The Portuguese composer Frederico de Freitas' works were distinguished by charming and melodic scores tinged with the folkloric strains of his homeland. This recording, which surveys Freitas's output for violin, includes two works that stand at opposite ends of his career: the Berceuse from 1922 and the Dan�a do Palha�o ("Dance of the Clown") from 1964. From his early post-Romantic leanings to a gradual incorporation of decidedly modern influences of polyphony and tonality, de Freitas' contrapuntal gifts are a discovery and performed by the Portuguese violinist Carlos Damas along with frequent collaborator Jill Lawson on piano and Jian Hong on cello. With detailed liner notes by English scholar of Portuguese music Ivan Moody, also a critic for Gramophone.

Classical Music

Classical Music

One of the most influential composers of the early Spanish Baroque, Juan Bautista Comes (1582-1643) was one of the first composers to fuse together elements of Renaissance style with the emerging styles of the Baroque. Juan Bautista Comes held the post of chapel master of the Valencia Cathedral, the cathedral that since 1437 held the Holy Chalice, the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, which is the reason Comes composed extensively for the Eucharist. This new recording not only includes sacred Motets, but also a selection of choral works composed in the vernacular language and based on popular music to make the liturgy more accessible to common people.

Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1637-1695) was a native of Bologna and the music director of one of it's major churches, dedicated to San Petronio, where he presided over a rich culture of sacred music distinguished by participation from names now far better known to us such as Torelli, Bononcini and Giovanni Gabrieli. This valuable set brings together for the first time on record all his surviving compositions in the form of the sacred motet which was so popular as an extra-liturgical contribution (perhaps performed as offertory or communion music) towards worship, featuring the skills of what must have been highly skilled singers as well as a rich continuo section. Colonna's music has received relatively little attention on record until now, though Philippe Jaroussky concluded a 2009 album with the gorgeous O coeli devota, and there is one other, older recording of several other motets, as well as a larger-scale oratorio. So the time is now right to reassess his contribution and his own voice, with excellent new, historically informed performances led by Carlo Centemeri, who has already brought several rarities from the Italian Baroque to Brilliant Classics, including music by Albinoni (BC94852) and Bassani (BC94259), which received 5 star reviews in Amadeus and Diapason. These motets are multi-movement works, scarcely dwelling for long on any one emotion or text, even in the arias, but moving pacily though narratives of repentance, devotion and praise, and mostly concluding with exuberant Allelujas, much as Bach would fashion his Jauchzet Gott BWV51 for solo soprano in the Italian style a generation later. Anyone with even a passing interest in the Italian Baroque and it's charming byways will want to hear this. First recordings by Giovanni Colonna (1637-1695), who was the Music Director of the famous church San Petronio in his native Bologna. He composed his Sacred Motets for liturgical use, on devotional texts in Latin. This set presents the complete motets for solo voice and basso continuo, consisting of several movements, written for alternatively soprano, alto, tenor and bass. It is music of great beauty, expressing the emotional content of the text, from repentance to joy, from intimacy to exultation. Excellent performances by 4 Italian soloists and the instrumental ensemble Astrarium Consort, led by Carlo Centemeri, who already successfully recorded for Brilliant Classics chamber music by Bassani (BC94259) and Albinoni (BC94852). Centemeri wrote himself the scholarly liner notes.

Costantino Mastroprimiano is once again our guide, creating an absorbing programme that effectively encapsulates the achievements of Clementi’s distinguished career. His consummate performances provide a fitting end to the series, one that confirms the Classical composer’s status as among the greatest innovators of the keyboard.

Every now and again a piece of music comes along that captures the public’s attention and imagination on account of the enjoyment or interest we continue to derive from it upon repeated listening, and is catapulted into the classical canon where it assumes the status of a permanent fixture. + Such is the case regarding the pieces brought together on this CD album: ‘chart-topping’ tunes that are among classical music’s most loved and celebrated works. + The set traces over 200 years of Western musical composition to present a program diverse in both style and mood and never fails to entertain.

Classical Music

Classical Music

On this release the Italian ensemble Eridanus brings to light the lesser-known vocal music of an unjustly neglected 17th-century composer, Maurizio Cazzati (1616-1678). While his instrumental music has enjoyed resurgence in the recent period music revival, this album represents a pioneering interpretation of Cazzati's large and varied vocal output (which forms a substantial part of the oeuvre of this very prolific composer) featuring numerous world premieres. The music is divided on the album into secular music (cantatas and canzonetta written, though unusual for the period, for the tenor voice) and sacred music (motets, antiphons and cantatas, also for solo voice). Interspersed among the vocal music are instrumental works including dances, ostinato compositions and several sonatas, a genre Cazzati played an important role in developing. The Eridanus ensemble is formed of eminent soloists in their fields, each of them active in other ensembles of note and much sought-after on the early music scene in Italy and abroad.

No modern record company has done more than Brilliant Classics to revive the music and reputation of the Italian-American composer Mario Castelvuovo-Tedesco. Not only in the field of guitar music for which he is most famous, but in piano music and most recently an extensive and powerful song-cycle for soprano and guitar, The Divan of Moses Ibn Ebra. Here’s another new album of the composer’s vocal music, of still greater importance: the first complete recording of his cycle of Shakespeare Sonnets, coupled with the world premiere recording of the three Shakespeare Duets. Castelnuovo-Tedesco set texts by many great poets, among them Dante, Heine and Lorca. It was for Shakespeare, however, that he nurtured his foremost passion. Having composed settings of all the standalone songs in the plays while still resident in Italy, he then turned to the sonnets while ‘isolated and proud’ in the bitter-sweet exile of Beverly Hills where he made his home for the last 30 years of his life. They were set down with astonishing fluency, more than half within less than two months in the autumn of 1945. Ultimately he put music to 32 of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, all in the original English, including three settings for vocal ensemble. All of them are now gathered together for the first time, together with the three Duets from 1937.

Conceived originally as the score for a performance comprising music, text and archive images of legendary cyclists and commissioned in part by the 2013 UCI Road World Championships, the Naples born Cristian Carrara's (b. 1977-)'Suite per Bicicletta e Orchestra' perfectly captures in spirit and title the multiple textures that characterize this collection. Thematically broad, Carrara's melodic, whimsical, and above all gorgeous compositions are of a kind of 'atmospheric' classical strain reminiscent of popular pianist Ludovic Einaudi's works. With the Orchestre Lyrique et Symphonique de Nancy led by Flavio Emilio Scogna.

Classical Music

CARMEN & L'ARLÉSIENNE SUITES

On the 260th anniversary of the composer's death, this release celebrates Handel's vocal works and particularly his writing for the cello. The set also sheds light on the lesser-known Andrea Caporale, one of the greatest cellists of the Baroque era and also a composer himself. In the 1730s, Handel and Caporale both lived and worked in London. While Caporale held celebrity status as the capital's most sought-after cellist, Handel rubbed shoulders with the elite and composed for the royal court. This album takes a closer look at the time when they crossed paths. Caporale and Handel both moved in London's musical circles and so it's not surprising that they often worked together. A few years after his arrival in London, Caporale became part of Handel's Opera Orchestra; he was the star name on the bill at fundraising concerts and performed in new works such as Deidamia and Alexander's Feast, the latter containing two arias with obbligato cello which Handel had written specifically for him. Handel brought overall vision to the music and Caporale brought expert knowledge of his instrument. Their partnership came at an important turning point in the history of the cello: Prince Frederick of Wales had recently developed a keen interest in playing it, and this propelled the instrument, once regarded as inferior to the viol, into mainstream culture. The opening track comes from Handel's opera Parnasso in Festa and in keeping with the trend, the movement features a decorative cello solo. The following tracks showcase Caporale's creative output. The sonatas are characteristic of the late Baroque and various melody lines weave an intricate tapestry, through different keys and moods, before drawing to a unified close. Handel's vocal works display similar traits and the set alternates between the two composers, revealing their similarities and how they appropriated musical trends of the era. Whereas most players of the era were prized for their virtuosity and technical prowess, Caporale was famous for his emotional playing.