This remarkable release reveals the full breadth and genius of a creative career known to most merely by the tip of the iceberg: a small number of seminal works written in the composer’s final decade of life. Cesar Franck (1822–1890), although considered one of the foremost 19th-century French composers, was not in fact French by birth, but Belgian. He only became a full French citizen in 1873 after he had been appointed organ professor at the Paris Conservatoire.

Franck's career can be divided into three distinct periods, each characterised by the production of very different types of music. From 1834 to 1846, under pressure from his father, he concertised as a piano virtuoso, and most of the works of this period were written with that purpose in mind. In the decade following his marriage in 1848 he composed virtually nothing but became celebrated as an organist, and he would bring the spacious dimensions of that instrument to his sound world in the years to come. His ‘middle period’ – from about 1858 to 1879 – was devoted to the production of works for organ, church music and a series of monumental choral pieces on religious or biblical subjects. In these three decades he wrote virtually nothing for the piano. From 1879 begins the decade of his late flowering in the great chamber and orchestral works, ushered in by his well-loved Piano Quintet and containing the pieces for which Franck is widely known. Spanning all three periods were opera and his small output of 18 mélodies.

Recordings date from 1976-2016.

Includes new liner notes on the music and composer by David Moncur.

Selected excerpts of reviews from some of the previously released volumes included in this set:

Franck: Melodies / Francesca Scaini, Mattia Ometto

Scaini’s vocalism, rich and full with a luscious yet powerful tone and outstanding vocal control. She has no “break” in registers, her voice has the same burnished bronze quality from her lowest to her highest notes, and her vibrato is light and rapid, making her timbre sound almost vibratoless. Her breath control is staggering, spinning out the longest lines as if in one breath, and her musicality unquestionably great (Scaini, the notes tell us, has also sung the modern music of Hespos, Ligeti, and Neurath in addition to the standard Italian operatic repertoire). If I have any complaint, it is that she is more of an operatic animal and less of a song stylist; it’s a bit like hearing Gilda Cruz-Romo sing Schubert Lieder. Pianist Ornetto, following her every mood and impulse, also accompanies along “big” lines. This may not really be the ideal style for Franck’s chansons , but as I say, you can’t fault her voice or phrasing.

– Fanfare

Franck: String Quartet, Piano Quintet / Rubackyté, Vilnius String Quartet

Joined by Mûza Rubackyté, one of the great pianists of our era, the Vilnius Quartet galvanized to bar-by-bar involvement and escalating drama lifting into superbly mastered ecstasy verging on hysteria.

– Fanfare

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CONTENTS:

• Franck, C: Le Chasseur maudit
Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra
Roberto Benzi

• Franck, C: Symphony in D minor
Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra
Roberto Benzi

• Franck, C: Symphonic Variations for piano & orchestra, M46
François-Joël Thiollier (piano)
Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra
Roberto Benzi

• Franck, C: Les Djinns, Op. 45
François-Joël Thiollier (piano)
Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra
Roberto Benzi

• Franck, C: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 11
Martijn van den Hoek (piano)
Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra
Roberto Benzi

• Franck, C: Les Eolides - Symphonic Poem
Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra
Roberto Benzi

• Franck, C: Psyché
Sofia Symphony Orchestra
Vassil Kazandjiev

• Franck, C: String Quartet in D major
Vilnius String Quartet

• Franck, C: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14
Muza Rubackyte (piano)
Vilnius String Quartet

• Franck, C: Trio Concertant in F sharp minor, Op. 1, No. 1
members of the Academica Quartet

• Franck, C: Trio Concertant in B flat major, Op. 1, No. 2 'Trio de salon'
members of the Academica Quartet

• Franck, C: Duo Concertante
members of the Academica Quartet

• Franck, C: Andantino quietoso in E flat, Op. 6
members of the Academica Quartet

• Franck, C: Trio Concertant in B minor, Op. 1, No. 3
members of the Academica Quartet

• Franck, C: Trio Concertant in B minor, Op. 2 No. 4
members of the Academica Quartet

• Franck, C: Violin Sonata in A major
Mariana Sîrbu (violin), Ruxandra Colan (piano)

• Franck, C: Ballade, Op. 9
Julia Severus (piano)

• Franck, C: Transcriptions of Four Schubert Songs, Op. 8
Julia Severus (piano)

• Franck, C: Fantasy on Two Polish Folk Songs, Op. 15
Julia Severus (piano)

• Franck, C: Souvenirs of Aix-la-Chapelle, Op. 7
Julia Severus (piano)

• Franck, C: Grande Fantaisie sur des motifs de Gulistan de Dalayrac
Francesco Bertoldi (piano)

• Franck, C: Fantaisie No.2
Francesco Bertoldi (piano)

• Franck, C: Fantasy on Two Polish Folk Songs, Op. 15
Francesco Bertoldi (piano)

• Franck, C: Grande Fantaisie No.3
Francesco Bertoldi (piano)

• Franck, C: Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18
Muza Rubackyte (piano)

• Franck, C: Prelude, Aria et Final M23 (1886 / 7)
Muza Rubackyte (piano)

• Franck, C: Prélude, Choral et Fugue, M21
Muza Rubackyte (piano)

• Franck, C: Fantaisie in C major, Op. 16
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Grande Pièce Symphonique in F sharp minor, Op. 17
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Pastorale, Op. 19
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Prière, Op. 20
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Final in B flat, Op. 21
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Trois pièces pour grand orgue, M. 35-37
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Trois Chorals pour grand orgue, M. 38-40
Adriano Falcioni (organ)

• Franck, C: Cinq Pièces pour Harmonium
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18
Joris Verdin (harmonium), Jos van Immerseel (piano)

• Franck, C: Offertoire in A major
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Petit Offertoire
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Quasi Marcia Op. 22 pour Harmonium
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Petit Offertoire pour Harmonium
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Offertoire sur un noël breton
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Entree pour Harmonium
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Piece in E flat major
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: L'Organiste
Joris Verdin (harmonium)

• Franck, C: Stradella
Isabel Kabatu (Léonor), Marc Laho (Stradella), Werner Van Mechelen (Spadoni), Philippe Rouilon (Duke of Pesaro), Xavier Rouilon (Pietro), Giovanni Iovino (Michael), Patrick Mignon (Beppo), Roger Joakim (An officer)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie
Paolo Arrivabeni

• Franck, C: Les Béatitudes, M53
Cornelia Kallisch (alto), Ingeborg Danz (mezzo-soprano), John Cheek (bass), Diana Montague (mezzo-soprano), Scot Weir (tenor), Reinhard Hagen (bass), Gilles Cachemaille (baritone), Keith Lewis (tenor), Juan Vasle (bass)
Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR
Helmuth Rilling

• Franck, C: Redemption
Gé Neutel (soprano)
The Netherlands Radio Choir, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic
Jean Fournet

• Franck, C: Mass in A Major Op. 12
Mariann Bódi (soprano), Attila Wendler (tenor), István Rácz (bass)
Kodály Kórus Debrecen
Salamon Kamp

• Franck, C: Quae est ista
Kodály Kórus Debrecen
Salamon Kamp

• Franck, C: Dextera Domini
Kodály Kórus Debrecen
Salamon Kamp

• Franck, C: Sept Paroles du Christ sur la Croix
Mainzer Domorchester, Mainzer Domorchester
Karsten Storck

• Franck, C: Trois pièces pour grand orgue, M. 35-37
Daniel Beckmann (organ)

• Franck, C: Nocturne
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Ninon
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Le vase brisé
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Lied (Lucien Paté)
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Le mariage des roses
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Souvenance
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Robin Gray
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Passez
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Roses et papillons
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: L’ange et l’enfant
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Les Cloches du soir
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: L’émir de Bengador
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: S’il est un charmant gazon
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: A cette terre où l’on ploie sa tente
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: Aimer
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

• Franck, C: La Procession
Francesca Scaini (soprano), Mattia Ometto (piano)

As the central figure of Spanish music in the first half of the last century, de Falla (1876-1946) came to define the sound of Spain for listeners beyond its borders. Folk music, romanticism, neoclassicism, modernism: all the prevalent styles of his time were assimilated and absorbed within a personal idiom that advanced the work of notable predecessors such as Albeniz and Granados in establishing a distinctively Spanish idiom for art music, making him a worthy contemporary of other composers outside the central European mainstream from Vaughan Williams in England to Bartók in Hungary and Sibelius in Finland. Falla’s cycle of Seven Popular Spanish Songs is a perfect synthesis of artsong and folksong, performed here in Luciano Berio’s orchestration by Marta Senn and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela under the baton of Eduardo Mata, the Mexican conductor renowned for his dynamic interpretations of Hispanic repertoire. The songs return in their instrumental guise as the Suite populaire espagnole, with the cellist Timora Rosler accompanied by Klára Würtz. Rafael Puyana is a uniquely sympathetic soloist in the Harpsichord Concerto which gave the instrument new life beyond its Baroque associations. Benita Meshulam is widely recognized as the inheritor of Alicia de Larrocha’s mantle with her superbly atmospheric recordings of Spanish piano music.

REVIEW:

Manuel de Falla Collection is an honest title, since the five CDs present only a selection of his works, including well-known ones such as Nights in Spanish Gardens, El Amor Brujo, and The Three-Cornered Hat. The recordings with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra from 1981 convey particularly well the intensity of Spanish emotional worlds that Central Europeans like to assume. The round is opened with El Amor Brujo in a striking and lively performance. The interpretation of the Seven popular Spanish Songs, as well as Homenajas let the listener dive into Spanish worlds. The three dances from The Three-Cornered Hat in the version for orchestra will be joined by others in the piano version on a later CD.

For the recordings made in Venezuela, the conductor Eduardo Mata certainly holds the orchestra together and inspires it to effective performances. One could well imagine more sensitivity here, the nocturnal sultriness of the tango instead of the midday heat, so to speak, but there is little more to offer in the way of fire and color. More delicacy without sacrificing the technical quality of the recording is offered by the oldest recording.

In Nights in Spanish Gardens, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra performs under the judicious direction of Günther Herbig. The singers go along with the emotional South American approach, not without delicately savoring the music.

The two pianists offer mature quality. Benita Mehuslam, who has also recorded the complete works for piano by De Falla on the label, is featured here with excerpts, Dances from the The-Cornered Hat and Spanish pieces. In the only chamber work, besides the piano music, Klara Würtz accompanies cellist Timora Rosler on the piano in the Suite Populaire Espagnole. The two artists, who have also won awards as a duo, give the top dance of sensitivity and European noblesse, so to speak, with their interpretation that concludes the collection. Harpsichordist Rafael Puyana from Colombia can show all the registers of his skills in the harpsichord concerto. Here and also in El Retablode Maese Pedro as well as in Psyche the Solistas de Mexico play, again conducted by Eduardo Mata. Those who want to experience this composer intensively will find in this compilation a good opportunity to be infected by the joie de vivre of the music.

-- Pizzicato

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) was an influential composer, musician and prominent figure in the musical world in the last part of the seventeenth and very early eighteenth century in Italy and beyond. It is indeed hard to accept that all the known works of Corelli can be contained on just ten CDs. But they can; they have been; and they're available again in a re-issue of Brilliant Classics 92403. That set had a slightly different disposition of works but is essentially the same.

The set is valuable as a single survey of the great composer's work - especially since it contains many items otherwise unavailable. The period instruments sound well, the playing throughout is accomplished and achieved with a certain almost nonchalance that suggests the players are very familiar with the music.

– MusicWeb International

Gibbons, Monteverdi and Willaert represent the high watermark of madrigal writing in England, Italy and the Netherlands respectively. Their subtle marriage of music and text has produced enduring miniature masterpieces of love lost and found and pastoral humour. And there are no shortage of distinguished contemporaries in those countries. But Spain, the home of golden-age polyphony, also had a lively tradition of madrigal composition, too little of which is known beyond native shores. This fine new recording should address that shortcoming. In fact Spain already had a flourishing culture of secular songs in the form of villancicos when Italian composers arrived at royal courts and chapels during the 16th century and bringing with them their own traditions of popular music. Mateo Flecha ‘The Younger’ was a Catalan, Carmelite monk who showed himself adaptable to this Italian influence in his own book of madrigals, eventually published in Venice and excerpted here. Joan Brudieu (1520-1591) was a Frenchman also living in Catalonia who published madrigals in Spanish and Catalan (both languages represented in this collection). Even less familiar is the name of Pedro Valenzuela – his dates are lost to us – but he uses a sophisticated harmonic vocabulary with acute sensitivity to text in a trio of Italian-texted madrigals. He had emigrated to Italy as a singer at St Mark’s in Venice, and he was followed by Sebastián Raval, while Stefano Limido travelled in the other direction. Thus as a whole the collection illustrates a stimulating cross-fertilisation of Spanish and Italian styles in consort music. The performances are both polished and authoritative, attentive to original sources and grounded in a thorough understanding of madrigalian style. Founded by its director José Duce Chenoll in 2010, the Amystis ensemble already has an impressive catalogue of recordings to its name. ‘Fervently committed readings,’ remarked Sir Nicholas Kenyon in The Observer of their complete Cabanilles collection.

This new release presents an absorbing portrait of Abel Carlevaro (1916-2001) through his music as performed by Cristiano Poli Cappelli, an Italian guitarist making his second album for Brilliant Classics. The first was of guitar music by another relatively forgotten figure, Alexander Tansman, and it was enthusiastically reviewed by Classical Guitar magazine: ‘Highly recommended!’ Like Tansman, Carlevaro studied with Andres Segovia, the father of the modern guitar, during the 1930s. However, he broke away from his master’s teachings in order to make his own experiments in both guitar manufacture and composition. His music caught the ear of Heitor Villa-Lobos, another South American innovator, and it embraces the widest stylistic range captured by Poli Cappelli on this album, from the delicate watercolours of the Preludios Americanos (1969-74) to the vivid brushstrokes and abstract form of Cronomias (1972). Carlevaro’s later music returned often to the milonga, a tango-related dance popularised in the classical sphere by Astor Piazzolla. Milonga para Ling (1999) is brief but saturated with melancholy, while to the Milonga Oriental (1994) belongs one of the composer’s happiest melodic inspirations. Later still, a pair of milonga suites describe a peaceful return to the composer’s heritage. An essential acquisition for guitar aficionados, but also a collection of beautiful South American melodies that deserve to travel more widely.

John Dowland is without doubt one of the most famous English composers, the foremost exponent of the Golden Age of the Elizabethan Era of the 16th and 17th Century. Dowland’s songs fully reflect the spirit and tastes of the Elizabethan age, with their tendency towards deep melancholy and their pronounced focus on darkness, moonlight and night time. Despite the predominance of grief, sadness, tears and death there are also songs in which a sense of optimism, lightness and joy prevail. This new recording uses the classical guitar as accompanying instrument, played by Adriano Sebastiani. The young soprano Siphiwe McKenzie was twice nominated by the prestigious magazine Opernwelt as “Young Singer of the Year.” She sang in important theatres such as the Wiener Volksoper, Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Teatro Regio di Parma, Leipzig State Opera and many more.

Francesco Cilea went into history as the composer of one opera, Adrienne Lecouvreur. However, this late romantic Italian left a fine oeuvre of solo piano music, which is presented completely on these two CDs. The piano works are wonderfully evocative character pieces, full of subtlety and finesse, in the style of early Debussy. One of the best pieces, Acque correnti, is a Ravelian study in sonority and instrumental glitter. Cilea’s works for piano four hands are also included in this comprehensive recording. Italian pianist Pier Paolo Vincenzi plays with great clarity and feeling for the atmosphere of these colorful piano pieces. He already recorded piano works by Wagner, and the Complete Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli for Brilliant Classics.

Marcelo Nisinman is one of the most remarkable bandeonists of today. He created a post-Piazzolla Buenos Aires tango style, completely personalized, fusing elements of traditional tango, the inevitable inspiration from Piazzolla and the current modernist (jazz) styles.

On this new recording Marcelo Nisinman is joined by Alberto Mesirca (classical and electric guitars) and Winfried Holzenkamp (bass and ukulele). They play a wildly varying program, ranging from arrangements of Bach and Buxtehude, through traditionals like La Cumparsita and Ojos Negros, to Nisinman’s own compositions, notably the extravagant Der Makabere Zirkus.

An irresistible recording, brimming with joy, passion and virtuosity!

Louis-François Dauprat was a French horn player, horn teacher and composer. He was born in Paris in 1781 and died there in 1868. As a child he was a chorister at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. From 1794 he was taught to play the horn by Philip Kenn, a cor basse (low horn); first at the Institut National de Musique and later in the first horn class of the Conservatoire. In 1797 he was the first horn player to be awarded the premier prix. After touring Italy and Egypt with various musical groups between 1799 and 1801 he settled in Paris, where he decided to study again at the Conservatoire, this time harmony and composition. He also studied with Anton Reicha, who composed the horn parts for Dauprat in his quintets for woodwinds. Dauprat can be seen as the pioneer of the Parisian horn tradition. His compositions move stylistically between the classical and romantic periods. In addition to operas and symphonies, he composed a whole series of works for solo horns: horn duets, horn trios, horn quartets, horn sextets, horn with string quartet and much more. For horn players and the interpretation of Dauprat's works or those of his contemporaries, the Méthode de cor alto et cor basse (Paris, 1824) is particularly significant. This recording presents works for horn in various groups: solos, duets, a horn sonata, and a quartet for four horns. David Fliri is solo hornist in the Staatskapelle Weimar and Professor at the Mozarteum Salzburg.

Orphaned at a young age, Fortunato Chelleri (1690–1757) was raised by his uncle Francesco Bazzani, the kapellmeister at Piacenza Cathedral, who taught him organ, harpsichord and composition. He rose to prominence first in Italy as a composer of opera seria but also wrote oratorios, cantatas, orchestral music, chamber music and keyboard music during his time as kapellmeister at Würzburg, a post he took in 1724. Unfortunately the majority of his work has been lost. The “6 Sonate di Galanteria” performed on this album were written in the early 1720s, a time when a new compositional style known as the galant was taking hold. (This was a departure from the baroque, with much less emphasis on polyphony and a preference for accompanied melody, making it a forerunner of the Classical period to come.) The 6 Sonate reflect this style with their typical alternation of slow and fast movements and monothematic, binary structure. Some of the movements are based on dance rhythms, including many minuets and some French-style allemandes. In the latter, Chelleri meticulously notates the “swing” or dotted rhythms that would have been implied, unwritten, according to the French notes inégales practice of the time, which suggests that Chelleri wanted to write in a way that players outside the French harpsichord tradition could understand. He therefore represents a synthesis of French, German and (the less well-known) Italian harpsichord music of his era in one composer who channelled all the compositional features he absorbed, embellished and reworked during his training in Europe in the early 18th century into the emerging galant style. This album was recorded on a Franco-Flemish two-manual harpsichord built by Michael Johnson in 2006, a copy of a 1637 Ruckers instrument, tuned at a pitch of a=415 in the Kirnberger III temperament, a common choice for mid-18th-century keyboard music.

Who was Marco Antonio Centorio? Given how little attention has been paid to his music in modern times, a surprising amount is known about him. Born around 1600 in the Piedmontese town of Vercelli, Centorio was blessed with a fine treble voice that secured him an education at the town’s Collegio degli Innocenti. When his voice broke he moved to Milan and studied both organ and theory there, before moving back to his home-town, where he became the titular organist by the age of 18. A decade later he became maestro di capella, and held the post until his early death in 1638. Most of his extant music was preserved in the Vercelli Chapter Archive, which supplied the manuscripts for these world-premiere recordings. The album opens with the elegant chant La Centoria, ‘to be played on two organs’ (with the option of adding string instruments), a singularly fine piece in the style of the late 16th-century Milanese canzone that was already in decline. There are several pastoral canzone: non-liturgical music written for the enjoyment of the aristocracy and clergy, which display Centorio’s melodic gifts and contrapuntal skills. They alternate here with instrumental interludes and with accompanied motets, of the same character as the pastoral works but composed to sacred texts. The performances here enjoy unparalleled authenticity, having been made by modern heirs of the very ensemble which Centorio once directed, and in the fine domed basilica of Vercelli cathedral for which these works were conceived four centuries ago. Collectors of late-Renaissance era rarities will not hesitate to add the name of Centorio to their libraries.

Born in northern Italy around the turn of the 16th century – no more precise data is available – Girolamo Cavazzoni became organist of the cathedral in Mantova in 1621 and soon after entered the service of the Gonzaga family whose lavish artistic patronage sponsored and encouraged many of the finest Italian composers of the day. During his Mantuan years Cavazzoni taught the organ to Costanzo Antegnati (1549–1624), son of the organ builder at S Barbara, Graziadio Antegnati. Costanzo's L'arte organica (Brescia, 1608) recalls Cavazzoni as ‘Hieronimo d'Urbino già mio honorato maestro’. In 1565–6 he supervised the building of the organ in the church of S Barbara, Mantua, and also played the organ there at Mass. This is the very instrument played by Federico Del Sordo, lending his recording a unique authenticity and powerful sense of place and time. The restoration of the single-manual Santa Barbara organ (1995-2006) was undertaken by Giorgio Carli with the aim of returning the instrument to its original pristine state as far as possible, rather than extending or ‘improving’ it, and thus the colors of the instrument closely resemble those with which Cavazzoni was familiar. Much of the music here was written for liturgical performance in the alternatim fashion, whereby verses of the Mass text, the Magnificat or an antiphon are alternatively played and embroidered by the organ and then chanted by a choir. Federico Del Sordo draws on two original volumes, printed in Venice in the 1540s, plus a pair of ricercars to be found in multi-authored collections of the time. Together they build a portrait of a composer as stylish as he was pragmatic.

Born in 1959, Stefano Casarini has composed an extensive library of concert and educational music for the guitar for different levels of accomplishment. The 12 Grandes Etudes and 12 Petites Etudes recorded here are designed for professional or at least highly accomplished musicians, full of technical challenges yet satisfyingly musical in their own right. The idiom is tonal but modern, often reflective in mood, using repeated motifs which owe something both to the guitar tradition and to Minimalist music. As Adriano Sebastiani remarks in his booklet notes to this new recording, ‘Casarini’s compositions are highly distinctive, never banal, certainly idiomatic and always to the point. By the same token they can also be intrepid, and inclined to create evocative atmospheres and states of mind that can convey deep feelings.’ This is Adriano Sebastiani’s fifth album for Brilliant Classics, after well-received recordings where he accompanies singers in music by Dowland, Spohr, Weber and Rossini. Thus he brings to Casarini’s music a natural feeling for its Romantic character and easy melodic flow. The album also joins an expanding and valuable collection of studies for guitar on Brilliant Classics, including two collections of Easy Studies and volumes dedicated to Sor, to Gangi and Gilardino, among others. This is the projected first volume of a series designed by Sebastiani to bring Casarini’s compositional voice to an international audience and to give a more complete picture of the stylistic variety, the value and beauty of his music

This is the fourth volume on Brilliant Classics of the vibrantly cosmopolitan music of the Jewish-Italian, US composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. His heritage is reflected in this substantial song-cycle for soprano and guitar, receiving here only its second modern recording. The Divan of Moses Ibn Ezra is a setting of 19 poems, in a modern English translation, by a medieval Spanish Jew who wrote, like Castelnuovo-Tedesco almost a millennium later, in exile. Thus the subject of its first section is ‘Songs of Wandering’, before friendship and love turn sour in the second section. Sorrow and defeat also mark the third, ‘Of Wine, and of the Delights of the Sons of Men’ – though still within the composer’s appealingly melodic vein – before the return of spring and a more positive outlook to close the cycle, in which the poet bravely faces ‘The World and its Vicissitudes’ before contemplating mortality with calm resignation in a moving epilogue. The piece is a substantial addition to the growing discography of the composer on Brilliant Classics, including releases dedicated to his guitar studies (BC95219), duets (BC94833), concertos (BC7615) and piano music (BC94811), as well as samples of his prolific output on several compilations. The fine Italian guitarist Giulio Tampalini has his own impressive discography on the label, in music by Paganini (BC95031), Mozzani and Respighi (BC95230), Tarrega (BC94336) and more. Here he is joined by the Polish soprano Joanna Klisowska, who has sung with many major European early-music ensembles. The album is completed with individual songs in Spanish and Italian as well as two settings of Shakespeare. Ranging in date across the composer’s long career, they exhibit his full stylistic range, from the impressionistic, late-Romantic language of the English songs to the more harmonically adventurous terrain of two Spanish folksongs.

When the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals revived the solo suites of Bach in the first decades of the last century, he reminded both audiences and composers of the huge potential of his instrument to hold the stage in its own right, no less than a violin or a piano. Inspired by his charisma, and that of his successors such as Tortelier and Rostropovich, many modern composers have followed Bach’s example. The Italian cellist presents music by ten of them on this exciting debut album for Brilliant Classics. Tortelier and Rostropovich are represented by their own, little-known but highly imaginative works – a Circus Suite and an innocently titled but fearsomely challenging study respectively. Carter Brey, the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, has also written for the instrument with inside knowledge, in a tango of big, seductive gestures preceded on Tarantino’s album by Latin-themed showpieces from Albeniz, Piazzolla and Rogerio y Taguell. Each half of the album is brought to a reflective close with a soliloquy by the modern Italian composer Giovanni Sollima. The cello’s melancholy moods are further explored by Ilse de Ziah and Sebastian Diezig, but Tarantino has chosen and ordered his repertoire to display the cello’s expressive range to its fullest. Mixing familiar and little-known composers, it’s a perfect introduction to the ever-expanding universe of solo cello music beyond Bach. Born in 1977, Luciano Tarantino is a performer and teacher with his origins in Puglia, in the far south of Italy. He has played with many of today’s greatest conductors and founded a music festival in the region of his birth. On this recording he plays a fine 1736 cello by Antonio Testore.