Beethoven’s music has always lain at the heart of Gianluca Cascioli’s research into interpretation. What distinguishes the present work is above all the choice of instrument: a fortepiano modelled on an 1805 Anton Walter built by Paul McNulty, an instrument equipped with both a moderator and the una corda stop, like the one that Beethoven asked the same builder to make in 1802. The recording is in fact dedicated to works composed and published between the years 1796 and 1802.

The interest in historical performance practices and original sources, which has increasingly become a defining mark of Cascioli’s performances, is another evident characteristic of this new recording, which features, among other things, arpeggiated chords, embellishments, ornamented fermatas and the use of rubato. All decisions on such matters, however, are always firmly founded on the sources, methods and treatises of Beethoven’s own day, as the artist himself explains in the interview included in the liner notes. Cascioli has now arrived at his twelfth recording of works by the great composer – the first for Arcana, after many issued on distinguished labels like Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi.

Skillfully crafted, meticulously executed and utterly enjoyable, Giulia Nuti's solo recordings include three anthologies of keyboard music, the last two released with Arcana. These albums feature historically significant instruments carefully chosen by the artist to enhance the repertoire with which they are associated: Le Cœur et l’Oreille (2017), recorded on the 1658 Louis Denis harpsichord and, more recently, The Fall of the Leaf (2022), featuring the splendid Italian “Rucellai” virginal built around 1575.

Her albums have been met with critical acclaim and awards, such as the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” (German Record Critics’ Award) and the “Diapason d’or”.

For her fourth solo recital album, Giulia Nuti explores a different path, performing one of the pinnacles of keyboard literature, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Partitas. In this recording, she uses a splendid harpsichord by Christian Kuhlmann (2016), a copy of the magnificent Henri Hemsch of 1751.

After"Roma '600", dedicated to the cultured and popular music of the Eternal City, I Bassifondi explore the music of the most famous baroque guitarist in 17th-century Europe, who brought the guitar to England and then to the court of the Sun King in France: Francesco Corbetta. The trio, led by Simone Vallerotonda, welcomes a special guest, Bor Zuljan, one of the best lutenists on the scene, with whom Simone Vallerotonda plays a concerto and several"pièces de caractère" for two guitars. This collection represents the triumph of virtuosity, refinement and harmonic experimentation in the 17th century. A music that takes the guitars beyond their limits, competing, and perhaps surpassing, their historical rival, the lute. To seal the recording there are four vocal tracks dedicated to the Kings of England and the Duke of York, in he French style. A visionary recording of rare beauty!

While pursuing its constant search for music to study and rediscover, Zefiro undertook another important challenge by recording, in 2017 and 2015 respectively, the Brandenburg Concertos and Overtures, two pinnacles of the 18th-century instrumental literature. For this project Alfredo Bernardini waited until he could count on a select band of musicians who were not only in a perfect symbiosis of spirit and intent, but also equipped with the indispensable virtuosity and long-standing familiarity with the works. Thanks to the historical insight and human energy displayed by the ensemble, the interpretative results are both vivid and profoundly moving.

The recordings acquired not only prestigious awards such as Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Diapason d’or, Choc de Classica and Toccata’s CD of the month, but also specific acknowledgements for Overtures nos. 3 (France Musique) and 4 (SRF 2 Kultur), judged to be the best-ever versions. After being out of the catalogue for some time, they are now gathered together for the first time in an elegant box set.

As an instrument from Italy, one that was exotic and evocative of Mediterranean atmospheres, the mandolin was very much in fashion in France until the end of the Century of Enlightenment: a fact also confirmed by many iconographic and musical sources. Pizzicar Galante, an ensemble that stands today as a benchmark for the interpretation of the galant literature for mandolin and continuo, has been acclaimed for the “finesse, creativity and spirit” (Olivier Fourés, Diapason) and “communicative energy” of its performances (Sébastien Llinares, France Musique).

For its second recording with Arcana, it offers a compilation of the finest music played during the veritable “golden age” enjoyed by the mandolin in Paris from the 1760s to the Revolution. It is a rare and unexplored repertoire in which the dazzling virtuosity of Anna Schivazappa, a specialist in historical mandolins, dialogues with the beguiling and charismatic voice of Marc Mauillon.

The idea for this album came about during the recording of its predecessor Cinema Suites (BBC Music Magazine’s “Screen Choice”, Album of the Week on WDR3 etc.), when the Morricone family sent Marco Serino a number of rarities that they hoped could also be recorded, particularly “Dedicated to Maria” (from the film The Sleeping Wife) that the composer had dedicated to his wife. These works, along with others that Serino rediscovered in his own archives, make up the backbone of Cinema Rarities, an ideal sequel to the previous recording.

After twenty years as Ennio Morricone’s chosen violinist, Serino continues his exploration of the compositions for violin and orchestra, but this time with a particular focus on pieces that, besides being less well known to the wider public, all share a degree of “Italianness”.

The main nucleus of the program consists of three suites named after three Italian film directors (Silvano Agosti, Mauro Bolognini and the Taviani brothers), with whom Morricone worked closely. Although the respective films did not achieve the international acclaim of those directed by Sergio Leone or Giuseppe Tornatore, which featured in the previous recording, they inspired the composer to come up with new and distinctive solutions, such as “Love Remembered” from The Inheritance, considered by Marco Serino to be one of the most beautiful.

Equally quintessentially Italian are the two extracts from the scores for The Lady Caliph directed by Alberto Bevilacqua, including the lovely “Nocturne” and the brief “Quasi un Vivaldi” (from Sergio Sollima’s film Revolver), which herald by almost a decade remakes like Gian Piero Reverberi’s Rondò Veneziano. A unique place is occupied by Four Adagios, a collection of four pieces chosen by the composer himself (including the iconic “Whoever” and “Deborah’s Theme”), which in this arrangement for violin cites the main theme of the first movement of the Beethoven Concerto. Dedicated to Serino and performed worldwide under the baton of Morricone, Four Adagios speaks to the artistic partnership between composer and violinist, their mutual professional respect and deep friendship.

Within the Italian polyphonic repertoire for Holy Week of the first half of the 16th century; a group of works that particularly stands out for its organic; comprehensive and unique qualities are the two books of four-voice Lamentations and responsories for the office of Tenebrae from the Triduum sacrum composed by Paolo Aretino (Paolo Antonio del Bivi; 1508-1584). They were published respectively in 1544 (the responsories: a first printed edition of its kind; to the best of our knowledge) and 1549 (the Lamentations). Both books were reprinted in 1563; a rare occurrence for a collection of this type. Aretino; a maestro di cappella at both the cathedral and Santa Maria della Pieve in Arezzo; was acclaimed in his own day as a true symbol of the city’s glory; along with his fellow-citizen; the famous writer Pietro Aretino. He also had repeated contacts with the Medici court; and indeed certain characteristic features of his style can be traced to the late-15th century Florentine tradition of regularly using polyphony during the Triduum. In particular we note his use of equal voices and; above all; the adoption of an austere and solemn declamatory style closely linked to the structure of the text. All of this; however; is not only conveyed with extreme refinement; but also includes some very striking encroachments into vocal ranges rarely found in contemporary Italian music. An example is the use of two or three bass voices together with a low bass; as happens; for example; in the Lamentations for Holy Saturday; which in this recording are presented complete; together with their respective responsories.

In 2018, the Styriarte Festival in Graz launched, in collaboration with Zefiro, a project to rediscover the operatic output of the Styrian composer Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741), Kapellmeister at the imperial court in Vienna for forty years, with the aim of restaging six of his nineteen operas, one per year. With a cast of Baroque vocal specialists, led by Monica Piccinini and Carlotta Colombo, this set of La corona d’Arianna represents the second instalment of the Arcana series which documents the recordings made in the course of this six-year cycle, following the success of Dafne in lauro (A488, 2021 – awarded Gramophone Editor’s Choice and rated Eccezionale by Musica), La corona d’Arianna was described as a "festa teatrale" and indeed it breathes a festive atmosphere throughout. It was written and performed in Vienna in 1726, as a birthday present from emperor Karl VI to his wife Elisabeth Christine. The choir, representing the guests at this big party, has a predominant role. On a closer look, Venus (Monica Piccinini) is busy combining couples of characters so far unlucky in love: Arianna (Carlotta Colombo) with Bacco (Rafal Tomkiewicz), Teti (Marianne Beate Kielland) with Peleo (Meli-li). This recording was made following the stage performances in Graz in June 2022 in which the work was shortened in relation to post Covid requirements. Yet the music by Fux flows happily, with plenty of dramatic tension and variety of colours. 

The violin concerto accompanied Vivaldi throughout his life. And more than any other genre, the circa 220 extant violin concertos reflect the biographical and professional events relating to the "Red Priest". Hence the idea – proposed, we believe, for the first time on disc – of recording 18 concertos, divided into three “seasons” that illustrate the evolution of Vivaldi’s art through the three different stages of his career: the early years, his maturity and the late period. Giuliano Carmignola grew up with Vivaldi’s music, first in his own family and subsequently in various collaborations with ensembles specialised in the Baroque repertoire, leaving us recordings that still today stand as landmarks in the Vivaldi discography. The project of the Three Seasons offers an intriguing parallel between these two inimitable virtuoso violinists by assembling 18 Vivaldi masterpieces which Giuliano Carmignola has carefully selected and never before recorded, including a world premiere recording, that of Concerto RV 289. This box set of three CDs wishes to be a summa not only of Vivaldi’s art, but also of Carmignola’s, interweaving their personal histories and careers. The violinist is here accompanied by Riccardo Doni, directing the Accademia dell'Annunciata, musicians with whom he has enjoyed an over-ten-year collaboration.

Awarded a Diapason Découverte, André Lislevand’s debut album Forqueray Unchained (Arcana A486, 2021) celebrated one of moments of greatest splendor for the viola da gamba: that of the ancien régime in France. In this repertoire, the young musician proved to be "absolutely on top of his game and not afraid to explore the extremes of his instrument’s aesthetic world, though without ever losing touch with le bon goût" (Early Music Review). The same youthful freshness and energy can be found in his second album, though here he explores the German repertoire of the central decades of the 18th century, a period that witnessed the gradual decline of the instrument, but was still capable of expressing unexpected treasures and developing an idiom that often seems to anticipate the years to come.

In the program are sonatas for gamba and basso continuo (C.P.E. Bach’s WQ 136 and C.F. Abel’s B93 in A minor), Telemann's Fantasia XI for solo viol, two pieces by Abel from the Drexel Manuscript, and finally, the lesser-known Suite BWV 1025 by J.S. Bach, presented here in a version for viola da gamba and concertante lute. Also featured and playing a vital role in this project are the Duncumb brothers, two extraordinary chamber musicians: Emil on the fortepiano and Jadran, who played on the debut album, on the lute.

In 1594 Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, arrived in Ferrara for his marriage to Donna Eleonora d’Este. His meeting with the musical circles of Ferrara, and in particular with Luzzasco Luzzaschi, was to make an important impact on the musical development of the young Girolamo Frescobaldi. In his maturity Frescobaldi arrived at a deeply personal fusion between the musical forms of North Italian (and more specifically Venetian) derivation and the musical experimentation of the southern school. The aim of this recording project is to explore the reciprocal influences between great keyboard master from Ferrara and his colleagues from the Kingdom of Naples.

Represented here in a dialogue with Frescobaldi’s works are not only the great experimental figures from the years bridging the 16th and 17th centuries (J. De Macque, Rodio, Stella), but also the composers from the following generation who absorbed and built on Frescobaldi’s example (Storace, Salvatore, L. Rossi), as well as contemporaries who adopted a parallel course (M. Rossi). This fertile musical exchange, which culminated in the profoundly distinctive innovations of Frescobaldi himself, fully exemplifies the spirit of experimentation and musical innovation typical of the early 17th century, a period that, like few others, sought out and celebrated aesthetic renewal.

Marco Ceccato and Anna Fontana are well-known performers on the international baroque circuit and familiar faces thanks to their recordings for Outhere labels Alpha, Arcana and Zig-Zag Territoires (including Marco's 2015 Diapason d'or Award winning recording of Boccherini with Accademia Ottoboni). Now they have come together to tackle the two revolutionary works for piano and cello composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1796 and dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia. Their interpretative approach deepens our understanding of the final years of that century when a young Beethoven, a child of the 18th century, was grappling with one of his most extraordinary stylistic innovations. These two expert performers have set out to reconstruct historically reliable versions of the works, linking Beethoven’s revolutionary harmonic solutions with the 18th-century stylistic features that were still in vogue, from phrasings to Beethoven’s meticulously notated articulations.

Mantua and the Gonzaga family represent one of the summits of European humanistic and Renaissance expression. This project addresses one of the city's greatest periods with sacred works by the leading musicians of the Gonzaga court, at a time when music was the primary tool employed by the Gonzaga dukes to assert their prestige over other Italian cities; this golden age began with the foundation of the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara and its cappella under Giaches de Wert during the rule of Guglielmo Gonzaga in 1565 and lasted until the sack of Mantua in 1630. The Ensemble Biscantores specialise in the performance of late Renaissance and Baroque music; here, thanks to the research, study and transcriptions made by its director Luca Colombo, they explore the Mantuan court of the Gonzagas and the liturgy specific to the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara.

This album is a story of family and friendship. Positioned between homage to a father figure and modernity, the viola da gamba sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian Bach are a revealing element in the history of the Bach family and its ties of friendship with two families of virtuoso instrumentalists, the Abels and the Hesses, who had already inspired the work of Johann Sebastian. Carl Philipp Emanuel was active in Berlin, encouraged by the presence of the violist Ludwig Christian Hesse and the enthusiasm of his patron Frederick the Great ("When I am not reading, I am writing, and when I am not writing, I am playing the viol" wrote his nephew, the future Friedrich Wilhelm II). The friendship between Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian gave rise to the latter's sonatas in London. This Arcana release is not only a continuation of Guido Balestracci's recording of J.S. Bach’s viola da gamba sonatas that was awarded a CHOC by Le Monde de la Musique, but is also a celebration of one of the greatest families in the history of music. Guido Balestracci, together here with keyboard player Paolo Corsi, presents another instalment of his long-term project with the l'Amoroso ensemble: the re-evaluation of the viola da gamba and the other members of its family, with a special focus on the lesser-known post-baroque repertoire. His programmes of music for viol by Schaffrath, Haydn's Divertimenti for baryton, and a Schubertiade based on the arpeggione all bear witness to this.

Born in Bonn around 1620 to Veronese parents, Massimiliano Neri was choirmaster at the Ospedaletto and organist at St. Mark's in Venice, where he published his first volume of Sonatas and Canzonas. He presented his second collection of Canzonas and Sonatas to the Emperor Ferdinand III in Vienna in 1651, later becoming Kapellmeister to the Prince-Elector of Cologne in Bonn in 1664. His affections, however, remained Italian: he married the Florentine singer and composer Caterina Giani in 1654. Many of Neri's compositions suffered extensive war damage in various periods; important musicological reconstruction has recovered parts of them that would otherwise have been lost forever.

Here, Concerto Scirocco offers a comprehensive selection of pieces that range from small groups to polychoral ensembles, all of which have a magnificent and typically Venetian opulence. The monograph is enriched by three motets, two by Neri and one by Caterina Giani, performed in collaboration with Voces Suaves; it provides a vivid portrait in sound of a greatly-valued 17th-century composer.