Arcadian Dreams: the title conjures pastoral perfection, an idyllic vision rooted in Greek mythology. Equally, it references the Arcadian Academy established in Rome in 1690, a vibrant hub of intellectual and artistic creativity whose influence quickly spread across Europe. Arcadian Dreams assembles an exquisite group of composers-both esteemed and inspired-including the French luminaries Thomas-Louis Bourgeois, Louis Antoine Lefebvre, and Jean-Philippe Rameau; the Neapolitan maestro Domenico Scarlatti, who lived his last 35 years in Spain; and the German-born George Frideric Handel, whose early Italian career left an indelible mark on his masterpieces. The enchanting realm of Arcadian Dreams abounds with gods and goddesses, shepherds and nymphs, and bucolic dreamscapes, creating an aural tapestry of pictorial, secular cantatas intertwined with entrancing instrumental numbers. The fearless young soprano Hannah de Priest, making her recording debut, vividly captures the essence of these beguiling works, alongside the entrepreneurial early music ensemble Les Délices, whose members bring long-forgotten music alive for contemporary audiences.

This CD features works whose first editions or manuscripts are preserved in libraries north of the Alps, particularly in present-day Germany. Of particular interest is that these are primarily works for wind instruments, especially oboes, but also trumpets. Another important aspect is the transcription and arrangement of Albinoni's works and themes from the pen of two famous German composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Gottfried Walther. Albinoni was already very famous during his lifetime and admired by princes and fellow musicians, even north of the Alps!

There are several sets of pieces that Bach collated (also) with his lessons in mind, amongst them the 'Orgelbuchlein', the 'Little Organ Book', which he started whilst working in Weimar in 1708, and the so-called 'Inventions and Sinfonias', composed in the 1720s in Cothen for his son Wilhelm Friedemann and for "lovers of the clavier, and particularly those who desire to learn". He worked on the 'Orgelbuchlein' over many years, adding to it and making changes, presumably adapting to his student's needs. His inscription on the title page proclaims in a rhyming couplet that his compositions were "in praise for the Almighty's will, and for my neighbour's greater skill". In the context of this programme two choral preludes and two 'Sinfonias' are used as "warm-ups", or preludes for five imagined lessons, functioning as the binding of the student's portfolio.

We have wanted to record Bach's violin concertos with Sophie Gent ever since she joined Ensemble Masques in 2003, says Olivier Fortin, harpsichordist and founder of the ensemble that explores Baroque music with such passion. "Sophie is an exceptional musician with an extremely convincing, honest and unpretentious style". Another pillar of the group is Kathleen Kaji, who is the soloist for Telemann's viola concerto. "Telemann is a fantastic storyteller," she says, "who provides a plot, characters, costumes and props - and leaves you to put it all together". Two sinfonie by Albinoni link the concertos and shine a spotlight on each musician in the ensemble.

What happens when the illustrious brass sections of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic come together? The answer: The Philharmonic Brass Making it's debut in Vienna's Musikverein in April 2023 the group will come together for recording, tours and education work. Comprising some of the best-known faces in the brass world from Berlin, Vienna and their friends, the group includes Sarah Willis, horn and Paul Halwax, tuba. Their Debut album 'Overture!' was conducted by Tugan Sokhiev and released through Decca Classics. Now it's time for the following up album through the new label Supreme Classics: Italiana! Conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti includes virtuoso arrangements of some of the best-known music including Verdi's Sinfonia di Nabucco, Rossini: Guillaume Tell - Overture and many more.

The brilliant dynamism of Italian Baroque music is at it's most virtuosic and thrilling in works featuring the solo trumpet, whether in original compositions or transcriptions. Albinoni's astonishing ornamentations and the luminous dexterity of Vivaldi's concerto both represent each composer's distinctive character, heard alongside works by Corelli, Zipoli, Baldassare and Torelli. Domenico Sarri's Sinfonia a 5 is heard here in it's world premiere recording. Thomas Reiner is an acknowledged exponent of this repertoire with his performance of German Baroque Trumpet Concertos (Naxos 8.551419) described as 'first rate and spirited... an excellent protagonist' by Fanfare magazine.

The complete BBC recording of the service attended by H.M the Queen, H.R.H the Duke of Edinburgh, the Royal Family, the family of H.R.H. The Duchess of Cornwall, and 800 guests.

ALBINONI: 8 CONCERTOS PETRI,

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The five-part writing for strings has its period of greatest development in the 16th and 17th centuries, only to fall into a progressive obsolescence. The most commonly used instrumental ensemble included two violins, alto and tenor viola da braccio, cello and basso continuo. Of this quintet, the instrument that undergoes a progressive dismissal is the viola tenore, which in this recording we propose in its original late seventeenth century mounting.

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Tomaso Albinoni's 12 Trio sonatas Op. 1 receive their premiere recordings on CD on this new specially priced CPO issue. For the most part they are highly spirited works similar in style to that of Albinoni's contemporaries Antonio Vivaldi and Francesco Veracini--though more indebted to the old master of this form, Arcangelo Corelli. However, even listeners with a passing familiarity with this composer will recognize some unique Albinonian qualities. For example, the opening movement of trio sonata No. 6, marked "Grave", moves with an elegance unmistakably characteristic of the composer of the famous Adagio.

The ever-reliable German original instrument ensemble Parnassi Musici (whose recording of Dominico Gallo's trio sonatas for CPO was one of last year's great surprises) performs these minor masterpieces beautifully. CPO's sound is exemplary and the set includes informative historical notes. Albinoni fans will need no encouragement; others looking for a collection of Italian Baroque trio sonatas that rank with the best would do well to consider this offering.
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London 6, 8 & 9 January 1996 Producer(s) Nicholas Anderson Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan Jonathan Cooper (Assistant) Richard Smoker (Assistant)

In this latest recording of works by Albinoni, Simon Standage directs Collegium Musicum 90 showcasing the rarely performed and recorded Op. 10 Concertos. As late as 1961, academics were unaware of Albinoni's last set of concertos. All this changed when two small private collections were found to contain the print. Since then, the existence of Op.10 has been known to scholars, but awareness of it and curiosity about it has not really penetrated. Most of the Op.10 concertos have not been published in a modern edition, and the set has been recorded only twice before. The dedicatee of Op. 10 was the Marquis of Castelar, Don Luca Fernando Patiño, who had come to Italy from Spain as a military commander. As a result, the Op.10 concertos are highly individual. If one looks at the melodic lines in isolation, they look full modern for the 1730s, but if one looks at the bass line they go right back to the time of Albinoni's Op.2 and Op.5. Albinoni alludes to the dedicatee in the music itself: the first movement of Concerto 11 is a vivid evocation of flamenco style, with all itsfierce percussiveness. Note writer Michael Talbot describes the concertos as 'undoubtedly 'odd' in the fact that they are wildly different from what one expects from any composer working in the 1730s, but they are also beautiful in a way absolutely peculiar to their composer and in a way a logical conclusion of his art.' Simon Standage performs regularly with Collegium Musicum 90 and other groups and is a very well respected performer in the early-music field.

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Includes work(s) for ob and org by various composers. Ensemble: Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gordon Hunt. Soloists: Gordon Hunt, Leslie Pearson.

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The Trattenimenti Armonici per Camera, Divisi in Dodici Sonate a Violino e Cembalo, Op. 6 were printed in Amsterdam by Estienne Roger and Le Cene. The twelve chamber sonatas, composed originally for violin, bass viol and harpsichord all have the same, four-movement structure based on the traditional adagio-allegro-adagio-allegro form. This CD contains six of the twelve sonatas that make up the Trattenimenti performed by recorder with harpsichord, lute and cello accompaniment. The decision to entrust the solo part to the recorder, in apparent contradiction to what the composer himself indicated in the frontispiece, is actually fully-justified by eighteenth-century performance practice. The melodic elegance, harmonic equilibrium and geometric structure created by Albinoni make these sonatas a veritable gem of inestimable worth whose beauty we have striven to offer in one of it's innumerable facets.

Tomaso Albinoni was one of the most respected composers of his time, despite being not a professional composer but rather a dilettante, as he called himself. The largest part of his oeuvre consists of music for the theatre. Unfortunately almost none of his compositions in this genre has been preserved complete. Most of his operas are lost; of others only a few arias have come down to us.

Therefore today he is mainly known for his instrumental music. His concertos with parts for one or two oboes are quite popular and are regularly played at concerts and recorded. He also wrote a considerable number of sonatas for one or two violins and bc. Several of his collections of sonatas have been recorded. One of these comprises twelve for violin and basso continuo which were printed as his op. 6 in Amsterdam around 1712. The title is Trattenimenti armonici per camera. The word trattenimento means 'entertainment' and indicates that these sonatas were intended for the growing market of amateur performers. The addition da camera suggests that these sonatas follow the model of the Corellian sonata da camera. It may then come as a surprise that the movements bear not the titles of dances, as was common in sonate da camera, but rather indications such as adagio or allegro as was usual in the sonata da chiesa. However, these are dances in disguise: many fast movements are in fact allemandes, courantes or gigues.

The title of this disc suggests that we have here six flute sonatas, but that is not quite correct. Albinoni didn't give any indication that his sonatas could be played on the transverse flute. That doesn't mean that he didn't approve of adapting these sonatas for other instruments. This was common practice and composers expected performers to adapt their sonatas for their own use, depending on the instruments that were at hand. In his liner-notes Mario Folena mentions that several sets of such adaptations are known from Albinoni's time. In this recording he didn't make use of any of these editions. Rather he constructed his own arrangements. Such arrangements sometimes require transpositions to another key. In this recording all but one sonata are played in the original keys. The exception is the Sonata No. 2 which is in G minor, but originally in D major. I am a bit surprised by that, since there was apparently no need to transpose the Sonata No. 7 which is also in D major.

Obviously some of the effects Albinoni included in his sonatas are lost in these arrangements. That particularly concerns Albinoni's use of double-stopping. That is, for instance, the case in the fast movements from the Sonata No. 9. In his liner-notes to The Locatelli Trio's recording of the complete set (Hyperion, 1992) Michael Talbot writes about the Sonata No. 8: "[The] rasping violin chords in its second movement convey a mood of desperate urgency." That can't be conveyed in a performance with transverse flute. The passages of a contrapuntal character remain fully intact, though.

However, in these new clothes, as it were, these sonatas make a very good impression as well. Some of the features of the original scoring may have gone lost, the natural sensitivity and differentiation in colour and dynamics of the transverse flute fit them very well. Mario Folena is an excellent performer who plays with intelligence and stylistic awareness. He is supported by a strong basso continuo group which shows a good sense of the rhythmic pulse of these sonatas. The first allegro from the Sonata No. 6 is a particularly good example.

Even if you have a performance with violin in your collection, for instance the recording by The Locatelli Trio, this disc has much to offer and will give you a new and different look at these beautiful sonatas.

– MusicWeb International (Johan van Veen)