PONZI, Flavio: Rossini on Rossini's Pleyel

TARTINI, G.: Violin Concertos, Vol. 8 (L'Arte dell'Arco) -

Chiara Soave and Cecilia Baccolo’s Schubert interpretations have always been welcomed enthusiastically by critics and audiences. In 2010, the Duo was invited to perform a programme entirely dedicated to the great Austrian composer at the Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam, the only Italian piano duo to be featured in that renowned hall.

LEONCAVALLO: Nuit de mai (La)

Starring Renata Scotto. Renata Scotto, one of the greatest and most famous sopranos of the post-war period, is here recorded in her full artistic maturity and, through this vast and varied program, demonstrates her solid technique and absolutely extraordinary musicality. The performance of this recital ended an eleven-year absence of Scotto from the Japanese stage � a return she clearly relishes as she dedicates the rare musical gems in her performance to the Tokyo audience. Together with famous arias from renowned operas she performs some rare and neglected works, notably Edgar (Puccini�s first opera) and Sole e Amore (written before the success of La Boh�me) as well as Respighi�s songs and five unpublished songs by Verdi. The DVD also features a two-minute forward by Renata Scotto (sub � E/G/F/Sp) and a thirteen-minute video featuring the madness scene, Lucia di Lammermoor, Tokyo, 1967 Format: NTSC Subtitles: Japanese

Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco

During the 18th century in Naples there were a huge number of excellent musicians. As a result, Neapolitan music reveals an exhaustive and surprising gold mine of new discoveries and small masterpieces. None of these sonatas have ever been recorded before. Flautist Renata Cataldi presents these works on an authentic transverse flute. She is joined by the ensemble Partenope Stravagante, cellist Leonardo Massa, and harpsichordist Debora Capitanio. Renata Cataldi studied at the "Licinio Refice" in Frosinone and "San Pietro a Majella" in Naples, and received her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Bologna. She regularly concertizes as a soloist, in various chamber ensembles, and in orchestra, devoting herself to the modern, Renaissance, and Baroque transverse flute. With the transverse flute, she dedicates herself to the recovery and enhancement of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan musical heritage. She is also the author of essays and articles published for the State Archives of Rome and the Italian Society of Musicology.

THREE STRING QUARTETS

"World premiere recording! Cesar Franck's first opera – staged for the first time! Known mainly for the few transcendent, harmonically adventurous instrumental works of his later years, Cesar Franck's first opera was composed when he was barely twenty years of age. Orchestrated by composer Luc Van Hove, from the autographic piano score manuscript. Paolo Arrivabeni conducts the Orchester & Chorus of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie. Stage direction by Jaco van Dormael."

Viotti: Violin Concertos (Complete), Vol. 2

First performed in French at the Paris Opera in 1867, Don Carlo is in many ways an amazingly innovative work. The opera seems to underline Verdi's shift from the Manichean division between good and evil, which had been a clear, structural element of his dramaturgy up to that point in his career. In this opera, Verdi assembles all his mainstay music theatre themes: power, with its honors and burdens; the contrasts of impossible love; the conflict between father and son; and an oppressed people demanding freedom. Verdi radically revised the score in 1883, using an Italian libretto and reducing the opera from five acts to four. The popularity of Don Carlo has grown unremittingly ever since, with today's critics almost unanimously recognizing it as one of Verdi's greatest masterpieces, an opera that continues to reveal new gems. Daniel Oren is fully in control on the podium, ensuring unanimity between orchestra and singers. The Maestro softens teh dark tones of the score, which are well reflected in the visuals, choosing instead to emphasize the various changes of mood.

Vivaldi & Bach For Recorders / Quartetto Icarus, Release Date: 12/21/2010, Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Orchestra/Ensemble: Icarus Quartet, Number of Discs: 1, All the pieces on this program are arrangements and transcriptions for recorder quartet-and in three cases, transcriptions of transcriptions-of concertos and other music by Vivaldi and Bach. The usual raison d'�tre in the case of these two composers is that they themselves transcribed their own and others' works and are, thus, fair game themselves, and that is the operative rationale here. There is a body of work explicitly for recorder ensembles, most of it written to help foster the revival of interest in the instrument from the middle years of the last century. There is also the considerable body of recent music written for the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet (still very much in business after 30 years). If the ensemble in question is a quartet of recorders, played by specialists in early music, however, the pickings are slim, indeed. The recording has good sound; it is recorded quite close up, however, so the listener is treated to occasional key-slaps and quick breaths. There are no musicological revelations here; the playing is fine and straightforward. There is little direct competition for this program, save for BWV 596 and the three contrapuncti, which the Loeki quartet has recorded for Channel Classics.

LE GRATIE D'AMORE

A LA GUERRE!

Karajan in Italy, Vol. 2