With this exemplary set, Brilliant Classics has formed a vivid picture of the composer Dietrich Buxtehude across the most important sectors of his output, drawing on a rich back catalogue crowned with new recordings. More than half of the set is devoted to the ambitious, monumental recording cycle of the complete keyboard music on 10 CDs undertaken by organist-harpsichordist and label stalwart Simone Stella in 2010-11. This pride of place for the solo keyboard is natural considering Buxtehude's own prodigious gifts as a performer on the instruments - and it is this repertoire, through it's ease of dissemination, that exerted his compositional influence most widely on the generations to come, which included the great J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, born almost 50 years later. But his works in vocal idioms were equally ground-breaking. For this, Brilliant have licensed important sets from 1996 and 2000 of cantatas for small and larger forces originally issued on the Dacapo label, of Buxtehude's native Denmark, featuring the great Emma Kirkby and Danish bass Johan Reuter, as well as a 2002 Canadian recording of cantatas for one, two and three soloists from Naxos. Brilliant Classics supplement these treasures with a vocal gem in their own catalogue: Buxtehude's great cycle of seven cantatas, Membra Jesu nostri, in a 2021 recording by Groningen's Luthers Bach Ensemble. Finally, the chamber music is offered in a new release from Amsterdam-based ensemble Fantasticus, recorded in 2023 and comprising the Trio Sonatas Opp. 1 & 2, with an addendum of sonatas in manuscript, on 3 CDs. Other information: - Recordings date from 1996-2023 - 32-page booklet in English contains extensive liner notes by Simone Stella (keyboard music), Tymen Jan Bronda (Membra Jesu nostri), Jon Baxendale (chamber music), Kerala Snyder (vocal music) and Kevin Mallon (sacred cantatas) - Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) was a Danish-German composer and organist. He is recognized for bridging Renaissance and Baroque musical traditions, influencing composers such as J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel. - Born in either Helsingborg, Sweden, or Helsingor, Denmark (the exact location remains uncertain), Buxtehude spent much of his career in Lubeck, Germany, where he served as organist at the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) from 1668 until his death. - As a composer, Buxtehude is recognized for his organ works, including preludes, fugues, and chorale variations. His music blends intricate counterpoint with an expressive, almost improvisational character, making him one of the most significant figures in early Baroque music. His Abendmusiken concerts, held in Lubeck, became famous throughout Europe, attracting musicians from far and wide, including a young Johann Sebastian Bach, who famously walked over 250 miles to study with him. - Buxtehude composed a wide variety of vocal and instrumental works, including cantatas, sonatas, and oratorios. His sacred music, marked by it's spiritual depth and complex textures, remains a significant part of the Baroque choral repertoire. - This comprehensive collection contains the complete organ music, harpsichord music, chamber music, and a variety of choral works, among which the famous and moving "Membra Jesu Nostri". - Excellent performances by keyboard player Simone Stella, Peter-Jan Belder and his ensemble, the Luthers Bach Ensemble.

Genius innovator - inspiring past and present! Claudio Monteverdi lived in Italy during a very turbulent time and was one of the great designers of the new style in music. As a young man he learned the ancient laws of composing, especially from Marcantonio Ingegneri. Under his inspiration he wrote his first book of madrigals. We can follow his life closely through the final 9 books of madrigals. Each book is a new moment in his development as a composer. Ultimately, he gets his dream job in Venice as maestro di cappella, but he writes operas and other musical spectacles for other courts, including Mantua, Milan, Turin and Parma. He enjoyed the recognition that finally came for that little boy from insignificant Cremona. The book consists of 9 chapters, one per madrigal book and has 128 pages in total. Looking from Monteverdi's perspective, and also from the perspective of the performer, the contemporary enthusiast. Mesmerized by the beautiful courtly poetry, but also intrigued by the innovator Monteverdi who is always looking for other ways to express emotion in music in a special way. Each chapter focuses on one characteristic madrigal. The book comes with a CD so you can listen to all the wonderful works.

What would it mean to 'compose like a woman'? The present collection answers the question, in a literal sense, while undoing the premise on which the question was asked in the first place. In social and historical terms, it means enjoying privileges of upbringing, education, and/or wealth that were historically denied to the vast majority of women. It means, on the part of the women represented here, a single-minded determination in pursuit of their vocation, helping them to overcome prejudice and sexism in a cultural, social and political milieu that has consistently denied women the opportunity to find and express their own voice in music. Only with movements of emancipation in the last century, and much more rapidly in the last 50 years, has this situation begun to be addressed and corrected. What composing like a woman does not mean - as the music in this collection makes clear - is a definable set of qualities or characteristics to the music itself which would distinguish the work of female composers from the music composed by men.

This remarkable set gathers many individual recordings of music by women composers, which Brilliant Classics has quietly yet actively championed in their catalogue for decades, uniting it with exciting new outings, so that a comprehensive historical picture of the highly varied struggles and successes of women composers through the ages to our present time are chronicled and celebrated.

Other information:

- Recordings date from 1994-2024

- Booklet in English contains liner notes by Peter Quantrill

- The revival of interest in female classical composers reflects a growing recognition of their overlooked contributions to music history.

For centuries, women composers were marginalized, their works overshadowed by their male counterparts. However, recent efforts by musicians, scholars, and institutions have brought these composers into the spotlight, highlighting the richness and diversity of their compositions.

- This renewed focus stems from a broader movement toward inclusivity in the arts, challenging traditional narratives that have historically excluded women. The rise of feminist musicology has also played a key role, offering fresh perspectives on these composers' lives and works.

- This comprehensive box set offers a wide spectrum of works by female composers, from the Medieval mystic Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179), through the Renaissance Isabella Leonarda (baptized 1620-1704), Francesca Caccini (1587-1640) und Barbara Strozzi (baptized 1619-1677), traversing the Baroque and Classical eras, and arriving in the contemporary field, with composers such as Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) and Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969).

- A long due homage to the art and voice of female composers, spanning nearly a thousand years!

Brilliant Classics have celebrated the 150th Anniversary of Reger’s birth last year by expanding their Reger Collection of a decade ago from 11 to 18 CDs. Added to the original set, which presented Reger’s best known works – the glorious orchestral Böcklin Suite, the Mozart, Beethoven and Hiller Variations, the mighty piano and violin concertos, the beautiful clarinet quintet (not in the least inferior to Brahms’ masterpiece), the complete Chorale Fantasias for organ (Reger, an organist himself, wrote extensively and superbly for his instrument) and a fine selection of choral music – is a new set of chamber music including the Piano Trio, Flute-Violin-Viola Serenades, Clarinet–Piano Sonatas and other works, and Reger’s compositions for solo viola and for solo cello. The transparency of the chamber music genre particularly highlights the composer’s absolute mastery of counterpoint. Also new is an expanded keyboard section, with more works for the organ – so associated with Reger – including the Sonatas and Fantasy–Fugues, and a new solo piano CD recorded in 2023 by Eden Walker featuring Dreams by the Fireside and the Bach Variations and Fugue.

Legnani: Complete Music for Guitar Solo

Italian Violin Sonatas

Giovanni Battista Viotti composed 29 violin concertos, three sinfonie concertanti, a cello concerto, countless quartets, at least 20 trios for two violins and cello and an impressive array of violin duos, four of the latter recorded here. Described in contemporary reports as a generous and highly charismatic musician driven by idealistic zeal, he is now universally recognised as one of the greatest violinists of all time. In hindsight, it is clear that he and his vast oeuvre occupied a key historical position. He appeared at a pivotal moment between the end of the ancien regime and the start of the modern era: a period when, in social terms, music began to escape the courts and entertain the growing middle classes, laying the foundations for modern concert-going and the figure of the freelance musician. A period when various national traditions, both in terms of instruments and compositions, began to meet and influence each other with unprecedented dynamism, and when the formal rigour of Classicism gave way to the pathos of Romanticism. Viotti was at the heart of this time of dramatic change: the standard-bearer for a centuries-old Italian violin school that included Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Pietro Locatelli, Giuseppe Tartini and Viotti's teacher Gaetano Pugnani. He took this esteemed group's technical achievements away from the Baroque and Galant style into a new era, with the arrival of Niccol� Paganini just around the corner. He was admired by Mozart, inspired the virtuosity of Paganini's concertos, was central because of his years lived in London to the evolution of British musical life, and must surely be considered the most significant figure in the entire French violin school. Later violin giants Pierre Rode, Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre Baillot were all strongly influenced by his work Viotti's renowned cantabile style is echoed in the violin writing of both Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms and is amply represented in the four violin duos on this album. Other information: - Recorded November 2022, Cagliari, Italy - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Carlo Goldstein - Gianmaria Melis plays a 1745 Sanctus Seraphin; Fabrizio Falasca plays a 1727 J. Guarneri - The Italian liner notes are available for download at www. Brilliantclassics. com - Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824) received his musical education from Gaetano Pugnani. He served for a short time at the Savoy Court in Turin but soon he spread his wings and travelled to Paris, where he was an instant success as a supreme violin virtuoso. He served for a time at the court of Versailles before he founded an opera house in Paris (The�tre de Monsieur). The French revolution urged him to go abroad and he settled in London, where he featured in the Hanover Square concert series and was active as a concert organizer and impresario, as well as one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society of London. - Viotti was an influential violin player and teacher. He composed violin concertos, string quartets, and other chamber music for strings. Based on the principles of the Viennese Classics it hints at more romantic feelings of times to come. - This new recording presents the duos for 2 violins, music of great charm, rich in melodies and brilliantly written for both instruments, which are fully equal to each other. - Played by Fabrizio Falasca and Gianmaria Melis, playing a 1727 Guerneri and a 1745 Sanctus Seraphin violin.

Rome to Vilnius is a new investigative insight into the cultural heritage of Lithuania: the music at he Vasa Court in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It reflects the influence of the greatest masters of the Roman polyphonic school in the musical world of Poland and Lithuania and shows the Vasa Court as a place of advanced music-making in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. At the end of the 16th century, during the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sigismund III Vasa was the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Each year he spent a few months in Vilnius, and it was reported that he always travelled with his musicians. Sigismund III, who was himself a musician and a lover of music, was not happy with the standard of the music in the Royal Chapel, and decided to invite Italian musicians to improve the musical life of his court. Italy was the main influence in music in Europe at that time, not only because of the different styles that originated there (polyphony, poly-choral music, monody, opera, etc), but also because of the achievements of the composers who wrote in these styles. We can distinguish clearly two main schools of music in Italy: the Venetian school, created by Adrian Willaert, with the new poly-choral style that was performed in the Basilica of San Marco; and the polyphonic Roman school of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one of the most influential musicians of the 16th century, and one of the great masters of the art of polyphony of all time. Sigismund III decided to hire the best musicians from Rome, and from 1595 to 1649 all the Kapellmeisters at the Vasa Court in Poland and Lithuania were Italians. Most of them were not only prominent members of the Roman school, but also former pupils of Palestrina. The composers represented on this recording were among them, with the exception of Giovanni Battista Cocciola, who was kapellmeister at the Vilnius court under Lew Sapieha. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Vilnius court was presided over by Lew Sapieha (Leonas Sapiega), Sigismund III Vasa's crown chancellor (the highest official in the country after the King himself). Sapieha was an expert in music and was entrusted with the position of administrator of the Royal Chapel. He had his own chapel attached to his residence in Vilnius. The 'Sapieha' album is a compilation of pieces with a sacral function. It does not mention the compiler or the composers but is a testimony to the vitality of the musical culture in Lithuania in the first half of the 17th century. Other information: - Recorded October 2023, Vilnius - Booklet in English contains liner notes by the director, as well as his biography and one of the ensemble. - Rome to Vilnius is a new investigative insight into the cultural heritage of Lithuania: the music at the Vasa Court in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It reflects the influence of the greatest masters of the Roman polyphonic school in the musical world of Poland and Lithuania, and shows the Vasa Court as a place of advanced music-making in 16th and 17th-century Europe. At the end of the 16th century, during the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sigismund III was the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Sigismund III, who was himself a musician and a lover of music, was not happy with the standard of the music in the Royal Chapel, and he decided to invite Italian musicians to improve the musical life of his court. He hired the best musicians from Rome, and from 1595 to 1649 all the Kapellmeisters at the Vasa Court in Poland and Lithuania were Italians. Most of them were not only prominent members of the Roman school, but also former pupils of Palestrina. - The composers presented on this new recording include Palestrina (presumably 1525-1594), Merula (1595-1665), Marenzio (1553 or 1554-1599), Cato (after 1560 until after 1618), Pacelli (ca. 1570- 1623), Anerio (1560-1614), Cocciola (2nd half 16th century until after 1625) and Pekiel after 1600 until ca. 1670). - Beautiful performances by Lithuanian soloists, including Renata Dubinskaite (mezzo-soprano), whose previous recording for Brilliant Classics with works by Barbara Strozzi (BC 96436) received 5 star reviews in the international press. The instrumental group includes cornetto, sackbut and organ.

New recordings of Romantic sonatas which were once a staple of the church organist's repertoire, Josef Rheinberger's organ sonatas are still overshadowed by Romantic-era composers for the instrument such as Liszt and Guilmant. With a few exceptions, they are rarely heard in concerts today, regarded as 'well-crafted' but melodically uninspired and stylistically 'out of date'. For the German organist Christian von Blohn, however, Rheinberger's sonatas include several outright masterpieces. The cycle of 20 sonatas as a whole demonstrates a memorable engagement with the great organ composers of the past, as well as an ambition to mark out a new territory for the instrument within the Romantic era. Von Blohn has accordingly taken a colourful approach to the crucial matter of registration, which Rheinberger left largely up to the individual player. His performances reject the kind of thick textures with which these sonatas have become identified. While there are many individual highlights in the first four sonatas, such as the yearning Intermezzo of No.3 and the sweeping fugal movement of No.2, the Fifth Sonata announces a step up in scale and ambition towards the organ symphonies of Widor and Vierne. Guilmant himself congratulated Rheinberger on the success of the Ninth Sonata (dedicated to him), and it's elegiac Praeludium serves as an object example of Rheinberger's under rated feeling for poetic song on the organ. In his extensive booklet introduction, Christian von Blohn draws out the highpoints of each sonata and places them in the context of the composer's long career. Rheinberger had intended to compose 24 sonatas, following the model of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, but his death in 1901, aged 62, brought the cycle to a premature halt with the vaulting paragraphs of No.20, which builds with undimmed energy towards a proudly march-like finale. The recordings were made on the organ of the Josefskirche, St. Ingbert, a town to the east of Saarbrucken, and the booklet also includes a full specification for the instrument. - Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was a German romantic composer of mainly works for the organ, his own instrument. He was one of the leading figures in the "Cecilian Movement" which, in a world of increasing secularization, propagated the return to religious values of the past, expressing itself in a renewed interest in Gothic architecture and polyphony. - Rheinberger's organ works are a happy blend of the Romantic spirit of his time and a healthy dose of polyphony and counterpoint, in this he was a worthy successor of Felix Mendelssohn. - This new recording presents the complete 20 Organ Sonatas by Rheinberger, offering highly attractive works characterized by classical formalism and romantic expression. - Played by Christian von Blohn at the organ of the Josefskirche St. Ingbert, Germany, originally built in 1894, the technical details of which are presented in the booklet.

The name of Friedrich Berr (1794-1838) is well known to young clarinettists across the world, as the author of solos, duets and methods for students to learn the instrument. His more elaborate pieces have largely been forgotten, except for a Rossinian fantasia which has often been mistaken for the work of his more illustrious friend. Now Luigi Magistrelli sets the record straight with a collection of fantasias and arrangements, most of them taking operatic pieces by Auber and Rossini for their subjects, a set of 'Instructive Variations' and an arrangement of the Overture to Rossini's L'assedio di Corinto, for two clarinets, where he is joined by his sister Laura Magistrelli. The album opens with a fantasia on Auber's La muette de Portici, and continues in similarly spectacular vein with a fantasia on Rossini's William Tell. Luigi Magistrelli explores the significance of Berr's arrangements in a booklet essay: 'Examining the many clarinet compositions of Berr, nowadays completely forgotten, I selected the most interesting ones. Most of them are structured with a typical form involving introduction, theme and variations of both well-known and less known operas of his epoch. The Solos and Fantasies have appealing melodies and quite demanding technical passages well-conceived for the clarinet's expressive resources.' As an experienced soloist, teacher and chamber musician, Luca Magistrelli has led several albums of clarinet-centred chamber music for Brilliant Classics. 'This offbeat disc

First recordings of unpublished instrumental works by a master of verismo. Several recent albums on Brilliant Classics have expanded our understanding of Francesco Cilea beyond his status as the composer of L'Arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur. His piano music, chamber music and songs all bear witness to a quintessentially Italian voice and aesthetic philosophy. Cilea abandoned writing for the stage after the failure of his opera Gloria in 1907, despite the presence of Toscanini in the pit, and his lyric gifts cut against the grain of the prevailing trends of modernism. He turned to teaching, but he did not entirely abandon composition. Instead, he turned back to instrumental music, and the works on this album are among the fruits of this revived inspiration. Apart from Cilea's celebrated melodic vein, the Suite for Violin and the Piccola Suite for Orchestra reveal his (perhaps un-Italian) talent for counterpoint, as well as an approach to tonal harmony that reflects his awareness of innovation, especially among French composers of the period. Cilea orchestrated the Suite in 1946 from his Suite for violin and piano of nine years earlier. The four brief movements are cast in a neoclassical vein, enclosing an elegant minuet followed by an Andante sostenuto in the very un-classical key of C sharp minor. The Piccola Suite (1931) more thoroughly absorbs the idioms of French music of the period such as the early works of Messiaen, with it's modal harmony, whole-tone scales and sequences of seventh and ninth chords: again, far from what we would expect from the composer of Adriana Lecouvreur. The arrangement, revision and scoring of the Concerto in D major for cello by Leonardo Leo (written in 1737) bears witness to Cilea's deep connection with the Conservatoire in Naples where he had studied and where he became director until his retirement in 1935. It's generous orchestration, and yet respect for the 18th-century idiom of the writing, makes an intriguing and almost unknown parallel to the Cello Concerto in D recomposed by Schoenberg in 1931 after a 1746 work by Georg Matthias Monn. Completing this unique survey of Cilea's output is a modern work, the first recording of the Canto dell'amore by Raffaele Cacciola, born in 1965. The style of this sinfonia concertante in all but name is a homage to the example of Cilea: tonally unpredictable, yet always melodic. These Milanese musicians draw out it's intrinsically Italian character in the tradition of Cilea's verismo. - Italian composer Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) is best known for his operas, particularly "Adriana Lecouvreur." However, his contributions to instrumental music should not be overlooked. Though less renowned than his operatic output, Cilea's instrumental works exhibit a melodic richness and emotional depth characteristic of the Romantic era. - Cilea's orchestral works show his mastery of lyrical themes and dramatic expression. His works are imbued with a sense of Italianate warmth and passion, reflecting the composer's deep connection to his native land. - This new recording presents the Suite for Violin & Orchestra, Il Canto dell'Amore, Cilea's arrangement of a Cello Concerto by Leonardo Leo and the Piccola Suite for Cello & Orchestra. - Played by one of the foremost cellists of Italy, Enrico Bronzi, violinist Massimo Quarta, and the Virtuosi Della Scala, conducted by Filippo Arlia.

A unique combination on record of chamber music by the Swiss composer, surveying the development of his voice and career through the medium of the flute. One of music's late starters, Martin grew up as the tenth child of a Swiss pastor and his wife, surrounded by the music of Bach and Mozart. Only once Ernest Ansermet had founded the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande in 1918 did the 28-year-old Martin begin to discover and become captivated by the sensuality of Debussy and Ravel, and this stylistic dichotomy continued to play out in his own music. Among the most polished and individual of his early works is the set of four love-sonnets composed in 1921 to poems by the 16th-century balladeer Pierre de Ronsard. Already the influence of modernism is apparent on the angular and even ascetic shape of Martin's melodic invention, and yet a gentle, atmospheric mood pervades the cycle; this, too, would become a hallmark of his sound-world. In 1939, Martin began what would become a series of instrumental ballades with the competition piece which is still his best-known work for flute. In the same year, he followed it up with a Ballade for alto saxophone which he then arranged for flute; both works are fine examples of Martin's ability to reconcile serialism with tonality. A neoclassical (or rather, neo-Baroque) spirit infuses the Sonata da Chiesa of 1940 with solemn, Protestant gravity, yet the flute part still sings with the lyricism of the early Sonnets. From after the war, the Trois Chants de Noel (1947) distil the mystery of Christmas into three brief settings of texts by the Swiss poet Albert Rudhardt (1894-1944). A trio of Minnelieder (1961) masterfully strips Martin's language to the bone in a distinctive 'late style', where flute and guitar support and punctuate the sung line with an archaically flavoured modernity. Almost all these works have attracted no more than one or two recordings, but gathered together by these expert Italian musicians, they paint a new and compelling portrait of Martin as a spiritually engaged modernist. - Frank Martin (1890-1974) was a Swiss composer, who lived for most of his life in The Netherlands. Hs oeuvre spans orchestral works, oratorios, and chamber music. Martin's style defies easy categorization, blending elements of neoclassicism, serialism, and Gregorian chant. His vocal works reflect his spiritual depth and musical mastery. - Frank Martin wrote a not a large but a significant number of works for flute, including the Ballade for flute and piano (1939), the Deuxieme Ballade for flute and piano (1939) and the Church Sonata for flute and organ (1941). Of these three, only the Ballade is an original work for flute, as the Deuxieme Ballade and the Church Sonata are the author's transcriptions of earlier scores. Also included in this new recording are works for soprano and instrumental ensemble, featuring flute, oboe, harp, viola and cello. - A fascinating collection of a highly original voice in 20th century music! - Played by Daniele Ruggieri, Monica Bacelli and several excellent Italian instrumentalists.

The 'grande dame of the guitar' remembered through a new recording of her own music. Maria Luisa Anido (1907-1996) was born in Argentina and grew up in a household where the guitar was central. Her father brought home many of the great performers, whom she heard and who heard her. Miguel Llobet, himself a student of Tarrega, became one of her early teachers, though the most important was Domingo Prat. She met Andres Segovia after one of his concerts when she was about 10 and he was in his early 20s, and her own recordings rival those of Segovia's for both technical finesse and a natural feeling for the colours and rhythms of the Spanish guitar tradition. Cinzia Milani remarks, in an introduction to her new recording of Anido's own compositions, that 'there are moments when the technical essence of Anido's handing of the fretboard, especially in the higher registers, is so particular that one has the impression of knowing exactly what her hands were like.' Milani concludes her album with Anido's first and perhaps best-known piece, the Barcarola which she composed at the age of 20. Llobet lavished well-earned praise on her in response: 'I have read and played your Barcarola; the voices are carried magnificently with admirable taste of their natural characteristics; the tone colours are perfect. Bravo, very well done.' This is only the second album ever dedicated to Anido's music, making Cinzia Milani's recording a landmark contribution to guitar music on record, and to the extensive guitar library on Brilliant Classics. The most substantial collection here is a sequence of nine Impresiones Argentinas, which effectively form a survey of the folk music of her native land. Individual movements take up Indian, mestizo, pampan and North-western Creole melodies and rhythms. The Impresiones Argentinas are marvellously relaxed and earthy pieces, speaking unaffectedly of everyday experience, and no wonder that Anido charmed Soviet audiences with them during her 1960s tours, before settling for a while in Cuba. The Aire Norte�o and Cancion del Yucatan equally draw on south-American roots, while a trio of Preludios Nostalgicos belong to the repertoire of many modern guitarists. Anido was a major figure on the landscape of the 20th-century guitar, and Cinzia Milani has made a devoted tribute to her art. - Maria Luisa Anido (1907-1996) was born in Moron, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied guitar with Domingo Prat in Argentina and Miguel Llobet in Spain. From 1925, she frequently performed in Argentina together with Llobet. Her first London appearance was in 1952 at the Wigmore Hall, and she spent several years in the 1960s performing and teaching in Russia. Later she became professor at the conservatory of Buenos Aires. By the mid-1980s she moved to Spain, where she spent the rest of her life. - Maria Luisa Anido has been one of the few female composer-performers of her time. Her works for guitar, exquisite miniatures, are inspired by the rich folklore and music of her native Argentina. - Played with winning affection by Cinzia Milani, one of the foremost female guitarists of today, who has already issued a Tribute to Ida Presti, and Teresa de Rogatis, issued on Brilliant Classics.

This first recording of a selection of Gervais-Francois Couperin's keyboard works aims to give an overview of the youngest member of the Couperin family with works that have survived to the present day. The son of Armand-Louis Couperin (1727-1789), to whom Brilliant Records has also dedicated a release featuring his complete harpsichord works (see BC 95459), G.-F. Couperin (1759-1826) is the last known musician in the line of the greatest French musical dynasty of it's time. The selection of pieces presented here is meant to demonstrate his compositional exploration of the fortepiano. The four most employed forms in Couperin's keyboard oeuvre are the variations, the sonata, the rondo, and the piece in free form. This programme features the most important examples of these four types. The Two Sonatas Op.1, issued in 1788, were most probably intended to officially present the young composer to the French connoisseurs. They were conceived pour le clavecin ou forte-piano, with accompaniment of violin and cello ad libitum. Both sonatas consist of three movements, the first one in a large sonata form. A slower movement follows, the one in the second sonata consisting of a theme with 7 variations. A final movement in rondo form closes both sonatas. Stylistically, they are relatively close to other sonatas of the time, although they feature quasi-symphonic writing in the first movements. The highly virtuosic style exemplified in the two Sonatas Op.1 becomes even more evident in two single pieces, strictly related to one another: Les Incroyables Op.6 and Les Merveilleuses Op.7. The two pieces refer to adherents of a fashion trend highly favoured by the aristocracy in Paris during the French Directory (1795-99). The men were called Incroyables ("incredible") and the women Merveilleuses ("marvelous"), and they greeted the new regime with an outbreak of luxury, decadence, even silliness, perhaps as a reaction to the Terror period. The two pieces are in free form, with a ritornello in the first, shorter part. However, this form actually owes much to the rondo, which Couperin had already proved to master, both in his sonatas and in a short individual Rondo presented here, published in the Journal de Clavecin in 1782. This short and elegant piece, which may possibly be the first piece ever published by Couperin, is the closest one to the classical period, with it's almost-Viennese flavour. Two sets of variations both published in 1790, together with the slow movement of the Sonata Op.1 No.2, show Couperin's adeptness with this genre. It is worth noting that while the first set is based on one of the most emblematic of Revolutionary songs, 'Ah! Ca ira', the second is based on a royalist song, the Complainte bearnoise, a troubadour's protestations at King Louis XVI being housed in the Palais de Tuileries at the beginning of the revolution. Other information: - Recorded September 2023, Monte Compatri, Italy - Booklet in English contains liner notes by the artist, as well as his biography - Simone PIerini plays an original fortepiano by J. Haselmann (c.1800-10), tuned to A=430 Hz in the Young 1 temperament (1800) - This premiere recording of a selection of Gervais-Francois Couperin's works aims to give an overview of the latest member of the Couperin family whose works has survived to the present day. Son of Armand-Louis Couperin (1727-1789), Gervais-Francois Couperin (1759-1826) was the latest known musician of the greatest French musical dynasty of the time. He was a highly esteemed composer and musician, who played for Napoleon, and was organist of several important Churches in Paris (Saint-Gervais, St. Sulpice and others). - The four most employed forms in Couperin's keyboard oeuvre are the variations, the sonata, the rondo, and the piece in free form, each of which is represented in this new recording. The highly virtuosic style of the two sonatas Op.1 becomes even evident in Les Incroyables Op.6, and Les Merveilleuses Op.7. The two pieces refer to the followers of a fashion highly favoured by the aristocracy in Paris during the French Directory (1795-1799). The followers of this new fashion, the Incroyables (i. e., the "incredibles") as concerns men, the Merveilleuses (the "marvelous women") for the women, greeted the new regime with an outbreak of luxury, decadence, and even silliness. - Played on the fortepiano by Simone Pierini Born in Rome in 1996, Pierini began studying music at the age of eight. Aged eighteen, he graduated in piano at S. Cecilia Conservatory of Music, Rome, with highest honors. He afterwards grew interest in historically informed piano practice, attending masterclasses led by Alexei Lubimov, Andreas Staier, Tobias Koch, Stefano Fiuzzi. Subsequently, his interest about historical keyboards in general grew further, and he began studying harpsichord and basso continuo with such teachers as Andrea Coen and Giovanni Togni. His recordings with music by Cherubini and the complete piano sonatas by Helene de Montgeroult were very positively received by the press. Classic FM nominated him as one of the 30 best musicians under 30 in 2024.

Masterpieces of Baroque piano literature, in critically acclaimed recordings by pianists with a fine sensibility for the 18th century. Recordings made between 2005 and 2023; new booklet essay; an ideal budget introduction to the world of the Baroque keyboard, full of elegant dances and virtuoso playing. This survey of Baroque composers ranges from the high-point of 18th-century keyboard writing, the Goldberg Variations of Bach, to little known gems such as the sonatas by Espona, Galuppi and Giustini. It places the three great masters of the Baroque - Bach, Handel and Rameau - in the context of their influential predecessor, Sweelinck, and then those composers such as Galuppi and Espona who write in a new, galant style which overlaps with the Classicism of Mozart. Some of the artists on these recordings are still in their 20s, having grown up with a culture of historically informed performance practice which they then bring to their handling of a modern piano. Others, such as Yuan Sheng and Wolfram-Schmitt Leonardy, have been playing these pieces for many decades, and bring to them a career's worth of experience in teasing out the meaning and rhetoric of 18th-century phrasing and harmony on an instrument which none of the composers ever encountered. Handel is represented not by the familiar Eight 'Great' Suites but by an imaginative collection of earlier suites. Scarlatti's fertile invention is generously celebrated with 35 of his sonatas. Bach predominates, naturally, with the Six Partitas and the Italian Concerto as well as the Goldbergs, thus representing the stylistic range of his output. Keyboard styles from all over mainland Europe make an appearance, in the Dutch/Italian nobility of Sweelinck, the Hispanic-Italian flavour of Scarlatti, the French accents of Bach and Handel, and native French of Rameau, and the exuberantly Italian flourishes and proto-operatic gestures of Galuppi and Giustini. There is something here for everyone.