Having been granted unprecedented authority by Louis XIV, the Sun King, no one could stage operas in France without Jean-Baptiste Lully's permission. By 1686, however, Lully's authority was waning and his long-standing librettist deserted him to write sacred works. Despite these setbacks, Lully wrote Acis et Galat�e, a pastorale h�ro�que, and one of his final masterpieces. It's plot - the cyclops Poliph�me's love for the nymph Galat�e - drew from Lully an astonishing alternation of effects, a profound monologue for the nymph in Act III and a magnificent concluding Passacaille, all framed by a succession of dances and vividly conceived choruses.

Giuseppe Verdi was well on the way towards renown and prosperity when he took up the story of Violetta, a famed courtesan whose intensely romantic and colorful but tragically brief life marked the emergence of realism into Italian opera. Verdi and Alexandre Dumas intended this melodrama to have a contemporary setting, and David Livermore’s stunning production maintains this wish by placing his elegant and powerful cast firmly into the 20th century. This alchemy of masterful acting, vivid bel canto voices and the vitality of Zubin Mehta’s conducting results in a triumphant and unforgettably poignant operatic experience.

Alfonso Rendano was at the forefront of Italy's instrumental composition renaissance in the late 19th-century but remains less well known than his near-contemporaries Giovanni Sgambati and Giuseppe Martucci. He was also a prominent pianist who performed with the illustrious violinist Joseph Joachim. The rhapsodic Piano Concerto, recorded here for the first time in it's original edition, was premiered in a version for two pianos in which the composer was joined by Franz Liszt who called it 'a vigorous, remarkable work, one I greatly appreciate'. The Allegro in A minor was rediscovered in 1969 and dates from Rendano's artistic maturity. The Piano Concerto is performed in Vito Cristofaro's edition and performed by him with Rendano's leading contemporary exponent, Daniela Roma.

Luigi Gordigiani was a prominent figure in 19th-century Florence who became known as the "Italian Schubert." Like his Viennese counterpart, Gordigiani's creativity found it's best expression in songs for voice and piano that earned him international renown in a period when opera reigned supreme in Italy. Gordigiani's style found a balance between brilliant, almost operatic drawing-room writing, and a deliberately regional vernacular language that gave his songs an honest and innocent character. All of his songs are graceful and delightful, and at the heart of his output are the Popular Tuscan Songs, which captivated the likes of Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Chopin.

Performer and scholar Vania Dal Maso has constructed an innovative programme exploring music for stringed keyboard instruments from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Based on the study and interpretation of sources, both on the instruments' construction and musical interpretation, she explores the profoundly different sounds and tone-colours of the clavichord, hammered clavicymbalum and clavicytherium. The music ranges widely in forms and genres from across Europe, including music sourced from the oldest-known manuscript for keyboard instruments - the Robertsbridge Codex (c. 1320) - to create the widest possible stylistic panorama of keyboard music of the time.

Giovanni Battista Riccio lived in Venice when the city's music was dominated by illustrious figures such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli. Riccio won aristocratic patrons and his surviving three collections of sacred music, which also contain instrumental compositions, attest to his standing in the city and beyond. His music is flowing and full of variety, not least in the liveliness of motifs, use of binary and triple time, sound painting and employment of echo effects. His Motets setting passages from the Song of Songs, offer unusually expressive and refined depth.

As a boy, Francesco Cavalli was a member of San Marco Basilica's Chapel, then directed by Claudio Monteverdi, from whom he probably received tuition. In time Cavalli's fame as an operatic composer spread across Europe and he succeeded Monteverdi in San Marco to reach the apex of success in Venice. He also wrote sacred music, published in two great printed collections. The first collection, published in 1656, contains his Missa a 8 voci Concertata, an imposing and magnificent work of exceptional complexity for eight soloists, two four-voiced choirs and many instrumentalists. In this recording it is performed in the context of an All Saints' Day liturgy by Ensemble Locatelli, directed by Cavalli scholar, Bruno Gini.

This programme presents a fascinating excursion through the flute literature from 1893 to 1957, providing a glimpse into the evolution of the sonatina - a title suggesting music of greater brevity and stylistic freedom than that of a sonata. Qualities of a delightful sense of fun and simple effectiveness are shared in Petr Eben and Pal Jardanyi's pieces, while the Fox Trot in Alexandre Tansman's Sonatine reminds us of the popularity of jazz in 1920s Paris. Composed during his time in America, Dvorak's renowned Sonatina for violin and piano is heard here in an adaptation by Luisa Sello and Bruno Canino.

Bach's Cello Suites are his only works for solo cello but are central to the repertoire and remain unequalled in their expressive musical depth. Dor Gidon Amran, the virtuoso mandolinist who has recorded his own unique arrangement of Paganini's 24 Caprices on Dynamic (CDS8038), has now arranged Cello Suites Nos. 1-3 for the mandocello. This is a baritone instrument of the mandolin family, but much larger than a mandolin, whose strings are tuned exactly like those of the cello. Being played with a plectrum, the mandocello belongs to a very different sound world to the cello, offering a unique perspective on these great works.

For Italian composers of the 18th century, the stage was the primary focus. However, Giovanni Battista Viotti, an exceptional violinist and composer, sought instead a career at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, where his performances seduced and astonished the public. His compositions also established the new standard in violin concertos, laying the foundation for the French violin school. This premiere complete recording of Viotti's 29 concertos reveals the full range of his technical and expressive mastery, showing why he was an influence on Paganini, and was admired by Brahms.

Of Paganini's fifteen quartets with guitar only six were published during his lifetime. They represent his finest body of chamber compositions as can be heard in the three quartets for violin, viola, guitar and cello, Op. 4. Of them, No. 3 in A major is a masterpiece, with French-styled inspiration, rich lyricism and piquant invention, while the virtuosic, almost concerto-like No. 8 in A major embodies his quatuor brillant writing, with it's Rossinian resonances. No. 12 in A minor is the most 'symphonic' of the three, containing formal originality, one of the most moving of Paganini's slow movements, and his most serious-minded finale.

Though he was admired by figures as illustrious as Rossini and Verdi, violinist-composer Giuseppe Austri has been largely forgotten, unlike his great contemporaries Paganini, Sivori and Bazzini. These premiere recordings show how inventive and virtuosic his works for violin and piano are, suggesting that he must have been a performer of transcendent technical and expressive abilities. Austri was in the mould of the great itinerant virtuosi of his time and, though his compositions can display Paganini-like writing, he matches incendiary passages with graceful cantabile and intimate delicacy.

Ferdinando Carulli was amongst the most important Italian guitarist-composers during the first half of the 19th century, and his Guitar Method, Op. 27 is still in use today. Marcello Fantoni's first volume of Carulli Rediscovered (Dynamic 7956) was awarded the Chitarra d'Oro Prize for best guitar album of the year in Italy in 2023, and this second volume features world premiere recordings of rarely performed works. These range from the complex Grande Sonatas to three lively Neapolitan-style Ouvertures, Op. 6 [a] brought by Carulli from Italy to his new home in Paris. The album concludes with the brief but delightfully melancholy etude in B minor, Op. 192.

Nicola Vicentino was renowned in his day as a music theorist and inventor of the microtonal archicembalo keyboard instrument, but it is the striking harmonic sophistication of the madrigals that keep his name alive today. These world premiere recordings of madrigals from the Fifth Book of 1572 are interspersed with instrumental pieces that explore comparable chromatic universes, including Giovanni Maria Trabaci's remarkable Toccata e recercar cromatico, and the first instrumental canzona ever published: Canzon la Bella.

Il martirio di Santa Caterina by castrato singer, composer and writer Pier Francesco Tosi is a fine example of the rich tradition of late-Baroque oratorio. It is the embodiment of Tosi's famous treatise on a vocal style that emphasised expressive authenticity over virtuoso display. This story of the martyrdom of Catherine of Alexandria for refusing to convert to paganism is filled with deeply poignant music that depicts her prodigious inner strength, representing the power of faith through grief, courage, compassion, and admiration for the fortitude of others

Saverio Mercadante was one of the pioneers of Italian instrumental music in the first half of the 19th century, a period dominated by opera. His quartets for flute and strings show his willingness to evolve and experiment in the genre, and this selection illustrates his mastery of both the Quatuor brilliant and the Quatuor concertant styles. Technical agility, a varied use of tone colours and harmonic richness mark out these very different and individual works. The performances employ the latest critical editions by Mariateresa Dellaborra.

Antonio Salieri was influential as an opera composer and later in life as a teacher to the likes of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt - quite unlike the sinister and entirely fictional portrayal he received in the film Amadeus. Both of his keyboard concertos were composed during his early years in Vienna and reflect influences from Haydn and the galant style of Johann Christian Bach. The Harpsichord Concerto in B flat major is broader and more elaborate but lighter in mood when compared with the stormy first movement of the Harpsichord Concerto in C major. Heard here in it's world premiere recording, the Keyboard Sonata in C major presents as a suite of short independent pieces, while the short March in D major has only recently been discovered in a Berlin archive.

The invention of the chromatic pedal, which simplified playing, significantly increased the popularity of the harp. So popular did the instrument become that Beethoven wrote his Variations on a Swiss Song 'pour harpe ou piano'. Later, his most popular pieces were arranged, such as the 'Moonlight' Sonata, which was virtuosically transcribed by John Thomas, harpist to Queen Victoria. The Divertissements pour la harpe were once thought to be by Beethoven but are possibly by his contemporary and acquaintance, Count Karl Wilhelm von Haugwitz. Leading Italian harpist Paola Perrucci plays on an erard harp except for the Adagio grazioso, Op. 31, No. 1 where she plays on a modern instrument.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco always remained faithful to a tonal musical language. He is mostly known today for his guitar works, but his output is much richer and more varied than is widely appreciated. Castelnuovo-Tedesco selected Heinrich Heine's more ironic poems in the three collections recorded here, adding light-hearted quotes from Schumann and Verdi in his cycle The Stories of Joseph. Also included are unpublished songs such as La canzone di Usigliano with it's references to Tuscan folk songs, and the Three Sonnets from the Portuguese, which reflect the romantic and dreamy character of texts by Elizabeth Barret Browning.

Each country in South America has over the centuries produced varied popular traditions and distinctive dance rhythms. These include the vivacious and zestful Brazilian choro, as well as the Argentinian tango, of which we hear an example from 'the father of the tango', angel Villoldo. French composer Roland Dyens contributes Bresils, his refined tribute to the musical landscape of Brazil. The Guitalian Quartet have arranged Arturo Marquez's popular Danzon No. 2 along with several other vibrant and evocative pieces from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

Lino Liviabella was a well-known pianist and award-winning composer during the early to mid-20th century. He also achieved renown for his pioneering role within the movement that sought to emancipate Italian instrumental music from the influence of 19th-century opera. The spirit of Liviabella's music manifests itself as a creative journey through evocative sounds, fleeting impressions and strong dynamic contrasts. From the rigorous and brilliantly virtuoso Sonata in un Tempo to the passionate Concerto for Violin and Piano and so much more besides, Liviabella's chamber compositions represent the first important works for violin and piano written in Italy in the first half of the 20th century

The popularity of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik is a testament to the work's unique elegance and refinement, maintaining it's status as one of the most popular pieces in the classical canon. The transformational skills that resulted in this masterpiece have their roots in Mozart's adolescent travels where he assimilated various musical traditions. Also featured are the three delightfully original Divertimenti, K. 136-38, which are a celebration of Mozart's experiences in Italy and a prelude to the musical treasures to follow.

Little is known of Vincenzo Bonizzi's life, but he lived and worked mostly in Parma, and is remembered by music historians for writing the last work for the viola bastarda published in 1626. The viola bastarda was described as 'the queen of instruments' - it stands midway between tenor and bass viols in terms of size and tuning. Bonizzi's Alcune opere di diversi auttori is a mixture of original music and pieces drawn from numerous sources, all of which are of high musical value and technical difficulty.

The award-winning duo of flautist Silvia Schiaffino and guitarist Renato Procopio present a musical travelogue ranging from Western to Eastern Europe before journeying further afield to Japan, Iran and Korea. As well as masterpieces such as Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances, and a rip-roaring Monti Csardas, this evocative selection includes the colourful and piquant, such as the music of Sakura, as well as Procopio's own vibrant arrangement of Korean folk songs.

In celebration of his 80th birthday, this four-disc set spans more than five decades of Michael Tilson Thomas' compositional career. It features 18 works, from premiere recordings to remastered archival recordings available for the first time. The deluxe collection also includes an extensive booklet containing composer's notes, original essays, and a timeline of archival photos chronicling MTT's life as a pianist, conductor, composer, recording artist, and teacher.

All proceeds from GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas will be donated to brain cancer research at the University of California, San Francisco Brain Tumor Center.