Rising star in the world of the historical harps Margret Köll and Il Giardino Armonico founder Luca Pianca present in this recording a kind of musical experience conceived on the model of the old master instrumentalists and improvisers who were capable of adapting all kinds of music to the needs of the moment.

The title ‘Giants’ refers to the composers presented on this recording who are truly musical Giants. Monteverdi indeed began the baroque era, and Bach brought it to an end 150 years later, and both of them have left us masterpieces of immense artistic value. Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa with his aura as a mad nobleman and as an assassin is without any doubt one of the most interesting and most extreme experimenters in the history of music. His attempts to break away from the formal limits of the madrigal in order to increase expressiveness often borders on a surprising eccentricity.

From a faithful transcription of Bach’s composition for the ‘Lautenwerk’ a kind of hybrid harpsichord with gut strings, into a duet for lute and triple harp to the art of the arranging Monteverdi’s and Gesualdo’s compositions, this recording guarantees a fresh look into this music by means of the surprising sound combination of the lute and the harp.