Classical Music

The eight-voice Mass in D major which Giacomo Antonio Perti wrote in 1683 may be considered a typical example of music used during a solemn celebration in the Bailica of San Petronio in Bologna. The Basilica was one of the most important institutions of its time, being known for its acoustics (which result from its vastness) and for its tastes and tendencies toward excellence: more than a hundred performers were employed during major occasions. During Perti’s long term as music master of San Petronio, the institution experienced its most mature period, enjoying performances by instrumentalists, singer and composers of the highest quality. Perti’s mass reflects the traits of the mature language of the Baroque. Sections of the mass are written in an imitative-counterpoint style, inc ertato style, and in solo style. This youthful work was later reworked by the composer. The performance on this album was recorded live in the Basilica of St. Petronio; the performers were placed in the choir stalls (which took up the entire presbytery) just as the composer had indicated in the original score.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Premiering to great success in 1825, the Naples based composer Nicola Vaccaj's Giulietta e Romeo (Romeo and Juliet) enjoyed a brief period of being actively performed before fading from active repertoire at least in it's entirety, arguably being overtaken by the better known Vicenzo Bellini's version. Interestingly enough, Bellini's score was based on a modified version of the same libretto used by Vaccaj but Bellini's greater public profile ensured that it would be his version that would become known. Oddly, as the years went by Vaccaj's version never left the memory of the best singers and a mongrelized version that borrowed from his score was added to Bellini's version, something that would otherwise happen rarely. This 1996 live concert performance recording that resurrects the entire intact version of Vaccaj's opera. With the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana and Coro Lirio Marchigiano conducted by Tiziano Severini this restoring of the full opera as vaccaj had conceived it provides us a means to compare the various existing versions of this classic story

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART:Elisabeth Norberg-Schultz; Marianna Pizzolata; Cinzia Forte; Desiree Rancatore; Bernard Berchtold; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna/Ottavio Dantone; Michal Znaniecki, director; NTS WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Ascanio in Alba KV 111.

Commissioned by the Saxon court, Francesco Morlacchi’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia premiered in April of 1816 at the Royal Theatre of Dresden. Although Morlacchi was admired by Rossini, his Barbiere is of the older Neapolitan style, as opposed to Rossini’s Romantic language. This release was recorded live at the Teatro Sociale, Amelia (Terni), September 1989.

The long, distinguished and well-traveled career of the noted operatic composer Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (1795-1870) also saw a significant output of many, varying works, sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental, chamber and orchestral. First performed in 1828, Mercadante’s “Messa” manuscript exists only in copy form, undertaken in 1846, and it is from this copy that this First Worldwide Recording of the work was undertaken. A Requiem breve for 4 Voices unaccompanied is the companion work on this all-Mercadante Bongiovanni release featuring all-Italian forces.

MASSENET BASTIANINI; FORTI; SCARLINI; TOFFOLO (COND) THAIS- RECORDED LIVE IN TRIESTE, 1954; PUCCINI: II TABARR0 (FINALE)- RECORDED IN HAMBURG, 1953

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music