Sonate 1704 was formed in 2003 by baroque violinist Olivier Brault with Dorothea Ventura (harpsichord) and Mélisande Corriveau (bass viol), with the particular objective of exploring and promoting French music for violin and continuo. Their repertory catalog features more than 100 works, many of which have been first modern performances. 1704 refers to the year in which the first book of French violin sonatas, composed by Francois Duval, was published. While the inspiration for Op. 20, published in 1727, is clearly Italian, the fact remains that French taste intervenes through the use of figures, ornamental possibilities, rhythmic variety, and the use of dance movements such as the tender gavotte, the loure, the passepied or the sarabande.

Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" - the 48 Preludes and Fugues, 2 sets in each major and minor key, is one of the cornerstones of the baroque keyboard repertoire. Diana Boyle presents an exceptional account of the second set of 24 pieces, played on a modern Grotrian-Steinweg piano. Her approach to performing this repertoire on a modern piano is astonishing and exciting, bringing the complexity of Bach's writing to the fore.

Swiss cellist Rosselet plays two different cellos in this recording. A modern cello, which he plays in the pieces by Berio, Ligeti and Dutilleux, made about 130 years ago by a student of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. For the Bach suites, he choses a Baroque era period instrument, with no peg, lighter sound post, gut strings and a Baroque bow.

Handel' oratorio Semele was composed in 1743 and tells of a beautiful mortal, whose short but spectacular love affair with Jupiter. King of the Gods, comes to a terrifying end in consequence of both her own vanity and the scheming of Jupiter' insanely.

With its new album 'Concertos 4 Violins', the specialist ensemble for early music, Concerto Koln, takes a look at the unique repertoire niche of concertos written for four solo violins. 'It must have been a challenge to bring together four solo violins, four virtuosos with four different personalities, four egos.' In this programme, devised by bassoonist Lorenzo Alpert, Concerto Koln gathers together the creme de la creme of baroque violin specialists. The orchestra already maintains a longstanding artistic partnership with each of them: Mayumi Hirasaki, who was concertmaster e.g. for Concerto Koln's most recent recording of Geminiani's works, Shunske Sato, who grew up in the USA and is extensively involved in the Netherlands Bach Society, Evgeny Sviridov from St. Petersburg and the Spaniard Jesús Merino Ruiz. They were all shaped differently by their various cultural backgrounds and pursued different educational paths. This makes the combination of the four all the more compelling. At the same time it demonstrates that any barriers in thought and in musical language can be overcome.

This release is an interesting musical journey through the paths that led to Arnold Schoenberg’s composition of his masterpiece for string sextet, Verklarte Nacht.+ The pieces presented on this album, which are diverse and include pieces by Bach, Brahms, and Berg, show development of harmony and tonality from Bach’s era all the way to the late romantic period, when a new harmonic language began to emerge. The string sextet utilized in this recording was formed from the principal players of the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, and led in this recording by Alessandro Maria Carnelli.

Max Emanuel Cencic has become one of the best countertenors of his time. Cencic is a former member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and has had a successful career, regularly performing at some of the world’s most famous opera houses as well as recording for Capriccio and other labels such as Virgin Classics.

Capriccio now presents Cencic’s 3 previous CDs of cantatas by Vivaldi, Scarlatti and Caldara on the label in new packaging and a bonus documentary DVD which includes interviews and video clips.

Italian composer, gambist, singer, and priest Claudio Monteverdi is regarded as a revolutionary composer, as his compositional style ended the Renaissance and heralded in the ornate virtuosity of the baroque era. While a great deal of his works were sacred, he also wrote a great deal of secular music as well. This album is unique in that the tracks selected are secular works which have been converted into sacred compositions. Il Pegaso has gained critical acclaim for their interpretations of Middle-Ages and Renaissance music. They perform the works on this album on period instruments.

Featuring the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, this new release includes compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725). La Gloria di Primavera, the work featured on this album, has been called a “feast of vocal invention, supplemented by wondrous instrumental writing…” The performances on this album were recorded live in Berkeley, California, at First Congregational Church in October of 2015.

A new recording by John Rutter and his Cambridge Singers is always welcome, and this one features 20 works drawn from the sacred choral repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque. Most of these are motets and many are familiar (Palestrina's Sicut cervus and Exsultate Deo, Gabrieli's Jubilate Deo, Lassus' Timor et tremor, Josquin's Ave Maria) and all are included in Rutter's published anthology, European Sacred Music (Oxford). As Rutter states, the program's theme is to focus on the "wealth of sacred music...created in continental Europe out of the ferment of the age of Reformation", and while Rutter has chosen primarily works resulting from the "extraordinary flowering" of musical activity in the Catholic church during this period, we also are treated to a motet by Bach (O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht BWV 118/231, often mis-classified as a cantata), a Magnificat (presumably) by Buxtehude, and a psalm (100) by Schütz.

Some listeners of course will disagree, but for me, the program's two longest pieces--Monteverdi's Beatus vir and the Buxtehude Magnificat--are the least interesting, the former's main thematic material formed primarily by repetitive scales and rudimentary harmony set to monotonous rhythm, the latter functional and pleasant enough but rather flat, undynamic, and static, a work that reminds us that just because a notable composer wrote (or may have written!) something and the score survived doesn't necessarily mean it's good or worthy of more than musicological interest.

No matter how you judge these two works, you'll be happy with the performances, which throughout this recording are at the high level we always expect from this choir and director: vibrant, articulate, carefully balanced, and always attentive to a given work's inherent expressive possibilities. And speaking of articulate, it's wonderful to hear the opening Jubilate Deo (a piece lovingly attempted and so often mangled by well-meaning choirs all over the world) sung with such clarity and agility, unrushed; likewise, Palestrina's sublime Sicut cervus is well-paced, each line given its due. Other highlights include the Ave Maria of Josquin (impressive intonation and sectional tone quality), Lassus' Ave verum corpus (those exquisitely sustained long lines!), and a curious--and quite beautiful--setting of Crux fidelis attributed to John IV, King of Portugal. The instrumental ensemble, the relatively "new" La Nuova Musica, is first-rate, its timbres adding textural variety and layers of color to nine of the selections. And completing the package is top-notch production and engineering by Simon Eadon, captured in the excellent acoustics of London's Great Hall of University College School. Needless to say: Highly recommended!

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Pianist Yorck Kronenberg’s second GENUIN CD in the Movimentos Edition finds the German pianist, author and novelist performing the entirety of the piano concerti of J.S. Bach together with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. + Aside his activities as a concert pianist and competition jurist, Mr. Kronenberg has recorded seven CDs to date, featuring works by the Bach, the German Romantics and contemporary music by, amongst others, Karl Amadeus Hartmann. + "Master of pianistic art of storytelling" - Hamburger Abendblatt

Of all English oratorios Handel’s Messiah has always been the most overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of his oratorios and the most purely sacred in its choice of subject matter. The vivid choral writing- there are more choruses in Messiah than in any other Handel oratorio- coupled with the expressive density of the solo arias, have ensured its status as one of the greatest choral masterpieces in the Western canon. Since winning the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Award and conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, Edward Polochick has attracted international attention as an orchestral, operatic, and choral conductor. He is the founding Artistic Director of Concert Artists of Baltimore since 1987. He is also in his 20th season as Music Director of Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska. From 1979-1999 he was the Director of the Baltimore Symphony Chorus, and since 1979 he has been at the Peaboedy Conservatory as Associate Conductor of the Orchestra, Director of Choral Ensembles, and Opera Conductor.

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REVIEW:

What we have here can be described as a ‘popular’ approach, using a large number of performers with a conventional modern chamber orchestra, and chorus capable of lifting the roof off the concert hall, as they almost do in Hallelujah and in a triumphal Worthy is the lamb. You will enjoy the passion he infuses into the music throughout, and he obtains a neat participation from his Baltimore musicians.

Jennifer O’Loughin's account of O daughter of Zion has joy as she negotiates the fast running passages, and there's a deep sincerity in her I know my redeemer Liveth. The tenor, Nicholas Phan, tastefully decorates his arias and slows down proceedings in his deeply felt account of the recit and aria, Behold, and see if there be any sorrow. Sidney Outlaw’s bass voice warms as the performance progresses and eventually gives an enjoyable The trumpet Shall Sound.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)