Cologne is very much at the centre of early music activity in Germany; the Ganassi Consort are yet another ensemble to be drawn from the fine specialist instrumentalists who seem to congregate there. Named after the sixteenth-century instrumentalist Sylvestro di Ganassi, whose treatises contribute a good deal to our knowledge of early instrumental practice, the group comprise two recorders and continuo. Their repertory on this recording dates from rather later in the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth and focuses on composers living or working in Italy. Instrumentation at this time was generally pretty flexible, as the titles to the printed collections of the music suggest: ''per sonare ogni sorte di stromenti'' is the rider to Frescobaldi's First Book of Canzonas of 1628. Most of the pieces included here seem to work well enough on one or two recorders, though I imagine that the two sonatas by Francesco Turini (1589–1656) might sound more effective on cornetts.
The Ganassi Consort are at their best in the tutti numbers: the Fontana Sonata with which the selection opens, the concluding pair of canzonas by Merula and those by Frescobaldi with their alternation of sprightly rhythms and contrasting langourous sections all laced with the attractive melodiousness also found in Monteverdi, are the most successful, lively and well characterized. The ensemble is generally polished, the intonation sure, while the recorders are well matched in tone and articulation. They are placed well to the fore in the recording, though this is not as disturbing as the sometimes rather muffled sound of the cello continuo. The two items without recorders are also the longest, and unfortunately the least interesting, being rather unimaginatively played. However, the zippy recorder diminutions more than compensate for this, the collection giving a good idea of the wealth of instrumental music of the period in persuasive performances.'