Domenico Cimarosa was riding high on the triumphant success of Il matrimonio segreto when he embarked on the ‘commedia per musica’ Le astuzie femminili in 1794. The narrative for this opera revolves around the clever and resourceful Bellina, who devises a plan to avoid an unwanted marriage while gaining a large inheritance and marrying her love Filandro. Styled somewhere between Mozart and Rossini, Cimarosa’s witty and tender score includes deliciously comical moments such as Filandro’s outlandish Italian-German imitation of a Magyar officer. The spirited performance and lively pace of this opera buffa accounted for its acclaimed reception at the 2022 Reate Festival.

Felix Mendelssohn was an excellent pianist and could have been a leading soloist. His financial independence allowed him to dedicate himself to composing, however, and the importance of his works in the history of musical Romanticism is beyond question. The Fantasy on ‘The Last Rose of Summer’ has the nature of a dreamy Irish ballad, while the Trois Fantaisies ou Caprices was considered by Mendelssohn to be ‘three of my best piano pieces’. The blend of the tradition of Bach and technical complexity in the Variations sérieuses is one of the composer’s most admired works for piano, rounding out an album of repertoire that reveals some of the most original characteristics of Mendelssohn’s art.

After many years of creating intensely original solo piano and song repertoire, Robert Schumann made a relatively late entry into chamber music. The piano trio genre was initially inspired by Mendelssohn who was considered by Schumann to be ‘the 19th-century Mozart.’ After testing his creative freedom with the Phantasiestücke Schumann increasingly relished the sonorities and musical discourse of strings and piano, and from the effusive energy and ardour that shines through in Op. 63 to the deep convictions expressed in Op. 110, these works include pages of incredible lyricism and pure enchantment for which Schumann had no rivals.

Beethoven's symphonic cycle is one of the most quintessential in the Western classical canon. They chart a course from the influence of Haydn and Classical models in the early symphonies; through works of startling innovation and the birth of Romanticism; to his monumental Ninth Symphony for soloists; chorus and orchestra. Zubin Mehta conducts the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in these live recordings from 2021/22.

Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier was written at a time when composers had begun to expand the limited tonal compass of keyboard instruments through far wider use of keys and; ultimately; equal temperament. The 48 preludes and fugues that constitute The Well-Tempered Claver are composed in a wide range of styles; and the work remains one of the most important and influential in Western classical music. Francesco Cera is a prominent Italian early music specialists and he plays on a copy of a Hemsch harpsichord of 1736; using his own personal tuning. For Book II he employs the Altnickol edition of the score which includes numerous variants.

Based on a play by Victor Hugo, Verdi’s Ernani was an immediate success, and as his most popular and frequently performed opera it became a cornerstone of his burgeoning reputation in the mid-1800s. Contemporary critics remarked that ‘coming out of the theatre, people were already singing [those] catchy tunes … Few scores have made a stronger, more powerful impression.’ Ernani is a dramatic and intensely memorable tale of rebellion and romance – the chilling presence of the man in black and the drama of a joyful wedding turned to intense tragedy remains one of Verdi’s most compelling operatic creations. This acclaimed production was the first to be staged at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino since 1965.

A native of Genoa, Luigi Cortese merged his experiences from studies in Paris and tuition from Alfredo Casella in Italy to create a personal idiom of lively intelligence and refined taste, largely avoiding the temptations of passing musical fashions. Salmo VIII is one of Cortese’s most important and profound works, while Cinque Pezzi is his wonderfully expressive final piano opus. This programme also contains two of the very few documents of his own piano playing in historical recordings of the Suite Française, probably Cortese’s finest achievement in the piano field, and the poetic Sonata for cello and piano.

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.

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 Galatée, a pastorale héroïque, and one of his final masterpieces. (Dynamic)

Both Pizzetti and Stravinsky were drawn to the subject of Oedipus Rex, but in very different contexts. The 24-year-old Pizzetti was commissioned to write Three Orchestral Preludes for use in a theatrical production. He wrote with an austere sense of orchestral colour, devoid of impressionism that favours the vaguely archaic, with modal inflections. Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio was written in his neo-Classical style, with a central role for narrator. In a stark, stylised and formal setting, the use of Latin, and Stravinsky’s instruction for the leading characters to wear masks, add timeless, impersonal elements to a work that culminates in catharsis.

It is largely due to Astor Piazzolla that the bandoneon has become inextricably linked to the languid, sensual art of the tango. His renewal of its traditions – the so-called Nuevo tango – is exemplified by Aconcagua, a concerto for bandoneon, string orchestra and timpani of vivid imagination and rapid changes of mood that embodies the milonga, the improvised song of the Argentine. The six accompanying pieces are among Piazzolla’s most famous and evocative – works of poignant melody, profound melancholy and complex, uplifting beauty.

Francesco Cavalli succeeded Monteverdi as the most influential composer of the new genre of opera that emerged in mid-17th-century Venice. Il Xerse is a fictitious dramma per musica that tells of Persian King Xerxes’ love for Romilda, who in turn is in love with his brother Arsamene. The plot is an entertaining and extremely intricate human comedy of crossed loves, court intrigues and disguises – the work’s popularity saw it staged in Paris at the wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Spain. Since overshadowed by Handel’s later Xerxes, this Martina Franca production is the first in modern times.

Like all the instrumental genres which were destined to last until today, the solo concerto – just like the sonata and the symphony – made its first appearance at the beginning of the XVIII th century in Italy and spread all around Europe to gain universal fame. This 10 album release features a precious and unmissable anthology of Italian violin concertos composed by Vivaldi, Bonporti, Locatelli, Tartini, Lolli, Nardini, Rolla, Viotti and Paganini. Album 1 is dedicated to Antonio Vivaldi, whose solo concertos best expressed his vibrant creativity and brought the genre of violin, strings and basso continuo concertos to fame throughout Europe. The following albums contain music composed by Vivaldi’s followers who aimed at finding their own personal voice.

Some composers such as Locatelli, Tartini and Paganini were destined to become famous all over the world, while some others were perhaps lesser known, but were able to leave their footprint in the musical field thanks to their unique style made of expressive freedom, instrumental vivacity and formal clarity which later defined the iconic Italian style. The last two albums contain music composed by Niccolò Paganini, whose daring and unattainable virtuosity brought this genre to its absolute peak.

REVIEWS:

Despite its Anglicized name, the Genoese Dynamic label specializes above all in disseminating Italian music, mainly opera, but also instrumental music. In recent years the label has released numerous recordings, in some cases complete sets dedicated to concerts by violinists-composers from the Baroque to Romanticism and which as a whole constitute a highly appreciable testimony of the evolution of the genre.

A selection and summary of this gramophonic plethora can be found in this articulated case that contains ten CDs, ten!, with violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1678-1749), Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695- 1764), Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), Antonio Lolli (1725-1802), Pietro Nardini (1722-1793), Alessandro Rolla (1757-1841), Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824) and Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840) in the interpretation of notable virtuosos including Luca Fanfoni, Federico and Giovanni Guglielmo, Carlo Lazari and Franco Mezzena. Particularly interesting are the last two albums, dedicated to Paganini, with four of his concertos, in which Massimo Quarta, a student and follower of Salvatore Accardo, has the opportunity to shine.

-- Ritmo

Italian composer Licinio Refice was ordained as a priest in 1905, and his achievements as a composer sometimes led to conflict with the Catholic authorities. Cecilia was his first opera inspired by sacred themes, but even as a gloriously melodious azione sacra it took many years before a theatre production was possible. This ‘song of Cecilia’ narrates her martyrdom after refusing to renounce her Christian faith – it was an immediate and sensational success with audiences at its premiere in 1934. With its flowing and indisputably beautiful blend of Gregorian antiquity with verismo drama, Cecilia has retained an enduring and widespread popularity.

A native of Prague, Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz acquired a passion for the harp at a young age and, after the encouragement of Haydn, became one of the most renowned harpists in Paris. His innovations in harp design enhanced its sound, and his compositions were highly appreciated by his contemporaries and for a long time after his tragic death. Recorded here together for the first time, the six Sonates en forme de scène adopted the German sensitive style and used free form as a medium for maximum expressive depth, being admired by one commentator for their ‘profound sense of harmony and unexpected modulations’.