Giovanni Battista Viotti composed 29 violin concertos, three sinfonie concertanti, a cello concerto, countless quartets, at least 20 trios for two violins and cello and an impressive array of violin duos, four of the latter recorded here. Described in contemporary reports as a generous and highly charismatic musician driven by idealistic zeal, he is now universally recognised as one of the greatest violinists of all time. In hindsight, it is clear that he and his vast oeuvre occupied a key historical position. He appeared at a pivotal moment between the end of the ancien regime and the start of the modern era: a period when, in social terms, music began to escape the courts and entertain the growing middle classes, laying the foundations for modern concert-going and the figure of the freelance musician. A period when various national traditions, both in terms of instruments and compositions, began to meet and influence each other with unprecedented dynamism, and when the formal rigour of Classicism gave way to the pathos of Romanticism. Viotti was at the heart of this time of dramatic change: the standard-bearer for a centuries-old Italian violin school that included Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Pietro Locatelli, Giuseppe Tartini and Viotti's teacher Gaetano Pugnani. He took this esteemed group's technical achievements away from the Baroque and Galant style into a new era, with the arrival of Niccol� Paganini just around the corner. He was admired by Mozart, inspired the virtuosity of Paganini's concertos, was central because of his years lived in London to the evolution of British musical life, and must surely be considered the most significant figure in the entire French violin school. Later violin giants Pierre Rode, Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre Baillot were all strongly influenced by his work Viotti's renowned cantabile style is echoed in the violin writing of both Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms and is amply represented in the four violin duos on this album. Other information: - Recorded November 2022, Cagliari, Italy - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Carlo Goldstein - Gianmaria Melis plays a 1745 Sanctus Seraphin; Fabrizio Falasca plays a 1727 J. Guarneri - The Italian liner notes are available for download at www. Brilliantclassics. com - Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824) received his musical education from Gaetano Pugnani. He served for a short time at the Savoy Court in Turin but soon he spread his wings and travelled to Paris, where he was an instant success as a supreme violin virtuoso. He served for a time at the court of Versailles before he founded an opera house in Paris (The�tre de Monsieur). The French revolution urged him to go abroad and he settled in London, where he featured in the Hanover Square concert series and was active as a concert organizer and impresario, as well as one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society of London. - Viotti was an influential violin player and teacher. He composed violin concertos, string quartets, and other chamber music for strings. Based on the principles of the Viennese Classics it hints at more romantic feelings of times to come. - This new recording presents the duos for 2 violins, music of great charm, rich in melodies and brilliantly written for both instruments, which are fully equal to each other. - Played by Fabrizio Falasca and Gianmaria Melis, playing a 1727 Guerneri and a 1745 Sanctus Seraphin violin.

The name Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) does not immediately bring to mind such modest works as violin duos, but alongside his large output of trios, quartets and quintets for stringed instruments, Boccherini's oeuvre also features two sets of six pieces for two violins. One set was composed at the beginning of his compositional career, in 1761 - that is, before his 20th birthday - and published some years later, in 1768, in Paris by Louis-Balthazar de La Chevardiere, under the title Six duos pour deux violons, with the opus number 5. Later, the same collection is described by the composer as his Opus 3. And then there is a second, much later collection with arrangements for two violins of other compositions of his originally written for three or five stringed instruments. The latter set was published by Ignace Pleyel in Paris in 1799 - just a few years before his death - under the similar title Six duos pour deux violons, with opus number 46. Unsurprisingly, the two sets are very different in character. Boccherini's Duets Op. 3 all consist of three movements. Five of them begin with a fast movement, in a major key. Then follows a slow movement in a different key, sometimes major, sometimes minor. And, finally, there is most often a minuet, in a characteristic 3/4 time, with a tempo between slow and fast. The first duet in the set, however, follows a different model: it starts with a slow movement, a fast movement follows and finally there is a light-hearted 'Presto'. We know the year of composition of the Duets Op. 3, and we know for sure that they are works by Boccherini. Regarding the Violin Duets Op. 46, however, there are still some question marks. We know that they were published in 1799 by the Parisian publisher Ignace Pleyel, but they are missing from the catalogue compiled by Boccherini himself of his own works. That does not necessarily mean that they are not from his hand. Boccherini regularly arranged his own compositions for other instrumental combinations, and these are systematically missing from his catalogue. And these arrangements are not simply reductions of the original compositions for two violins: in many cases they are thorough re-compositions based on the original material. This last aspect in particular contributes to the assumption that the arranger was Boccherini himself: arrangers who are not the original composer usually leave the structure of the composition intact in their arrangements. In the case of Boccherini's Duets Op. 46, as it were, new compositions were created. Boccherini's violin duets are perhaps not among his best-known compositions. For the Duets Op. 3 one has to go back quite far into the past to find a recording on LP or CD. The Duets Op. 46 have never been recorded on LP or CD. It's high time, then, for a CD featuring these charming and melodious works. Other information: - Recorded October, November & December 2021, Velp, Netherlands - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Rudolf Rasch and profiles of the violinists - The recording of the Opus 3 Duets is based on the critical edition of these works in Volume 29 of the series Luigi Boccherini: Opera Omnia, published in 2007 by Ut Orpheus Edizioni (Bologna) - The Dutch liner notes are available for download at www. Brilliantclassics. com - A much-underrated composer, Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) was one of the leading composers of the late 18th century, a friend and colleague of both Haydn and Mozart, and a formidable cello virtuoso. Although less dramatic than either Haydn or Mozart, his music does have moments of explosive drama that appear all the more effective when bursting fortissimo from an otherwise calm movement. The harmonic shifts are also surprising and used to great effect. His music is sensuous, charming and highly melodious, yet may be passionate and dramatic as well. - This new recording presents the complete Duets for two violins by Boccherini. Originally conceived as study material, these works far transcend this aim, as they are challenging, skillfully written compositions, brimming with good tunes and blazing vitality. - Played by Igor Ruhadze and Daria Gorban, specialized in Baroque repertoire, having recorded the complete works by Locatelli and works by Nardini. Rugadze's recording of the Boccherini violin sonatas on Brilliant Classics received 5 stars in the French Diapason.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Paganini and Giuliani both sought their fortune in Vienna, a city that later consecrated them as great virtuosos and founders of the Italian violin and guitar school. Paganini, AKA the "devil's violinist" was an uncanny idol and heartthrob to countless music lovers and also had a masterful command of the guitar. Giuliani was the premiere guitarist of his day and also had a great understanding of the violin. His nickname, "the Paganini of the guitar" helped intensify the bond between the two and further sealed their friendship and mutual esteem. Two world-class virtuosos, Rainer Kussmaul, on a Stradivarius from 1724, together with guitarist Sonja Prunnbauer, perform a selection of their great virtuosic duos.

At a time when the world situation is changing drastically and fear, worry and negativity reign, many people feel tired and overwhelmed. With "HOPE", the release of various spiritual and gospel songs, the duo Praxedis would like to set an antipole to let hope and confidence flow into people's hearts. For the first time, they are dedicating themselves to the fascinating world of sacred, heavenly songs from America and have written their own arrangements for the duo genre of the two solo instruments harp and piano, which was popular in the 19th century. The complexity of the poetry in the 23 songs allows for different moods and interpretations. On the one hand, there are allusions to the social situation alongside a belief in the hereafter. The call to protest stands alongside the longing for freedom. The belief in a higher power stands alongside the need for a leader to save us from enslavement by the events of the world. Just as it was today when the songs were written. Living on multiple planes of existence as a citizen of the earth is becoming increasingly oppressive, with well-defined structures as a projection screen for the social cliche that society makes of us all. While songs used to be performed as a vocal construct with accompanying instruments, the interpretation with harp & piano dusts off the religious scheme of the time by omitting the singing voice and emphasizes the topicality of the works, which deal with themes of the human longing for love, light and peace, through spherical harp sounds in dialogue with sparkling piano dynamics.

As a violinist, Lloyd was drawn to stringed instruments rather than the keyboard. His wife, Nancy had a very different attitude to the piano, however. Having been brought up listening to records of Alfred Cortot, among other great pianists, she had developed a genuine passion for the instrument. She was always urging her husband to write a piano concerto, but it was not until the early 1960s that those years of persuasion paid off and Lloyd wrote Scapegoat, the first of his series of four piano concertos. Now the composer had overcome his previous aversion to the keyboard, as he put it, 'Suddenly, everything I thought of, I thought in terms of the piano'. From this dramatic change of heart emerged several works for solo piano. � Paul Conway

Together with Op. 150, the Violin Duos Op. 148 and 153 form Spohr's last cycle in this genre. It is as if Spohr, whose last published compositions included the new duos, once again wanted to show all his ability to write large-scale music with the limited instrumentation. Ursula Schoch and Tjeerd Toch are both members of the famous Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Attractive Classical-era duets for violin
and cello in world-premiere recordings
by a young Italian pair of brothers.
Despite his French name, Louis
Massonneau was a German composer,
born in Kassel in 1766 and dying at the
venerable age of 82 in MecklenburgVorpommern in 1848. His father was
chef to the Landgrave Friedrich II of
Hessen-Kassel, and Louis received his
musical training at the hands of the
court musicians in Kassel, soon
becoming a violinist in the court
orchestra. The Landgrave died when
Massonneau was 19, and the orchestra
disbanded, requiring him to seek his
fortune elsewhere. This he did in a
series of posts, as a concertmaster of
court and theatre orchestras in
Göttingen, Frankfurt, Altona, Dessau,
Hamburg and finally Mecklenburg, where he
settled for good and retired in 1837.
Composing all the while, Massonneau left
behind a fairly substantial catalogue. Almost
completely unknown apart from a trio of
oboe quartets, it includes three symphonies,
twelve symphonies and six violin concertos,
doubtless written with his own talents in
mind. These three Duos Concertante probably
date from Massonneau’s time in Altona, when
he came to know the cellist Martin Calmus.
Required to perform duets for the
entertainment of those attending ‘Musical
Academies’, Massonneau doubtless found a
dearth of such repertoire, and wrote it afresh.
Calmus himself must have been an
accomplished cellist, because both parts
demonstrate a virtuosity and experimental
spirit shared with the better-known music of
their contemporary Boccherini. Each duo is cast
in three movements, skilfully varied in form
from the others, in which lyrical expression is
tempered by a touch of irony. Haydnesque
touches of major-minor ambiguity lend
dramatic tension to the first duo, while a more
balletic spirit and Mozartian melodic charm
brings a quasi-operatic character to the second.
No.3 is the most innovative in its rapid
conversational interplay between violin and
cello and unconventional range of timbre.
Demian and Dylan Baraldi have made this
recording with the cooperation of the Edition
Massonneau, and authoritative booklet notes
from the Edition illuminate the composer’s life
and work.

This recording presents an unedited early classical repertoire by the Venetian composer and violinist Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1760). As an outstanding pupil at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in Venice, she was allowed to study with Giuseppe Tartini in Padua, who wrote her a long letter in which he explained his methods of violin playing and practising. This letter was copied in Padua even before it was sent and printed in Italy around 1770, followed by translations into English, German and French. Lombardini Sirmen was an extraordinary artist of the Enlightenment who achieved great popularity through her European tours as a violinist and through her compositions. Her music was widely published and reprinted by various publishers in Paris, the Netherlands, Germany and London. Her duets for two violins Opus 5 (Paris 1773) are a perfect example of the virtuosity that combines delicate and extravagant chamber music sonorities of the classical period. The performers are violinists Zefira Valova and Iskrena Yordanova, concertmasters of the two leading European baroque orchestras Il Pomo d'Oro and Divino Sospiro.

This CD presents itself before us like a photograph, still in development, of a part of the vital outline of Jesu´s Torres (1965). It shows us his essential characteristics, his concerns, and the solutions he has adopted throughout the more than twenty years covered by this volume (1997-2018). The main body of the work was written between 1997 and 2004, the time of the composition of the Variations for cello and piano, but his resources already outline and anticipate a future whose culmination -at least for the moment- we can see in his vocal music and his opera, Tránsito 2020. And not only that, he also takes us into his personal relationships with musicians with whom he shares trajectory and who have been patrons of his music. Torres composes with specific musicians in mind, amplifying their technical and expressive qualities.

The technical difficulties of this repertoire are extremely taxing. Fortunately, for this CD, Alberto Rosado, promoter of the project, has brought together a group of exceptional performers, who offer absolutely brilliant interpretations. José Luis Estellés (Fantasía for clarinet and piano), Miquel Bernat (Splendens), María Zubimendi (Accentus), David Apellániz (Variations for cello and piano), Clara Andrada (Sonata for flute and piano), and Robert Sillá (Silentum amoris). all make their corresponding interventions in exquisite and referential versions. Because after all the technical difficulties of this music, the desired reward comes to the fore. Torres offers unsurpassable moments of expressive beauty that take the performer and, therefore, the listener, to the expected Ithaca: towards pure enjoyment.

This second volume of the 20th century Italian-American composer Rieti’s work for piano solo and duo sees Giorgio Koukl once again joined by Virginia Rossetti. Rieti frequently puts a smile on the face of his music, united with a fondness for brevity, and melodies reminiscent of the atmosphere of Parisian clubs. World premiere recordings. Volume 1 can be heard on GP921.

The fame of Father Giambattista Martini is largely due to his activity as a historiographer, theoretician and teacher of music unceasingly carried out by him at the Bolognese convent of S. Francesco: his monumental Storia della musica, the first history of music ever written in Italian and published in Italy, was hailed by the most distinguished personalities of that period, who unanimously praised his deep erudition. A great number of young composers and musicographers from all over Europe, wishing to learn the secrets of this art, stopped in Bologna to receive a training or perfect their knowledge under his guidance. A less celebrated activity by Martini was that as composer that he carried out continuously as maestro di cappella in the Basilica next to the Bolognese convent from 1725 to the time of his death. The pieces presented in this CD relate a little-known episode in Martini’s life, an episode that shows how highly he was appreciated also as a composer. Alessandro Quarta, leading the Concerto Romano and the vocal ensemble Ecclesia Nova, is the protagonist of this precious world premiere recording, a live production by Tactus of the concert held in Bologna at the Basilica of San Francesco the 21st of April 2023.

Barbara Strozzi must have been a very unusual woman and is an extraordinary phenomenon in the history of music: probably the illegitimate daughter of the then famous Venetian poet Guilio Strozzi, she was adopted by him and received a comprehensive education. At a time when women were largely excluded from the music scene, her musical talents were encouraged and she was able to present both her wonderful voice and her exceptionally artistic compositions to the highest echelons of Venetian society at so-called "academies" regularly organised by her father. Her compositions were enthusiastically received and she published eight volumes with 125 of her compositions in print, more than most of her male colleagues. The young ensemble "Il Segreto delle Muse" presents a selection of twelve arias and duets by Barbara Strozzi, recorded with the professional support and under the direction of baroque expert Gabriel Garrido.

Harpist to Queen Victoria, the Welsh composer John Thomas (1826–1913) wrote prolifically for his own instrument, both for solo harp and for duos of two harps or harp and piano – a combination where the different sounds of the two instruments enhance the clarity of the texture. Thomas’ own compositions use the elegant Romantic style of his own day, but he also left a generous legacy of transcriptions, with no fewer than fourteen Schubert songs recorded on this second volume of his complete duos for harp and piano. Although some of his music was intended for the Victorian drawing room, other pieces require a virtuoso technique – and all of it has a thoroughly engaging melodic appeal.

Scot A. Humes, DMA, is Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, joining the faculty in the fall of 2006. His duties include teaching applied Clarinet and Saxophone, Sophomore Aural Skills, and Form & Analysis.

Humes is Principal Clarinet of the Monroe Symphony Orchestra (LA) and the Vashon Opera Orchestra (WA), and performs frequently in the clarinet sections of the Shreveport Symphony, Rapides Symphony, Lake Charles Symphony, and South Arkansas Symphony. As a soloist he has performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Peconic Chamber Orchestra, Frank Martin’s Concerto for 7 Wind Instruments, Percussion and String Orchestra with the Stony Brook Symphony under the direction of Leon Fleischer, C.M. von Weber’s Concertino on tour with the University of Louisiana at Monroe Wind Ensemble, Weber Concerto No. 2 with the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, and John Williams’ Victors Tale (from the movie The Terminal) with the Shreveport Symphony. He is the clarinetist of duo per se with Steinway Artist, Tania Tachkova.

The duo has given master classes and recital tours throughout the USA, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. duo per se will record and release their first cd recording is 2021, comprised of works composed for them, among others.

François Devienne (1759–1803) was a contemporary of Mozart and one of the few virtuosos who didn’t have to flee his own country to get noticed. Born in Joinville, France, the youngest of the 14 children of a saddle maker, Devienne received his formative musical instruction as a choirboy in his hometown and quickly developed into a flute player of formidable gifts, studying with Felix Rault. He was active in Paris as a flautist, bassoonist and composer and played bassoon at the Paris Opera. He was also a sergeant and member of the Military Band of the French Guard, where he was given the responsibility of teaching his military band colleagues’ children in its Free School of Music. After the Revolutionary period, when the Free School became the National Institute of Music, later chartered as the Paris Conservatory in 1795, Devienne was appointed as flute professor, where he taught from 1795 to 1803. He also wrote the Méthode de Flûte Théorique et Pratique (1793), which was reprinted several times and did much to improve the level of French wind music in the late 18th century.

His output includes opera, extensive educational work, and approximately 300 instrumental works that were mostly written for wind instruments. There are about 20 flute concertos, mainly written for his own use, and many of his works are still popular today in standard flute repertoire. His VII Concerto in E minor, for example, contains all the poetry and aesthetics of his music – it is quintessentially beautiful, charming, melodious and witty. Devienne's compositions for flute, revived by Jean-Pierre Rampal in the 1960s, became well-known among flutists. Unfortunately, Devienne’s fortunes declined suddenly in the new century and he died in 1803, four months after being committed to the Charenton insane asylum.

The Six duos Op.2 were written in 1786 for the captain of the guard of the Artois Count. They are a collection of six duos for two flutes, each of them divided into two movements. The general atmosphere exuded throughout the set is playful, fresh and bright, possibly because of the absence of the slow and thoughtful second movement that traditionally would have been placed between the first and last allegros. There is no shortage of singable and lyrical melodies, though: the Gracioso con Variatione, the second movement of the third duet, is a prime example. The movement markings chosen by Devienne are primarily Allegro, Rondeau, Gracioso and Menuetto. Every tempo mark is set between a moderate and a fast, lively tempo, in order to develop either the lyrical themes or display the shimmering virtuosity of the flutes. In fact, it seems that the composer’s aim was to make the listener feel like there is only one flute playing instead of two: the sound, the articulation and the phrasing of each must be as similar to one another as possible. Needless to say, these are the greatest difficulties to deal with for the musicians. Furthermore, the pieces were written to accompany the lives of the aristocracy, for example celebrations and tea parties, which is why this kind of music is also called ‘salon music’. The two flutists made their recording using the first edition sheet music published by Sieber in Paris, c.1786.