ANTONIO VIVALDI: "I Solisti Veneti"/Claudio Scimone; Wiener Singakademie Choir; Adriana Damato, soprano; Laur Brioli, mezzo. ANTONIO VIVALDI - GLORIA AND OTHER SACRED WORKS: Gloria RV 589; Concerto in D major RV581; Falve Regina RV 616: Ad Te suspiramus;Sonata Al Santo Sepolcro RV 130; Stabat Mater RV 621: Stabat Mater, O quam tristis, Fac ut ardeat cor meum, Amen; Dal Gloria RV 588: Qui sedes ad desteram; Concerto in D major RV 562: Allegro.

COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS

ANTONIO CAGNONI Serena Daolio; Costantino Finucci; Danilo Formaggia; Eufemia Tufano; Vladimer Mebonia; Rasha Talaat; Maria Leone; Omar Jakhadze; Domenico Colaianni; Cristian Camillo Navarro Diaz; Coro Slovacco di Bratislava; Orchestra Interanzionale d'Italia/Massimiliano Cald ANTONIO CAGNONI: Re Lear (King Lear), A tragediy in four acts and seven parts.

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.

PAGANINI: Works for Solo Violin (Complete)

In the vast panorama of 20th-century guitar music, the works of Madrid composer Tomás Marco hold a prominent position. Born in 1942, Marco first became known as an exponent of the Spanish avant-garde in 1963 with Albayalde for solo guitar, and would return to write for that instrument in later years. 22 Tarots, Presto Mormorando and Sonata de Fuego were written between 1990 and 1996. Even though they are formally very different - a collection of short pieces, a single work, a sonata - the three works share traits that warrant their being united in this sort of short anthology.

Karajan in Italy, Vol. 2

MEYERBEER: Semiramide riconosciuta

WAGNER: Die Feen

Includes sonata(s) for guitar by Niccolò Paganini. Soloist: Guido Fichtner.

VERDI: Simon Boccanegra

Francesco Cavalli was the most successful Venetian opera composer of the mid-seventeenth century. This new production is orchestrated and conducted by the internationally reputed baroque specialist Federico Maria Sardelli. It is directed by the young Frenchwoman Mariame Clement, who is currently making a name for herself with her infectious directing in German and French opera houses. The title role is sung by the promising counter-tenor Christophe Dumaux.

Tchaikovsky: Complete Piano Works

Libretto and liner notes in Italian and English.

A feast for the ears and for the eyes is what Vicent Martín i Soler and Lorenzo Da Ponte conceived 222 years ago with this playful opera about the struggle between Diana and Love. L’arbore di Diana, staged at the Gran Teatre del Liceu for the first time, is a two-act opera buffa by the composer from Valencia Vicent Martín i Soler with a text by the famous Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Chamber Music (Baroque) - Lotti, A. / Platti, G.B. / Vivaldi

Volume 31 of the Delizie Musicale series presents a very nice collection of Vivaldi at a very nice price.

Viotti: Violin Concertos (Complete), Vol. 10

CONCERTOS - ARIAS - SONATAS

Includes sonata(s) by various composers. Soloists: Dorina Frati, Daniele Roi.

Vivaldi L'arte dell'Arco / Giovanni & Federico Gigliemo, violins; et al Six Concerti a Due for Violin

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Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes was among the many musicians who travelled to Italy to master the language and the rules of operatic works. He studied in Milan and succeeded in having a few operas staged at Italian venues, before returning to Brazil where he was hailed as the most famous living national composer. Gomes felt compelled to commit his work to the country’s anti-slave cause, which was still legal practice then. Lo schiavo was therefore conceived as a politically engaged work. However, the issue was rather volatile and the composer had to change the contemporary time setting to a more distant one. In Brazil the opera was a triumph, but elsewhere it failed to gain popularity and soon fell into oblivion. This recording of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari’s production documents the opera’s first performance in modern times and reveals Gomes’ flamboyant richness of melodic creativity, his sound grasp of construction, and a technical mastery of the theatrical mechanisms that are always of the highest level. “The most popular title of the entire Brazilian repertoire. The most represented and, perhaps, the most loved one.” (John Neschling, conductor)

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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 fiancée 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)

“Roberto Devereux” (1837) saw the light of day during a period of intense creativity for Donizetti. After its premiere and up until 1848, Devereux was performed almost uninterruptedly. In the years that followed it would also enjoy a successful international career, throughout Europe and in the Americas, with versions in French, German, Russian, and Hungarian. When Donizetti moved to Paris in 1838, he enriched the opera with the overture that paraphrases the British anthem “God Save The Queen.” The Queen dominates from her very entrance, a true protagonist, here performed by the great Mariella Devia: her pure voice, perfect intonation, great stage presence, all combined with the technical qualities of her voice, led to an extended standing ovation. It was a great success, too, for Sonia Ganassi (Sarah) and the tenor Stefan Pop (Devereux).

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Nicola Vaccaj belonged to the Neapolitan school: a pupil of Paisiello and contemporary of Rossini, whose fame somehow obscured his own, he was well known and appreciated at his time, to the point that an extract from the last Act of his Giulietta e Romeo was chosen to substitute the same aria in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi for an 1832 performance and this shift has remained common practice until the end of the 19th century. Therefore it’s hard to believe that Vaccaj’s most notable success was neglected for such a long time as it “is an opera that could easily hold its own among the better-known works in the bel canto canon. It has taut plot, with a strong libretto, written by Romani, and is full of well-constructed ensemble pieces”(Alan Neilson – Operawire) Within a traditional, 16th century setting, director Cecilia Ligorio choses to convey a sense of doom and tragedy which the entire work is imbued with, from the choice of costumes and settings to the stage lighting. “It really was a well-paced, and visually pleasing production that successfully captured the love and hatred which drives the narrative forward.”(Alan Neilson – Operawire)

For the first time in modern times, Festival della Valle d'Itria stages the Neapolitan version of Handel's Rinaldo, a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure which Leonardo Leo assembled in 1718 and which was considered lost until a few years ago. The story behind this most rare opera is captivating: the score of Handel's masterpiece was illegally brought to Naples by the castrato singer Nicol� Grimaldi, who first interpreted Rinaldo in London. Once in Italy, the work was rehashed by Leo as well as other local composers, who adapted it to the taste of the local Neapolitan public, adding some intermezzos and amusing characters. Director Giorgio Sangati turns this work into a "ba-rock" opera set in the 1980's, where the struggle between Christians and Turks becomes a battle between pop-rock singers (the Christians) and dark-metal ones (the Turks). These two factions represent two opposite perspectives on love and life. Conductor Fabio Luisi is at the head of the baroque Ensemble La Scintilla, a group of specialists in the baroque repertoire. Excellent reviews for the vocal cast who endured an almost 4 hour performance, special mentions to Carmela Remigio (Armida) who was defined "vocally majestic and most convincing in her acting skills", whereas Teresa Iervolino (Rinaldo) impressed the critics for her vocal and acting skills en travesti and her ability "to convey all the melancholic shades of Handel's music" (Luca Ciammarughi, classicaviva. Com).