Composed during Antonio Vivaldi's stay in Prague in 1729-30, the Concerto for Lute RV 93 is the most celebrated example of a repertoire almost totally neglected today, but once extremely popular in the German-speaking world, particularly in the Habsburg lands of Austria and Bohemia. After offering us a reference edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (2022) and a representative anthology of the output of Silvius Leopold Weiss (2024), Evangelina Mascardi concludes her 18th-century trilogy by illuminating a fundamental, yet hitherto largely sidelined, chapter in the history of the lute. Alongside the Vivaldi concerto, which guitarists have embraced since the early 1960s, making it one of his most acclaimed works, we find four genuine and practically unknown gems, such as those composed by Joachim Bernard Hagen and Karl Ignaz Augustin Kohaut, now given their first recording. Accompanied by the Estrovagante Orchestra, directed by Riccardo Doni, Mascardi ventures into the rococo idiom, the stylistic context for the final virtuosic showpieces of an instrument boasting a rich history, but destined-in the space of just a few years-to be definitively eclipsed.

A tireless explorer of territories off the beaten track, Gaetano Nasillo has already addressed Venetian music with a memorable album devoted to composer and 'musico di violoncello' Antonio Caldara (A356). This new album brings us back to Venice to discover cello virtuosos and sonatas between Vivaldi and Tartini. 'In the late seventeenth century the bass member of the violin family underwent an evolution to become the instrument we know as the violoncello. Within a few decades, Venice and it's republic became an important centre of composition for the new instrument, whose popularity steadily increased, reaching a peak in the 1730s and 1740s. In his recorded anthology of sonatas for the instrument the cellist Gaetano Nasillo has selected eight works by eight different composers with a connection to La Serenissima. One composer, Antonio Vivaldi, is extremely well known; two, Benedetto Marcello and Giovanni Benedetto Platti, are slightly known; the remaining five - Girolamo Bassani, Diogenio Bigaglia, Antonio Martinelli, Antonio Vandini and Michele Stratico - are hardly known at all, and this premiere recording of their sonatas reveals the high quality and simple enjoyability of their music.' - Michael Talbot

The manuscript MS 73 Klagenfurt was found by baroque-violinist Veronika Skulpik and is a little treasure of baroque violin music. Almost all of the manuscript pieces are for a violin in scordatura tuning, although this is not always indicated. With some degree of certainty, the above-mentioned manuscripts can prove that the anonymous authors moved in the circle of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.

With the battle of Pavia in 1525 a long period of Spanish domination began for Milan. Under the reign of Charles V the arts and music flourished. Antonio de Cabezon travelled across Europe visiting Milan in 1584 and his lute music influenced the great European composers. Contrary to keyboard instruments, lute and vihuela already have a vast repertoire in print. The combination of a keyboard instrument with the vihuela is common in the sources of Spanish influence of this period, which often bear the indication "para tecla y vihuela." Evangelina Mascardi and Maurizio Croci, established soloists on the international early music scene, explore the affinities, the contrasts and, in the words of an enthusiastic chronicler of the time, the "unheard of imitations" that arise from the dialogue between the two instruments. Their research project, carried out at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU) with the involvement of various international partners, has led to the discovery of new interpretations that offer to an immense repertoire of extremely high musical value, unique and fascinating perspectives.

After the success of the complete works for lute by J. S. Bach, crowned by the recognition of international critics (Diapason d'Or, Choc de Classica, Excepcional Scherzo, Record Geijutsu, Eccezionale di Musica, Joker Absolu Crescendo), Evangelina offers a double album dedicated to the music of the greatest lutenist of all time: Sylvius Leopold Weiss. In his work, virtuosity and sumptuousness merge against the elegant and ethereal background of the gallant encounters and court dances of the 18th century. A new recording that restores the lute to it's due and ancient glories.

In the heyday of English Renaissance music, the boundaries of musical forms and instrumental technique were expanded and composers embarked on a search for new, fascinating sounds. Thanks to the outstanding ensemble on this recording - Anna-Lena Elbert, Friederike Heumann (viola da gamba, lyra viol), Evangelina Mascardi (Renaissance lute) and Angelique Mauillon (harp) - this music blossoms again in it's ancient splendor and we can be enchanted by it's beauty, ingenuity and bittersweet melancholy.