A native of Naples, Ferdinando Carulli established his reputation as a leading guitarist and teacher in Paris, and his Guitar Method, Op. 27 is still in use today. As a composer he shrewdly satisfied the demands of players and audiences alike. Entertaining light waltzes can be found alongside popular melodies treated to virtuoso variations of great brilliance and indisputable originality. Musical references to Carulli’s contemporary Paganini and the fashionable influence of Spanish styles and techniques are brought together in a program that includes numerous world premiere recordings to deliver a portrait of a Neapolitan musician who deserves to be much better known.

Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe’s life is largely shrouded in mystery, and almost nothing was known of his music until these Concerts à deux violes esgales were discovered in Geneva in 1966. Full of inspiration and fantasy, these pieces are often technically very demanding, innovatively deploying the viol’s entire range and putting players to the test in ways that were unprecedented in French viol literature. The sound of the viols is as haunting as the music’s titles are teasingly expressive, and for their extraordinary imagination, originality and rare sonic splendor these works are justly considered one of the great monuments of European Baroque music.

American-Armenian composer Alan Hovhaness was a significant representative of 20th-century music – a composer who sought a path independent to the fashions and trends of his time. He avoided the European avant-garde, instead embracing Armenian and oriental traditions as well as Medieval and Renaissance music. This second volume includes the sonic atmospheres of Hermes Stella, dedicated to the poet-philosopher-mystic Francis Bacon, and the complex and fascinating Piano Sonata ‘Journey to Arcturus’ which takes us to one of the most visible stars from Earth. MusicWeb International considered Alessandra Pompili “a splendid young exponent of Hovhaness's music” in Volume 1 of this edition.

REVIEW:

Komanchi, Op. 249 was inspired by the legendary Japanese poetess of the same name, and by nature. This seven-movement piece has a simple delicacy. The texture is very thin – often just a single-line melody. Hovhaness manages to capture the essence of Asian music while still writing in his own voice.

Greek Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 63 is an early work. Hovhaness completed it in 1944 when he completely reinvented his style. The melody sounds Grecian and is given a mostly monophonic treatment. This free-flowing rhapsody entices with its improvisatory beauty.

Hovhaness’ 1981 Piano Sonata, Op. 354 is a major work and is over twenty minutes in length. But don’t expect a traditional sonata-allegro four-movement structure. The subtitle “Journey to Arcturus” provides the context. This is about moving from one destination to another. As the work does over the course of its six movements.

Hovhaness was a pianist, but one with a unique idea of what piano music should be. Alesandra Pompili gives us Hovhaness’ vision in her performances. Her playing is expressive and fluid. An excellent recording. Highly recommended for anyone wanting a fuller understanding of Alan Hovhaness’ music.

-- WTJU-FM, 91.1 (Univ. of VA)

An opéra-comique by an Italian composer? This was a rarity in its day, but after the “barely averted disaster” of its opening night, Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment became a popular success, not least for the high Cs demanded from Tonio in the famous tenor aria "Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête!" The story revolves around Marie, the canteen girl of the Regiment, whose lover Tonio joins the army to be near her just as she is claimed for marriage into nobility. This acclaimed Teatro Donizetti production was considered by turns “hilarious… tender and moving… [and] overwhelmingly brilliant.” (Bachtrack)

Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari studied in Naples before finding esteem in the Parisian musical world of the late 1780s. Fleeing the Revolution he settled in London. His compositions divide equally between vocal and chamber music, but also include two piano concertos. His Four Duets for Piano and Harp reveal clearly the main features of his art: easy melodic grace founded on his studies with Paisiello, high musical quality, formal balance, and a veneration of Haydn and Mozart. Intended for professionals and amateurs alike, slow movements are expressive and rondos full of vigor. In this recording original instruments are used to do full justice to the period timbre of Ferrari’s dialogues between fortepiano and harp.

Nicol� Paganini's Quartets for Strings and Guitar offer some of the best examples of his inexhaustible creativity, including ideas and themes that were later included in his more famous concertos. The Seventh Quartet combines mastery of form with endless melodic inventiveness, while the Fourteenth is more virtuosic, allowing it's dedicatee to shine as a violinist with splendid effectiveness. The dark color of the viola gives unique timbre to the Fifteenth Quartet which, with it's moments of operatic expressiveness, is outstanding in Paganini's chamber music output. Volume 1 of this edition (CDS7912) was considered "first-rate" in every regard by the American Record Guide.

Carl Vine is one of Australia’s most eminent and internationally admired composers. His four piano sonatas span three decades and trace his diverse musical development. The earliest sonata is exuberant, pulsating with driving rhythms, while No. 2 enshrines a jazz-inspired toccata alongside memorable virtuoso pyrotechnics. Vivid fantasia elements mark out No. 3, juxtaposing the aphorism, reflection and turbulence of No. 4. With their traditional forms Vine’s sonatas are sophisticated, lyrical, urgent and compelling contemporary statements. Pianist Xiaoya Liu has captured the imagination of worldwide audiences through her pro-found artistry and charismatic performances as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across Asia, Europe, and the United States with orchestras such as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Marquette Symphony Orchestra, Round Rock Symphony, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, GSIM Festival Orchestra and in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Hill Auditorium, Palazzo Biscari, and Shanghai Concert Hall.

REVIEW:

Austrian composer Carl Vine has a maximalist approach both to expression and to pianistic technique—but there are moments when I wonder whether the technical difficulty is necessary in conveying the emotional content. The first theme of the First Sonata’s second movement, for example, is a lightning-fast flurry of 16th notes that requires both hands to remain stretched to a 10th through much of the passage and to leap as much as an octave and a half between iterations of the figuration. This places the hands in a near-continual stress position, but the musical effect is reminiscent of the final movement in Chopin’s “Funeral March” Sonata, in which Chopin allows the hands to remain in a relaxed position. Liu (and others) play the passage as if effortlessly, but I have a clear idea of the effort they must have put into mastering it, and I can’t say the passage merits that level of difficulty (and—frankly—physical discomfort if not risk of injury). Likewise, the opening of the Second Sonata involves bold chords in the treble punctuated by low bass octaves and cascades of arpeggios that span the entire range of the piano. The effect is colorful, but does it absolutely require a race from the next-to-highest octave of the piano to its lowest note and back? It’s not that I object in any way to virtuosity or athleticism in music; I’m just not always convinced that Vine’s music needs to be quite as busy as it often is. And the very few times that Xiaoya Liu is anything other than exquisitely subtle in her playing—times when she places a melody in undifferentiated accented relief rather than phrasing it with her characteristic sensitivity—it is because the writing is so thick and the physical demands so intense that she could hardly do otherwise.

But that criticism does not detract from my impression that each one of Vine’s four sonatas is tremendously expressive and is a substantial addition to the piano sonata repertoire. Xiaoya Liu gives each one a searching, thoughtful interpretation. And the sound quality is excellent throughout the recording. I give it a very strong recommendation.

-- Fanfare

Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen concludes with Götterdämmerung. The composer’s original draft, in which the gods are redeemed by the hero Siegfried’s sacrifice, had fundamentally changed by 1874. Now in this ‘cosmic catastrophe’ Brünnhilde rides into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, the Rhine overflows and Valhalla perishes, and the gods with it. It’s the longest and most complex of the four music dramas, and its orchestration is also the most colorful and sophisticated. Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Funeral March and Brünnhilde’s immolation scene are some of Wagner’s most potent theatrical moments and bring this drama to a shattering conclusion.

Writing for the piano was the focal point of Stravinsky’s composing activity, despite the small number of works he wrote explicitly for the instrument. This program testifies to this by creating a dialogue both between the pieces themselves, and the interpreter's conversation with the composer through his music. Russian soul meets the jazzy bustle of Paris and New York, neo-Classical and Baroque reminiscence converses with the rhythmic and harmonic spice of Stravinsky’s modernity, and the poised antiquity of Apollon musagète encounters Le Sacre du Printemps.

The Italian pianist Luigi Palombi, graduated in Piano and Composition from the Milan Conservatory under the guidance of Mariagrazia Grauso and Sonia Bo. He has performed at prestigious venues all over the world, and alongside fine artists like Ennio Morricone and Nicola Piovani.

Tartini’s violin school in Padua had such a wide international character that it was known as the ‘School of the Nations’. For over 40 years his students returned to their countries of origin, circulating what became a significant cultural legacy. France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands are represented here, as are mid-18th-century tastes for virtuosity and lyrical expressiveness, infused with the fingerprints of Tartini’s stylish and often delightfully ornamental techniques. Volume 1 (CDS723) of this edition was admired for its ‘exquisite violin playing’ (American Record Guide) and was ‘strongly recommended across the board’ by Fanfare.

A pioneer in the development of opera, Claudio Monteverdi took vocal music beyond Renaissance polyphony into an era in which feelings and emotions could be expressed differently. Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria is part of a late flowering in Monteverdi’s illustrious career, and is considered the most profoundly tender and moving of his operas. Its hero Ulysses is forced to undergo cruel tests, hardships, treachery and deception before he can be reunited with his beloved queen Penelope and recover his kingdom. This acclaimed production is conducted by renowned early music specialist Ottavio Dantone, who considers Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria to be ‘the most beautiful opera ever written.’

Die Walküre is the second part of Der Ring des Nibelungen and has remained the most popular of the tetralogy of operas. Prominent are the lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde who incur the anger of Fricka, goddess of marriage, and whose long duet in the superbly sustained Act I is one of the work’s glories. The spectacular Ride of the Valkyries, the spellbinding music of Wotan’s Farewell and the Magic Fire that closes the opera are other highlights of this critically acclaimed production from Sofia National Opera. Sofia National Opera, founded in 1890, is the oldest and most prestigious Bulgarian opera theatre. Drawing upon the tradition of West European and Russian ballet theatre, its founders, singers and producers have established the ensemble method of a permanent troupe of soloists, orchestral musicians, ballet dancers, set design artists and producers. They produce up to 10 premières of classical and modern opera and ballet over a 10-month season.

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Wagner sourced material for his national legend Der Ring des Nibelungen in medieval German and Scandinavian sagas, though much was his own invention. Das Rheingold is the prologue to this tetralogy of music dramas. It introduces the principal events in this visionary work, the theft by the Nibelung dwarf Alberich of the ring made from Rhine gold, and its seizure by Wotan, ruler of the Gods. This production was recorded in 2010 at the Sofia Opera and Ballet theatre as the first title of the complete Wagner cycle that we will be releasing entirely in separate titles. The theatre’s managing director Plamen Kartaloff succeeded in creating an amazing “Sofia Ring” with local cast and crew, chiseling each detail with care: from singers’s vocal training to set design, lights and costumes, thus delivering a most modern and captivating rendition which was acclaimed by international press.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

This opera was recorded at the 2019 Festival Verdi in a new coproduction from Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. I due Foscari, a tragedia lirica in three acts based on a work by Lord Byron, was premiered in 1844. It proved quite popular for the next fifty years, thanks in part to its brevity and ease of staging; in fact it’s Verdi's shortest opera. The composer also revised the libretto by the rather inexperienced Francesco Maria Piave. From the musical point of view, this work is characterized by extreme simplicity of form and by the use of distinctive themes for each character, reminiscent of the Leitmotiv technique. The simple plot describes the mortal hatred between a Venetian gentleman, Jacopo Loredano, and two members of the Foscari family - the Doge Francesco and his son Jacopo - whom Loredano holds responsible for the deaths of his father and uncle. The effectiveness of this recording stems from both the cast of singers (notably Vladimir Stoyanov in the role of Francesco Foscari) and the orchestra under Paolo Arrivabeni's direction Paolo Arrivabeni is a highly experienced, international conductor who specializes in this repertoire.

The soaring, optimistic opening of Brahms' String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111 is one of the great moments in chamber music: the upper strings shimmer, enriched with the addition of a second viola, while the cello delivers its leaping melody. The work is equal to his Op. 88 string quintet: it has an even more intimate and abstract character, with rich and complex writing within the concise form that also characterizes its twin work. The Quintet in F major, Op. 88 was completed in the spring of 1882 at Bad Ischl, a place particularly favored by Brahms. Unusually, the composer immediately declared himself very pleased with the work, to the point that he wrote, after the customary private performance, to the publisher Simrock: ‘I can assure you that up to today I have never listened to a better work written by me.’ Cast in three concise movements, the Quintet in F major is an extraordinary work, warmly communicative, and undoubtedly one of the Hamburg composer's best chamber works. The two String Quintets Op. 88 and Op. 111 are particularly noteworthy and should be counted among Brahms’s chamber music masterpieces, even though they are rarely performed in concert because of the peculiar scoring for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello. Since there are no regular ensembles with this make-up, they are usually performed by an established string quartet to which a second viola is added.