Io, Kapsberger nato in Venetia.... "I, Kapsberger, born in Venice..." Works by the famous theorbo virtuoso Kapsberger have often been recorded, but little space has so far been given to repertoire drawn directly from manuscript sources. Kapsberger maintained a privileged relationship with his city of birth throughout his life. The Venice of Willaert, Gabrieli and Monteverdi, however, is not just a magnificent past: it is still alive today and continues its musical tradition in the so-called Second Venetian School of Malipiero, Maderna, Nono and whose most recent protagonist is Claudio Ambrosini (1948-), winner of the Prix de Rome and the Leone d'Oro at the Venice Biennale, whose works have already been recorded, among others, on the Kairos and Stradivarius labels. Kapsberger, Segret Pages reveals an astonishing instrumental challenge between lesser-known works by Kapsberger in which we admire ideas and creative intuition, and Ambrosini's unpublished works, which contain equal amount of creativity and unexpected possibilities for the instrument. Stefano Maiorana is a Kapsberger specialist who has already published a critically acclaimed monograph on the composer; Entre dos almas, his recent album for baroque guitar, has been equally successful.

Maestro di cappella in two conservatories in Naples, Francesco Durante was one of the prominent representatives of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan school. A unique case in the history of Neapolitan music, Durante did not write any opera and devoted himself exclusively to pedagogical works and to the composition of sacred and instrumental music. His Concerti per archi are among the most significant contributions to the genre of the orchestral concerto. They represent a summa of the early eighteenth-century Neapolitan style. Durante blends the main aesthetic approaches of the time, from the stricter contrapuntal style – illustrated by fugue, canon, and Recercare movements – to the new galant style – transpiring from the slow cantabile or in movements marked Affettuoso or Amoroso.

Besides the eight better-known Concerti included in all manuscript sources, this recording contains also a ninth concerto found in a single, but authoritative source. The Accademia dell’Annunciata has risen to prominence with three successful albums alongside Giuliano Carmignola and Mario Brunello. Now, more than thirty years after the pioneering recording by Concerto Köln, the Milanese ensemble wholly fulfils its promise with a refreshing reading of these orchestral masterpieces from the late Baroque, to be paired with the famous Concerti per archi by Vivaldi.

Giovanni Mossi and Antonio Montanari, two of the most esteemed violin virtuosi of eighteenth-century Rome, can finally take centre stage, away from the crowded panorama of Corelli's pupils and imitators; their works can be fully appreciated in this new recording devoted to their sonatas for violin. Three sonatas by Mossi for violin and continuo from his Op. 5 and Op. 6 are presented here; these collections remain lesser-known and lesser-recorded even today.

The three violin sonatas by Montanari that the celebrated virtuoso Johann Pisendel brought from Rome to Dresden in 1717, after having taken lessons from Montanari himself, are recorded here together for the first time. The director of this project is the young violinist Gabriele Pro, one of the most promising Italian Baroque violinists of his generation. He is joined by cellist Maria Calvo, lutenist Simone Vallerotonda, already a star of many Arcana recordings, and award-winning harpsichordist Cristiano Gaudio.

The splendour of Mozart’s motet Exsultate, jubilate stands out in a repertoire that has for too long remained in the shadows: the magnificent output of church music composed in 18th-century Milan, the city in which Mozart, then not even 17 years old, wrote his first masterpiece of sacred music precisely 250 years ago. The virtuosity and melodic beauty of that score, conceived for the celebrated castrato Venanzio Rauzzini, can finally be heard alongside the brilliant works – for soloists and choir, in both the stile antico and the new modern manner – composed for the exacting noble patrons of the capital of Austrian Lombardy by musicians of great refinement and talent: names that include the universally renowned Johann Christian Bach, Giovanni Andrea Fioroni, the then maestro di cappella of the cathedral, and the hitherto obscure Melchiorre Chiesa.

After the success of their Tartini disc (Arcana 478, Diapason d'or, 5 stars from Musica), Mario Brunello and the Accademia dell'Annunciata return for an ingenious collection of six concertos, all of which are transcriptions of other works. Not only do we hear the keyboard arrangements of Venetian concertos such as Marcello's famous oboe concerto and Vivaldi's Violin Concerto RV230, but also reconstructed concertos by Bach such as those for oboe and oboe d'amore (BWV 1056 and 1055) and those that have come down to us in their original version — from the Violin Concerto BWV 1042 up to and including the renowned Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto BWV 971. The dialogue between the tutti and the solo passages in the latter work, only imagined in its keyboard version, here finds its full realization in Riccardo Doni's brilliant transcription for piccolo cello and strings, supported here by the energy and passion of the Accademia dell'Annunciata. Bach Transcriptions is a surprising labyrinth of sound that forms the conclusion of Marco Brunello’s trilogy dedicated to Bach’s music, of works to which we listen afresh thanks to the expressive potential of the piccolo cello, an instrument that Bach himself had particularly appreciated.

Manuel Granatiero presents his first solo album, following several successful recordings with Amandine Beyer's Gli Incogniti and Accademia Ottoboni, of which he is a founding member. Here, Manuel is joined by Yu Yashima and Marco Ceccato, as he turns his attention to the flute music of C.P.E. Bach. The outcome of this project is Light and Darkness, five sonatas chosen from the substantial oeuvre that the composer dedicated to this instrument. In addition to the famous sonata for solo flute, the program includes two sonatas with harpsichord obbligato and two sonatas with basso continuo. Demonstrating a wealth of stylistic and writing variety, they represent the entirety of the period in which Bach composed his surviving flute sonatas: BWV1020 written in his youth at his father's house in Leipzig, Wq124 written during his early years of study in Frankfurt, Wq128 and Wq132 during his service at the court of Frederick II, and Wq83 during his mature years in Hamburg. This is therefore a miniature exploration of the universe of the 'Berlin Bach' through some of his most intimate works that encourage us to experience the most diverse human emotions, from the darkest to the brightest ones.

The Neapolitan school of instrumental music and its links with the rest of Europe in the eighteenth century – this is at the heart of Quartetto Vanvitelli’s activities. After concentrating on the work of the composer Michele Mascitti of Abruzzo, an outstanding figure representing Italian music in France, the quartet now turns to a composer-violinist from Sardinia, Giuseppe (Joseph) Agus (1722-1798), who achieved success in London and Paris in the second half of the 18th century. Like Mascitti, he studied in Naples, then lived in London from the late 1740s, coming into direct contact with the most important protagonists of 18th-century English music: George Frederic Handel, Thomas Arne, Johann Christian Bach. Working as a violinist in the theatres and concert halls of the English capital, Agus published various instrumental collections and participated in collective works with music by Handel, Arne and Hasse. Even though his artistry was appreciated in London, Agus moved to Paris in the 1770s, where he published a few compositions and taught at the Conservatoire until his death in 1798.

Following three critically acclaimed albums of sacred music, Voces Suaves turns to the most important secular genre of the Renaissance: the madrigal. Their new album for Arcana, Versi d’Amore, is dedicated entirely to the madrigals of Giaches de Wert (1535-1596): rarely performed nowadays, these expressive works are the true forebears of the madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi, Wert’s younger colleague in Mantua.

Versi d’Amore features a selection of works from Wert’s last three madrigal books: somber settings of profound sonnets by Petrarch performed a cappella, alongside elegantly playful canzonette performed with an instrumental consort, all of which display Wert’s complete command of polyphonic writing, melodic expressivity and word painting. Most of the pieces are recorded for the first time, giving the listeners an opportunity to discover these true gems of the madrigal repertoire.

Like many education-hungry sons of the European nobility, the 18-year-old Prince Frederick August II embarked on his Grand Tour, which took him from Saxony to Venice in 1716, where he spent almost a year. The large entourage that accompanied the young prince on this trip included such great musicians as the violinist Johann Georg Pisendel, the oboist Johann Christian Richter and the composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. In Venice, an intense exchange with local stars such as Vivaldi developed, in an atmosphere of friendship and competition. On his return to Dresden, August took with him, in addition to Lotti and Veracini, Heinichen, whom he had met in Venice and who became his Kapellmeister. After acclaimed recordings of orchestral works by Handel and Bach, Zefiro now discovers this fascinating repertoire of music by Italians who composed in the French style and Germans who wrote Venetian concertos to impress the prince.

An eminent interpreter of Vivaldi, Giuliano Carmignola has always had a great affinity with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, as can be heard in his landmark recordings of the Violin Sonatas with Andrea Marcon (2002), the Violin Concertos with Concerto Köln (2014, Diapason d'or), and the Sonatas & Partitas (2018), which Gramophone judged to be "a first-rate choice among the recordings of these works on period instruments, despite the competition”. Carmignola’s latest project took shape during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and offers a new and sometimes experimental reading of Bach’s Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso, in which he highlights new details and exalts the choreatic character and the brilliance of many of the suites’ movements. Having already assured the success of Sonar in Ottava (A472) with his long-time friend Mario Brunello, this recording is the first of a series of solo projects that Carmignola will realize for Arcana.

Celebrating the golden age of English keyboard music from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, this personal anthology features works by the greatest composers of the time. John Dowland’s beguiling Pavanes and Galliards, transcribed by Martin Peerson and William Byrd, are punctuated by John Tomkins’ dazzling song-variations, Thomas Morley and William Tisdall’s whirling dances, and ravishing madrigals set by Peter Philips and others. John Amner’s masterful O Lord, in Thee is all my trust contrasts with William Byrd’s evocative, chiming variations The Bells, showcasing the different styles of these composers. This recording extends Giulia Nuti’s oeuvre of critically acclaimed recordings on historical harpsichords; her solo recital Le Cœur et l’oreille: Manuscript Bauyn (Arcana, 2017), recorded on the harpsichord built by Louis Denis in 1658, was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In this recording Giulia plays an exquisite Italian virginal from c. 1575.

This release paints a musical portrait of the young Guillaume Dufay and of the musical world he encountered when he traveled to Italy as a young man. Accordingly, it avoids the famous Dufay pieces such as the Missa Se la face ay pale, the Missa L'homme armé, or the motet Nuper rosarum flores; what you hear here is Dufay's style, which in many respects became the international style for much of the Renaissance era, coming together. The multinational group La Reverdie suggests that one aspect of this style, a freely melodic counterpoint, came from Italian sources, and crucially from the rise of Italian humanism, rather than from the Flemish and British styles usually emphasized in connection with Dufay. The album introduces several composers almost unknown to general listeners: Prepositus Brixiensis, Bartholomeus de Bononia, Bertrandus Ferraguti, and Antonius da Civitate. These composers are from an almost unknown generation following that of the first Flemish-Italian transplant, Johannes Ciconia. The disc is perhaps aimed at specialists, with the notes referring to white and black mensural notation and containing such sentences as this: "The syllable FA is interpreted as a sign of solmisation in soft hexachordum, which signifies B flat in modern terms." (The "soft hexachord" in medieval singing corresponded to the notes F-G-A-B flat-C-D.) But even for general listeners this disc marks a step forward in performing Dufay, who is difficult to put across to modern audiences. What did the dizzying complexity of the isorhythmic motet sound like to the popes who paid big money to bring Dufay across the Alps? What did the simpler music of Italy, beginning to enter into a new and radically organic connection to the text, sound like to Dufay? The spare (the music is accompanied by a small string group), rather ecstatic performances of this young ensemble help the listener to begin grappling with these questions. Notes are in French, Italian, German, and English; so are all work texts, although they are not given in parallel.

-- James Manheim, All Music Guide

According to Greek mythology, Zefiro was the tender and kind God of the Western Wind. In 1989, the oboists Alfredo Bernardini and Paolo Grazzi, and the bassoonist Alberto Grazzi, members of the most outstanding baroque orchestras, founded Zefiro, a versatile music group specialising in the eighteenth-century repertoire that gives particular prominence to wind instruments. Since then, Zefiro has performed at many major worldwide festivals and recorded 20 Cds, including the complete works for wind ensemble of W. A. Mozart, all virtuosic sonatas of J.D. Zelenka (Astrée), and three instalments of the distinguished Vivaldi Edition on Naïve. After a long-term collaboration with Sony Classical/Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, this new Vivaldi recording marks the beginning of an exclusive partnership of the Italian ensemble with Arcana, which will result in a true Zefiro series, characterised by its own artwork, focused on new releases but whose task will also be to make their discography still available. Antonio Vivaldi was (and has remained) the most productive composer of concertos for solo bassoon. Thirty-nine concertos for solo bassoon, strings and basso continuo by him have survived. As a group, they are noteworthy for their high musical quality, their stylistic maturity and their depth of feeling, a property shared with Vivaldi's concertos for the cello. Vivaldi shows perfect understanding of the mercurial temperament of the instrument, which is able in an instant to move from the comic to the tragic, from the melancholy to the joyful. An active player on the early music scene for the last 25 years, Alberto Grazzi is presenting here seven concertos from the enormous corpus of the Venetian composer. This selection, with 4 concertos in major and 3 in minor keys, represents Alberto Grazzi's personal choice in showing the expressive qualities of the bassoon in Vivaldi's world. This work is the result of a Alberto Grazzi's long-term practise as a baroque player, here magnificently supported by the Ensemble Zefiro.

Newly recorded in the bright acoustic of the Cenacolo of San Giorgio Maggiore Monastery in Venice, La Reverdie brings together, for the first time, musical compositions written c. 1330-1430 in honor of the Venetian Doges, or Venice itself. + This release, whose title is borrowed from the text of a most famous Johannes Ciconia-composed motet, includes the nine ceremonial motets written – according to recent research – to commemorate political, diplomatic or devotional events as well the election of the Doge, by, among others, da Padova, Landini, Ciconia, Romanus, de Monte and Lantins.

J. S. Bach, Biber, Marini, Corelli: four leading figures of Baroque music that no one would associate with the harp. However, they worked in environments where there is ample evidence that harpists were active, and where a solo harp repertory certainly existed, even if it was never written down. This ambitious project starts out from that premise, and is the result of in-depth research into original sources. It suggests that the repertory for violin, an instrument that shares many idiomatic features with the harp, was long a source of inspiration for harpists. Hence, here some of the best-known and most virtuosic pieces for the violin have been arranged for harp, giving these compositions a new lease on life and shedding light on new and unexpected nuances and reflections. Flora Papadopoulos, after significant collaborations with ensembles such as Cappella Mediterranea/L. García Alarcón, Concerto Italiano/R. Alessandrini, Matheus/J-C Spinosi and Laboratorio ‘600/F. Pavan, now makes her first solo album. Exploring personal, highly experimental and empirical paths, she revives a fascinating musical practice that has been long lost.