Classical Music

Classical Music

Around the year 1906, Perosi conceived the large-scale project to dedicate symphonic works for full orchestra to Italian cities, some of which had been the venues of his musical experience. Over the years that followed, the "Roma", "Venezia", "Firenze", "Messina", "Tortona", "Milano", "Torino" and "Genova" suites appeared, with, perhaps, a ninth, unfinished one for "Naples". The project was to have concluded with a tenth suite entitled "Italia", which would have included voices with the orchestra. Composer Alberto Gasco provided this interpretation of Perosi's intentions: "Maestro did not intend writing description music, nor creating a portrait of the cities themselves. Was this wise? I do not think so, and confirming my opinion is the fact that the Messina suite, as the composer himself decalres, was inspired by the horrific reality of the city in ruins. Therefore, little by little, Perosi arrived at the idea of creating a special character in the music of his suites. Entitling his compositions aftre Rome, Venice and Florence, through sound he conveyed the solemn majesty of the metropolis, the infinite languor of the city on the lagoon, and the carefree, pulsating Italian soul of the city of art, condensing emotional aspects into his works." Author Vittorio Podrecca offered this praise of the compositions: "Here, Perosi, with soul, reawakens the symphony by composing suites. Radiating through his noteworthy qualities are a limpidity of inspiration and design, sweetness of effects, sincerity of emotion, persistent elegiac poetry, and efficacious, tasteful orchestration."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

David Fontanesi here presents five polished orchestral works that range from a small string ensemble with the addition of concertante instruments, to the forces of a full orchestra. In adopting a prevalently neo-tonal idiom, dense with thematic elaboration and subtleties of timbre, the composer once again reasserts his distance both from post-Webernism (involving what he himself calls “pointilliste, spectral or structuralist metastases”) and from the excessive simplification of the minimalists and neo-romantics that, all too often, verges on sloppiness. Italian composer David Fontanesi holds a degree in Medieval Philosophy from the University of Padua and Composition from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena where he studied with Azio Corghi. He also studied music at the Academy Romanini in Brescia. He has written a variety of works for multiple instrumentations, in addition to publishing multiple academic papers and a novel.

Starring Alessandro Corbelli, Giacomo Prestia, Marie Devellereau.

Considered an outlier in the history of the twentieth century operatic theater for her comparatively small discography, the Romanian soprano Virginia Zeani was nonetheless internationally acclaimed for her performances during a career of over twenty years, with her extraordinary stage presence and strikingly golden coloratura voice. The third CD of the collection "Il Mito dell'Opera" is dedicated to Zeani and features the arias from the roles that were a prominent part of her repertoire. From her signature role, Violetta of La Boheme which marked her 1948 debut through the Verdi heroines which allow the full bloom of Zeani's acting and singing abilities this collection is a valuable addition to the operatic diaspora providing vivid insight into the singer who influenced many of the generation that followed including Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Angela Gheorghiu among others and was deeply respected by her peers which included Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music