Hovhaness' admirers often tend to overlook the piano works in favour of his big orchestral statements. Nevertheless there's much to enjoy in these compact pieces which are here drawn from a wide time frame, spanning Op.36 to Op.390. The Twelve Armenian Folk Songs were composed around 1943 but not published until two decades later. The melodies are attractive in themselves but, more than that, they are most attractively played by Alessandra Pompili who shows a very strong affinity with all the music in this 52-minute disc. She plays the 'unfamiliar melodies' - in the composer's words - with simplicity and a real degree of affection in an acoustic that tends to the dry, though on balance I'd rather that than a billowing sound in these pieces.

Ghazal and Ghazal-Sufi date from 1938 and here the bass line underlies a weaving lyric right hand melody line. The former, which is the longer, has a tolling, melancholy-sounding motif whilst the latter is the more rarefied in expression. This is, it would seem the first ever recording of both pieces. Composed in 1959 whilst Hovhaness was in the Kashmir, Shalimar reflects his huge enthusiasm for Indian music. Formally, he introduced the idea of borders in this suite in an attempt to suggest the carpet-like designs of Moghul gardens. As much as rhythm drives this music, there is a huge amount of nature painting involved, the composer evoking the now-silent fountains through the memory of their music. Much is coolly flowing, beautifully expressive and often hypnotically rhythmic but there is also the Bachian element of the Third Interlude. Helpfully each incident - there are eight in all - is separately tracked.

The 'Cougar Mountain' Sonata, Op.390 dates from 1985 and returns to his love of nature - of vistas and expanse. As well as a slow opening movement there is a lament, a slumber song and, as finale, a dance. There are hints of Ravel in the early part of the sonata and the stomping dance with which the sonata ends certainly generates considerable dynamism. Its compact nature still allows a rich sense of characterization to emerge. The Fantasy, Op.15 - again this is a first recording - was written in 1938 but was later re-worked and absorbed into the Blue Job Mountain Sonata, Op.340. It's an unusually alternating work for Hovhaness, in which lyricism and percussiveness sit on opposite sides of the equation. Finally there is Dark River and Distant Bell which, with its oriental mood, was originally intended for harpsichord or clavichord. This is its first appearance on disc in piano guise.

Pompili, then, is a splendid young exponent of Hovhaness' music. That dry sound does help to clarify and centralize the piano writing without sounding off-puttingly objectified. Liner notes are in Italian and English and worth a detour, as indeed is this disarmingly well-played disc.

– MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)

Includes work(s) by Lou Harrison. Ensemble: Tammittam Percussion Ensemble. Conductor: Guido Facchin.

Hungarian pianist and composer Stephen Heller lived and worked at the same time as Schumann. Heller’s oeuvre includes 158 opus numbers, and several unnumbered pieces, most of which are piano works. For the first time, Heller’s Notenbuch fur Klein und Gross (Op. 138) is recorded on this album, alongside his Kinderszene (Op 124). With his remarkable techniques, Heller transports the listener back into the world of childhood. Pianist Luigi Gerosa performs these pieces.

The three sonatas for flute and piano featured on this CD were skillfully transcribed and adapted from a chosen three of Joseph Haydn’s late string quartets by the reputedly fine flautist and then Kantor of the famed Thomaskirche, August Eberhard Müller (1767-1817). Shorn of their minuet movements, they were then published as original Haydn works, with no mention of Müller. The works thus retain the masterful sonata structure of Haydn’s opening movements and his characteristic good-humored finales.

Born in L’Aquila in 1992, Davide Ferella obtained his degree in mandolin performance from the Conservatory “A. Casella of L’Aquilla” under the tutelage of M. Fabio Giudice. He was ranked first in the chamber music categories of the national competitions “Urania” and “Marco Dall’Aquila.” He also won the special “Piero Farulli” prize. He has performed in numerous Italian festivals, and has collaborated with the Baroque Ensemble “Luca Marenzio,” Ensemble “Ianua,” and “Virtuosi Italiani.” On this, his new release, he presents a program of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concertos for Harpsichord, masterfully transcribed for mandolin. Ferella himself transcribed these pieces. He is joined by Profili Barocchi, the extraordinarily capable Italian Baroque ensemble.

Ann Hallenberg; Laura Cherici; Marta Vandoni Iorio; Mary-Ellen Nesi; Carlo Lepore; Zachary Stains; Vittorio Prato

Il Complesso Barocco/Alan Curtis

John Pascoe, director, set & costume designer

NTSC All Region; LPCM 2.0; Dolby Digital 5.1; Color; 16/9; 157 mins. Subtitled in Italian, English, German, French & Spanish

The present DVD is filmed in high definition format the Sferisterio Opera Festival of Macerata in August 2007.

BONUS TRACK: it is contained an introduction to the opera by John Pascoe and Alan Curtis that explain the set and the whole opera plot. We remember them in Vivaldi’s Ercole (recorded by Dynamic – DVD 33525) recorded last Summer at Spoleto Festival.

Founded in Italy in 1992 by Alan Curtis, one of the most acclaimed specialists in the interpretation of pre-romantic music, Il Complesso Barocco, has become a renowned international baroque orchestra with a focus on Italian Baroque opera and oratorio. Their high standard for interpretation, intonation and stylistic accuracy has led to their being requested in the most important concert venues and festivals in Europe. Notes on this opera: on 8th January 1735 at the Covent Garden in London, Georg Friedrich Handel presented his new opera Ariodante. The opera thus conceived did not immediately win public favor, but with time it was to be understood and appreciated and has remained on playbills among the more successful and interesting titles. Each act corresponds to a precise moment, strictly linked to the action: the first is mainly devoted to presenting the characters; the second, set in a gloomier atmosphere, revolves around the episode of the deceit; the third sees the return of the festive mood with the misunderstanding being cleared up. In order to underline the various situations accessory elements are eliminated and specific instrumental timbres are exalted with solo roles. The right importance is attributed to the extraordinary strength of the instrumental composition which again in Ariodante is intended now as support to the voices now as independent, coinciding with steps in the sinfonia and with delightful dance motives. (2 DVDs)

TELEMANN Trio Sonatas: in d, TWV 42:d10; in a, TWV 42:a1; in F, TWV 42:F8; in f, TWV 42:f2; in a, TWV 42:a4; in f. Sonata in f, TWV 41:f1 • Fabio Biondi (vn); Tripla Concordia (period instruments) • DYNAMIC 7667 (52:13)


Fabio Biondi’s program of trio sonatas by Georg Philipp Telemann, apparently mastered in the late 1990s, corresponds to an identical program (same works in the same order) once listed as Stradivarius 33685 and not reviewed, so far as I can tell, in Fanfare . Tripla Concordia consists of Lorenzo Cavasanti (recorder), Caroline Boersma (cello), and Sergio Ciomei (harpsichord), and they lend almost bumptious support to the irrepressible Fabio Biondi, playing, in this case, a violin constructed by Desiderio Quercetani in 1991 after an 18th-century Neapolitan model. Danilo Prefumo’s notes explain that the ensemble has gathered together all of Telemann’s works for the combination of violin, recorder, and continuo, omitting other trio sonatas intended for recorder, treble viola da gamba, and continuo, previously considered to have been intended for violin.


The engineers come very close to the ensemble (and if the flute seems almost shrill on occasion, so does the violin on others); but the random breathing they’ve captured seems benign beside the amount of instrumental noise and multitudinous abrasive attacks they’ve registered, all of which might intimidate a faint-hearted listener (the recorded sound also gives the instrumental timbres a sharp edge that, it seems possible, might be an artifact). Nevertheless, there’s no gainsaying the irresistible élan of the ensemble’s reading of the first Sonata, with its three fast movements surrounding a slower second (all the sonatas comprise four movements, in which two fast movements generally provide a contrast with two slower ones). And the close, vibrant recorded sound, however pleasantly or unpleasantly it may strike the listener’s sensibilities from moment to moment, plays a significant role in creating the overall effect. In fact, the razor sharpness of the instrumental sound seems considerably more distracting in slow movements like the opening Adagio of the Sonata in F Minor (TWV 42:f2), rather than in headlong fast ones like the same Sonata’s Finale. The Sonata in A Minor, TWV 42:a4, seems perhaps the most balanced, with all the movements taking about two and a half minutes and alternating slow and fast in the pattern that had become pretty much standard. Yet, from my experience of the work as a performer, it seems to lack in this reading the exuberant energy that characterized the fast movements and the suavity that characterized the slow ones in their performances of the other sonatas. Recommended to those who may have missed this collection in what seems to have been an earlier incarnation and who take delight in this repertoire.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

TARTINI Violin Concertos: in a, D 114 1; in D, D 25 2; in B?, D 121 1; in D , D 36 3; in C, D 11 2; in E , D 51 2; in D , D 32 1; in A, D 98 3; in D, D 37 2; in G , D 80 3; in C, D 6 2 • 1 Federico Guglielmo (vn); 2 Carlo Lazari (vn); 3 Giovanni Guglielmo (vn); dir; L’Arte dell’arco (period instruments) • DYNAMIC 678 1/2 (2 CDs: 126:17)


Volume 17 brings to an end Dynamic’s series devoted to Giuseppe Tartini’s violin concertos. Giovanni and Federico Guglielmo and Carl Lazari again serve as the soloists on period instruments, with L’Arte dell’arco. They’ve adopted some procedures to bring order to the project. Since this will probably be the last time I have the opportunity to work with these releases, I’d like to repeat briefly their work rules, as stated by their harpsichord player and fellow transcriber, Nicola Reniero. They’ve taken the liberty of filling in what’s missing from Tartini’s manuscripts; they’ve left the choice of alternate solo parts to the soloists; they’ve allowed tempos to vary, generally speeding up in tuttis and playing solos freely; they’ve taken ornamentation from Tartini’s own suggestions and treatise; they’ve composed cadenzas when ones by the composer weren’t available; and they’ve adopted A=442, which they think represents a practice current in Tartini’s time and in the area in which he worked. Danilo Prefumo’s notes identify all the concertos as having come from Tartini’s second period, roughly from 1735. Soloists and ensemble recorded the first CD in September 2009 and the second in August 2010, both in Studio Magister.


Federico Guglielmo serves as the soloist in the Concerto, D 114, in which Prefumo notes the occasional influence of Antonio Vivaldi. But the lyrical tuttis and the spiky solo passagework in the first movement seem Tartini’s own. Guglielmo brings a sensitive nuance to the slow movement that makes it seem to surpass in expressivity even Vivaldi’s generally smooth cantabile. The technical demands of the Finale, especially its double-stops, also go beyond what Vivaldi required, not so much in extent but in kind. After a brilliant and almost impudent opening movement (featuring Carlo Lazari), D 25 features a sweet-tempered Largo that the composer provided with a motto: “La mia Filli….” Federico Guglielmo proves to be a jaunty soloist in the opening movement of D 124, which looks forward in style, resembling in its rhythmic strut the opening movement of Joseph Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C Major, and the ensemble provides plenty of bounce in the Finale. Giovanni Guglielmo serves as the soloist in D 36, playing with ease the double-stopped passagework in the first movement and with nuanced sensitivity in the Larghetto . Prefumo identifies the march-like rhythms of D 11 as Milanese; Carlo Lazari returns as soloist, playing with gem-like brilliance in the Finale. Prefumo also suggests a reminiscence of Vivaldi in D 51; but, again, in Lazari’s piquant reading, the first movement seems worlds in advance of earlier works by Vivaldi, if not of his later ones, which exude a different atmosphere. The slow movement bears an inscription, “Tortorelli bacie…,” but if the extra-musical allusion isn’t perfectly clear, the movement’s pure lyricism in Lazari’s reading requires no explanation.


The second CD begins with D 32, with Federico Guglielmo as soloist. Nicholas Reniero makes the organ continuo effervesce in the first movement’s otherwise stately tuttis; Guglielmo points the last movement’s technical passages with rhythmic élan and silvery tonal command. D 98 also brings a slow movement with a motto, this time “Stagion bella....” Giovanni Guglielmo makes a great deal of the contrast of the first movement’s elegant tuttis and the dancing solos. Carlo Lazari takes over as soloist in D 37, with easy elegance in the last movement, which Prefumo likens to the pastoral movements of contemporary Christmas concertos. D 80 appeared in one of the sources with two slow movements, and Giovanni Guglielmo plays both, the Grave characterized by Prefumo as old-fashioned tacked on at the end (even after hearing only the Andante included in the Concerto’s performance and sensing Guglielmo’s affinity for it, most listeners should understand why he chose to put it in its place in the Concerto). Guglielmo seems particularly brilliant in the first movement, so the work provides him two opportunities for display of two very different manners of expression. Carlo Lazari takes the stage last in D 6, in which he buffs a high gloss on the first movement’s passagework and plays affectingly in the Largo andante.


All lovers of the violin and its colorful history should be grateful to the Guglielmos, Lazari, and Dynamic for this series, so energetically played and featuring such clear and, at the same time, reverberant recorded sound—and such informative notes. This monument should stand for all time and be a part of every aficionado’s library. Urgently recommended as a whole and in its parts, including this one. A standing ovation for the impossible dream so stunningly made real.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

This new release is homage to a great Italian soprano, Daniela Dessì, who passed away last year, just one year after these performances at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. This is a superb interpretation of this signature role of her long artistic career. Daniela Dessì was considered one of the world’s leading sopranos and a reference point for the Verdi, Puccini and Verismo repertoire. Thanks to the beauty of her voice, a strong technique and an intense dramatic talent, she was able to sing from Monteverdi to Prokofiev, performing in more than seventy different operas. This versatility has significantly been underlined when, in 2011, she was awarded with the Prize Belcanto “Celletti”, recognized as an “absolute soprano”. In this production of Umberto Giordano’s Fedora, she is joined by an all-star cast, including Fabio Armiliato and Daria Kovalenko.

This new release is homage to a great Italian soprano, Daniela Dessì, who passed away last year, just one year after these performances at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. This is a superb interpretation of this signature role of her long artistic career. Daniela Dessì was considered one of the world’s leading sopranos and a reference point for the Verdi, Puccini and Verismo repertoire. Thanks to the beauty of her voice, a strong technique and an intense dramatic talent, she was able to sing from Monteverdi to Prokofiev, performing in more than seventy different operas. This versatility has significantly been underlined when, in 2011, she was awarded with the Prize Belcanto “Celletti”, recognized as an “absolute soprano”. In this production of Umberto Giordano’s Fedora, she is joined by an all-star cast, including Fabio Armiliato and Daria Kovalenko. Recorded in high definition, this release offers subtitles in Italian, English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean.

GALUPPI 6 Trio Sonatas • Accademia dei Solinghi • DYNAMIC 694 (54:05)


Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi wrote his six trio sonatas, according to Danilo Prefumo’s notes, in 1760, and with their homophonic textures, relatively simple melodic patterns diced into relatively short, often repeated phrases, and their division into three movements each (fast-slow-fast), they look forward to the Classical era rather than back toward the Baroque, despite their being composed in the venerable genre of the trio sonata (it’s a case of new wine in old bottles rather than old wine in new bottles). William S. Newman treated Galuppi’s works (primarily his keyboard sonatas) in his book on the Classical era rather than in his volume on the Baroque: He deemed Galuppi a preeminent pre-Classical composer. The sonatas surely aren’t without affecting sentiment, as the First Sonata’s slow movement or especially the sighs from the Second Sonata’s corresponding movement show (in addition, in the Second Sonata, to the dialog pitting the two violins against the harpsichord). The first movement of the Second Sonata bustles with a kind of energy that even Antonio Vivaldi’s sharply chiseled concerto subjects don’t always evince. It may not be surprising to find all these concertos written in the major mode (in this case, A, F, D, G, B?, and E) in light of Newman’s estimate that Galuppi wrote more than 80 percent of his sonatas in major.


In general, the sonatas’ first movements crackle (many listeners, cueing a random track, might relatively easily identify it as a first movement or a finale); the second movements, as noted above, include sensitive turns of phrase and harmonic subtleties (some even recalling Mozart, though Newman dismisses the suggestion of a direct influence on the later composer); the finales, though often marked Allegro , frequently glide elegantly rather than drive forward (with occasional exceptions, like the finale of the Fifth Sonata, the jaunty figuration of which spans both manners). Prefumo notes the title given the Sixth Sonata’s slow movement, Dialogo tra Pasquino e Marforio , perhaps referring to two Roman “talking statues.” In any case, this brief movement, subtitled Recitativo instrumentato , features passages that Galuppi, as a noted opera composer, may have delighted to transfer to this instrumental genre; the sonata’s finale also bears a title, in this case, Ritornello , though the device hardly suggests the one by the same name that characterized Vivaldi’s concertos. The Accademia dei Solinghi (Claudio Adriani playing an Andrea Guarneri violin from 1675, Franco Simeoni playing a violin made in 2007 by Franco Simeoni, Alessandro Peiretti playing an anonymous late 18th-century cello, and Rita Peiretti playing a harpsichord made by Davide Peiretti in 1986) endows these sonatas with a brusque energy that brings to vivid life Charles Burney’s remarks, after he’d encountered Galuppi’s music in Italy, about the composer’s youthful imagination. Dynamic has provided a close up portrait of the ensemble, yet surrounds the instruments with enough reverberation to fuse their crunchy textures into a pleasingly mellifluous amalgam. On the basis of the sonatas’ lively and ingratiating melodic imagination and of the energetic and sympathetic performances by the Accademia, Dynamic’s release should appeal more widely than to specialists.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham


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For some centuries Venice was one of the main centres of music-making in Italy. In the early 18th century Vivaldi was the key figure in the music scene, composing numerous operas, sacred works and instrumental pieces. After his death in 1741 his place was taken by Baldassare Galuppi, who soon became the most fashionable Italian master. His popularity was such that pieces by other composers were sold as written by Galuppi. One example is a setting of the Dixit Dominus which was purchased by the court in Dresden as a composition by Galuppi. Only fairly recently the true identity of the composer was discovered: Antonio Vivaldi.

Galuppi was born in Burano which explains his nickname 'Buranello'. His father was a violinist, who worked as a barber for a living. Galuppi's main teacher was Antonio Lotti. The English journalist Charles Burney visited Galuppi in 1770 and wrote: "Signor Galuppi was a scholar of the famous Lotti, and very early taken notice as a good harpsichord player, and a genius in composition. (...) He certainly merits all that can be done for him, being one of the few remaining original geniuses of the best school perhaps that Italy ever saw. His compositions are always ingenious and natural, and I may add, that he is a good contrapuntist, and a friend to poetry."

Galuppi has mainly become famous as a composer of operas, both serious and comic. His output in this genre is huge. In addition his work-list includes a large number of serenatas, oratorios and liturgical music. The largest part of his instrumental music is for keyboard. His oeuvre for instrumental ensemble is relatively limited: eight concertos for harpsichord and strings, seven concerti a quattro and the six trio sonatas which are the subject of this disc. They probably date from around 1760; they were not printed but have been preserved in a manuscript which is kept in the library of the University of Uppsala.

The judgement of Charles Burney that Galuppi was a "good contrapuntist" is affirmed by these sonatas which are written in the galant idiom. They are also an expression of the ideal of naturalness which was propagated by the Italian violin virtuoso and composer Giuseppe Tartini. All the sonatas are in three movements: fast - slow - fast. Although the two violins are basically treated on an equal footing, in several movements the first violin dominates, like the the first and last from the Sonata No. 1 in A and in the largo from the Sonata No. 3 in D. The adagio from the Sonata No. 2 in F is notable for its expression, partly through the use of general pauses. One of the most exuberant and technically brilliant movements is the closing allegro from the Sonata No. 4 in G.

The Sonata No. 6 in E has a remarkable middle movement, which is called Dialogo tra Pasquino e Marforio, in the form of a recitative. This is explained in the liner-notes: "Pasquinio and Marforio are names still used today in Rome for two statutes [=statues] from the Roman age, on which in past centuries the inhabitants of the Eternal City used to place mocking epigraphs and messages (called 'Pasquinate') referring to the establishment or public personalities. The statues were also called 'talking statues'; in Rome there were no fewer than six statues of this type, though Pasquino and Marforio were the most famous. Galuppi's short recitative may then be a playful allusion to some fact or event witnessed at the time of composition, or it might bear cryptic references to his time which, at the moment, we cannot clarify". This can only become clearer if we knew for sure the exact date and place of composition.

These trio sonatas are late specimens of a genre soon to disappear to make way for trios in which all parts were treated strictly equally, like the string trio. The Accademia dei Solinghi delivers good performances which may be a little less polished than we are used to hearing from the best ensembles of today. I have greatly enjoyed this disc, though, and if you decide to purchase it you certainly won't be disappointed. Music and performance make this recording well worth investigating.

-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING!
Mark Tucker; Ruth Rosique; Roberta Invernizzi; Romina Basso; Franziska Gottwald; Furio Zanasi; Filippo Adami
Venice Baroque Orchestra/Andrea Marcon
Dominique Poulange, director; Francesco Zito, scenes and costumes
Recorded in October 2006

NTSC All Region; 16:9; SS 5.1/LPCM 2.0; Approx. 210 mins.
Subtitled in Italian, English, German, French and Spanish

This production was recorded at the Teatro Malibran of La Fenice in Venice in occasion of the celebrations for the 3rd centenary of Galuppi’s birth. This is the first performance in modern times, and a World Premiere recording on DVD. The Orchestra Barocca di Venezia, conducted by baroque expert Andrea Marcon plays on original instruments from the 18th century. Olimpiade, was written for the opening of the carnival season of Milan’s Teatro Ducale on December 26, 1747. The only available score was kept in Milan, but it was not complete; maybe this explains why the opera was not staged again, even though it collected a huge success. Conductor Andrea Marcon, together with musicologist Claire Genewein had to look for the score’s incomplete parts. Finally the symphony of the opening was found in Regensburg’s library, whereas the final part was found in London.

R E V I E W:

A desirable acquisition for lovers of baroque opera.

Baldassare Galuppi was one of the foremost composers of Venetian comic operas – maybe even the foremost. He also wrote serious operas and composed music for the church. His popularity was great during his lifetime and his music has never fallen completely into oblivion. There are a few recordings around. I praised a recital of Forgotten Arias some years ago (see review). My bottom line of that review read: ‘Everyone interested in baroque opera or accomplished singing in general needs to hear this disc, which functions as a mental equivalent to a vitamin injection at the health centre.’
 
Naturally the opportunity to hear – and see - a complete opera by Galuppi made me bid for this issue, especially since an aria from L’Olimpiade was also included in the recital. A collection of isolated arias is one thing – a complete opera is quite another. Hearing and enjoying a number of arias out of context, performed by outstanding musicians, may give an overly positive impression. So it was with some trepidation that I pressed the Play button. Were my expectations too high?
 
Initially this production wasn’t very exciting. The beautiful pictures from Venice scattered through the introductory texts were certainly an attraction, but the playing felt rather staid and stiff – a tendency of baroque opera. We lack the cultural background and patience of 18 ^th century audiences. The Venice Baroque Orchestra played well in the three-part overture – fast-slow-fast. The stage picture was nice with a stage within the stage and enough space to allow action when the curtain was drawn. Not that there was much dramatic action. The singers were seen sitting on the floor or sitting on a chair, or standing behind it, or climbing onto a large block of marble. Sitting on the floor seemed a nice touch at first but eventually became more of a mannerism. In any event this deployment of the singers was a nice deviation from the historical mannerisms of 18 ^th century opera with a limited supply of poses and gestures.
 
The music was attractive but only gradually did it rise to a level of personal utterance. Secco recitatives and arias succeeded each other. Not until the end of the first act was there a duet. Where it differed from the average baroque opera was in the architecture of the arias. Da capo arias were the norm but more often than not the structure was not a mere A-B-A. In general they were five-part constructions: A-A-B-A-A. Galuppi wasn’t satisfied with plain repetition of the A-section, but presented it in an alternative shape the second time round. This resulted, naturally enough, in very long arias. While they didn’t lack musical interest, they still made the story very drawn out and since the literary contents of the arias was just as repetitive as in any other baroque opera, concentration can tend to flag. Thank God, the singing was on an altogether different level and one could for long stretches just lean back and enjoy the voices and the technical expertise in the singing. Though good singing is always something to savour – and it can never be taken for granted – one wants something more from an opera performance. Otherwise one could just as well go to a concert performance or just play the DVDs on the CD player.
 
But – lo and behold – a few arias into the first act things began to change. It wasn’t a matter of a sudden improvement in the music or the libretto or the direction. It was simply that the story started to make sense. I found an interest in the proceedings. It mattered whether the characters were happy or – mostly – sad and I bothered about the outcome of the story. By then I had also warmed to the direction, to a very specific humanity, where the characters in a way stepped out of their cardboard personalities. They became living creatures with life and blood and with feelings towards each other and against each other. The most striking feature of the direction was the closeness between the actors – no, wrong - the persons. I have seen so many opera performances on DVD and in the theatre, where alienation seems to have been the aim and purpose of the director. People in a hot erotic relation have been standing ten meters apart, declaring their mutual love while facing the wings of the stage. In Venice three years ago they were intimate, touched and caressed each other, eyes met, vibrations electrified the air and hearts opened. From then on I was in the story and part of it. I still thought the arias were too long and felt like zapping forward with the remote control – but I couldn’t. I wanted to see this enchanting interaction and inhale every second of the story.
 
Yes, the story – it really is too long and winding to relate in full and no one will be much wiser afterwards anyway. The conditions are as follows:
 
Megacle, a noble Athenian and several times winner of the Olympic Games – we are in Ancient Greece – fell in love with Aristea, the daughter of Clistene, the King of Sicione. He wouldn’t allow her to marry someone from Athens, so Megacle fled to Crete. There in a fight his life was saved by Licida, who was thought to be son of the King – but he wasn’t. (All this happened before the opera began). Back in Athens King Clistene had become president of the Olympic Games and promised his daughter Aristea to be the prize of the winner. Licida had now fallen in love with Aristea and wanted dearly to win. He was however a lousy athlete and asked Megacle to compete under Licida’s name … We are beginning to see the complications, aren’t we?
 
Thus far we are hardly half-way through the first of the three long acts – and many are the pains and strains the characters have to go through before everything is sorted out. It was about here that I was caught by the story, which no doubt has many similarities with other librettos of the period. Where it differs is that here the Olympic Games form the backdrop though, truth to tell, we are robbed of the competition proper! The librettist, Metastasio no less, followed common practice and had all the meaty events take place off-stage. We only see Megacle arriving at the beginning of the second act, crowned with a laurel wreath. Yes, the beginning of act II, which means that this is only the end of the beginning. What follows is a thriller far more substantial than any soap opera or horror series: suicides are being reported, revenge is proclaimed, swords and daggers are brandished, horrible truths are being revealed. If you want to know how it ends, without having to see the whole opera, you just choose the last chapter on the menu – but that would be a pity. The evening I had decided to start watching this opera I was so spellbound when the first disc was finished that I ignored the wall clock striking twelve and went on watching to the bitter end.
 
The sparse sets, the unobtrusive costumes – some kind of generalized 18 ^th century in stead of Ancient Greece – co-operate to make the characters come alive and the acting, physically, is rather restrained. The exception is the old Aminta, who sings his arias in a pose reminiscent of an Olympic skier putting on a spurt. No, it is very much the facial expressions, the postures and the sensual way the characters touch each other that make this one of the closest dramas I have seen.
 
The orchestral contributions are on a high level throughout and one has to admire Galuppi’s inventive use of orchestral effects to underline moods and feelings. Many of the arias are not only dramatically effective but have deeply intrinsic musical values as well. And so the singers!
 
Though several of the names maybe unknown to many readers – as they were to me – they are ideal for their roles. I suppose Roberta Invernizzi is the best known of them and she is absolutely gorgeous, but the same also goes for Ruth Rosique in the pivotal role as Aristea. Both sopranos are technically absolutely stunning but the feeling and the warmth of their acting is just as memorable. The two mezzo-sopranos in the trouser roles of Megacle (Romina Basso) and Licida (Franziska Gottwald) are on the same level of excellence and the men are equally accomplished. In particular Furio Zanasi impresses with his sonorous singing, true bel canto, and charismatic acting.
 
The production was recorded live but there are few signs of an audience being present; there’s no applause after arias (in the first act, that is), only at the end of the act. In the second act, where admittedly some of the best numbers are to be found, the onlookers couldn’t hold back; by then the ovations are well deserved. Good recording and discreet camera work should make this a desirable acquisition for lovers of baroque opera.
 
-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

GALUPPI: Harpsichord Concertos (Complete)

VERDI; GIORDANO; MEYERBEER; PUCCINI; MASSENET; DI CAPUA; CARILLO; DE CURTIS; TOSTI: Franco Corelli, tenor; NHK Orchestra/Alberto Ventura; Live: Tokyo, August 11, 1971NTSC All Region; Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS; PCM Stereo 2.0; Color; 16:9; Aprox. 60 mins; Subtitled in Italian, English, French, Germa FRANCO CORELLI - THE 1971 TOKYO CONCERT.

In Venice, with the carnival in full swing, the Duke of Pesaro arranges for his lieutenant Spadoni to abduct the beautiful Leonor. To make the young girl love him, he has hired Stradella, a famous singer and singing teacher. The Duke, however, is unaware that Stradella loves and is loved in secret by the beautiful girl. The lovers will be pursued by Pesaro's men all the way to Rome.

"Stradella" was probably composed between 1841 and 1842 (César Franck was just 21 years old) and is probably the result of his early experiences as accompanist to the Italian tenor Mario Bordogni. The opera has come to us virtually complete, as a piano score with some hints of orchestration. Luc van Hove orchestrated it and Stradella was thus staged for the first time at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie on 19th September 2012. Indeed the revival of this stunning opera provides an important tile in the mosaic of the artistic personality of one of the protagonists of 19th-century.

Paolo Arrivabeni,conductor - Jaco van Dormael, stage director, Marcc Laho (Stradella), Isabelle Cabatu (Leonor), Werner van Mechelen (Spadoni), Philippe Rouillon ( Pietro), Giovanni Iovino (Michael), Patrick Mignon (Beppo) Roger Joakim (Un officier)