From the 17th to 19th centuries Naples was counted among the European capitals of music; traditions of both composition and performance were fostered, supporting a local culture that was hungry for music, and the city's conservatoires started to produce musicians who occupied positions of prestige both in their home city and at the courts and theatres across the continent.

Out of the recently founded 'Neapolitan School' came a wealth of celebrated composers as well as the gradual romanticisation of the organ, which acquired new 'concert stops' in addition to a complete pedalboard; this release focuses on bringing to light the variety of music that started to be written for the newly improved instrument. As well as including the esteemed names of Pergolesi, Scarlatti and Durante, the recording takes in contemporaries whose music proves no less lively or elegant: from Porpora, particularly famed for his vocal music, to de Majo, from Alitieri to Zingarelli, the latter of whose sonatas reflect the prevalent style galante, the lively and brilliant style of the works draws attention to the then dominance of operatic culture across all musical genres.

The pieces are performed by keyboardist Emanuele Cardi, a Renaissance and Baroque specialist who also takes an active interest in the restoration of ancient organs. The recording was made in the Church of San Nicola di Bari in Italy, whose 1889 Giuseppe Picardi organ faithfully reflects the stylistic evolution detailed above.

Other information:
- Recorded 27--28 January 2013.
- A fascinating picture of musical life in Naples in the second half of the 18th century. Naples was then one of the musical capitals of Europe, housing a wealth of musicians, composers and an audience hungry for new music.
- The new style, as introduced by composers like Pergolesi, Scarlatti and Durante was a brilliant mixture of elegance, wit and the innate Italian flair for a good tune.
- Organist Emanuele Cardi finds the right sunny touch on the historic Giuseppe Picardi Organ (1889) in Bari, Italy.
Booklet contains information on the works, the organ and the artist.

Faure: Complete Piano Quartets & Quintets / Composer: Gabriel Faur� / Performer: Jacqueline Eymar, Bernard Braunholz, Werner Neuhaus, G�nter Kehr, Number of Discs: 2 / Length: 2 Hours 3 Mins. Recordings from the sixties (1966), sounding amazingly fresh and transparent. Reissue of one of the gems from the early VOX catalogue: Faur� 's complete piano quartets and quintets played by Jacqueline Eymar! Jacqueline Eymar (1922-2008), a pupil of Yves Nat, was one of the Grand Dames of the French piano school, together with Monique de la Bruchollerie and Yvonne Lefebure. Her style is elegant, perfectly natural, "inwardly" brilliant, playing the great French and German Romantics with exquisite taste and understanding. A superb set presenting the masterworks of Faur�'s chamber music oeuvre, counting among his most frequently performed works. Faur�'s Piano Quintets are both mature masterpieces and showcase how his musical language had evolved and become more experimental. Op.89 won great admiration from it's dedicatee Eug�ne Ysa�e, who called it 'absolute music in the purest sense of the word'. Op.115, dedicated to another eminent composer, Paul Dukas, dates from 1921, three years before Faur�'s death, and could be said to represent the pinnacle of his art. Indeed, following it's premiere in Paris, one reviewer wrote 'We had expected a beautiful work, but not one as beautiful as this.'

Classical Music

Born in Paris in 1749, Jean-Louis Duport, cellist and composer, also known as 'le jeune' -- to distinguish him from his elder brother Jean-Pierre (1741--1818), called 'l'ainé' -- is today regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the development and evolution of cello technique. In 1806 he published his cello treatise Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et sur la conduite de l'archet, a work that became the fundamental reference point for all subsequent schools of cello teaching. At the end of the treatise, we find the 21 Etudes for Violoncello (with a second cello part as accompaniment), works that explain and put into practice the methods described within. They are very difficult, highly virtuosic exercises that present a wide selection of tones and bowings as well as an extraordinary richness of compositional ideas, and in this way the Essai can be viewed as an anthology of concert pieces with real artistic value rather than just a mere practical handbook.

Made following precise philological criteria and with attention to the performing practice of the age, this recording includes a second cello as accompaniment (the instrument assumes the role of continuo, developing the performance and enlivening the listening experience) and employs original instruments with gut strings and historical bows. Thanks more to their difficulty and pedagogical reputation, the Etudes may have been rarely recorded, a fact which only adds value to the present issue, but they repay repeated listening for their élan, and will be required listening not only for cello students seeking to master the Etudes themselves but also for anyone with a passing interest in the music of Classical-era France.

Other information:
- New recording made in 2013.
- Jean Louis Duport was one of the most important and influential composers for the cello in the first half of the 19th century. A virtuoso himself, he wrote a treatise on the cello, introducing new techniques, expanding the possibilities of the instrument to a great extent.
- As a demonstration of his new instrumental style he wrote 21 Etudes, in which all his inventions are incorporated. They are extremely difficult, requiring a virtuoso technique and deep musical insight, lifting the etude above the level of a mere exercise to a work of art.
- This recording, a world premiere, uses a second cello as a continuo basis, and is played with gut strings, as was usual in Duport's time.
- A must for cellists, cello lovers and anyone interested in early 19th-century French instrumental music!

Classical Music

A frequently ignored instrument, the Flauto d’Amore first appeared during the Baroque era, when chamber ensembles frequently included woodwind instruments. Built in B-flat, A, and A-flat, the flute is pitched between the standard concert flute in c and the alto flute, and is sometimes called the tenor flute. Several composers favored the flauto d’amore for its warm and full-bodied tone, including Quantz, a masterful flute composer whose literature is still standard in the repertoire. Ginevra Petrucci is widely recognized for her innovative programs. The flute she performs on for this recording is a solid silver flauto d’amore made by albert Cooper in 1990.

This release presents a selection of his works for piano. From the reminiscent Alghe (or 'seaweed'), which features a delicate melody over shimmering Debussy- like harmonies, to Le stagioni ('The Seasons') and I naviganti ('The Sailors'), Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a master at creating evocative images of provincial life through his music. His longer, more virtuosic works take on grander themes; Alt Wien is described as a 'Viennese rhapsody', and Piedigrotta takes us through a whirlwind of Neapolitan music, starting with a dark and pulsating tarantella, after which the music sinks gently into an undulating rhythm to evoke the image of a moonlit Neapolitan evening. Le danze del Re David reveal an unexpectedly hard edge to the composer, turning dark and violent, with movement names such as 'rapid and savage' and 'warlike Allegro', finally culminating in a 'clear and solemn' conclusion.

Homilius's choral preludes are rooted in the contrapuntal tradition propounded by his teacher Bach; not, however, without characteristics belonging to the more affective aesthetic movement of Empfindsame Stil for which Bach's son CPE is now best known. Thus there are some bold modulations which Father Bach would never have imagined or countenanced, such as the oscillation between C minor and C sharp minor in Ach Herr, mich armen S�nder, or the (then still) unusual B flat minor key of Wer nur den lieben Gott l�sst walten. This appears to be the first recording to include all the great organ chorales so far authenticated as the work of Homilius - many of them remain unpublished. It is made by a Venetian keyboard musician specializing in early music, on a modern (2007) instrument tuned to Werckmeister III - as close as is practicable to the tuning that Homilius would have known.

Pieter-Jan Belder continues his superb survey of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, an extraordinary manuscript compiled in the late 16th century and held in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. In this, the sixth volume, Belder focuses on the compositions of John Bull, one of the main contributors to the collection. Principally an organist and organ-builder, Bull left behind a variety of attractive pieces whose charm is belied by the way he often presented himself as a Doctor in music, which might suggest a rather scientific approach to composition. Nonetheless, his Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La, one of the longest and most challenging pieces in the manuscript and reminiscent of Tallis, is appropriately complex, beginning with two-part writing and adding additional voices as it progresses, while employing numerous tempo changes and cross-rhythms. In contrast to the prolific Bull, the remainder of the recording features a host of composers who appear only a few times in the manuscript. Other than Orlando Gibbons, one of the most important of all virginalists, the other contributors are less well known, and many have obscure or undocumented lives. The repetition of such forms as the pavan and alman across the set, however, allows the listener to make a number of interesting comparisons. Pieter-Jan Belder is not only a consummate performer but also a serious scholar of keyboard music from the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. His research on the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book has led to a highly informed performance practice. Belder specializes in performance on historical instruments, and he has carefully selected three period harpsichords for this recording in order to create the most authentic sound possible. The listener is rewarded with a substantial set that highlights the superb achievements of the composers of this era, laying the foundations of keyboard music for centuries to come.

A unique collection of Spanish and Latin-American lullabies. The Spanish lullaby is characterized by a special bitter-sweet flavor, in which the joy and pain of childhood are perfectly captured. The lullabies on this recording are original art-songs by famous composers: de Falla, Rodrigo, Halffter, Montsalvatge, Abril, Moreno-Torroba, Guastavino, Toldra and others. Carmen Solis is one of the leading sopranos of her home country Spain. She has the right mixture of melancholy, innocence, serenity and that deep smoldering Spanish passion in her voice, which make this performance irresistible!

Described by the composer himself as ‘the king of instruments’, the organ and its music form a small but not insignificant part of Mozart’s vast œuvre. This new release, performed by acclaimed Italian organist Ivan Ronda, comprises all of his major works for the instrument, including the extended Adagio and Rondo in C minor and the small-scale works from the London Sketchbook. Also included is the charming Adagio in C for the glass harmonica: just 28 bars in length, the work was originally conceived for this curious instrument, which consists of glass bowls that rotate in water, but is equally effective on the organ. Mozart’s output of Church Sonatas – notable for their single movement form – are represented here by the Sonata in C K336, the only one to have a proper solo part for the organ, and was specially transcribed by André Isoir for this recording.

The disc is rounded off with the imposing Fantasia in F minor. Described in Mozart’s own catalogue of work as ‘an organ piece for a clock’, it was commissioned by Count Joseph Deym for a musical automaton that contained a small pipe organ. When transferred to an organ on the scale of that at the Church of Maria Vergine Immacolata in Gallo Cavour, Italy, where this recording was made, it takes on a certain grandeur, and exploits the various echo and dialogue effects of the instrument.

Ivan Ronda is an organist particularly renowned for his authoritative interpretations, and is acknowledged for his fine technique. His tour of the UK took in such prestigious venues as King’s College Cambridge and Westminster Abbey, and he was the first Italian organist to record an album on the historic Baroque organ of the Johanniskirche in Lüneburg, an instrument known to J. S. Bach.

Although Mozart called it “The King of instruments” he wrote comparatively few works for the organ, but what he wrote is of a special quality: the great Fantasia in F minor (a late work) is of deep emotional content, while the Adagio and Rondo KV 617 is in the tragic key of C minor. Also included is the delightful Suite in C KV399, the beautiful Andante in F major KV616 and some works the child prodigy Wolfgang wrote in London, the KV15. Played by Italian master organist Ivan Ronda, internationally acclaimed by guest appearances in such venues as Westminster Abbey and King’s College Cambridge. The booklet contains the information on the organ, artist biography and notes on the music. - Brilliant Classics

Brilliant Classics proudly presents the brand-new 5-album sets series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Bach Famous Cantatas, Dvorák Complete Concertos and Symphonic Poems. Mozart Complete Wind Concertos and Serenades, Beethoven Complete Violin Sonatas and Cello Sonatas and Sibelius Complete Symphonies and Symphonic Poems. World class performers include Staatskapelle Dresden with Herbert Blomstedt, Netherlands Bach Collegium with Pieter Jan Leusink, Klára Würtz, Timora Rosler, Kristóf Baráti, Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester with Kurt Sanderling and others. The fresh and colorful artwork is eye-catching while the booklet contains liner notes in English. A new series at an unbeatable price! The present release features Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas and cello sonatas, performed by Timora Rosler, Klara Wurtz, and Kristof Barati.

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REVIEW:

This is not something I’ve ever said before, and I don’t say it lightly now, but no matter how many other sets of Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas you may have—unless you’re a die-hard fan of versions by Heifetz or Grumiaux, Francescatti/Casadesus, Menuhin/Kempff, Stern/Istomin, Szeryng/Haebler, or one of the more recent period-instrument renditions—you might as well give them away to friends or Goodwill, because once you’ve heard Baráti and Würtz, you’ll never listen to anyone else again.

– Fanfare

Of all Cristiano Porqueddu’s adventurous guitar-music surveys on record for Brilliant Classics, the latest may be the most invaluable and enlightening for listeners who may never even have suspected that Russia had a rich guitar tradition of its own. As a detailed booklet essay complementing this new recording explains, the guitar flourished during the first half of the 19th century in Russia. Towards the turn of the 20th century, it became more of a folk instrument, a trend further exaggerated by the cultural demands of the Russian revolution which repurposed both instruments and musicians to vernacular ends for songs and marches to raise the spirits. However, a renaissance took place in classical guitar composition following the triumphant tour of Andres Segovia across Soviet Russia in 1926. The impact of that event may be felt not only in the work of Boris Asafiev, who saw Segovia play, but even two generations later in the Hispanic flair of Edison Denisov’s Sonata, with its edgy opening Toccata, gently swaying Berceuse and picture-postcard ‘Souvenir d’Espagne’; in itself this revives the kind of naturalistic love-affair of Russian artists with the country that had produced Glinka’s Jota aragonesa and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol. But there is much more here than picture-postcard imitation and love in a cold climate. Local Georgian rhythms and traditions may be savoured in the sonata of Gherman Dzhaparidze; there are two early, vibrant miniatures of Sofia Gudaidulina; the work of more guitar-specialised composers such as Vitaly Kharisov, Valeri Kikta and Viktor Kozlov is much less well-known outside their native land. To all of them Cristiano Porqueddu brings the technical mastery and interpretative conviction which has distinguished his work for Brilliant Classics, in boxes such as the set of 20th-century guitar sonatas (BC9455) which includes an earlier recording of the First Sonata by Evgeny Baev

Classical Music

Classical Music