Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

The charm and sheer full-blooded pleasure offered by Leopold Stokowski’s transcriptions continues to hold sway today – complete with opulent and resonant strings – some three decades after the dynamic conductor’s death. The “Stokowski Sound” was particularly, indeed deliberately, well-suited to the possibilities offered with the development of stereo recording of the maestro’s day, a challenge which Glossa’s engineer Manuel Mohino has happily embraced as much as the Brussels Philharmonic, whose members have taken to the style like ducks to water in this modern-day “Evening with Leopold Stokowski”.

Leading the way with a classy swagger in transcriptions of Bach, Purcell and Palestrina is a conductor in Richard Egarr, perhaps better known for his work with the unadorned originals (he is the Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, after all), but in reality equally at home in much later music – and he makes no bones about his appreciation of the Stokowski style. About the transcription of Dido’s Lament Egarr says, “It is still Purcell, even in Stokowski's fur coat.” and, for added emphasis, he conjures up his own orchestral confection of Handel’s Water Music. An evening’s entertainment of unalloyed pleasure culminating in a triumphant rendition of the Slavonic March by Tchaikovsky, à la Stokowski, naturally.

With Il Spiritillo Brando from La Ritirata comes an opportunity to enjoy exciting performances from a new name on the Spanish early music scene as well as a thrilling ride across the terrain of the Spanish and Italian courtly instrumental traditions as the Renaissance danced its way into the Baroque. Not since the days when brothers José Miguel and Emilio Moreno made their first recordings for Glossa has any Spanish musician been invited to figure on the label from El Escorial. This is now changing with the arrival of the talents of Josetxu Obregón and his Spanish colleagues from La Ritirata - counting amongst them the best in the younger string, plucked-string, wind and keyboard players from the country - as they bring us the dance rhythm delights of Andrea Falconieri, whose music leads the way into contributions from the likes of Diego Ortiz and Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde; permitting the individual members of La Ritirata to demonstrate their virtuosic skills and commitment to the music that they perform. This includes Josetxu Obregón himself, who as a cellist, delights in music from late 17th century exponents of the cello in Giuseppe Maria Jacchini, Giovanni Battista Vitali and Domenico Gabrielli. As the title implies, Il Spiritillo Brando evokes both the social dancing which will have taken place in the court of the Spanish viceroyalty in Naples itself, and the mischievous duendes which roamed the streets, animating all the proceedings in the vicinity!

Here is another crucial Glossa recording of the mid 90's brought back to life. Ensemble La Romanesca's Al Alva Venid covers some essential Spanish Renaissance repertory with an all-stars line-up, in a set of interpretations which have set deep marks and are absolute references: here is Marta Almajano in her best singing moment, here is Paolo Pandolfo confirming his superior artistry, here are Juan Carlos de Mulder and Pedro Estevan in ''de luxe'' supporting roles, and of course here is Jose miguel Moreno, the man who has probably been the finest translator of Renaissance secular Spanish music onto record of the last three decades.

Steffani Arcadia Ens./Cremonesi; Bertini; Cavina Duetti da Camera

The early five-part madrigals published by Luca Marenzio in 1580 in his "First Book of Madrigals" revive the Roman dolce vita of the 1580s and 1590s. The music and texts of this "Primo Libro di Madrigali a cinque voci" evoke that Golden Age of art and science in which cardinals and princes were splendor-loving patrons. At the time of its release, Marenzio's "Primo Libro" was a huge success and his recording forms another madrigal jewel in the collection of the Compagnia del Madrigale, which once again shows how sonorous and colorful it knows how to interpret this Italian repertoire. In addition to the madrigals from the "Primo Libro", this recording also features the rarely performed "Sestina Mentre ti fui sì grato", a collaborative work by a collective of Renaissance composers known as the "Musici di Roma". It consisted of the six composers Nanino, Moscaglia, de Macque, Soriano, Zoilo and Marenzio himself, each of whom set a stanza of this madrigal to music, thus offering the listener exciting opportunities for comparison.

Again and again, Antonio Florio and his colleagues from the Centro di Musica Antica Pietà de' Turchini in Naples succeed in tracking down forgotten repertoire of the Neapolitan Baroque and breathing new life into it. This recording from 2009 focuses on cantatas by the composer Cristofaro Caresana. The latter was born in Venice and, in Florio's opinion, was one of the most important protagonists of Neapolitan musical life in the second half of the 17th century. Both the music of his cantatas and their performance reflect the Neapolitan spirit of the Baroque in a dramatic and exuberant way; tasteful and accomplished singers such as Maria Grazia Schiavo, Giuseppe De Vittorio and Rosario Totaro form the ensemble for the three polyphonic Christmas cantatas, of which the one about the "Adoration of the Three Magi" gave the album its title. The program is completed by the solo cantata "Partenope" for the feast of the Neapolitan patron saint San Gennaro as well as instrumental sonatas from the pen of Pietro Andrea Ziani, in which the strings of the Turchini can demonstrate their virtuosity.

“When [Franz] Benda [...] plays an Adagio, one has the impression that eternal wisdom is speaking down to us from heaven.” Thus the description, written in 1798, by violinist Johann Peter Salomon – a pupil of Benda’s and a good friend of Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven – of the playing of the “magician” and the “great genius”. The works on this recording were selected from a unique manuscript collection preserved in the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. What makes it a rarity are the written-out ornaments, for all of the movements, even the quick ones, are complemented by one or, in some cases, even two ornamented versions on separate staves. Even if this Berlin manuscript does not stem from Benda’s own hand, there is much to indicate that it is a very careful and, in terms of ornamentation technique, authentic version. For this recording, Swiss violinist Leila Schayegh and her continuo partners Václav Luks and Felix Knecht have recorded a selection from Benda's beautifully ornamented sonatas, including, of course, some of the legendary Adagio movements that Salomon mentions.

In keeping with the tradition of Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century, this release was also recorded live in concert. Together with the vocal soloists Ilse Eerens, Michael Chance, Markus Schäfer and David Wilson-Johnson as well as the Cappella Amsterdam, which performs the choruses, Frans Brüggen and his legendary ensemble went on a spring tour in 2012, during which Johann Sebastian Bach's Easter Oratorio was at the center of the program.

The conductor, who died in 2014, was one of the most influential figures in so-called historical performance practice, but he was never a fan of the practice of casting all voices as soloists. Thus, the interpretation of the Easter Oratorio presented here offers a magnificent range of tonal colors that bring out the extraordinary beauty of the work even more clearly. This album is completed by a "hypothetical" organ concerto composed from various instrumental movements from the cantatas BWV 35 and BWV 156, based on an idea by Frans Brüggen himself.

José Miguel Moreno is one of the leading specialists of historical plucked string instruments, but with a repertory that extends from the 16th century to the present day. A co-founder of Glossa, he had previously recorded with Teresa Berganza for Philips and with Hespèrion XX for Astrée. As a soloist, as an accompanist or with his ensembles La Romanesca and Orphénica Lyra (focused on the Spanish repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque), Moreno has made some of the signal recordings that have helped establish Glossa’s reputation: his groundbreaking album, The Spanish Guitar (1536-1836), for example, has sold in excess of 30,000 copies; other recordings have explored the musical worlds of Cervantes’ Don Quijote and of the painter Diego Velázquez. Moreno has also recorded Boccherini Guitar Quintets, accompanied by his brother Emilio’s La Real Cámara. More recently, he has – in the company of Eligio Quinteiro – dedicated albums to the music of John Dowland and Luys Milán. Over the years such recordings have also received substantial critical praise.

The Fourth Book displays an increased tendency towards chromatism, but short of the extreme experimentalism of the two following collections. Amidst the stormy and poignant intensity of pages like Sparge la morte or Moro, e mentre sospiro, there is still room for fleeting accents of gentleness and lightness, traces of luminosity and a certain ease in the movement of the high parts (perhaps an echo of the vocal charms of the ‘Trio of Dames’). Thus, this Fourth Book serves as a bridge in Gesualdo’s production. The result is a jewel that shines with a light at once brilliant and somber. By the way, does not the surprising façade of Gesualdo’s first residence in Ferrara – the Palace of Diamonds – produce the same impression? Perhaps the spirit of Ferrara speaks, in covert fashion, in these madrigals.

Ignacio Prego is a leading member of the rising generation of Spanish early music specialists recording for Glossa such as Josetxu Obregón and Lina Tur Bonet. He has a busy concert schedule across Europe, the US and Asia, and is frequently to be heard performing harpsichord concertos with ensembles such as the The English Concert, collaborating with eminent musicians such as Monica Huggett and Nicholas McGegan, or giving solo harpsichord recitals, where he is able to demonstrate his special preference for the works of J.S. Bach. On his first solo release for Glossa he had presented Bach's Goldberg Variations, now followed on his new recording by a selection of Bach’s Partitas and English Suites. Fine photographs from Noah Shaye in the booklet round up a new inspiring Glossa title.

Playing the double bass as a solo instrument requires a high level of technical skill on the part of the player. At the time of the beginning of the Viennese Classical period, there were several such outstanding double bass players in Vienna and nearby Bratislava, and so the most important solo works for this instrument were written there. The "Viennese double bass" had a special feature: it had five strings instead of the usual four and was played with frets. In addition, there was a special tuning of the strings that facilitated solo playing in the higher registers. The Canadian double bassist David Sinclair is one of the few specialists for the Viennese bass worldwide and teaches historical double bass at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. On his album "Wiener Stimmung", David Sinclair presents this extraordinary instrument with concertos and chamber music by composers such as Anton Zimmermann, Johannes Sperger, Karl Kohaut, Andreas Lidl and Franz Xaver Hammer as well as Joseph Haydn, congenially accompanied by fellow lecturers at the Schola Cantorum.