In 2010 UNESCO declared the Song of the Sibyl part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as one of the most fascinating documents of Medieval European culture. A prophetess of Apollo, foreteller of misfortunes and calamities, the Sibyl entered the Christian world as the earliest announcer of Christ’s coming and of his return on Doomsday. The text was sung over a suggestive melody that has survived to our day across seventeen centuries, handed down through various manuscripts and languages. This release features the Catalan version of the Song performed in all its expressive intensity by the poignant interpretation of the native language singer Eugenia Amisano, accompanied by the instrumentalists and voices of the Musicaround Ensemble. The programme also includes a selection of rare pieces related by content, in a journey that reveals how the Sibyl’s prophecy sounds at this particular time in history, and proving surprisingly topical. The transcriber, orchestrator and conductor is Vera Marenco who, working on the variety of instrumental and vocal forces and with a particular care for the choral parts, balances the need for a neat, contemporary reading with the popular origin of the rite.

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Pietro il Grande, kzar delle Russie – composed when Donizetti was 22 years old – was the first of the composer’s operas to receive more than one production. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the work’s première in 2019, the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo staged this rare melodramma burlesco in a new critical edition. The influence of Rossini and Mozart is clear, but the young Donizetti still managed to create a fresh and lively work that displayed early evidence of his mature style. This Donizetti Festival performance received widespread international acclaim, with a cast of excellent singers and a unique staging by Ondadurto Teatro (Marco Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali), influenced by Russian avant-garde art of the early 20th century.

Rossini had a truly explosive effect when, at the age of eighteen, his comic one-act farce La cambiale di matrimonio was staged at the San Moisé theatre in Venice, on the evening of November 3rd, 1810. From that moment, Rossini’s career would be a series of masterpieces, with triumphs and flops. It was in the comic genre that he achieved his greatest successes, with works such as L’Italiana in Algeri (1813), Il Turco in Italia (1814), Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816), and Cenerentola in 1817, which was Rossini’s last great comic work in the traditional sense. Between 1817 and 1819, year of that Guillaume Tell that prematurely cut short his operatic career, Rossini composed fifteen serious operas and only three comic ones; but he had already given his best in his incomparable youth, with the four incredible masterpieces that are in this box set. In this release DYNAMIC assembles some of the most famous opera buffa by Rossini, played by great performers, conductors and directors, including some rarely performed works such La Gazzetta, L’Equivoco stravagante, La Cambiale di matrimonio.

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Pietro il Grande, kzar delle Russie – composed when Donizetti was 22 years old – was the first of the composer’s operas to receive more than one production. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the work’s première in 2019, the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo staged this rare melodramma burlesco in a new critical edition. The influence of Rossini and Mozart is clear, but the young Donizetti still managed to create a fresh and lively work that displayed early evidence of his mature style. This Donizetti Festival performance received widespread international acclaim, with a cast of excellent singers and a unique staging by Ondadurto Teatro (Marco Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali), influenced by Russian avant-garde art of the early 20th century.

Mauro D’Alay was a virtuoso violinist and composer from Parma who acquired great fame and fortune throughout Europe. A contemporary of Vivaldi who praised his musical skills, D’Alay held official positions as a musician, first in Parma’s Cathedral and then at the Spanish court of King Philip V, whose wife Elisabetta Farnese gifted D’Alay the famous ‘San Lorenzo’ Stradivarius in 1718, which he kept until his death. Now largely forgotten, this ambitious and dynamic composer wrote sonatas, cantatas and concertos. This album features the 12 Violin Concertos, Op. 1 published in 1725 – composed in the Parmesan style, but with Venetian influences – and presented here in a world première recording. Parma born violinist Luca Fanfoni recorded these concertos adhering to the instrumentation indicated in the score: principal violin, first violin, second violin, viola, cello and organ. Ensemble Reale Concerto (which counts among its members Fanfoni’s wife and children) recorded this album during lockdown in 2020.

Benedetto Marcello was born in Venice in 1686 and died in Brescia in 1739. His vast musical output remains largely unexplored, but his most famous work is the Estro poetico-armonico – a collection of fifty psalms, including eleven ancient Jewish songs – called Intonazioni – and two sacred hymns from Greek classicism. Marcello acknowledged the importance of Jewish and classical music heritage, and by blending these different styles, he sought to underline their universal value. This album features Psalms Nos. 21 and 42, as well as the Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in E minor Op. 1, No. 1, and the first movements of Sonatas No. 5 in F major and No. 4 in G minor for solo harpsichord.

Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts that marked Giacomo Puccini's debut in the world of opera. It was first staged at Teatro dal Verme in Milan in 1884. Librettist Ferdinando Fontana based the story on the ancient legend of the Willis, fantastic creatures representing the souls of young women who were the victims of love. Anna and Roberto are engaged, but during a trip the man is seduced by a woman and his fianc�e dies of heartbreak. Roberto, who is by then abandoned and left penniless, is haunted by remorse and attacked by the revengeful fairies and Anna's ghost. All the elements of the more mature Puccini are already recognizable: the characters of Anna and Roberto anticipate the "love victim" and the "man without qualities" archetypes of his later operas, whereas some of the composer's touches of harmony and aria structure foresee his future success. This rare work was chosen to open the 2018-2019 season of Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the performance received very good reviews. "Le Villi is an opera full of excellent music, where Puccini's future grandeur is already recognizable. This production mingles essentiality, intelligence and youth" (Gbopera. It) "Conductor Marco Angius delivers a fierce and passionate performance and under his baton the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is able to convey all the various shades of the score. " (Gbopera. It)

Jean-Baptiste Arban was a French cornetist, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet a piston or valved cornet. He was influenced by Niccolo Paganini's virtuosic technique, and his famous method book for trumpet continues to be the first choice for all students of trumpet, cornet and other brass instruments in music schools. His most famous works for the cornet are 14 Fantasias on Verdi operas, recorded here for the first time by the cornetist Angelo Cavallo and the pianist Michele Fontana. They are brilliant, highly effective pieces, in which the most popular themes of Verdi's operas are masterfully interwoven with great instrumental virtuosity.

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Benjamin Britten’s last opera Death in Venice is based on the novella by Thomas Mann. It was first performed in England in 1973. The astringent score is marked by some haunting soundscapes of 'ambiguous Venice'. The boy Tadzio is portrayed by a silent dancer, gamelan-like percussion accompaniment. The music of the opera is precise, direct and movingly understated. Britten had been contemplating the novella for many years and began work in September 1970 with approaches to Piper and to Golo Mann, son of the author. Because of agreements between Warner Brothers and the estate of Thomas Mann for the production of Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film, Britten was advised not to see the movie when it was released. According to Colin Graham, director of the first production of the opera, some colleagues of the composer who did see the film found the relationship between Tadzio and Aschenbach "too sentimental and salacious". This contributed to the decision that Tadzio and his family and friends would be portrayed by non-speaking dancers. Themes in the work of "formalism in art and the perilous dignity of the acclaimed artist" have been noted.

Marlin Miller, tenor – Gustav von Aschenbach; Scott Hendricks, baritone – Traveller and other roles;François Bittar, countertenor – Voice of Apollo; Allessandro Riga, dancer – Tadzio;
La Fenice Theatre Orchestra and Chorus; Bruno Bartoletti, conductor
DIRECTION & COSTUMES: Pierluigi Pizzi
CHOREOGRAPHY: Gheorghe Iancu

Recorded Live at Teatro La Fenice, Venice 2008
NTSC; All Regions
Running time 155 min.
Sung in English
Subtitles: Italian, German, French, Spanish

Inspired by hearing performances of Handel’s oratorios during his visits to London, Haydn composed Die Schöpfung (‘The Creation’) in 1798. Through a series of accompanied recitatives, arias, duets and choruses, the music depicts the creation of the universe and the carefree existence of Adam and Eve. Haydn drew on the full complement of his symphonic and vocal prowess which reach peaks of almost operatic intensity. With rich harmonies and sonic magnificence in abundance, Die Schöpfung represents the apex of the Viennese oratorio tradition.

Inspired by hearing performances of Handel’s oratorios during his visits to London, Haydn composed Die Schöpfung (‘The Creation’) in 1798. Through a series of accompanied recitatives, arias, duets and choruses, the music depicts the creation of the universe and the carefree existence of Adam and Eve. Haydn drew on the full complement of his symphonic and vocal prowess which reach peaks of almost operatic intensity. With rich harmonies and sonic magnificence in abundance, Die Schöpfung represents the apex of the Viennese oratorio tradition.

Francesco Cavalli was of great importance to the history of 17th century Italian music – his fame established in the then new and swiftly evolving world of opera. Cavalli’s sacred music has often been compared to Monteverdi but, drawn from a wonderful anthology published at the apex of his career as a composer, the stylistic and expressive richness documented by the pieces in this program delivers a strong overview of the variety and power of his musical language. The originality in Cavalli’s style was in finding an ideal means of expression for the feelings and emotions suggested by the text, breaking down the boundaries between sacred and secular, and creating a more serene merging of artistic and religious sensibilities.

REVIEW:

Making these works come alive requires some fine singing that is clear and well phrased. Bruno Gini’s soloists, chorus, and ensemble all perform admirably. The lines, even those closely intertwining, are all clear, the diction of the text equally fine, and he is able to massage the tempos to bring out Cavalli’s sometimes subtle changes. In short, this is not a static performance of purely documentary interest, but rather a lovely set of sacred works that gives a sense of the pure melodies, the fluid harmony, and the need for precise phrasing. This is a recording well worth exploring.

— Fanfare

Alessandro Stradella was the undisputed star composer of his day who wrote hundreds of works in varying genres. His cantatas are in essence miniature operas in which the themes of love and the complexities of the human condition reflected the composer’s own ‘cloak and dagger’ misadventures amidst Roman and Venetian aristocracy. From an allegory of life in Apre l’uomo infelice and captivating pastoral scenes in Qui dove fa soggiorno, to unrequited love and the desire for freedom expressed in Per tua vaga beltade, Stradella adapted his inventiveness to his patrons’ tastes to create these veritable jewels in music, all of which are rich in splendid melodies and refined artistry.

Claude Debussy is considered by today's critics as one of the artists who mark the turning point between two great periods in the history of music: the romantic heritage of the 19th century and the modernity of the 20th. At the beginning of his career Debussy was defined an impressionist, the musical equivalent of impressionism in figurative arts. This label fell upon him quite obviously, but because of his connections with Mallarm� and Maeterlinck it didn't' quite suit him, so much that later on he would rather be defined a symbolist artist. Generally speaking, the symbolist movement is what best describes Debussy's art. But the composer had created his first masterpiece, the cantata La Damoiselle �lue on a text written by Dante Gabriele Rossetti, the most eminent figure of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and his last works had been contemporary, from both the chronological and spiritual point of view, to the beginning of the abstract movement initiated by Mondrian. In Debussy's piano works we can find the signs of his evolution which allow us to understand the several phases of his poetics, not only as an artist but as a music conveyor, carried in parallel with all the artistic fields from the 19th to the 20th century. The extraordinary bravura of pianist Ilia Kim is the strong point of this release which features works that Debussy composed over several periods of his career, thus providing an accurate and complete insight of the composer's evolution.

Donizetti's three-act tragic opera Belisario was a resounding success in its day, driven by its composer’s superlative theatrical instinct and his skillful interweaving of intense tragic narrative and emotional pathos. Belisario is betrayed by his wife Antonina, who falsely accuses him of high treason. Belisario is blinded and exiled, with proof of his innocence coming too late, and is mortally wounded during a final military victory. This production was performed and recorded without an audience in Bergamo during the Covid-19 lockdown in November 2020 – a moving performance reflecting a spirit of defiance amidst ruin and darkness.

Both of these quartets are transcriptions of quintets for winds and piano by their respective composers but the links that bind them go much deeper. In the year after Mozart’s death, Beethoven began the draft of a work for the unusual instrumental ensemble of four wind instruments and piano. He was inspired by the similar work by Mozart, which had largely emancipated winds from their role in Harmoniemusik, employing them instead in the sophisticated ambience of chamber music. In this performance, following Beethoven’s own practice, the cadenzas in his quartet are improvised.

Donizetti's three-act tragic opera Belisario was a resounding success in its day, driven by its composer’s superlative theatrical instinct and his skillful interweaving of intense tragic narrative and emotional pathos. Belisario is betrayed by his wife Antonina, who falsely accuses him of high treason. Belisario is blinded and exiled, with proof of his innocence coming too late, and is mortally wounded during a final military victory. This production was performed and recorded without an audience in Bergamo during the Covid-19 lockdown in November 2020 – a moving performance reflecting a spirit of defiance amidst ruin and darkness.

"Ottorino Respighi’s Sonata was completed in 1917 and by Respighi himself the following year. Many years later, Jascha Heifetz included this Sonata in his repertoire. Respighi's work remains firmly within the boundaries of romanticism. Although Schumann later entirely rewrote the stylistically diffuse FAE Sonata, the recording presented here is of the original triple-composed, Joachim-dedicated work."

I Shardana is set in a free Sardinia, an island where rigorous rules are in force and it's people do not tolerate invasions or spiritual contamination, a time when - as Ennio Porrino (b. 1910) specifies in the score - shepherds were warriors and judges, "when man did not believe in one God but in the power of the stars, and worshipped the dead and the waters". The opera's first drafts date from 1934-35, but the work only debuted years later, on 21st March 1959, at the San Carlo theatre in Naples, with it's final title of I Shardana and Porrino himself conducting. The composer would die suddenly a few months later.

Parma native Ferdinando Paer, who wrote more than 50 operas, composed Agnese in 1809 for a private entertainment and a company of amateur singers. In 1824, with a few changes to the score, this opera semiseria in two acts reached the Theathre- Italien in Paris where it gained international success; among its early admirers were Berlioz, Chopin and Victor Hugo who mentioned it in his Les Misérables but a few decades after its première it fell into oblivion. In modern times it was first revived in concert form by Conductor Diego Fasolis and finally, in 2019 with the addition of a critical revision, it was performed at the Teatro Regio di Torino. The plot presents several fairy-tale elements, which are very well realized through the stage setting. When Agnese elopes with her beloved Ernesto, her father Uberto loses his mind and believes her dead. He is therefore hospitalized into a mental institution, where most of the action takes place. In the Ospedale dei pazzi sympathetic doctors, security guards and administrators try to help Uberto regain his sanity, to no avail. In the meanwhile, Agnese, betrayed and abandoned by Ernesto, to whom she bore a daughter, goes back to her father to ask for forgiveness, unaware of his troubles. Ernesto is repentant of his philandering ways and follows Agnese to win her back. The opera ends with Uberto regaining his mental clarity when he hears Agnese sing an old song, and a general reconciliation occurs. In director Leo Muscato’s words “the most interesting aspect of this opera…is the irony that is present from the beginning to the end of the story” which imbues even the most dramatic circumstances. The set design for this wonderful, world premiere on video opera, is made of a series of movable boxes which are similar to carillons and which open-up displaying different environments.

At the age of 13 Beethoven was already hailed as the new Mozart and many of his early works, especially in the chamber music genre, were influenced by Mozart’s model, like the Three Quartets for Piano and Strings WoO 36, composed in 1785 and published posthumously in November 1828. These three chamber works are directly modeled on three of the six violin sonatas that Mozart published in 1781: KV 296, 379 and 380. One of young Beethoven’s patrons was Johann Gottfried Mastiaux , whose children played violin, viola, cello and the piano. Although there is no concrete evidence for it, Beethoven’s association with the Mastiaux family could have inspired him to write for such an instrumental ensemble; it is unlikely that Beethoven was yet aware of the first example of this genre, Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor, KV 478, which was finished only on 16 October 1785 in Vienna, thus not in time for Beethoven to have become acquainted with it in Bonn. Therefore, it is possible that WoO 36 – and not KV 478 – was in fact the first example of the piano quartet in chamber music literature. Despite these circumstances and the composer’s youth, the WoO 36 piano quartets represent an important artistic pinnacle in which the seeds of Beethoven’s genius that would proliferate during his maturity were already evident. This album features the first recording on historical instruments of the Piano Quartets WoO 36 (Bonn, 1785) played by Leonardo Miucci (historical piano), Meret Lüthi, , Sonoko Asabuki, and Alexandre Foster, .

Florence, May 2nd, 1589: on occasion of the wedding of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christina of Lorraine an impressive celebration apparatus was put up to display the magnificence of the Medici household. Behind this official event lay an ambitious project which involved an incredible team of the most important poets and musicians of the time, such as Cristofano Malvezzi, Luca Marenzio, Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Emilio De’ Cavalieri as well as Count Giovanni De’ Bardi, who was engaged to compose the Intermedi for Girolamo Bargagli’s play La Pellegrina. Renaissance intermediums were sumptuous musical interludes inserted between the acts of a theatrical show on allegorical and moral themes with eclectic references to classical mythology. They are considered as the forerunners of musical opera. The spectacular show, which was performed using a complex stage machinery set up in Palazzo Pitti’s Boboli gardens, was an immediate success, so much that the intermediums were performed in the days to follow during another two plays. The Six intermediums in La Pellegrina provide for choral madrigals, double and triple choirs, solo accompanied numbers and instrumental pieces, inserted into the impressive and sumptuous staging by Bernando Buontalenti. 430 years later, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in collaboration with Galleria Degli Uffizi produces the first staging in modern times of the Intermedi della Pellegrina through an itinerant show in Palazzo Pitti’s Boboli Gardens. Stage director Valentino Villa’s approach was to “attempt at an ironic historical reconstruction, [where] imageries blur together, classical mythology is grafted onto contemporary iconography”. Conductor Federico Maria Sardelli leads Modo Antiquo and Chorus Master Alberto Allegrezza is at the head of Coro Ricercare Ensemble and Compagnia Dramatodìa.

George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

Alfonso Ferrabosco Jr was the son of an Italian musician who had worked at the court of Elizabeth I, where he composed mostly madrigals but also sacred pieces and instrumental works. He received an English upbringing and a full musical training, and he too held an official position at Court. Like his father, he composed madrigals and sacred music and among his collaborators was notable playright Ben Johnson. He gained a solid reputation as a violist and as a composer of instrumental works for viol and consort of viols. Alfonso Ferrabosco Jr. was the first to compose music which was entirely dedicated to the lyra viol. The lyra viol was a typical English instrument of the viola da gamba family mounted with six gut strings; more than fifty different tunings are documented, Ferrabosco using three of them. Among these pieces rank the Lessons for 1, 2 and 3 viols, which include the works for solo lyra viol here collected for the first time as a monographic edition and recorded by Paolo Biordi.“His style is effective and satisfying.” (American Record Guide)