BEETHOVEN: String Quintets (Complete)

First performed in 1920, Die Tote Stadt is unanimously considered Erich Wolfgang Korngold's operatic masterpiece. When he wrote it, the composer was only twenty-three years old but had already achieved full artistic maturity.

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI: Andrea Gruber; Marco Berti; Alberto Mastromarino; Carlo Colombara; Ildiko Komlosi; Elisabetta Fiorillo; Roberto Bolle, Letizia Giuliani, primi ballerini; Orchestra, Chorus and Corps de ballet of"Arena di Verona"/Donato Renzetti; Live recording: June 17, 2005 AMILCARE PONCHIELLI: La GiocondaNTSC All Region; Doby Digital 5.1, DTS; PCM Stereo 2.0; Color; 16:9; 162 minsSubtitled in Italian, English, French, German & Japanese.

ROSSINI: Demetrio e Polibio

Viotti: Violin Concertos (Complete), Vol. 4

TORVALDO E DORLISKA

VERDI: Forza del Destino (La)

Sara Mingardo, Ruth Rosique and Atonio Abete lead the cast in this premiere recording of Handel's opera from Turin's Teatro Carignano in 2009. Davide Livermore, the director, makes this 2009 production both enjoyable and interesting to watch. It has been recorded in the newly restored and beautiful Teatro Carignano in Turin and features Sara Mingardo, Ruth Rosique and Atonio Abete in the leading roles. Based on the well-known mythological story narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, this is a classical tale of jealousy and love. The giant Polyphemus tries to force his attention on the fair sea-nymph Galatea, who is in love with the shepherd Aci. When mad jealousy drives Polyphemus to kill his rival, Galatea asks her father Nereus to turn Aci�s blood into a river so that, flowing into the sea, he will join her forevermore. Directed by Davide Livermore, Matteo Ricchetti. Starring Ruth Rosique, Antonio Abete, Cristina Banchetti. Language: Italian Subtitles: English, Italian, German, French, Spanish

VENICE, NEW YEAR'S CONCERT 200

This is a world premier recording of the French version of Donizetti's Le Duc d'Albe.

Reinecke: Orchestral Works

TARTINI, G.: Violin Concertos, Vol. 9 (L'Arte dell'Arco) -

Paganini, N.: Sonatas for Violin and Guitar / Duetto Amoroso

Giovanni Sollima is an internationally renowned cellist and one of the most frequently performed Italian composers in the world today. His original BaRock Cello project gave new readings to Rock pieces in the intimate setting of a solo performance, matching these to little-known 17th- and 18th-century Italian composers. These improbable contrasts and surprising connections are now extended further back to their musical roots in Folk & BaRock Cello. In this Sollima takes up the tonal colours and rhythmic grooves of archaic songs from a diversity of countries and blends the common features shared by all music, whether it is globally iconic, nationally popular, or long lost amidst the dusty manuscripts of time.

The solo violin concerto spread rapidly throughout Europe from it's cradle in Venice where Vivaldi established the genre's formal aesthetic. Giuseppe Tartini, however, in nearby Padua, remained fully independent of Vivaldi's model and established a school of pupils who reflected his own virtuosity and lyricism. The works of the three Italian and one German pupils in this programme contain noble and expressive slow movements in concertos that had absorbed the galant style and the influence of the Lombardy symphonists such as Sammartini. Three are heard in world premiere recordings.