A one-off in Bach’s output, Amore traditore is a model in style and structure of the Italian chamber cantata and although the surviving manuscript score is not in Bach’s own hand, careful stylistic analysis has proved the piece is his. Far less familiar to the general public is Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739) who played a determining role in early 18th century German music. The cantata L’occaso di Titone all’Aurora oriente evokes the Greek myth of Eos (Dawn), daughter of Titan, sister of the Sun and Moon and mother of the four winds from the four points of the compass. Like Keiser, Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) trained at the Thomasschule in Leipzig and is particularly well-known to harpsichordists for his two valuable treatises on basso continuo performance. A particularly fine example is Luci voi siete quelle, the text of which is Arcadian-style poetry. Händel’s Roman cantatas certainly have the usual arcadian settings and pathos-laden themes of pastoral love affairs with allegorical reflections concerning love and beauty. Francesco Antonio Pistocchi (Palermo 1659 - Bologna 1756) is known today only to specialists although in his time he was celebrated as a great countertenor and composer by Charles Burney. In Germany, he composed the cantata Il Polifemo, the sixth in his collection Scherzi musicali op.2.

In Il divertimento dei Numi (1774), in only one hour of music, many expressive chords are struck: the balance between the sentimental and hyronical sides of this comic opera reaches to include a great variety of situations which encompasses wider expressive possibilities and peculiar aspects which largely exceeds the formulas of gallant style, or comic style. (Bongiovanni)

Il Prigionier Superbo was first staged on August 28, 1733. The chronicles report that the intermezzos of La Serva Padrona were so successful they overshadowed Il Prigioniero, in spite of its obvious merits. Pergolesi’s adhesion to the stylistic standards and the formal customs of his time is total and his respect for the taste of the audience entirely focused on belcanto is never in discussion. (Bongiovanni)

Among the major composers of their era were Alessandro Scarlatti and his son Domenico, both of whom were influenced by the music and culture of Naples. The cantata for alto and b.c. by Domenico Scarlatti "Che si peni in amore" recalls the production of his father Alessandro both in style and in writing. (Bongiovanni)

Italian composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) is best known for his comic operas, and his works based on plays by Carlo Goldoni, one of which is featured on this recording. Il campiello is a three-act opera based on the comedy of the same name penned for the Venietian Carnival by playwright, Carlo Goldoni. The work is influenced by Mozart, and is referred to as a commedia lirica. This recording is performed by the Orchestra Regionale Filarmonia Veneta, under the direction of Stefano Romani.

The artistic heritage of Antonio Vivaldi, acknowledged for his talent as far as the mastery of instrumental music is concerned, has waited for years for a correct evaluation in the opera music field as well. On the other hand, a musician who in 1739, at 61 years of age, was able to boast of having composed no less than 94 operas had a legitimate right to describe himself first and foremost an opera composer. Nowadays, unfortunately, only 23 of his opera scores have been preserved and not all are complete; as the scholar Reinhard Strohm writes, “We’re only able to document approximately 60 operatic performances between 1713 and 1739, in which the composer was personally involved in various ways. For these performances, he may have chosen the complete score, revised music by other composers, chosen and instructed the singers, rehearsed and conducted the performance, influenced revisions of his music by others, or worked in any combination of these possibilities. If we give a wide meaning to the word, Vivaldi was just as much an opera ‘impresario’ as an opera composer. This wasn’t at all common in Italy at that time and even less so for a priest. The least we can deduce from this situation was Vivaldi’s profound artistic passion for musical theatre.” Composed in 1724 for Rome’s Capranica Theatre, Giustino is a cornerstone work, situated on the ridge between the Red Priest’s old and new styles; precise indication of this importance is given by the fact that the customary borrowing from oneself, current usage in that period, is considerably reduced by Vivaldi for this work. Rather than to save time, since the inclusion of pre-existent episodes in the libretto and the score nevertheless involved laborious revision, this careful selection of the borrowing was used by Vivaldi to gather together a good part of his best previous music to impress the public: Giustino, as Strohm again states, is a sort of “Vivaldi anthology.” In fact, the borrowed pieces are often to be ranked among the best he’d ever written.

This recording of Bellini's Zaira is of the 2012 performance at Martina Franca. This is only the fourth production in modern times. Zaira began as unsuccessful, although perhaps unjustly so. The composer did not even enter the stage for final bows at the premier because his music was received so poorly. This is due in part to Bellini turning down libretto by Luigi Torrigiani, who was soon after appointed as "composer and overseer of performances," and sought revenge on Bellini. The vocal style of this opera has been called by some "expressive athleticism." Trills, turns, filaturas, and mordents test the vocalist's skills in this production.

Classical Music

Note: This is a historical recording of a live broadcast from Covent Garden, 24 May 1939.

VERDI GIGLI; CANIGLIA; BORGIOLI; ZAMBELLI; LONDON/BEECHAM AIDA

Classical Music

The thirty concerts for trumpets, oboes, strings and continuo, performed here, represent the first integral recording in situ of these composition. Only the original versions of all the authentic and signed manuscript pieces were considered for the recording. One of the main purposes in this recording was to reconstruct the acoustic effects of these compositions in the Basilica, respecting the original arrangement of the musicians in the cantoria around 1700. With the few iconographical documents and the original partbooks of the compositions it was possible to reconstruct accurately the authentic instrumentation and placement of the musicians in the choir. The result is stunning. The Cappella di S. Petronio is the oldest musical institution in Bologna: founded in 1436, it has curated the basilica’s musical activities for five centuries, becoming, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one of the most important centers in Europe for sacred music thanks to the teaching of first rate musicians.

The Trattenimenti Armonici per Camera, Divisi in Dodici Sonate a Violino e Cembalo, Op. 6 were printed in Amsterdam by Estienne Roger and Le Cene. The twelve chamber sonatas, composed originally for violin, bass viol and harpsichord all have the same, four-movement structure based on the traditional adagio-allegro-adagio-allegro form. This CD contains six of the twelve sonatas that make up the Trattenimenti performed by recorder with harpsichord, lute and cello accompaniment. The decision to entrust the solo part to the recorder, in apparent contradiction to what the composer himself indicated in the frontispiece, is actually fully-justified by eighteenth-century performance practice. The melodic elegance, harmonic equilibrium and geometric structure created by Albinoni make these sonatas a veritable gem of inestimable worth whose beauty we have striven to offer in one of it's innumerable facets.

The works of Alessandro Stradella (1639-82) form a bridge between the music of late Renaissance southern Europe and early Enlightenment northern Europe. Stradella wrote in all available genres, including, of particular importance here, the serenata, or love-song. “Qual prodigio” is essentially a dispute between two male lovers and a lady about the best way of winning a lady’s heart, with comic flavor. “Lasciate ch’io respiri, ombre gradite” is a pastoral dialogue between an Arcadian shepherd and his nymph. The instrumental Sonata for 8 Strings, Trumpet and Bass Continuo lies between.

Antonio Smareglia was born in Pola in the Istria region in 1854 and after his early studies in Vienna, (he was of course a citizen of the Hapsburg empire), like the composer Catalani from Lucca he moved to Milan, where he had the support of Franco Faccio and Arrigo Boito, and soon made a fairly successful debut at La Scala. La Falena was premiered in Venice on September 6, 1897 and proved not only in step with the literature and painting of the time but also anticipated coming trends in opera: Pelléas et Mélisande would not appear until 1902, Salome not until 1905. Even Illica & Mascagni’s Iris with its floral-inspired symbolism was not staged until 1898. The truly new and most original element of La Falena is the extraordinary presence of the orchestra and its life-giving language, which is all modulation and excursions into rare key signatures, leading many experts to dub Smareglia a Wagnerian. This was not simply because of the three evocative preludes but also Smareglia’s use of the orchestra. With timbres ranging from harsh and violent to delicate and refined, the Leit-Motiv technique applied throughout as the orchestra provides the structure that holds the opera up rather than merely the accompaniment for this or that musical number.

On August, 19th, 1820 in Vienna, at the An der Wien theatre Die Zauberharfe was performed for the first time. It was Schubert’s tenth opera, but it was the second and last one performed during his life. As writing for the theatre had been his greatest wish for some time, Schubert accepted with satisfaction the invitation to compose the music for the Magic Harp, even if he received it only two weeks before the staging of the opera. But, though it may seem inexplicable, it isn’t an occasional page scribbled down quickly in order not to lose an engagement, but it is an opera quite new in the context in which it is placed, that Schubert wrote after various reflections as we can see from the drafts and preparatory materials left to us. In fact with this opera Schubert hoped to win the favor of the audience and of the Viennese managers who had completely ignored him till then; but it didn’t happen, as after a run of seven nights the opera vanished from the re­pertory and from the memory of the posterity: more than a century and a half had to pass before it was revived in Berlin (1978), Kassel (1982) and Bologna (1983). This recording is from the Bologna revival.