Handel's cantatas represent an important musical repertoire that until recently has been little known. Consisting of about 100 separate works, most were written over a period of a few years for private performance in Italy. They range from musical miniatures containing only two arias connected by recitative and accompanied by continuo (a bass line typically realized by cello and harpsichord) to larger works with named characters, a dramatic story, and rich instrumental forces. Telling more often than not about the pangs of love, these are intimate works, with texts frequently written by (and sometimes about) members of the privileged audience for which they were composed. A number of Handel's cantatas have texts by one of his important Italian patrons, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj. The project of Marco Vitale to record all of Handel's cantatas is thrilling. The continuo cantatas have never been recorded in full and many have never been recorded at all. Thus, this project will bring to life largely unknown music by one of the world's greatest composers.

Gorzanis' "Libro de intabolatura de liuto" (1567) is the first known case of music composed on every semitone of the octave. It is a cycle of 48 dances which explores all the fingerboard, using Renaissance modes and simple cadenza and diminution formulas. This album, conceived as a sound image of the manuscript, is recorded for the first time in it's entirety and it retains the exact order of the songs. Michele Carreca was born in Foggia and graduated in lute at "Conservatorio Santa Cecilia" in Rome with Andrea Damiani in 2006. He attended master classes held by Paul O'Dette and in particular by Hopkinson Smith, which has been a main point of reference for his studies. He has made recordings both as a soloist and as a continuo performer for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony-DHM, BrilliantClassics, Classic Voice-Antiqua, Continuo Records, Ipsar, Rai Trade, Urania Records.

The path that all interested listeners are about to follow leads to the deep and as yet not fully explored woodlands of the instrumental music of the latter half of the fifteenth century in or around southern Germany. It will zig-zag from one repertoire to another, from one manuscript to another, and of course from one ‘soundscape’ to another by presenting different combinations of instruments, in dialogue or simply allowing some of them stand alone to speak for themselves so that at the end of their sonic journey, listeners can fully enjoy a panoramic view of this rich and fascinating tradition.

Classical Music

An imaginary trip, once again, on what is Early Music today, on how it could manifest, its meanings, and the issues related to ''text and context'' integrated to an informed performance practice. We give chance to our imagination to explore, rebuilt paths and disclose them, as we cannot necessarily index what exactly happened with the most (extensive and) accurate modern microscopic precision. It surely was an interesting journey on being aware of the need to take into account compromises and variables; to realize how each of us has an inner voice and, likewise, the composers, teh interpregers, the instruments. Last but not least the instrument builders at that time who had to deal with the progressive and unceasing tasks demanded by the society and users of the time. One thing seems still to have credit: Variety rules many aspects of musical life, in the late 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Together with a profound transformation of the social and cultural structure of the time, this would probably lead to the individualism which we like to recall as Romanticism. Variety is found in instrument making, in conceptual performing approaches, defining in the specific case different ''piano schools'', in compositional forms and within the same accustomed stylistic form; in sound production concepts between instrument families and within the same instrument itself. One could probably go on and on to a degree, trying to define and list peculiarities which might make us lose the sense of perspective. Understanding the relation and the interrelation of all of these issues, validating heritage and legacy in the historical frame, may give us the mindfulness and make us realize how crucial is at some point in zoom out and harmonize contents and containers, utensils and matte rin order to gain back the unity of the overall topic. All of these ingredients, and more, form and give dimension to the final result which is its single segmentation would not serve otherwise a purpose - if any, nor any aim to make Early Music today. With this perspective I wish th elistener would approach this audio work, as a never-ending process rather than a dogmatic statement.

The songs included in this album come from diverse origins, united by the subtle narrative, poetic and musical threads all common to the Spanish repertoire. Pieces of literary traditions from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries are intermingled with others belonging to folklore, all of them taken from non-Spanish sources, and organized into five thematic groups, alternating between each other as if they were refined panels in a Renaissance altarpiece. Engaging with this music involves entering a singularly vast field, rich with centuries old intersections, borrowings and appropriations between cultures; a natural occurrence, considering the identity of the old American colonial territories and their population- their complex and mixed nature. Through this program, the artist aims to expose the varied processes of appropriation and transculturation, especially significant to the Latin American colonial repertoire, informed by the interpretive tradition that Jonatan Alvarado inherited and built between the spheres of the popular and the academic.

Classical Music

J.H. Dahlhoff’s collection is by far the biggest compilation of eighteenth century popular dance music in German-speaking countries. Johann Heinrich Dahlhoff (1704-1764) was himself a village musician, most probably a fiddler, from a village of Dniker, Westphalia, where he served as a churchwarden in an Evangelical church. Among his duties there was being in charge of an entertainment for local gathering, which usually came down to dance parties, where he picked and performed a suitable repertoire. This way, in the course of a few decades, a collection was born, consisting of a couple of thousands of dance melodies, written down later on by his son- Johann Dietrich. A whole set, comprised of 10 volumes (over 1400 pages) is kept in Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. Polonaises from Dahlhoff’s collection (and only those) were copied by Niels Dencker (1887-1963), Swedish folklorist, teacher at Asa folkhogskola in Skoldinge. In his research, he worked mainly on traditional music. He did extensive recordings of folk musicians. Dencker, aware of Polish roots of Swedish traditional music, in 1931-32 did an extensive research of music archives on historical territory of Rzeczpospolita and her fiefdoms like Livonia, Gdansk, Prussia Duchy, Pomerania or Mecklenburg.

The ensemble Scaramuccia began in 2013, thanks to violinist Javier Lupiáñez's quest to rediscover the lesser-known baroque repertoire. Scaramuccia's purpose is to bring back to life the repertoire of which one could listen not only in the most refined circles, but also in the taverns and on the streets of the baroque past. Along with Vivaldi, this release features Prete Rosso's recently-rediscovered works. This recording is aiming to be part of the new history, featuring these recently discovered works.

HANDEL Cantatas: Notte placida e cheta, HWV 142; Qualor l’egre pupille, HWV 152; Ne’ tuoi lumi, HWV 133; Armide abbandonatta, HWV 105 • Marco Vitale, cond; Roberta Mameli (sop); Contrasto Armonico (period instruments) • AYROS 01 (61:19 Text and Translation)


During the four years he spent in Italy, George Frederic Handel was a busy boy. Of course, he went there to create a reputation as a composer of opera, but he also spent a considerable amount of energy on the secular cantata. In fact, he wrote over 100 of them, usually scored for voice and a few instruments, mainly strings. These miniature opera scenes usually consist of a pair of arias preceded by recitatives, but they could be expanded as needed to serve the dramatic needs of the scenes musically depicted. The works found on this disc are certainly of that nature, although the first, Notte placida e cheta , is almost double that length, with the second set of pairs using accompanied recitative. If the Pope had banned stage productions, then these were dangerously close to insubordination in their secular operatic nature, even if they were meant to be performed before private patrons.


The first of the cantatas is a languid dream work, in which a shepherd dreams of his beloved Phyllis. The first aria, “Zeffiretti,” is just the sort of imagery that would inspire Handel to compose a gentle, softly flowing line with only the most fluid ornamentation. The violins softly weave like gentle leaves on a stream. In the second part, the strings form an ethereal backdrop, preparing for the recurring sequences of the continuo aria that follows. The final aria is a rather intricate fugue, quite Corelli-like, but perhaps more strict than one might imagine for a secular cantata. I can’t help but think that the composer was barely skirting insolence with this sort of parody in the center of Catholicism. In the second cantata, scored only for voice and continuo, the aria “È il pensier” moves fluidly through various keys, unable to find harmonic rest until the last note, like a ship being tossed around. More unusual, the work ends with a recitative that is more reflective and leaves the listener anticipating an aria that never comes (Handel, apparently realizing that this was unsatisfactory, crossed it out.) The opening aria of the third cantata is a lament, with restless dotted rhythms in the continuo part but a more lyrical, even at times plaintive melodic line. The final aria, “La mia piaga,” is extremely familiar, since Handel apparently reused it two or three times in operas in varied forms. It contains some rather impressive virtuoso passages, replete with close harmonic inflections (mostly to words like “torture” and “pain”) and some rather interesting ornamentation. The final work, however, has a real plot. The sorceress Armide has been abandoned, and the swirling opening accompagnato has her reflecting on her fate, with the lines twisting and turning before finally completely calming into fading chords. This sets up the gorgeous, emotional “Ah! Crudele,” probably the progenitor of all of the famous lamento arias of heroines such as Cleopatra. The final two arias are in dance tempos: the first is a gigue with rapid continuo and string punctuations, while the last, “In tanti affanni miei,” is a mournful Siciliano , with a slow and sorrowful line that moves with slow triple rhythms like a gentle wave.


This is highly effective musical material, made all the more so by the excellent performance of soprano Roberta Mameli. Her voice has depth and resonance, and she is extremely skillful in reproducing the necessary emotions by way of her phrasing and cautious use of ornamentation. It is intimate, blends well with the subtle chamber instrumentation, and filled with expression. This is probably the way that Handel ought to be sung, and she captures the pictorial essence of these small works excellently. It would not have worked, of course, without close cooperation with a similarly sensitive interpretation by Marco Vitale and his ensemble. When required, the continuo (including cellist Marta Semkiw) acts as an equal partner, but they are discreet so as not to overshadow Handel’s exposed vocal lines. The violins are also firm and discrete partners in their two cantatas. In short, this is a disc that plumbs the depths of Handel’s ability to convey emotional texts in a manner that makes it an indispensable part of any early Baroque collection.


FANFARE: Bertil van Boer

To Renaissance court of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, arrived an eccentric thirty year old man from Florence. It was 1482. He was a mathematician, anatomist, philosopher, constructor, astronomer... But not many people know, that he was also a musician. One of his 16th century biographers wrote, that the Sforzas hired Leonardo not as a painter nor architect, but – what might surprise us – as a musician and a party organizer of impeccable manners. Leonardo called music a worse sister of painting, because a painting lasts forever and music has no material form. It exists only in the moment of the performance, moreover – it dies in the moment of the birth. That’s why music couldn’t stand comparison to architecture or sculpture. None of Leonardo’s musical compositions survived, but apart from many drawings and fragments of treatises, in his notebooks there are also rebuses and... musical riddles, all written in mirror reflection. In at least 18 riddles, Leonardo da Vinci used musical notation. These musical “games” were not only notes, but they created sentences, because according to solmisation, a method created by Guido of Arezzo, every note has its own name – ‘ut’ (later replaced by a much easier to pronounce ‘do’), ‘re’, ‘mi’, ‘fa’, ‘sol’, ‘la’, ‘si’. When put into shape, with decoded meaning of the text, they turn out to be incredibly powerful, hypnotic and nostalgic melodies. The present release presents music inspired by Da Vinci’s enigmas.

Artistic prodigy of Vilnius residents Alina Rotaru and Darius Stabinskas, ensemble MORGAINE is devoting themselves to the Late Renaissance and Early Baroque repertoire, and especially to the Golden Age of the Polish-Lithuanian-Commonwealth. The programme of their debut album Giesmewakarine | Piesn wieczorna | Evening song is concentrated on the musical creation of Waclaw z Szamotul, Mikolaj Gomólka, Krzysztof Klabon and Cyprian Bazylik, with the original texts in Polish, as well as with their first translations into Lithuanian language which appeared in the 17th Century. Artistic prodigy of Alina Rotaru and Darius Stabinskas, the Vilnius based international ensemble Morgaine was brought together with the goal of performing European early music in Lithuania, as well as to bring the little-known Lithuanian music heritage on European stages. Dedicated to the music of Late Renaissance and Early Baroque, ensemble Morgaine chooses in most of their performances to involve the dynamics between music, visual arts, theatre, and poetry. Although there is only one native Lithuanian in this ensemble, Morgaine proudly represents Lithuania abroad.