Having dedicated his first two albums for Arcana to Johann Sebastian Bach (Little Books, A480) and Georg Friedrich Handel (Winged Hands, A499), Francesco Corti turns to Domenico Scarlatti, the third great keyboardist of the 1685 generation. For this recording, he selected a group of sonatas copied in the years 1752 and 1753, strictly organised in pairs. Concentrating on works from the same period, it showcases the composer's extraordinary ability to stretch the boundaries of the sonata form and to extensively elaborate his thematic material. Instrumental virtuosity and an experimental approach to the harpsichord sound go hand in hand with an astonishing formal freedom, combined with a playful sense of structure and expectation. Corti has chosen to perform these sonatas on a Humeau harpsichord, a copy of Italian models (courtesy of Bertrand Cuiller), and record them at the Royaumont Abbey.

25 years of La Cetra Basel! To celebrate this anniversary, La Cetra and Arcana are releasing the "greatest musical masterpiece of all time", as the work was called in the 19th century: Bach's Mass in B minor. "It is a dream come true to have recorded this work for La Cetra's 25th jubilee - the best birthday present ever!" says maestro Andrea Marcon. Under his direction, La Cetra Basel has made a name for itself in recent years with acclaimed interpretations of J. S. Bach's most important sacred works. Featuring top-flight soloists, this recording presents Andrea Marcon's particular vision for this Mass, notable for the division of voices between "concertists" and "ripienists". The sonority and character of each movement emerge from the skilfully crafted balance between solos and tuttis, creating a three-dimensional sound reminiscent of a three-manual organ. The result is a unique tonality, full of fresh nuances and colours, and no doubt very close to what Bach had imagined.

This first joint project by the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin and the Basel-based vocal ensemble Voces Suaves is dedicated to the musical milieu into which Johann Sebastian Bach was born, and especially to those composers who had a demonstrable influence on the work of the man who would later become Thomaskantor in Leipzig. In addition to pieces from the Altbachisches Archiv (Archive of the Older Bachs), the album features sacred concertos and early cantatas by Bach's predecessors and superiors from Arnstadt, Muhlhausen, Weimar and Leipzig, and with them impressive proof of how highly developed the musical tradition of Central Germany then was. Although many of the composers are completely unknown to us today, their works, some of which are recorded here for the first time, provide a fascinating insight into the musical language of late seventeenth-century Germany with it's inspiring wealth of colours and forms.

Just as the worthy and skilled painter imitates all things created in nature by varying the colours, in the same way you can imitate the expression made by the human voice on a wind and stringed instrument. This concept, which was explained by Silvestro Ganassi in his Opera intitulata La Fontegara already in 1535, has inspired Concerto Scirocco to seek�the maximum expression when interpreting the instrumental music of the 16th and 17th centuries. Hand in hand with the development of the instrumental repertoire, rhetoric became the link between instrument and voice, between imitation and reality. Where words were lacking, composers and instrumentalists used rhetoric to delight listeners just as singers did.� In�this, it's�fifth, recording, Concerto Scirocco focuses on an early baroque anthology of pieces, "painting in notes" a number of musical portraits full of contrasts:�the pulsating rhythm of the battle in the�Symphonia "A�gran�battaglia",�the�beguiling�mermaids in Marco Uccellini's�Aria sopra�"Questa bella Sirena",�or the operatic tension in the�Sonata a�tre�by Francesco Cavalli.

Born in Brussels in 2020, The WIG Society (TWS) has rapidly grown into one of the most exciting musical ensembles on the European Early Music scene. As a rising ensemble within the EEEmerging+ programme, TWS has developed an original approach to the chamber music of the galant and classical period. Their playing highlights the lavish, extravagant, and witty elements of a repertoire principally designed to entertain an aristocratic society on the decline. They re-imagine rococo ballrooms and salons as contemporary dance floors, Haydn as the Beyoncé of the 1770s. Their sound is rich and nuanced in depth thanks to the employment of both the harpsichord and the double-bass, instead of the traditional cello. Alongside works by celebrated composers, TWS proposes some world premiere recordings of neglected composers from the Mannheim School and beyond.

Bertali: Prothimia suavissima, Book 2

Mozart: Works for Violin & Fortepiano

El Cortesano is the title of a book published in Valencia in 1561 by Luys Milan, who was clearly inspired by Castiglione's work, which defined the Italian model of the refined "courtier" and expert musician that was gradually going to impose itself in all of Europe. Aesthetically, this title is essentially linked to vihuela music - as soloist or accompanying the voice. The vihuela is a somewhat mysterious Iberian instrument that, in Spain and Portugal, took the place of the lute, differing from the latter with its flat shape and slight inward curve at the waist. Today, El Cortesano is the concept made up by the performers of the present release, representing an attempt to reveal the rich, varied repertoire of the Iberian Peninsula during the Renaissance. In no way tired down to a set formation, El Cortesano's mission is to become a flexible ensemble, with the fields of research determining the group's size, and spirit prevailing over form. This approach obviously lies within the entente of the finest Spanish musicians who, over the past three decades, have successfully carried out a reappraisal of the music composed in the peninsula. This album is Jose Hernandez Pastor's first - or at least the first that is devoted entirely to him, for he has recorded with various ensembles, notably those of Jordi Savall. Still quite young, this student of Andreas Scholl demonstrates surprising maturity in the way in which he intends to conduct his career: no "star system" for him, but rather an approach based on research, reconstruction, poetic expression and the links between text and music. With Ariel Abramovich, a sensitive, subtle Argentine lutenist who shares his ideals, he forms an uncompromising team from whom we may expect a great deal: a new generation of pure, noble artists.

2013 will mark the 600th anniversary of the birth of Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413). La Reverdie have discovered the repertory of laude sung by the Saint and her sisters and have placed it in it's original context. The skillful combination of rich and varied instrumental sonorities together with crystal clear feminine vocality perfectly conveys the simple freshness and arcane fascination of this unexplored repertory.

Two years after the highly acclaimed recording of Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli's Opus 4, Gunar Letzbor returns with the Antonio Pandolfi Mealli's Opus 3, published in Innsbruck in 1660 and dedicated to his compatriot, the reigning archduchess Anna De' Medici (featured on the front cover). Letzbor revives the strange work of murderer-composer with a full-blooded performance that succeeds in captivating US from beginning to end.

Classical Music

This is the third recording to represent Giulio Prandi's interpretative research on the great Italian choral repertory, after the special and successful releases of works by Jommelli and Pergolesi, cornerstones of the golden age of the Neapolitan school. Faced with the challenge posed by Rossini's essential masterpiece, Prandi has chosen an original and courageous path, following deep reflection. The new critical edition of the Rossini Foundation of Pesaro is used here for the first time in a recording studio; three rare instruments roughly contemporary with the work - pianos by rard and Pleyel, a D bain harmonium - have been selected to ensure an authentic, vital, luminous sound, guaranteed by the artistry of the keyboardist and professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Francesco Corti; four illustrious soloists have been engaged: Sandrine Piau, Jos Maria Lo Monaco, Edgardo Rocha and Christian Senn. Finally, the fundamental contribution of the Coro Ghislieri, an acknowledged world-class ensemble in early repertory, sets the seal on a recording of rare merit.

Harmonie & Turcherie: around the year 1800, Western music was experiencing a merging of two phenomena. On one hand was the success of a particular ensemble of wind instruments, boosted by the foundation of the royal and imperial Harmonie by Emperor Joseph himself in Vienna in 1782, the core of it's repertoire being arrangements of famous opera arias; on the other, the fashion for orientalism, reflected in different expressions of the arts: painting, sculpture, architecture and music. The typical octet of the Harmonie, consisting of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, was therefore reinforced by louder wind instruments such as trumpets, trombones, a contrabassoon or a cimbasso, as well as an array of percussion instruments - together, they could evoke the military bands of the highly feared Janissaries. That sound fascinated the most eminent composers of the time, including Haydn (Joseph and his younger brother Michael), Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti (Gaetano and his elder brother Giuseppe, active at the Ottoman court), Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Spohr, all of whom wrote small, little-known masterpieces for this particular band. Zefiro presents us with a varied program by these composers, alternating Turkish marches with chamber music works in a more operatic and deeper vein, thus revealing the versatility and colors of period wind instruments.

A world renowned international soloist and harpsichord teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Francesco Corti embarks a collaboration with Arcana with a musical journey through the manuscripts of the Bach family, beginning with the two books belonging to Johann Sebastian’s brother (the Moller and Andreas Bach manuscripts) and leading to the famous Buchleine for Anna Magdalena and Wilhelm Friedemann. The programme presents three major keyboard works by J.S. Bach that are preserved in ‘domestic’ copies. Combined with works by the most important musical figures in Bach’s musical life: Bohm, one of his teachers; Kuhnau, his predecessor as Thomaskantor; Telemann, friend and godfather to Bach’s second son Carl Philipp Emanuel; Hasse and Francois Couperin. The resulting programme is an unconventional Bachian harpsichord recital, a mixture of different genres and composers, that is probably much closer to the ‘home concert’ of the period than to the standard modern recital.

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the publication of Primo Libro di Toccate (1615), Arcana is proud to make this reference recording of Girolamo Frescobaldi's most popular work available again. Here, Rinaldo Alessandrini shows to full advantage his well-known skills as keyboard virtuoso as well as his familiarity with the madrigal repertoire of the time, so important for a proper approach to this revolutionary book, whose basic elements are the affetti and where rhetoric became the interpretive key. Two period Italian instruments are used here, making it possible to rediscover the colors appropriate to Frescobaldi's music: a harpsichord attributed to

VivaBiancaLuna Biffi brings one of the most refined Renaissance cultural traditions back to life, applying it to the frottola (popular Italian secular song form of the 15th-16th c.) repertoire in the form of a self-arranged miniature opera on the subject of love, Fermate il Passo. Vocalist and viol player VivaBiancaLuna Biffi is both an active solo performer and a regular partner of some of Early Music’s finest practitioners including Jordi Savall, Pierre Hamon and Brigitte Lesne.

Two young Italian ensembles join forces to revive a Vespers setting of the Venetian school dating from the year of Monteverdi's death. Regarded by musicologists as one of the leading Italian composers of the early seventeenth century, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti pursued the major part of his musical career in Venice, in the shadow of the 'divine Claudio'. The framework of this Vespro is taken from the 1643 collection Messa e Salmi ariosi a tre voci. The performing forces are unusual: three male voices and basso continuo, with an ad libitum choir of instruments (cornetto and three trombones). An agile, inventive and expressive setting of the Office of Vespers, which stylistically owes a great deal to Monteverdi's Selva Morale e Spirituale, an undoubted source of inspiration for Rigatti. It contains thirteen unpublished pieces, here presented in their world premiere recording.

Lorenzo Cavasanti offers the first complete recording of Vivaldi's sonatas for recorder and basso continuo, including his recently discovered Sonata RV 806. This recording also provides an opportunity to sample the various recorders used in Vivaldi's Venice, with each of the seven sonatas using a different instrument, from the soprano recorder to the bass. The result is a reference recording for followers of Vivaldi and recorder players alike, enhanced with liner notes by the authoritative Federico Maria Sardelli, author of Vivaldi's Music for Flute and Recorder and editor of the Vivaldi Catalogue.

Reissue of one of Zefiro's most successful recordings (2004), which seems to have had only very limited release previously: arrangements for 13 instruments (i.e. the same scoring as the Gran Partita) by Zefiro's oboist leader Alfredo Bernardini of music from the three great Da Ponte operas: Le nozze di Figaro K492, Don Giovanni , Cos“ fan tutte .

Ludwig van Beethoven went to Prague for the first time in 1796, accompanying Prince Lichnowsky, who introduced him to the city's foremost aristocratic families. One of these was the Clam- Gallas family, who played an eminent role in musical circles. It was here that Beethoven met Josephine Clary-Aldringen, an amateur singer and mandolinist who in 1797 married Count Christian Christoph. It was to her that Beethoven dedicated a number of pieces for mandolin and piano that feature in this recording, along with two interesting sonatas by Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Bartolomeo Bortolazzi, originally composed for the same combination of instruments. Neapolitan mandolinist Raffaele La Ragione has already made several recordings of mandolin music, and this is his first release with the Arcana label. Marco Crosetto, the founder of the ensemble La Vaghezza, is a Turin-based harpsichordist who in 2018 reached the semi-finals of the famous Musica Antiqua international competition in Bruges. The result of an in-depth study of the original sources, this selection of Beethoven's lesser-known works constitutes a fitting and original contribution to the 250th anniversary celebrations.

"•Enrico Gatti's eighth Arcana recording marks the debut recording of his Ensemble Aurora in the role of string quartet. • This program's journey back to the roots of string quartet writing and counterpoint is the result of years of research and discoveries. • According to Mr. Gatti, “the fugue unveils the sense of a conversation...the instruments renounce their individuality to blend together in spiritual transcendence”."

Classical Music

Venice ca. 1700: having recently arrived from France, the instruments a la mode- the oboe, bassoon, baroque recorder, and flute traversiere- go on to conquer the musical centers of the Serenissima. The versatility of these new woodwinds inspires Vivaldi at the Ospedale della Pieta and his compatriots Caldara and Lotti at San Marco throughout their lives, whether in Venice, Rome, Vienna, or Dresden. This interest in wind instruments also carries over to the next generation of Venetian composers such as Galuppi, whose career plays out in his hometown, or the emigrants Platti and Brescianello beyond the Alps. For centuries, the imperial chapel in Vienna was characterized by a particular affinity for Venice- and it was with an eye to this historical connection between Vienna and Northern Italy that oboist Elisabeth Baumer founded the Austro-Italian Ensemble Affinita with musician friends in 2012. The ensemble’s debut recording brings together imaginative interpretations of well-known works such as Vivaldi’s Concerto RV 103, exciting rediscoveries, and a world premiere recording of a remarkable oboe sonata by Ferrandini.

Classical Music

Scarlatti and the mandolin: this album provides a fascinating and unusual encounter between one of the most important composers of the baroque period and an instrument that originated in Naples and enjoyed great popularity throughout Europe, especially in Paris and in other European capitals during the 18th century. The Pizzicar Galante ensemble, founded in Paris in 2012 by mandolinist Anna Schivazappa and harpsichordist Fabio Antonio Falcone, reveals hidden aspects of these musical gems from the Italian Baroque. Drawing inspiration from a mysterious 18th-century French manuscript containing the first movement of Scarlatti's Sonata K 89, preceded by the indication 'Sonatina per mandolino e cimbalo', the musicians deliver a fresh and original interpretation of these works. The music is full of contrasts, rich in virtuoso passages, surprises and effects but also full of sweetness and humor, combined with a certain meditative melancholy. Specialized in the Italian repertoire for mandolin and basso continuo, Pizzicar Galante gives voice to different instrumental timbres. Among these, the charming, crystal-clear sound of an original 18th-century Neapolitan mandolin: an absolute rarity that makes this recording truly unique.