"Seculi sui Musicus excellentissimus" was the epitaph inscribed on his tombstone in the old Frauenkirche of Dresden -- to his contemporaries, the Saxon-born Heinrich Schütz was one of the most outstanding composers of the century, and even writers of music history today refer to him as 'Musicus poeticus ecclesiasticus', whose works were and are still the epitome of Protestant church music.

This collection is a tribute to the great Baroque composer, who received most of his training in Venice from the organist of St Mark's, Giovanni Gabrieli. The richness of colour and musical splendour of the Psalmen Davids, scored for several choruses and first to feature on the release, reflects the arts-minded Saxon court for which they were composed; next comes a collection of motets, which similarly follow in the footsteps of Venetian composition through 'painting in sound' the content of the text and dividing the choir into two or more tonal groups. The motet played a significant role in church service music, and Schütz also wrote a number of polychoral concertos for festive occasions, the affective Magnificat anima mea SWV468 for Christmas among them. Rounding off the compilation is the composer's Schwanengesang, literally meaning 'Swan Song' and deemed to be his parting gift to the world -- here Luther's version of the 'German Magnificat' at the end of the piece reveals Schütz's taking on the role of musical interpreter in the cause of Lutheran teaching.

The renowned Dresden Kreuzchor became closely associated with the works of Schütz under the directorship of Rudolf Mauersberger, who made the choir an instrument of singular appeal. Here they feature alongside a number of other distinguished German choral groups and ensembles, including the Berliner Solisten, to perform the works of a composer who represented an important transitional phase in sacred music.

Other information:
- Recordings made in 1965, 1970 and 1983--4.
- Heinrich Schütz was no doubt one of the most important composers from the period of transition from Renaissance to Baroque, a German who imbued the strict german polyphony with Italian melos of warmth and emotion. Johann Sebastian Bach considered him the greatest of his predecessors.
- Brilliant Classics has given Schütz ample due in its Schütz Edition volumes 1-4, and this new set presents some of his grandest works, the splendid Psalms of David, Polychoral Concertos and Motets and his moving Schwanengesang, music both magnificent and intimate.
- Performances in the best german choral tradition by the famous Dresdner Kreuzchor, Capella Fidicina and the Berliner Solisten.
- Booklet contains detailed notes on the composer and his music.

Both works heard on this new recording by the Daniel Quartet are from Robert Schumann’s significant chamber music œuvre. + Remarkably, it was within a single year (1842), at the start of his career, that Schumann composed his three String Quartets, op.41 and the Piano Quintet, op.44; both are now considered pillars of the chamber music repertoire. + The Daniel Quartet is renowned for its performances of chamber music at major venues in the USA and across Europe. + Hungarian pianist Klára Würtz – one of Brilliant Classics’ most prolific and recognized artists – joined them for the Piano Quintet.

Quartetto Klimt is one of the most interesting chamber music groups in Italy today, regularly performing in prestigious concert seasons and festivals, both in their home country and abroad, and supported by such prestigious artists as Carlo Maria Giulini, Natalia Gutman and Maurizio Pollini. They make their Brilliant Classics debut with this recording, having previously recorded Dvo?ák’s two quartets for piano and strings for the Amadeus magazine.

This release couples two of Schumann’s substantial chamber music works: the mature E flat Piano Quartet Op. 47 and the youthful C minor Piano Quartet. Schumann’s E flat Piano Quartet is a masterwork in its genre, on a par with those by Mozart and (later) Brahms. The C minor brother is an outpouring of youthful passion on a grand scale, compensating its lack of structural solidity by ardent impetuosity and boundless energy. Excellent performance by the Quartetto Klimt, 4 young Italians sharing their passion for this still slightly neglected chamber music. Recorded in 2009. The booklet contains liner notes and artist biographies. - Brilliant Classics

Based on a fairy tale about the Peri of Persian Mythology, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri is an innovative form of dramatic cantata for solo voice, choir, and orchestra. The piece is an oratorio in three parts, with text by Emil Flechsig and Schumann based on the story by Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh. This recording is from 1981. It features the Leipzig Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Wolf-Dieter Hauschild, along with some of the greatest soloists including Magdalena Hajossyova and Marga Schiml.

This collection provides a complete account of Robert Schumann's works for viola and piano. Schumann was a real innovator, who would often explore new instrumental combinations, sometimes bringing neglected or forgotten instruments back into the limelight. The works on this recording show just how many different moods the composer could evoke using the unusual combination of viola and piano, from the changeable nature of the Fantasiestücke Op.73 and the array of emotions portrayed in the Märchenbilder Op.113 to the passion of the Adagio and Allegro Op.70 and finally the intricacies of the Märchenerzählungen Op.132, with a little help from the clarinet.

The successful partnership of violist Lorenzo Falconi and pianist Sara Bacchini has been described by acclaimed performer, Pier Narciso Masi, as 'a real Duo, in the most complete sense of the word. Their profound understanding of chamber music is supported by considerable talent, sensitivity and personality, and they are great communicators.' They are joined for the recording by clarinettist Darlo Goracci.

Other information:
- New recording, recorded 31 October & 1 November 2012, Chiesa di Santa Cristina, Bologna.
- This disc brings together all Schumann's music featuring the viola as solo instrument.
- Robert Schumann, visionary Romantic, was also a very practical man, who wrote works which could be played on various solo instruments. For instance his Adagio and Allegro Op. 70 may be played on clarinet, oboe, cello or viola.
- These relatively late works of Schumann are on an intimate scale and present idyllic musical landscapes, the world of legends and fairytales.
- Beautifully performed by the Italian duo Lorenzo Falconi and Sara Bacchini.
- Contains liner notes on the pieces and biographies of the performers.

This release is the final installment of the Schubert Complete String Quartet cycle. The entire series has proved to be an outstanding achievement by the German Diogenes Quartet. A centerstone of this album is the G major quartet, which was Schubert’s final quartet, and one of the finest ever written. The Diogenes Quartet was founded in 1998, when four musicians came together to dedicate themselves to chamber music. The ensemble is consistently praised for their commitment and interpretive playing.

There is little doubt that Vienna at the turn of the 19th century was the musical capital of the world; a nexus for the string quartet composer, who could alternate composing for the leading virtuosos of the day with creating works that satisfied the then-increasing predilection for domestic music-making. Against this background, striving to find his own voice and using the medium as a path towards his early symphonies, was the young, prodigiously talented Franz Schubert. Similar to Beethoven, Schubert stood out in his refusal to target the general public with his writing, though there is much evidence to suggest that the majority of his early string quartets were written for and first performed by his family's own ensemble.

This recording brings together three such works written during Schubert's teenage years, beginning with the Overture in B B470 -- seemingly the only one of its kind for string quartet by the composer, and in which traits such as unison playing and fanfares reveal the focus of his orchestral experimentations at that time. Recorded for the first time using a playable version that was made from the original orchestral score, the work is followed by D112, also a work of different origin (originally a string trio). Schubert is still searching for the right response to the quartets of the Viennese masters here, though the finale's lower-voice writing and virtuosic interjections of the first violin do reveal an increasingly original conception of the quartet sound. More compact and less experimental is D353 -- something that is perhaps due to Schubert's contemporaneous studies with the Italian composer Antonio Salieri.

Continuing their complete survey of Schubert's string quartet output with this recording is the Diogenes Quartet, whose first offering (94315) was released to critical acclaim. The Munich-based group is considered one of the most successful string quartets of the younger generation; "Glorious string tone and impeccable ensemble are trademarks of this first-rate quartet" (MusicWeb International, June 2012). 

Other information:

- Recorded on 3--5 December 2012, Himmelfahrtskirche, München-Sendling.
- The second instalment of the recording of Schubert's complete string quartets by the German Diogenes Quartet presents two early, but by no means immature quartets: the B flat D112 and the E major D353, 'Hausmusik' for domestic use, written by a composer whose genius lent a ray of eternity to every note he wrote.
- A world premiere for the Overture D470, and orchestral piece in Italian style, arranged for string quartet by Schubert himself, and completed for this recording by musicologist Christian Starke.
- Contains notes on the music and a biography of the quartets.

This new recording presents arrangements for piano 4-hands or two pianos by orchestral works by Arnold Schoenberg (The two Chamber Symphonies and the Five Pieces Op. 16), arranged by Alban Berg, Anton Webern and Schoenberg himself. The arrangements are not merely a piano reduction for practical purposes but can stand on their own, shedding new light on these complex scores, and bringing out new details and sonorities. These are excellent performances by the Italian piano duo Matteo Fossi and Marco Gaggini, who already recorded a successful Bartok Complete Works for 2 Pianos album for Brilliant Classics. The press wrote of the duo’s recordings: “The original, overwhelming orchestral tide is here changed into a lean demonstration of pure contents, where the emotions are fully preserved and unveiled through the power of logic.” (Claudio Strinati, Il Venerdi di Repubblica)

The Dutch composer and traveling virtuoso Johannes Scheck was one of the great virtuoso viola da gamba players of 17th c. Europe. This CD contains some of the most exciting and influential sonatas from his second published work: Tyd en Konst-Offningen op. 2, the first of his instrumental da gamba creations, (Amsterdam, 1688). Cuban‐born, Spain-based da gambist Lixsania Fernández plays six of these masterworks together with the ensemble she founded, Recondita Armonia.

An aristocratic background, Eastern philosophies, private study with Modernist luminaries of the early 20th century and a determined pursuit of solitude: all in their ways contribute to the unique soundworld of Giacinto Scelsi’s music. Despite shunning personal publicity, however, the composer surrounded himself with friends and favorite performers, among them the American-born, Dutch cellist Frances-Marie Uitti who came to represent Scelsi on the world stage in his latter years. To her care he entrusted Trilogy, which forms the main work on this album of solo cello music. Comprising Triphon, Dithome and the Sanskritinspired Ygghur, the Trilogy is still to some extent dependent on the Expressionist language he had learnt from disciples of Schoenbergian serialism, yet already personal to him, and now a classic of 20th-century solo cello repertoire. The album is completed by the two fleeting movements of Voyages from 1974, which deploy disembodied harmonics and other techniques familiar from Scelsi’s music.

Giacinto Scelsi was one of the most fascinating composers of the Italian Avant Garde. He experimented with the essentials of sound, sometimes writing music based around only one pitch, subjecting it to micro-oscillations, extreme dynamics and changes of timbre. This set contains the complete music in which the flute is featured: from flute solo, duos with different instruments (clarinet, piano, oboe) and ensemble music with two gongs and cowbell. Claudia Giottoli is one of the foremost flautists of Italy. A winner of several international competitions, she specializes in unusual and contemporary repertoire.

Domenico Scarlatti, the sixth child of the celebrated composer Alessandro Scarlatti, was a prolific keyboard composer, and is best known today for his 555 sonatas for keyboard. Domenico was employed by various members of European royalty and nobility in Italy, Spain and Portugal throughout his career. His style was unusual and innovative, but very few of his works were published during his lifetime.

The disc combines several of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas with Neapolitan songs by various composers of the era, exploring the influences of these songs on Scarlatti’s sonatas. Scarlatti’s style is notable for its improvisatory nature as well as its incorporation of elements of Spanish and Portuguese folk music (the composer having spent time in Lisbon, Seville and Madrid), and among the Neapolitan songs featured on the disc is the immensely popular Lo guarracino, a fast?talking and high?spirited number that narrates the story of a fish, and the lilting La Nova Gelosia. Two extracts from operas – ‘So’ li sorbe e le nespole amare’ from Leonardo Vinci’s Lo cecato fauzo and ‘Chi disse ca la femmena’ from Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Lo frate ‘nnamorato – are also present, both of which feature a light?hearted portrayal of women. Out of the many versions of the song Quanno nascette ninno, the one by the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare was chosen for this disc, thanks to its fascinating minor modulation.

Acclaimed harpsichordist Francesco Cera is considered one of Italy’s foremost interpreters of early music. He has toured all over the world and his recordings include interpretations of 17th?century keyboard sonatas, French suites and harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach. Italian soprano Letizia Calandro’s repertoire includes Neapolitan songs alongside the more traditional oeuvres of the Classical and Baroque periods. Having studied at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, she won the Spoleto Award and has performed the lead role in operas by composers as diverse as Monteverdi, Mozart and Verdi.

OTHER INFORMATION:
* New recording, recorded September 2009, Chisea di S. Anatolia, Colle di Tora, Rieti, Italy.
* Extensive liner notes included in English and Italian.
* Sung texts available on the Brilliant Classics website.

During the 17th century, the Roman Catholic Church accepted instrumental interludes during mass as an addition or as a replacement of other parts of the mass. This practice inspired composers of that era, who wrote elaborate organ works to show their compositional skills.; Giovanni Salvatore (1620-1688) was one such composer, whose works are featured here. Salvatore worked as an organist in Naples.; With a compositional style reminiscent of the Neapolitan Baroque liturgy, Salvatore’s works feature rich vocals and instrumental polyphony.; Performing these works is organist Federico Del Sordo and the Nova Schola Gregoriana, conducted by Alberto Turco.

You might say that Mauro Giuliani’s (1781-1829) arrangement of almost two hours of Rossini’s Semiramide, one of the composer’s most complicated scores, is an exercise in futility: how can you fill in all the instruments and voices with six strings? Well, here, playing an 1812 Guadagnini guitar, is the Dutch guitarist Izhar Elias, and you’ll rarely hear anyone work so hard. The playing is magnificent–fluent, tonally as varied as possible, rhythmically true to Rossini–and he even embellishes the da capo sections of arias and duets! But it’s like looking at a stage through the wrong end of binoculars; all of Rossini’s grandeur is miniaturized. The thrill of the human voices of course is absent, and there’s only a certain amount of volume anyone can get out of a guitar; at times the effect is absurd. This is not to say that guitar enthusiasts should not flock to this recording; it’s merely a warning to opera lovers. The sound, including fingers sliding over strings, is superb. You know if you want this.

-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Musicians’ desire to improve the agility and power of their instruments has always tended to go hand in hand with technological development: we may think of Bach and his organ and Beethoven and his piano as well as performer-composers such as Paganini and, in our own time, Jörg Widmann. Through the course of the 19th century the organ was also evolving, transcending the image of an exclusively liturgical instrument and gaining ground – and indeed range of tone-colors – in concertante roles. Another 19th-century case in point was Eugène Jancourt, the bassoon virtuoso and composer, who brought about important changes in his instrument in order to extend its expressive potential. A longstanding performer and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, he wrote a Concertino which transfers well to this combination of bassoon and organ, as does a Verdian rarity, discovered as recently as 2001, the youthful Capriccio. A contemporary of Jancourt’s was the French oboist, composer and conductor Théodore Lalliet, who played solo oboe in the orchestra of the Paris Opera. His Op.22 Terzetto was conceived as a piano trio, but the fluid instrumental dialogue gains an attractive mellifluousness in this combination of oboe, bassoon and organ. Ehestandsgeplauder (Wedding Chatter) by Carl Friedemann and Amourette faunienne by Heinrich Molbe are lighter occasional pieces. Verdi’s Capriccio is complemented here by the inclusion of the Fantasie et Variations for oboe on themes of Il Corsaro. Its composer, Stanislas Verroust, studied music in Paris, where he then made a name for himself as an oboist and violinist as well as composing for the oboe and devoting time to teaching. This combination of repertoire is unrivalled in the catalogue. The recording was made in 2017 at the cathedral in Vicenza, which hosts an organ built by Giovanni Battista De Lorenzi in 1878, replete with the technical innovations that enable rapid execution of the quicksilver shifts in volume and tone-color demanded by this music.