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 .

Galicia, second half of the 13th century: the sadness of a young woman staring at the sea while awaiting the return of her beloved... Beautiful, atmospheric and infinitely delicate, the songs of Mart�n Codax remain among the finest examples of cantigas de amigo. Influenced by the poetry of the troubadours, infused with Christian, Arab and Celtic symbolism, the songs of Mart�n Codax nonetheless belong to the Galician- Portuguese world, and totally so. Even today, the desperately sad fado, the Portuguese national song-form, maintains the rhythm of waves and tides and feels like the lament of a woman who looks out to sea and wonders when her beloved will return to her. Singing to the viol, VivaBiancaLuna Biffi gives voice to the human feeling, whilst Pierre Hamon provides evocative interludes on his unparalleled mediaeval flutes, making the waves become sounds, emotions, and words beyond words�

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