Period instruments such as the traverso, the Baroque violin, the viola da gamba and the harpsichord offer an incredibly wide palette of new sound possibilities suited to contemporary ears. From the early 1960s an increasing number of postmodernist composers began looking at these instruments as perfect tools to reconnect with both their audience and the music traditions from the past. Contemporary experimental “effects”, through the use of extended techniques and electronics, are proven able to create a fruitful dialogue with the perennial “affects” that baroque instruments are capable of arousing. Affect is no Crime explores the heterogeneity of this new path, presenting 5 world premiere recordings of 5 works written for these 4 instruments from 5 celebrated living composers, from 5 different countries: from Anspielungen by H.M. Linde, an atonal patchwork enriched with baroque quotations, to the ironic and microtonal Tiet/Lots by J. Tiensuu; from the neo-impressionistic La Fenêtre Ouverte by J. Fontyn to Revenant by J. Morlock, a modal and minimalist homage to Bach, passing through the experimental Sun Bleached with electronics, freshly commissioned from T. Polymeneas Liontiris.

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.

The Musicalische Exequien of Heinrich Schutz, composed for the ceremonial obsequies of Heinrich II Posthumus, count of Reuß-Gera, is probably the best known example of German funeral music of the seventeenth century. However, it is not an isolated piece; there were in fact a great number of virtually unknown vocal compositions from the same period, which were commissioned to commemorate the death of specific personalities and performed at their funeral services. The third album from Voces Suaves on the Arcana label offers a fresh perspective on Schutz’s famous masterpiece, complementing it with works by other major German composers of the seventeenth century such as Rosenmuller and Schein. The music is performed by singers and a continuo group without any additional instruments, so that the focus remains throughout on a flexible vocal presentation of these striking and moving works.

Whereas The Art of the Fugue remains wrapped in respectful veneration and an aura of mystery, the contemporary Musical Offering has acquired relatively longstanding popularity. This is somewhat paradoxical, however, as the work is no less complex, and it's overall architecture raises just as many questions. In 1980, the musicologist Ursula Kirkendale was able to show that the various pieces of the Musical Offering are organized exactly like the various constituent parts of the discourse according to Quintilian's ancient treatise on oratorical art. Taking his cue from this hypothesis, Enrico Gatti presents this cryptic masterpiece with his Ensemble Aurora, here composed of his brother Marcello (flute) and two artists well known to the Arcana catalogue: cellist Gaetano Nasillo and harpsichordist Guido Morini, leader of the Accord one ensemble. Also included on this disc is the Sonata BWV 1021 (for violin and basso continuo) and it's arrangement as Trio Sonata BWV 1038 (for flute, violin and continuo)

Throughout his life, from his very beginnings right up to the end, Telemann wrote for the basse de viole (as the French called it) and especially in chamber music. Of course, the viola da gamba also plays an important role in works intended for larger formations, such as concertos and orchestral suites, church cantatas and, lastly, oratorios. According to the custom of the time, Telemann also used the viol in funeral cantatas. Furthermore, he wrote for it as a solo instrument: for example, the Sonata in D major, TWV 40:1, recorded here, or sonatas for two viols or for viol and basso continuo. The present recording brings together various works with solo viol, selected from different periods of the master’s output. Here one will find a double concerto for recorder, viol, strings and continuo, two solos with basso continuo, a sonata for solo viol and two quartets.

Dorothee Oberlinger writes: “All the recorder concertos on this release – chamber concertos or solo concertos – were written expressly for flauto or flautino and show the imagination, delicacy, freshness, virtuosity and sometimes even melancholy, which Vivaldi put into his writing for this instrument. We have intentionally chosen tuning at 440 Hz since, in Venice, in Vivaldi’s time, tuning was higher than in neighboring musical centers such as Rome, for example, where, at times, one even played at 392 Hz. With this high tuning, the sound of the gentle gut strings becomes clearer and more brilliant.”

2020 offers a good opportunity to take a closer look at Giuseppe Tartini, 250 years after his death. A first-rate virtuoso, he was the violin teacher who most influenced 18th-century style: his pupils, who came to study with him from all over the world, went on to fill the best orchestras in Europe. By crafting melodically and harmonically original language on the violin, he best imitated the human voice by taking inspiration from poetry and its meter and using it as a model for his melodic phrases. Tartini, Corelli’s true descendent, went through various compositional phases by striving to find an absolute and natural style of music, close to the people’s soul. There remain abundant traces of his career in a large collection of letters, second only to Mozart’s correspondence. The general public is perhaps still unaware of the beauty which remains secret: hundreds of his compositions which are yet to be brought to light. This re-release publication accompanies the beginning of an Opera Omnia edition published by Barenreiter beginning in 2020: it is hoped that it may outline the illuminating profile of a great musician of the eighteenth century.

REVIEW:

Enrico Gatti has consulted various sources for the recording of these sonatas. He states that in the case of the slow movements there are no versions with ornaments by Tartini himself. He adds ornaments of his own, but does so in different ways in the two sets of sonatas. In the Op 1 he is more generous in this department than in the Op 2 sonatas, where - as he writes in his liner-notes - Tartini inserted many ornaments in the melodic line. This is an indication of the careful and thought-out approach to the interpretation of these sonatas. Gatti avoids spectacular effects - although certainly not eschewing virtuosity, for instance in his ornamentation - and rather emphasizes the intimate and poetic features of Tartini's music. Therefore this set is of great importance with regard to interpretation of Tartini's sonatas. The reissue of this set of discs is most welcome, and nobody interested in Tartini should miss it. Gatti was a pioneer of historical performance practice in Italy, which in the course of time has become mainstream there as it has north of the Alps. This set of discs is also a tribute to his art and his activities in the revival of baroque music. Here he receives substantial support from two other prominent representatives of the Italian early music scene.

– MusicWeb International

Celebrated for their only complete recording of Haydn’s string quartets on period instruments, the Festetics Quartet also tackled the world of Schubert, by matching two quartets which since the very first bars depict the twilit, death-haunted atmosphere which is one of the areas peculiar to his imagination. The Festetics Quartet, one of Europe’s most accomplished period instrument quartets, was founded in Budapest in 1982. While the group’s repertoire embraces the complete quartets of Mozart and many of Beethoven and Schubert’s quartets, the group has a special affinity for the quartets of Haydn. They have been widely praised for their perception and unity of style, and the ensemble performs regularly in Hungary and throughout Europe.

Because of its favored geographical situation, the city of Lyon, with its four annual trade fairs, was the unchallenged economic capital of the kingdom of France during the Renaissance period: as Jean Delumeau has underlined: “we have provisionally numbered at 209 the societies of merchant bankers in France during sixteenth century, of which 169 were found in Lyons, and of these 143 were Italian”. These rather rough figures nevertheless show us the role played by the strong Italian community which had settled in the town, even if its representatives were not all merchants. It was in the field of music that the Italians contributed in making Lyons an artistic centre of prime importance. These Italians included the Milanese lutenist and merchant, Giovanni Paolo Paladino. Following the precedent established by his celebrated contemporary Alberto da Ripa (Albert de Rippe), an Italian lutenist in the service of King Francis I, his works were published under his French name, Jean-Paul Paladin. Paladin offers us pieces which are amongst the most difficult, the most learned but also the most beautiful of the lute repertoire of the sixteenth century. In them virtuosity and the art of composition are always placed in the service of expression.

Davide Perez, born in Naples in 1711, has a personal history that strictly entwines with Portugal: thanks to his internationally achieved reputation – he was already renowned in Europe for his successful opere serie -, in 1752 he was invited by King Josè I to become maestro di cappella and he also made him Cavalier of the Order of Christ. His Mattutino de’ Morti is a true masterpiece, placed at the very heart of the project devoted to the rediscovery of the 17th century Italian sacred repertoire by the Centro di Musica Antica della Fondazione Ghislieri. Composed and performed for the first time in 1770, it was associated to the pilgrimage to Nossa Senhora do Cabo- a sanctuary constructed in 1701 at Cabo Espichel, on the site of an apparition of the Virgin Mary, facing the Atlantic Ocean. The use of an Office of the Dead at the end of a pilgrimage was a way to honor the dead pilgrims dating back to the Middle Ages that was revived under the request of the Portuguese monarchy. The Mattutino was adopted by the Brotherhood of S. Cecily in Lisbon next to Jommelli’s and Mozart’s Requiems and performed during the annual ceremonies to honor the deceased musicians up until the end of the XIXth century. The piece, written for five soloists, choir and orchestra, makes a fine use of the stile concertato, distributing the liturgical text in contrasting movements. The perfect rhetorical expression is conveyed through some elaborate and intimate vocal sections, in which the influence of opera tradition, alternating with choral sections of astonishing power, is clear.

Suspended between the Renaissance and Baroque eras, Merulo’s Toccate are unique compositions which occupy a singular role in the landscape of keyboard music. They are not prototypes, in that they are artistically too mature: rather, they prelude the way of expressing affetti of the “seconda prattica” on the keyboard, an art of which Frescobaldi would later be the uncontested master. The fascination of these daring compositions lies in the coexistence of new and old elements, Renaissance polyphony and Baroque gestural impulses. Claudio Merulo, who lived between Parma and Venice and was active not only as a great organ virtuoso, but also as an editor and alchemist, finds in his music the magic formula of balance between extreme elements which preserve his legacy as a mature and exceptional artist.

The Venetian-born Antonio Caldara was the son of Giuseppe Caldara, a violinist and, allegedly, a youthful pupil of Giovanni Legrenzi. For more than thirty-five of the forty years of his creative life, vocal music – whether in the shape of cantatas, operas, oratorios or liturgical settings- dominated his output. Yet Caldara began his career by the late 1860s as cellist at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, and returned to his instrument, if briefly, within eighteen months of his death. Composed five years before the publication of the famous cello sonatas of the most famous Venetian, Antonio Vivaldi, the collection of sixteen sonatas by Antonio Caldara represent a substantial contribution to the late Baroque repertoire of sonatas for solo cello. Those selected for this recording reveal that they come from a collection enriched by experience and maturity, warmed by a fluid and flexible melodic style, enlivened by chromatically enriched harmony, sophisticated in craftsmanship, and imbued with a spirit of confident independence.

Recorded in the beautiful acoustics of the parish church of Hallstatt (Austria), where Gunar Letzbor was born, this personal and dramatic interpretation of Biber’s most popular work, usually referred to today as the ‘Mistery’ or ‘Rosary’ sonatas, comes back after years of absence. Gunar Letzbor makes his journey through the ‘mysteries’ or events in the life of the Virgin Mary using two different violins and accompanied by no fewer than six musicians playing kaleidoscopic combinations of harpsichord, organ, lute, archlute, two bass viols and double bass - a big continuo group which enhances and intensifies the changing moods of the cycle.

Ludwig van Beethoven's devotion to wind musical instruments dates already from his young life in Bonn, as proved from the correspondence between his teacher Josef Haydn and the Elector of Bonn Maximilian Franz: here the composition of his Parthia dans un concert, or wind Octet op. 103 is mentioned as a work written before his arrival in Vienna and therefore as the earliest piece he wrote for winds. The remarkable Rondino for the same instruments, using the recently invented mutes for the horns, might have been part of the same Parthia in an earlier version. Once in Vienna, Beethoven was impressed by an ensemble consisting of just 2 oboes and cor anglais and wrote for them the extended and virtuosic Terzetto op. 87 in 1794 and the Variations on Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 1796. Also from 1796, a quintet with the unusual scoring of one oboe, three horns and bassoon survives incomplete. The picture of Beethoven’s output for winds wouldn’t be complete without his military music, commissioned around the year 1810. According to the Austrian tradition, with remote Turkish influence- the so-called janissary music- the scoring here includes also trumpets, contrabassoon and a rich variety of percussion instruments.

A storm of passaggi to echo the virtuosity of the cornettists of Renaissance Italy who exalted their instrument, of which Andrea Inghisciano is one of the most sought-after contemporary exponents (listen, for example, to the album ‘La Morte della Ragione’ with Il Giardino Armonico). Here, along with the keyboard player Maria Gonzalez, he presents a programme bursting with diminutions, whether written or improvised: from the acrobatics of Francesco Rognoni and Dario Castello to the sweetness of Luzzasco Luzzaschi and Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, by way of Girolamo Dalla Casa, who, while recommending performers to ‘do few things, but do them well,’ amazes us with his exuberant writing, with rapid cascades of notes as arduous to play as they are fascinating to listen to. This duo recital is the recording debut of the ensemble I Cavalieri del Cornetto, which aims to explore the art of diminution in all its forms.

If Joseph Haydn played a major role in the development of the symphony and string quartet, he was also and no less the virtual creator of the classical keyboard sonata. In wealth of musical invention and diversity of forms his sonatas surpass those of even Mozart and Beethoven. Although mostly less demanding technically, they are by no means easier to interpret. Their relatively modest demands in the way of virtuosity are more than made up for by the greater creative contribution they require from the player. Especially in the sonatas of his early and middle periods Haydn allowed considerable leeway to the interpreter in matters ranging from choice of ornaments to virtual invitations to interpolate free cadenzas. An intriguing challenge, but many pianists nowadays do not know how to cope with it. Schooled in later traditions, they cling to the printed text, never daring to make the contribution the composer took it for granted he could expect from the performer. Still, if Haydn placed considerable reliance on the player’s personal creative talent this never meant a blanket permission to alter the musical sense by changes foreign to the style of the time. In this release, legendary Viennese pianist Paul Badura-Skoda has recorded five piano masterworks by Joseph Haydn, on the occasion of the bicentenary of his death. His fortepiano from his own collection, which has been used for this recording and was built around 1790, is the most appropriate instrument available today for interpreting Haydn’s music.

With the battle of Pavia in 1525 a long period of Spanish domination began for Milan. Under the reign of Charles V the arts and music flourished. Antonio de Cabezon travelled across Europe visiting Milan in 1584 and his lute music influenced the great European composers. Contrary to keyboard instruments, lute and vihuela already have a vast repertoire in print. The combination of a keyboard instrument with the vihuela is common in the sources of Spanish influence of this period, which often bear the indication "para tecla y vihuela." Evangelina Mascardi and Maurizio Croci, established soloists on the international early music scene, explore the affinities, the contrasts and, in the words of an enthusiastic chronicler of the time, the "unheard of imitations" that arise from the dialogue between the two instruments. Their research project, carried out at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU) with the involvement of various international partners, has led to the discovery of new interpretations that offer to an immense repertoire of extremely high musical value, unique and fascinating perspectives.

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.

Could you ever imagine that one of the most popular saints in the Christian calendar of the Middle Ages was - Buddha? After ten years of research in a multitude of libraries worldwide, Katarina Livljanic and the ensemble Dialogos, faithfull to their exploratory and fearless spirit, bring yet another surprise from the less known medieval lands, after it's award-winning albums such as Dalmatica: Chants of the Adriatic (A395), Lombards & Barbares (A319), La vision de Tondal (A329), Judith: A Biblical Story from Renaissance Croatia (Alpha 702). It is the incredible story of saints Barlaam and Josaphat, a christianized version of Buddha's life, which crossed over at least four religions and was transmitted through almost all the medieval languages. Powerful songs - incarnated by voice and instruments, sing the legend about the king's son, prince Josaphat, who leaves the noisy world of opulence to search for inner peace - songs which follow the path of his story from one medieval language to another, from Greek, Latin to Old Croatian, Italian, Church Slavonic... This project is a unique new experience: a multimedia e-book, in French and English, is included with this release. It tells the story of Barlaam & Josaphat and leads the listener/reader through one of the most intriguing labyrinths of medieval world. Through a rich and original video, audio and iconographic material, it opens the doors into the artistic creative process which transformed a medieval legend into a music performance.

In the Baroque period, the duetto da camera, usually conceived for two equal voices and continuo, was an important form of vocal chamber music, of which innumerable examples are found in the works of composers associated with Venice, the leading protagonist in the history of this genre. Venetian Sara Mingardo is joined by a large group of young, talented solo female voices (Silva Frigato, Lea Desandre…) in this amazing project, where masterpieces by the leading composers of the time have been entrusted to the voices best suited to highlight the respective particular musical content. Included in this recording are several previously unpublished and unperformed works, which have been newly transcribed and edited by the harpsichordist Edward Smith. At the heart of the programme, Sara Mingardo leaves her colleagues for a moment to appear as soloist in Fuggi pur, o crudele by Francesco Lucio, a splendid and typical lamento recorded here for the first time and destined to become a big hit.

Johann Sebastian Bach has always been considered one of the greatest music transcribers of all times. Many of his transcriptions (mostly the ones from Italian composers Vivaldi and Marcello) have become instant classics, and they are still viewed as masterpieces of the baroque repertoire. Bach has always been very active as a transcriber of his own music too. His masterful transcription of his Sonata for viola da gamba & keyboard No. 1, which he transformed into a trio for two flutes and continuo, has given the inspiration for this project. Tripla Concordia and Walter van Hauwe decided to transcribe even the other two Gamba Sonatas as Trio Sonatas, walking in Bach footsteps. In doing so, the members of the ensemble actually fulfilled their desire of offering a new listening experience of this set of sonatas, with fresh colors and textures. Tripla Concordia sincerely hopes that those new versions will cast a new light on these works, thus giving the listener the opportunity of discovering new details and fresh instrumental combinations. Transcriptions of other two Bach masterpieces, the Organ Sonata No. 3 (transcription by Sour Cream) and the Partita for Lute BWV 997, complete the recording.

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.

A musical-poetic genre first developed by Saint Francis of Assisi, the Lauda is one of the most remarkable expressions of Italian popular musical culture from the Middle Ages to the present day, and one of the oldest historically. + La Reverdie presents a rich, 2CD anthology of Italian monophonic Laude from the repertoire’s two principal sources: the Cortona (ca. 1270) and Florence (ca. 1320) manuscripts. + Many of the Florence pieces have never been recorded. + The accompanying booklet contains detailed introductory essays on the music’s reconstruction and wider cultural significance.

Violinist Giuliano Carmignola and cellist Mario Brunello: one of the greatest interpreters of Vivaldi and Bach, whose recent recording of the Sonatas and Partitas was described by the authoritative magazine Gramophone as ‘a definite first choice among period instrument recordings of these works’; and his long-time friend Mario Brunello, acclaimed for his personal reinterpretation of that same famous collection on the violoncello piccolo (A469). Accompanied by the Milanese ensemble Accademia dell’Annunciata, they offer a highly original, experimental programme. Inspired by the three existing double concertos for violin and cello by Vivaldi – an unusual coupling in eighteenth century concerto literature – they revisit double concertos by Vivaldi and Bach (the famous BWV 1043 for two violins and BWV 1060 for violin and oboe), transposing the second solo part an octave lower on the violoncello piccolo. Underpinned by persuasive historical and musicological evidence, the approach first and foremost reveals their pleasure in working together on an innovative project. The outcome is a delightful opportunity to enjoy famous pieces in a totally different light.

With its debut recording, the Bernardini Quartet takes us on a journey into the golden age of its formation, consisting of oboe, violin, viola and cello. The programme consists of a selection of exemplary pieces written between 1780 and 1818 by composers of different nationalities who are united by their diversity. Alongside Alfredo and Cecilia Bernardini, father and daughter, respectively oboist/director and first violin of the Ensemble Zefiro, the members are the German violist Simone Jandl and the Dutch cellist Marcus van den Munckhof. The programme begins with one of the earliest quartets for these forces, by Johann Christian Bach; continues with Mozart’s quartet KV370/360b, a milestone of the genre, followed by a romance with variations by the French composer Charles Bochsa, a substantial four-movement quartet by the cellist Dotzauer and a delightful little quartet by Alessandro Rolla, violinist and conductor of La Scala, Milan; and ends with a meditative perpetual canon by the Bohemian Georg Druschetzky, based on a famous Lutheran chorale. For the occasion, Alfredo Bernardini used five different period oboes.