Starring Domenico Colaianni, David Sotgiu, Anna Rita Gemmabella.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

“It is to the bassoon what the double-bass is to the cello: meaning that its sound is an octave lower than the written note. […] It is pointless to add that this instrument, which is extremely heavy, is suited only to great effects of harmony and to the bass parts in a moderate tempo movement.” Thus Hector Berlioz on the contrabass bassoon in his “Great Treatise On Instrumentation and Orchestration” (1843) in which he defended the timbre and function of the instrument but saw no use for it beyond simply filling out the sound in large wind ensembles. Much has changed since that time and the contrabass bassoon had certainly come of age by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was used in such major works as Don Carlos by Verdi (1867), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas (1897), Salome by Strauss (1905), and others. The seven works on the present recording are a splendid demonstration of how greatly the 20th century expanded the resources of the contrabass bassoon. They all show the versatility of this instrument in widely differing contexts and roles and prove that the contrabass bassoon has an unexpected range of sounds and expressive capabilities.

Classical Music

Classical Music

All of the works on this disc were recorded live during the semifinals and finals of the 4th International Competition for Young Organists on October 2-3, 2014. Organized by the city of Muzzana del Turgano, the competition is used to feature the historical organs in the towns of the area. Four organs were used: the Nacchini in Muzzana, Dacci in Marano, and Francesco Zanin in Lignano Sabbiadoro, and Sesto al Reghena. In addition to featuring these fine instruments, the purpose of this recording is also to showcase new talent and instill a love for the King of Musical Instruments.

Classical Music

Antonio Vivaldi's musical production for bassoon comprises no less than thirty-nine solo concertos. Within the musical landscape of its time, this impressive musical legacy stands out like the silhouette of a mountain shrouded in mystery. If we consider that in Italy there is almost no evidence of the bassoon being used in the solo form after the 1680s, Vivaldi's contribution acquires a significance that is both extraordinary and enigmatic. When and for which events were his concertos composed and performed? And also, for which performers was such a vast, original and technically demanding production intended? It is not easy to find an answer to such questions. The composer's renewed interest in this instrument must have then derived from an encounter with a first-rate virtuoso, someone whose talent helped to stimulate the creation of an original repertoire, characterised by an extremely high technical and qualitative standard. These were definitely performers who were able to work in close contact with the composer over a sufficiently long period of time. Indeed, Vivaldi's writing was influenced and modelled on their technical skills, as testified by the eight concertos included in this recording.

In setting La Serva padrona to his own music, Paisiello showed he knew he was a composer to be reckoned with and he made the point again when he revised Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. In Paisiello's La Serva padrona, the protagonist is given a new aria "Donne vaghe i studi nostri", (taken from Goldoni's Le Virtuose ridicole 1752), and two new duets, (authors unknown), are added, bringing the intermezzo closer in concept to opera buffa. The intermezzo for two voices was a defunct genre by this time but Paisiello decided to revive it: indeed, the composer was clearly adapting to the new, lachrymose style popular with middle-class audiences which had arrived with La Buona figliuola by Goldoni-Piccinni (1760). The present edition differs from other recorded versions in that it is based on an unpublished critical edition for performance with period instruments, pitch at 415 Hz and no cuts to the recitatives or pezzo chiuso numbers.

Classical Music