Andrew McGregor and Kirsten Gibson (Professor of Early Modern Music and Culture and Deputy Head of the School of Arts and Culture, Newcastle University), BBC Radio 3 Record Review (24 Feb[ruary] 2024):
“The musical range is…absolutely huge. It covers all different types of genres, from liturgical music through to theatrical music and everything in between….[W]e’ve composers…you would expect: Peri, Marenzio…but…[t]here’s so much variety on this, over such a long historical period, and so many different genres….[T]he quality is very good across the disc, and it is very varied….[I]t is quite a sumptuous recording….[A]n enormous amount of ground to cover….[R]eally lovely….[T]he [accompanying] book will deeply enrich your engagement [with] and understanding of the music, but the two discs work beautifully just as [is]….The [CD liner] notes are just what you need….[Y]ou can enjoy the recordings for what they are, and they’re very beautiful and very varied, but…the book will deeply enrich your engagement with the music.”

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“Hear the sounds that Florence made,” Corriere della Sera (17 March 2024):
“Now listeners, too, can immerse themselves in the principal contributions of Florence to the history of music (the Renaissance madrigal, opera, the piano). Linked to the study by Anthony M. Cummings, Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250-1750 (University of Chicago Press, 2023), the identically-entitled double disc (Ramée/Outhere) has arrived: 49 tracks entrusted to the ensembles La Morra and Theatro dei Cervelli and to mæstro Francesco Corti.”

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Michel Dutrieue, Stretto – Magazine voor kunst, geschiedenis, filosofie, literatuur en muziek:
“This sublime recording, which provides an overview of the most important surviving musical genres in Florence in the half millennium between c. 1250 and c. 1750, aims to provide a musical description of the extraordinary musical culture, which was of unparalleled importance in the golden age of Florence. The program on this sublime double CD was inspired by the beautiful book of the same name Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250-1750 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London 2023) by Anthony M. Cummings. / This double CD immerses you in the soundscape of late medieval and early modern Florence. Despite Florence’s prominent place in art history, Florence’s importance in music history is not as well known as it should be. Florence was not only the city of Dante, Machiavelli, Michelangelo[,] and Galileo Galilei, but also the birthplace of the Renaissance madrigal,…opera[,]…and even…the piano. / Music in Golden Age Florence, 1250-1750 chronicles Florence’s major contributions to music and the history of how music was heard and cultivated in the city, from civic and religious institutions to private patronage and the academies. This book and double CD are a valuable addition to research into the art, literature[,] and political thought of the late medieval and early modern eras and the quasi-legendary figures in the Florentine cultural pantheon.”

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Cultuurpakt (6 March 2024):
“This double album accompanies Anthony M. Cummings’ book of the same name, Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250-1750 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London 2023). They are designed to enable readers and listeners to enter the sound world of late medieval and early modern Florence. Despite the enviable place that Florence occupies in the historical imagination, its music-historical importance is not as well understood as it should be. / But if Florence was the city of Dante Alighieri, Niccolò Machiavelli, Michelangelo Buonarroti[,] and Galileo Galilei, it was also the birthplace of the madrigal,…opera[,] and the piano….Firenze, the art city and cultural metropolis of medieval Italy par excellence. Painting, sculpture[,] and architecture abounded there. And therefore also music. Instrumental music, vocal music, something for everyone in this recording…. / A historical overview of music in Florence from 1250 to 1750. A testimony from the cradle of polyphony and Renaissance,…the madrigal to the Baroque. A place where artists and musicians from all over Europe traveled to gain inspiration and influence…art….A virtuoso journey through history.  Also read the book!”

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George Henkel, Musik an sich CCLXXI (1 March 2024):
“The perception of Florence as not only an important art[- ,] but also a music[- ,] metropolis falls somewhat behind that of Venice, Rome[,] and Naples. This city[-]state has provided important impulses for the development of music,…whether it be in the genre of the madrigal, early opera[,] or music for keyboard….This production…aims to document the music-historical significance of Florence as part of a multimedia project. The 49 tracks on this double CD accompany a book by Anthony M. Cummings…: Music in…Golden[-]Age Florence, 1250 to 1750. 500 years of music history are rapidly traversed on two CDs…and…commented on…in the booklet, which offers sufficient orientation even without the more comprehensive book….Such a condensed program…is ambitious. Nevertheless, the present documentation seems surprisingly coherent….In addition, the historically[-]informed performance by two renowned ensembles – La Morra and Theatro dei Cervelli – as well as by an expert on historical keyboard instruments – Francesco Corti – ensures a high, integrating level. We are…increasingly encountering ambitious works for keyboard instruments…The main representative is Domenico Zipoli, who is well looked[-]after by Francesco Corti. The same applies to the performances of medieval and early[-]Renaissance music by La Morra and…the Baroque pieces by…Theatro dei Cervelli.”

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Camille De Rijck, Arts libre XXXVI (28 February 2024):
“The history of Florence seems to be made of cobblestones, bricks, marbles[,] and paintings. But where is the music?…[I]t is there, as discreet within its walls as…other forms of art are vivid. Here is a very learned volume, which aims to restore the place occupied by the city of the Medici in the musical map….[T]he medievalists of the La Morra ensemble,…organist Francesco Corti[…,] and the musicians of…Theatro dei Cervelli chronologically paint an unbounded fresco, which one enters like a museum.”

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Qobuz Rediscover Music – “ALBUM REVIEW“:
Music in Golden-Age Florence 1250-1750 accompanies a book by musicologist Anthony [Cummings] of the same title. Yet it is of general interest as well, as shown by the album’s appearance on classical best-seller lists in early 2023. [Cummings’s] aim is to elevate the musical contributions of Florence to the same level enjoyed by its artistic and literary productions. The value of his musical selections is twofold. First, he introduces to listeners a great many composers they may not know. Second, he catches international styles as they wash over a specific city in a unique way. The album has four sections, devoted respectively to the late Middle Ages, the early and late Renaissance, and the Baroque. Each of these is mostly the province of one of the three groups present: the early music vocal-instrumental group La Morra, the late Renaissance ensemble Theatro dei Cervelli, and the pianist Francesco Corti. All are more than competent. Corti plays some little-known Baroque keyboard music from Florence, much of it anonymous, that may be the biggest find here; works such as the Pastorale mezza bigia of Francesco Feroci have a unique lyricism even if one might argue that by 1750, Florence was past its “golden age.” Not all the music is Florentine; as Franco-Flemish polyphony came to rule Europe, Florence was no exception, and such composers as Heinrich Isaac and Alexander Agricola are included. No doubt, readers of the book will gain more insight into the issues involved, but [Cummings’s] own booklet offers a useful taste. The album will be of great value to museum programmers looking to present music associated with their collections of Florentine art, and it will appeal to anyone who has been fascinated by the jewel of Tuscany.
© James Manheim /TiVo

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“Music in Golden-Age Florence, 1250-1750 ***** ”, Diapason:
“To illustrate five centuries of music in Florence is the objective of this double album, designed to accompany the identically-entitled book by Anthony M. Cummings (University of Chicago Press, 2023), to which the notes make multiple references. Two ensembles – «La Morra» for the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, «Theatro dei Cervelli» until the beginning of the Seicento – and the keyboardist Francesco Corti share a program favoring new releases and rarities….«La Morra» opens the festivities and spans three centuries in sixteen tracks, from which the intabulations stand out (the dance La Manfredina and In mijnem sin of Agricola)….Madrigals and the famous intermedij of La Pellegrina take us to Theatro dei Cervelli. The ensemble lacks neither qualities of opulence (Mentre con mill’amori by Luca Bati) nor of intimacy (the stunning ‘Aria di Romanesca’ Io parto lasso by Giovanni Pietro Bucchianti!)….From Brunelli…we will remember the Cantate Domino, which…suits the ensemble….A gem:  the eight-voice madrigal by Marco da Gagliano,Sull’affricane arena, designed to celebrate the military victories of Cosimo II in Africa. Whether on the organ or the harpsichord, Francesco Corti will secure everyone’s agreement. He enhances the keyboard pages of Peri (Ricercar del primo tuono del Zazzerino!), Malvezzi, [and] the different versions of the Aria di Firenze, and closes the panorama with three anonymous pieces from the beginning of the 18th century, full of poetry and movement (Preludio cantabile). Organ extracts from Domenico Zipoli’s Sonate d’intavolatura per organo e cimbalo complete the ensemble.  This brilliant ending in the form of a recital is, in and of itself, worth the detour.”
Frederic Degroote