After his studies at the Conservatorio C. Pollini in Padua, Francesco Galligioni specialized in playing the baroque cello and the viola da gamba. He is one of the founding members of the Venice Baroque Orchestra, with which he has toured and recorded numerous times. He has worked with conductors and soloists such as John Eliot Gardiner, Andrea Marcon, Gustav Leonhardt, Sara Mingardo, Christopher Hogwood and Magdalena Kozena. With the ensemble gambe di legno, Galligioni dedicates himself to previously undiscovered works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. More recently, Francesco Galligioni has devoted himself increasingly to the baroque solo repertoire for violoncello. His great passion is the suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. After studying these mythical gems for a long time, Francesco will perform these works for the first time in concert over the next three years and he also record them for this album.

The harpsichord duo Le Petit Concert Baroque studied with Pierre Hantai, Elisabeth Joy and teachers at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The sisters won prizes at the international competitions of Melk, Roverto and Gottingen. On this recording they present their felicitous Bach transcriptions which emphasize their musicality and virtuosity.

"This disc festures two vocal works by the Italian composer Giovanni Ferrandini (1709-1791). Ferrandini largely disappeared from music history following his return to Padua from Germany in the early 1750's, where he'd had some success as an opera composer. The cantata “Il Pianto di Maria Vergine” was for many years erroneously credited to Handel before a manuscript discovery proved otherwise. This work is credited with having a splended diversity of expression."

• The members of the Accademia dell’Arcadia transport themselves to Arcadia’s imaginary landscape and, following the custom in classical antiquity, gave themselves pseudonyms. The Accademia’s composers and musicians included Francesco Gasparini (Anfriso Petronio), Alessandro (Eterio Stinfalico) and Benedetto Marcello (Driante Sacreo), Arcangelo Corelli (Arcomelo Erimanteo), Bernardo Pasquini (Protico Azeriano), Alessandro Scarlatti (Terpandro Azeriano) and Giuseppe Valentini (Euginaspe Leupinto).

In the development of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s genius, musical ideas often migrated from one instrument to another, transforming and transfiguring themselves before acquiring a definitive form. The organ and harpsichord pieces presented in this recording mirror each other. Following the same musical inspiration, Bach explores the idioms and technical possibilities of both instruments, often evoking on one instrument the idiom of the other. Maurizio Croci performs these works with aplomb. He is no stranger to Bach’s work, and has performed J. S. Bach’s complete organ works and has also recorded several albums devoted to Bach and his contemporaries. He regularly gives masterclasses on early keyboard music, and currently serves as Organ Professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne as well as Harpsichord Professor at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan.

Franz Joseph Haydn and Luigi Boccherini, the two “Wiener Klassik” protagonists, have some striking similarities: both reinvented themselves in the seclusion of their respective provinces, and both influenced, shaped and furthered the string quartet genre. + And yet, they pursue in their music, within and beyond the string quartet, very different and individuated approaches. + Dubbing this release, appropriately, ‘La Passione’, the Ensemble Cordia under the direction of Erich Höbarth presents, in alternating fashion, two sinfonia and two concerti each by both composers.

Virtuosity was as intricate issue in the late Baroque period. On one hand, the public attending the concert demanded to be overwhelmed by the performers' technique. On the other hand, virtuosity provided imitation and often revelaed composers' command over their craft. Composers were expected to supply a piece that showcased an artists entire "bag of tricks" including special effects and specific skills. Handel and Vivaldi did not allow the circumstances of the day to hinder their inspiration. The ensemble Barrocade, along with Claire Meghnagi and Shai Kribus showcase Handel and Vivaldi's virtuosic works of their day.

At the time when Isaac Newton invented the first reflecting telescope, King Leopold I reigned in Vienna and unique among most royals who appreciated music, was an active composer albeit one with a modest output. Ranging from sacred works to dance music and song, Leopold I's compositions performed on this collection by the ensemble Gambe di Legno conducted by Francesco Baroni are a fascinating listen for the context they suggest during Leopold's reign.

This CD of the Italian harpsichordist and organist Maurizio Croci is dedicated to keys works of Bach, which were designed for both organ and harpsichord. Frequently Bach transformed his compositions between the two keyboard instruments back and forth in order to get a better understanding of the relevant technical and idiomatic possibilities and limitations. As a keyboardist, Bach was admired by all who had the fortune to hear him and was the envy of the virtuosi of his day. The cornerstone of this album is Bach’s thirty variations. This admirable work includes a regular four part Fugue, several extremely brilliant Variations for two Claviers, and concludes with a Quodlibet, as it is called. Born in 1958 in Melk, Wolfgang Gluxam studied harpsichord with Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and organ with Alfred Mitterhofer at the Vienna Conservatory. He has won prizes at international competitions, and has been teaching harpsichord at the Vienna Music University since 1985.

For the 30th anniversary of the Brunnenthaler summer concerts, ensemble director Francesco Cera with the cornettist William Dongois performed music from the 17th century. The repertoire ranges from instrumental motets and virtuoso sonatas to toccatas whose origins lie in Italy.

Classical Music

The Brunnenthaler summer concerts represent one of the gems of Austria's early music scene. Founded in 1982 by August Humer, organist and specialist for historic keyboard isntruments, this concert series is no longer just an insider tip for the cognoscenti. Every year audiences come from far and wide to the baroque jewel of the little pilgrimage church to hear artists and ensembles, whether established stars such as Michi Gaigg and the L'Orfeo Barockorchester or young groups and soloists.

Venice, Rome and Naples are the places of origin of the presented pieces – places of an equally flourishing and brilliantly bright musical past. “Palpiti del Cuore” (Palpitations of the Heart) traces these historic locales’ musical development across the glorious Italian Baroque era. The young ensemble La Botta Forte plays vocal and instrumental music from the beginnings of the ‘stile moderno’ in the 17th c. to the High Baroque in the 18th c. Each ensemble musician is proficient on several instruments, that flexibility allowing for a greatly expanded repertoire.

Around 1900 Merano was a popular health resort of the High Society far beyond the borders of Austria-Hungary. The people there were entertained by salon orchestras in the open air pavilion or in the “Kursaal”. In his project with Musica Saeculorum, Philipp von Steinaecker was able to rely on the original vocal material of the Meran “Kurmusik”. Laura Giordano is considered one of the most talented Italian sopranos of her generation, appreciated by audiences and critics alike both for her vocal qualities as well as her captivating stage presence and dramatic talent. Following her debut at a very young age in her native Palermo, her career soon took her to leading international opera houses in Milan, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, London, Moscow, St. Petersburg and to opera festivals in Salzburg, Florence, Santa Fe, and Pesaro.

Although the majority of Italian Chamber Cantatas were composed for soprano or contralto, that does not necessarily mean the composer left the other vocal registers completely ignored. + Especially in Italy, there must have always been excellent bass singers (just think of the extremely demanding games that occurred in some of the vocal works Handel composed during his stay in Italy), which have inspired the composition of bass cantatas. + Here Mauro Borgioni presents some works of Alessandro Stradella and Antonio Caldara, characterized not only by virtuosity, but also by operatic drama.