A varied anthology of the madrigal styles from the 1580s to the 1630s, the Italian 'second Renaissance', giving preference to parallel musical settings of the same poetic texts: this permits useful comparisons between compositions by Marco Scacchi 1602-1685, Monteverdi, Frescobaldi and Marenzio. Today Scacchi's music is much less well-known than his writings in the field of musical theory. Almost all his career was spent in Poland, where he probably arrived with his master Giovanni Francesco Anerio towards the end of 1624. Scacchi's madrigals, which are early works, recall not only similar compositions by G.F.Anerio published in 1599 and 1608, but also Monteverdi's first four books of madrigals.The very choice of poetic texts confirms the influence of the maestro of Cremona. The main theme in Scacchi's compositions is, as normally happens in madrigals, love, especially unhappy love. Here are his madrigals for four and five parts lovingly performed by Ensemble Vocale Veneto.