Previous albums on Brilliant Classics have illuminated significant figures in the school of North German organ music in the generations before Bach. Here is the work of another, hardly less significant figure, Heinrich Scheidemann. He wrote almost exclusively for organ, and in the expected forms of chorale fantasias, motet arrangements, preludes, toccatas and fantasias which constituted the bread and butter of the 17th-century church musician’s diet. On this newly recorded album, the French organist Joseph Rassam plays a selection of all these genres, juxtaposed for maximum variety. In fact Scheidemann invented the genre of chorale fantasia, later so refined and developed by J.S. Bach, where a well-known chorale melody is played as the soprano line and reworked by means of superimposition, canon and imitation for the effects of grandeur and spiritual elevation. There are several Praeambulum movements in which Scheidemann builds on the legacy of the Dutch master Sweelinck, more freely composed, allowing full rein for the performer/composer’s own virtuosity. Until quite recently, all Scheidemann’s keyboard works were thought to have been written for the organ, but scholarly research has now shown that more than a quarter of the hundred or so pieces known to be by Scheidemann (or attributed to him) were actually written for the harpsichord and intended for performance in a secular context. Joseph Rassam’s recording is therefore one of the first to place such pieces in their original, intended context. In doing so, it reveals new and extrovert facets of the music which was hitherto characterised as more solemn and monumental according to an eccelesiastical context. Joseph Rassam has chosen to use three instruments appropriate to the historical and stylistic context of Scheidemann’s music. The organ is a relatively new one, inaugurated in 2010 by Gustav Leonhardt in the church of St Martin, Amilly, and built by Bertrand Cattiaux in the style of North-German Baroque instruments. He also plays an original 17th-century harpsichord of unknown manufacture, beautifully decorated and recently restored by Alain Anselm, and one of Anselm’s own virginals.

Alessandro Scarlatti is a great man but his compositions are very difficult, in a theatre audience of a thousand people only 20 will understand them, thus said Count Francesco Zambeccari, an influential contemporary, and it is a testimony of the skill, complexity and depth of his rich music, a far cry from the facile and fashionable composers of his day. The Oratorio per la Santissima Trinita was composed in 1715, written at the mature age of 50, specifically intended for performance in Naples. The music is at the service of the "drama," in a musical action that flows almost without caesura, presenting the richness of Scarlatti's invention, always backed up by extremely in-depth knowledge of all the best composition techniques of the long tradition of the Italian School. The manuscript of this substantial oratorio was recently found at an antique market in Italy, and was first edited and performed by the present conductor/scholar Estvan Velardi.

A Lenten oratorio in the Italian tradition of sacred opera, Il Dolore di Maria Vergine is widely held to be the outstanding masterpiece in the genre by Alessandro Scarlatti. Structured in two extended parts, it assigns roles to the Virgin Mary, St John, Nicodemus and to a High Priest named Onìa. The challenge taken on by the composer and his anonymous librettist early in 1717 was to make a mere four characters effective as vehicles for conveying the drama of the Passion, moving as Bach does from the capture of Jesus in Gethsemane, to his interrogation by Pilate, his scourging and crowning with thorns, his journey to Calvary and his crucifixion and death. Recorded in 2001 and first released by Bongiovanni, this recording of Il dolore di Maria Vergine was welcomed by the Italian Musica magazine with a ringing endorsement of its virtues: ‘The orchestra is precise, and in full sympathy with the Scarlatti idiom; outstanding among the instrumental soloists are the trumpet player Gabriele Cassone, the violinist Fabrizio Cipriani and the members of the notably rich continuo section.’

Having worked with countless luminaries of early-music performance over the last three decades, Roberta Invernizzi has become renowned for a crystalline soprano and an unfailing dramatic sense in Baroque and pre-Baroque music, especially from her native Italy. Here she lends distinction to a unique collection of three cantatas and two concertos by the jewel in the crown of Baroque-era music from Naples, Alessandro Scarlatti. Bella dama di nome Santa and Ardo � ver per te d'amore are particularly brilliant examples of the cantatas written for solo voice and obbligato instrument - in this case the recorder. The violin is the instrument assigned to duet with Invernizzi in the intensely expressive Quella pace gradita, which in this case does not vie with the soprano - as it does with the recorder in the previous two Cantatas - but rather accompanies the voice. Like the cantatas, the two concertos here date from the turn of the 17th to the 18th centuries: four-movement works of scintillating virtuosity, fully the equal of Vivaldi's better-known examples, but laid out like a brief sonata with a brief introduction to a well-worked fugue, followed by a songful slow movement and brilliant finale. Under the direction of it's founder, Stefano Bagliano, the Collegium Pro Musica has assembled a distinguished discography on Brilliant Classics which has attracted international praise. Their album of Quantz concertos (BC95386) was reviewed in Fanfare as 'very fine - technically accomplished, and both lively and characterful, without turning mannered.' Of their collection of chamber concertos by Vivaldi (BC94332), Musica dei donum commented: 'imaginative and lively, dramatic when needed, but also have intimacy, whenever the music asks for it... The virtuosic solo passages are perfectly executed.'

This is the third album with original Baroque style compositions by Federico Maria Sardelli, musicologist and author, and founder/conductor of Modo Antiquo, the early music ensemble with which he made numerous first performances and recordings of unearthed works by Italian baroque composers, notably the operas by Antonio Vivaldi. He is a satirist and comical actor. One of his foremost passions however is composing, in the style and spirit of his beloved Baroque era. His works are not exercises in formal writing but the recreation of the daring originality and vibrant passion of the time, alive through the spirit of discovery. This new release presents works for the keyboard, Suites de pieces pour le clavecin, in the style of Couperin, Rameau and Royer. They are played by Sardelli's colleague, friend and amazin harpsichordist Simone Stella.

The four Salve Regina recordings presented on this uniquely compiled new album cross the boundary between opera house and church - a boundary that in 18th-century Naples was never very forbidding to begin with. In fact, Leo, Pergolesi and Porpora are all fine examples of composers who moved with unselfconscious facility between sacred and secular genres, between old counterpoint and the Monteverdian stile concertato that caressed each word with sensuous melismas and velvet harmonies. Porpora was a noted singing teacher of his day, intimately familiar with everything that a voice can do, and possessing a melodic skill that spins long and ornate vocal phrases of almost instrumental effect. The Salve Regina by Pergolesi presented here is in G minor, and is a different work to his much more familiar settings of the text in F major and A minor, with a grave and restrained vocal line that evokes a meditative aura far removed from Porpora's fireworks. Extreme versions of these contrasting tendencies also characterize the two settings by Leonardo Leo. The F major Salve Regina is bright and extrovert, only darkening for a minor-key setting of 'Ad te suspiramus', with an agile vocal line full of operatic flourishes. In the C minor Salve Regina, however, Leo evokes a mood of intense lamentation with a style so restrained that it would seem almost archaic were it not for the expressive harmonies not so distant from Pergolesi's world. Federica Napoletani studied piano and singing at the conservatoire in Parma before joining Luisa Castellani's class for a Masters at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italian in Lugano. She specializes in new and early music and has performed with many distinguished early-music groups including Vox Altera, Odhecaton and Ensemble Imaginaire.

Claudio Monteverdi and Girolamo Frescobaldi were two of the most influential musical figures in 17th century Italy. This new recording celebrates the influence that these two composers continue to exert over performers and audiences today - and the fascination that their music inspires - through a selection of motets and instrumental pieces, performed with precision and authority by Il Pesago and Maurizio Croci.

Classical Music

With this release of Filippo Ruge (1725-1767), Brilliant Classics brings another forgotten name from the Baroque era to the attention of record buyers: there is not another disc of his music in the catalogue, making this an indispensable purchase for all lovers of Italian Baroque. Ruge was a Roman by birth, and a flautist by training: hence the concentration in this survey of his output on works which feature the instrument in a soloistic capacity: not only a G major concerto and sonata but a D major duet, for two flutes, and an arietta in which a pair of sopranos is accompanied by a pair of flutes. The release is completed by a solo soprano aria and a dramatic three-movement sinfonia which concludes with the tone-painting of a violent storm. Ruge was highly regarded in his day, and the lively imagination at work in the pieces on this disc gives ample reason for such admiration. He became a solo flautist at the prestigious series of Concerts Spirituelles in Paris, and his Op.3 collection of concertos was published in London by John Walsh, who handled music by all the significant European composers of the day. After the publication of the set of Duets from which the present D major example is taken, Ruge vanishes from the records; his exact date and location of death are presently unknown. Leader of the Swiss-based Flatus Ensemble, Enrico Casularo also trained in Rome – at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, where he is now a professor of Baroque flute – as a flautist, musicologist and organologist. He has played, recorded, studied and lectured on flute music of the Baroque era for international organisations and produced an authoritative treaty on the history of the transverse flute.

This comprehensive collection showcases one of the most fascinating and renowned conductors of the Soviet Era. A founding member of the Borodin Quartet, Rudolf Barshai was born in Russia in 1924 and was regarded as the leading violist of is generation by his early 20s. He founded the legendary Moscow Chamber Orchestra before emigrating to Israel in 1977 and denouncing Soviet authorities. Today his recordings, especially of Shostakovich, stand out as some of the greatest of all time. Those recordings and many others, all performed live from 1956-1974, are included in this 10-CD set.

Adriano Sebastiani made his recording debut on Brilliant Classics with the songs for voice and guitar of Louis Spohr; here Adrian accompanies the soprano Silvia Vajente in her Brilliant Classics debut. A seasoned performer of this repertoire, Vajente is a past winner of the first Concorso Internazionale di Canto Barocco �Francesco Provenzale� (held in Naples) and the 10th Premio Bonporti International Early Music Competition (in Rovereto, Italy). The Ariettes Italiennes are 8 pieces taken from the Soir�es Musicales, a collection of songs and arias written by the �pensioned� Rossini after his retirement as a highly successful opera composer. They are pure delight, each one written on a certain topic or emotion, full of humour, wit, nostalgia and old age irony and wisdom. The Douze Ariettes Italiennes are written by guitar composer and virtuoso Ferdinando Carulli, on popular and famous themes from Rossini�s operas, elegant and charming, salon music of high distinction and entertainment. Sung by soprano Silvia Vajente, with the right touch of beauty, sentiment and tongue-in-cheek, guitarist Adriano Sebastiani supplying the perfect instrumental foundation.

Eminent Italian early music keyboardist Manuel Tomadin adds to a splendid discography on Brilliant Classics with his eighth release for the label. Commemorating the centenary of the apparition of Mary at Fátima, Portugal (1917), Tomadin performs settings for organ of the well-known Marian hymn Magnificat by four composers from the Hanseatic north of Germany, all talented students of Dutch organist–composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, father of the north German organ tradition. And what more fitting organ could be selected for this tribute than the fine Dell’Orto & Lanzini instrument, modelled on 17th-century organs of the Hanseatic school, housed in a Piedmontese parish church dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima? This organ reflects the rich tonal resources that would have been at the skilled fingertips of Scheidemann, Schildt, Weckmann and Strungk, who were active in the 17th century around the Hanseatic area on such organs as those at St Catherine’s and St James’s, Hamburg, the Marktkirche, Hannover, and Braunschweig’s St Martini church. Manuel Tomadin is joined in these Magnificat performances by award winning tenor and early music ensemble director Giuseppe Maletto.

The romance in music is an often-overlooked, independent genre. Vocal romanzas were popular from the 15th century onwards, with their roots in the songs of medieval troubadours. Many slow concerto movements carry the subtitle, too, with its implication of softness, gentleness and melodic beauty. But more and more composers through the 19th century grasped the possibilities of the Romance as an instrumental song without words and a form in its own right. They had before them a growing audience of non-connoisseur listeners and amateur performers who would take delight in accessible but touching music: these are the origins of the music on this album. From an extensive field, Davide Alogna has constructed a beautifully varied sequence of Romances by celebrated and lesser-known composers. The two best examples of the genre remain those composed on the cusp of the 19th century by Beethoven, though they are little heard in concert these days. Seventy years later, Saint-Saëns enriched the repertoire with his own pair of Romances, more richly expressive compared to Beethoven’s delicacy and restraint. From later still the mood changes again, with the fresh Slavonic rhythms of Dvorák’s F minor Romance, the cool beauty of Svendsen’s G major Romance and the ripe sentimentality of Bruch’s F major Romance (originally for viola and orchestra).

Having completed his studies at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena, Davide Alogna was acclaimed by his teacher Giuliano Carmignola as ‘an amazing talent’. A previous recording was praised for its virtuosity and brilliance by the Italian Musica magazine, and his partnership with the veteran pianist Bruno Canino has delighted audiences throughout Europe.

Although now largely forgotten, Rhene-Emmanuel B�ton (1879-1940) was a key figure in Parisian musical circles during the early 1900s. Rhene-Baton, as he was later known, was born in Normandy to a Breton family. But trained at the Paris Conservatoire to become a composer, pianist and conductor. A meeting with Serge Diaghilev led to the engagement to conduct the Ballets russes on tour, and as a conductor he was the subject dedicatee of several works such as Roussel's Second Symphony. Meanwhile Rhene-Baton continued to compose, and it was through his own music that he felt most free to express his Breton identity. Almost all the chamber music presented here dates from the years 1921-27. Both the Cello Sonata and Violin Sonata call for piano playing of great virtuosity, probably because Rhene-Baton intended those parts for himself, while the melody line unfolds in a mode of archaic, neoclassical lyricism. The peak of his achievement in the chamber-music genre, however, is the A minor Piano Trio, composed in 1923. The second movement is a 'Divertissement sur un vieil air Breton' - the 'vieil air' in question being Gwin ar c'hallaoued' (the wine of Gall), one of the best-known Breton tunes. The Suite Ancienne (1933) is different in character: a collection of dances like a Baroque suite (Prelude, Aria, Gavotte, Gigue). The more intimate mood of this chamber repertoire evokes a series of everyday musical scenes: interiors, winter hearths, summer festivities and ancient celebrations in which Rhene-Baton is both narrator and participant. Founded in 2009, the Wolferl Trio comprises three Italian musicians all with distinguished careers as performers and teachers in their own right.

RESPIGHI: FONTANE DI ROMA, PIN