The four stylistically contrasting concertos of this recording represent the technical and expressive range achieved by Johann Joachim Quantz during his long career in the service of the King. Although the music of the Baroque period was becoming less fashionable and being favoured by the gallant style of composers like Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Quantz continued to write in a more conservative style, which pleased the Kings tastes. Flutist Eric Lamb is in demand internationally as a concerto soloist, recitalist, concert curator and chamber musician. In 2013, Eric left his post as a core member of the International Contemporary Ensemble - ICE to pursue a career as soloist and chamber musician. Eric is principal flutist of the Chineke! Orchestra London (Associate Orchestra of the Southbank Centre) and co-artistic director of ensemble paladino. Eric is on faculty of the University of Auckland School of Music as Lecturer in Flute and is coordinator of the student contemporary music ensemble.

Within this new album the Armonia delle Sfere ensemble is delivering to us the complete Produzioni Armoniche work by Antonia Bembo, a collection of 41 motets dedicated in 1701 to Louis XIV, in whose court she landed after a series of vicissitudes occurred in Venice, her hometown, including the failure of a marriage and important family disputes, for which she was deprived of her paternal inheritance. After being trained under the musical guidance of Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), organist of the ducal chapel of San Marco, Antonia secretly married Lorenzo Bembo, a Venetian nobleman, from whom she had two children, and from whom in 1672 she herself asked divorce, due to the continuing absence of her husband, whom she also accused of continuing abuse and betrayal. She then moved to Paris, perhaps following the guitarist Francesco Corbetta, where she concentrated on music and composition, and where she had the opportunity to perform in the presence of Louis xiv, at the court of which she would find acceptance and protection until the end of her life. It is the fascinating story of a strong personality that sought and found its way overcoming the difficult condition of a seventeenth century woman artist.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were important for the development of the transverse flute: the technical improvements introduced by French and German flutists made the instrument become more accurate in its tuning, more powerful in its sound, and more agile in quick passages, so much so that it superseded the recorder and began to compete with the violin, even replacing it in some sonatas or concertos. Virtuoso flutists such as Philibert Rebillè, Michel de la Borre, Pierre Gabriel Buffordin, Michel Blavet, Johann Joachim Quantz and his noble pupil Frederick II of Prussia were undoubtedly a source of inspiration for the composers of the baroque and galant periods who composed music for the transverse flute and produced pieces that became landmarks in the history of music; but it was also thanks to the diffusion of the instrument among amateurs that the transverse flute repertoire was enriched by an extraordinary number of compositions, many of which were exquisite works. This is the case of these five unpublished concertos by Italian authors - some of them totally unknown, now rediscovered by the Baroque Ensemble “Carlo Antonio Marino”, led by Natale Arnoldi, and by the flute of Raffaele Trevisani.

Petrassi’s long creative life was marked by ceaseless absorption of ideas and by constant invention. His Flute Concerto is notable for its boldness of design and the surprise of its unorthodox sound world, where instruments rotate in block form. The Piano Concerto is more overtly virtuosic, even showing some influence from Prokofiev. The orchestral suite drawn from the ballet La follia di Orlando (The Madness of Orlando) is often clothed in Petrassi’s experimental orchestral sonorities. ‘The rehabilitation of Italian twentieth-century music by the Naxos label continues unabated: the latest release is this remarkable collection…that any genuine Petrassian will rush to purchase’. (International Record Review on 8.572411)

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born in Weimar in 1714 where he grew up under the severe leadership of his father Johann Sebastian receiving a complete musical forming. In 1738 when he was 24 he introduced himself to the Prussian court arousing the admiration of the Crown Prince. In 1740 Federico II succeeded the throne and the new King wanted Carl Philipp Emanuel at his service. For the following 28 years he accompanied the king, who was a flautist, every evening on the harpsichord. According to the musical historian Charles Burney, Carl Philipp Emanuel was not sufficiently appreciated by the King that in terms of composition seemed to prefer Quantz and Graun. Even Carl Philipp composed for the Prussian King a certain number of solo sonatas, trio sonatas and concerts that increased his already vast repertoire whose manuscripts are nowadays preserved in the Berlin State Library. Many of these compositions are known in their “modern“ version- i.e. performed with a metal flute and with the piano instead of harpsichord - and it in is this version that Francesca Pagnini and Annibale Rebaudengo present these works to the audience, giving particular attention to the expressive and interpretative values the extremely modern Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s musical writing puts in continued evidence.

This programme has been nurtured from a selection of pieces inspired by English gardens, including Vaughan Williams’ lovely ‘Fantasia on Greensleeves,’ spreading out towards French and Italian repertoire that evokes pastoral settings of birdsong, fountains and springs, and topped with a light-hearted musical picnic dessert. Along the way we are treated to the exquisite melody of Elgar’s Chanson de matin and the nostalgic atmosphere of William Alwyn’s ‘Naiades.’ Nino Rota’s film music credits include The Godfather, and his sublime and festive Sonata adds a celebratory touch to the personal joy of these performers’ many years of musical friendship. The combination of flute and harp always creates an atmosphere of beauty, with contrasting but complementary sonorities that have been exploited by a multitude of composers over the years. The pastoral theme of this program has been carefully chosen to include music from the Baroque and Romantic eras right up to the contemporary.