguarda"
Soderini: Sacrorum cantionum octopus et novem vocibus: "Saule, Saule, quid me persequeris?"
Giuseppe Gallo: Magnificat anima mea a 9
This recording is dedicated to a center of Italian music that is often overlooked: the Milan of the Spanish Habsburgs. After the death of Francesco II in 1532, the Sforza had to cede the Duchy of Milan to the French and ultimately to the Holy Roman Empire. Charles V installed his son Philip II as head of the Spanish Habsburgs and thus the Duchy fell under the rule of a Spanish Viceroy. While the city lost the political importance it had enjoyed under the ruling Visconti and Sforza families, a relative calm between two terrible plagues in 1576 and 1630 promoted a flowering of cultural life under the patronage of archbishop Federico Borromeo. We present a varied soundscape of Habsburg Milan, both sacred and secular. We explore the uniquely Milanese “canzon-motteto” which places a vocal ensemble in dialogue with instruments, double-choir motets, canzonas, and little-known hyper- expressive madrigals of Francesco Rognoni Taeggio, better known as a violin virtuoso and master of the art of improvised diminution. Music of Giovan Paolo and Andrea Cima, Agostino Soderini, Francesco and Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio, and Giuseppe Gallo.
"This album from The Breathtaking Collective is breathtaking. Figuratively, but also quite literally as the fabulous cornett-playing from Bruce Dickey and Lambert Colson streaks through the choral texture." — Gramophone Magazine, August 2026
