“The music of Greece which has come down to us from Antiquity, via the Byzantine tradition, changes its appearance according to era and place of origin, yet always preserves its soul intact. Each new generation rediscovers crucial details and secrets in order to sustain afresh a form of music which has acted as a form of expression for millions of people for thousands of years.” Such were the words of Hristos Tsiamulis, the driving force behind one of Glossa’s most loved recordings.

The release of a new recording from La Morra is always an exciting moment for creative and imaginative artistry, not just within the realms of late medieval and early renaissance music. With a disc focusing on the 15th-century composer Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz, in a production from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and presented on Glossa, the ensemble is set to repeat its happy knack of alighting upon an area of largely untravelled repertory and preparing an enjoyably fascinating programme from it. Wilhelmi was what can be called a Central-European composer: born in today’s Poland he was active in German, Bohemian and Silesian territory, a musician from within the Holy Roman Empire, and open to new trends coming from the West and South. Without being a cultural force to rival his near contemporary Guillaume Dufay, Wilhelmi provided music which had a long-lasting appeal for the learned, non-professional musicians in Central- European lands. Corina Marti and Michal Gondko, the Swiss ensemble’s joint artistic directors since its formation back in 2000, add their skills as instrumentalists (keyboard, recorders and lute) to those of their quartet of singers in a survey which also embraces further Latin and secular-texted compositions by Nicolaus de Radom, Johannes Tourout and Othmarus Opilionis de Jawor, further examples of how Central European composers were absorbing ideas coming from the Franco-Flemish tradition, Italy and also the Ars Nova from France.

Classical Music

For many years Fabio Biondi has been investing Italian scores with his own form of imaginative and deeply-considered musicality, and it is no real surprise to find him extending his reach past the Baroque and Classical eras and into early Romanticism with this Glossa release of Vincenzo Bellini's opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Bellini's masterpiece, first performed in 1830 - to Felice Romani's story of love confronted by struggles for power - seamlessly incorporates large sections from a previously unsuccessful opera and, as did Rossini before him, Bellini calls for a mezzo-soprano in the male lead role. Vivica Genaux, Romeo in Biondi's production with Europa Galante, is joined by Valentina Farcas as Giulietta and supported by Davide Giusti (Tebaldo), Fabrizio Beggi (Lorenzo) and Ugo Guagliardo (Capellio). In his accompanying notes to this release, Biondi, aspiring to allow listeners to discover new details in and new perspectives on the musical score, writes concerning issues of modern performance of the work, including acoustical details, score markings and tempi choices.

For Mitzi Meyerson’s latest Glossa recording, she presents an interesting insight into everyday eighteenth century English instrumental music with the Eight Setts of Lessons for the harpsichord by John Jones. Composed in 1974, these harpsichord works are nearly the only part of Jones’ catalog that remains. The eight lessons contain dance movements such as Sicilianas, Allemandes, Gavottes, and Minuets. Mitzi Meyerson is an American harpsichordist who has performed, recorded, and taught hundreds of students over the last thirty years. She is a professor of historical keyboard instruments at the Universitat der Kunste in Berlin.

Classical Music

Long before the advent of surtitles in the opera house, success across Europe of new dramatic works depended on their plots being understood by local audiences. Such was the case for the German singspiel that is Mozart's Die Zauberflote, and when it was introduced to in Paris in 1801 it was adapted and re-titled Les Mysteres d'Isis: this is the opera which Le Concert Spirituel and the Flemish Radio Choir have recorded for this new release on Glossa (Diego Fasolis conducting the ensembles in place of the then indisposed Herve Niquet). Little of Mozart's operatic music had established itself at that time in Paris and any production for the Opera needed to include recitatives, ballets, no theatre parle and to be performable by the standing company. Hence, arranger Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith and librettist etienne Morel de Chedeville set to the task of adapting The Magic Flute. What Morel came up with respects the general outlines of Schickaneder's libretto, although most of the characters are renamed. Musically-speaking, this is a pasticcio: whilst much of the original music was retained there are interpolations from others of Mozart's operas. In the booklet, Alexandre Dratwicki and etienne Jardin take us through the genesis and success of Les Mysteres d'Isis. That this opera proved to be such a success in Paris is in part due to the Egyptomania then sweeping through the country; what remains today is the glory of Mozart's music as presented to Parisian audiences in Napoleonic France.

Johannes Brahms' consolatory Ein deutsches Requiem receives a fresh and considered interpretation from Daniel Reuss and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. This renowned orchestra took the decision - following the death, some years back, of Frans Br�ggen - to retain it's founder's dynamic process of alternating concert tours with recordings. And dispensing with the need for having a principal conductor, the orchestra now works with a range of musicians according to the repertoire being performed. Such a conductor is Daniel Reuss, who is also the artistic director of the Cappella Amsterdam, the choir which has frequently been appearing alongside the orchestra in recent times. A well-received reading of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis involving Reuss and the orchestra was issued by Glossa in 2017 and these musical forces have now turned their attention to Johannes Brahms' pillar of religious music. Taped in the Rotterdam de Doelen concert hall this new recording involves Carolyn Sampson (soprano) and Andr� Morsch (baritone) as it's two soloists, in a version which attempts, as far as it is possible, to get close - in terms of tonal colours, interpretation and tempi - to Brahms' original intentions. This extraordinary work, here maintaining a sweeping and moving spirit for some 70 minutes, contains texts from Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible and, it is thought, was inspired by the loss of both the composer's mother and also that of Robert Schumann.

Violinist Isabelle Faust and violist Thomas Riebl join together on this re-issue from 2002 to acquaint listeners with a almost-forgotten composer, Alessandro Rolla. Rolla was the teacher of Nicolo Paganini however he hadn't been credited for many years. The confusion that ensued has enabled Faust and Riebl to encounter some excellent pieces of chamber music by a composer who was the direct at La Scala during the first three decades of the nineteenth century.

The religious devotion of Neapolitans can be witnessed to by the incredible number of churches, chapels and monasteries which, early on, had begun to impress travellers there; there were more than five hundred at the close of the 16th century. This devotional fervour was further aided, in the course of the 17th century, by a number of tragic events: the Flanders war, the revolution of Masaniello, famine, two terrible plagues (1630 and 1656), and the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631. The Marian cult, widespread in the city, became the symbol of a restless search for protection and help. Glossa now reissues, in a double album at a special price, two important releases from Antonio Florio (1991 and 1995) which documented in sound this Marian cult. Supported by great vocal contributions by the likes of Roberta Invernizzi, Daniela Del Monaco or Pino de Vittorio, and the always fine instrumental forces of his instrumental ensemble, Antonio Florio brings back to life, in the best way, forgotten works by Francesco Provenzale, Giovan Maria Sabino or Erasmo di Bartolo.

Classical Music

To talk of the rediscovery of Neapolitan Baroque music is to speak of Antonio Florio and his Cappella della Pietà de’ Turchini (recently renamed simply as I Turchini). • In this recording made in 1993, and with a fantastic line-up of vocal soloists – which includes no less than Roberta Invernizzi – Florio moves into the revitalization of the sacred Neapolitan music which took place at the beginnings of the 17th c., clearly influenced by Monteverdi at the expense of the more archaic style, rather like in Gesualdo, which had prevailed until then.

With a pattern of recording solo albums which has been positively frugal over the last 20 years, Mara Galassi marks her return on Glossa with a new and striking programme, entitled Portrait of a Lady with Harp. The ambiance into which the noted modern- day harpist from Milan plunges the listener is that of the court of Queen Christina of Sweden who, on renouncing her throne, converting to Catholicism and moving to Rome in the mid 1650s embarked upon a spectacular cultural life, becoming a patron for writers, scientists and especially musicians. Among those composers active in Rome at the time were Alessandro Stradella, Bernardo Pasquini, Arcangelo Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti, all of whom benefitted from Christina's constant hunger for music of high quality, whether official employees at her court or not. No Mara Galassi record release is going to be found lacking in an element of mystery: is the portrait of a lady with a harp appearing in the booklet that of the self-exiled queen herself? In the accompanying essay, Arnaldo Morelli investigates the history of this painting in search of answers, and describes Christina's colourful Italian musical life. The hectic, turbulent musical climate of mid-Seicento Rome is grasped and expressed by Mara Galassi, filtering the talents of Christina's proteges through her chosen instrument which, for this new recording, is based on Girolamo Acciari's 1632 "Arpa Barberini", a triple harp of great range and subtlety.

Classical Music

Classical Music