Classical Music

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was Johann Sebastian Bach's second and most successful son. He was a transitional figure between the Baroque and the Classicism, and greatly influenced Mozart and Beethoven, partly thanks to his keyboard sonatas. In the 18th century, the cello concerto was still a fairly new genre, and Boccherini and Haydn had not yet written their contributions at the point when C.P.E. Bach completed his, the three concertos written between 1750 and 1753. The tempestuous drama of the openings and the carefree candour of the finales stand in stark contrast to the tenderness and emotional depth of the slow parts. The renowned Belgian cellist Roel Dieltiens and the legendary Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century reveal themselves to be born raconteurs, turning this music into fascinating, colourful stories. The edition includes a beautiful essay by the popular novelist Anna Enquist, a long-time friend of the Orchestra and of the late Frans Br�ggen, in which she takes her experience visiting the recording sessions of this album in Amsterdam as a departure point to explore the musical personality of Carl Philipp Emanuel, especially when seen in relation to his father's �uvre.

Predominantly focusing on music for the Classical era, Erich Hoeprich became one of the first artists to join the Glossa label in the 1990s. Hoeprich's ensembles Nachtmusique and the Stadler Trio have provided a handful of valuable recordings throughout the years. This reissue focuses on Hoeprich and his Catalonian colleagues from the Stadler Trio, performing a selection of pieces by Mozart and other composers from the same time.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Francesco Barsanti (c. 1690-1772) worked for a number of years in London; he moved thence to Edinburgh – where he lived for some thirty years – before returning to the British capital. • His first published opus, Sonate a flauto solo con basso, form the contents of this Glossa release, originally recorded in Italy in 1993 by the members of the trio ensemble Arcadia. • These early Baroque-era basso continuo works are replete with expressive features: acciaccature, mordents, broken chords, rhythmic and free arpeggios, imitation, diminution, ornamented bass and the all-important rubato.

Classical Music

Classical Music

With a quartet of violin concertos by Jean-Marie Leclair, Leila Schayegh continues her exploration of the instrument's repertory, combining musical insight, virtuosic brilliance and historical understanding. Leclair, who grew up in Lyon and studied in Turin before moving to Paris (he held a short-lived official post at Louis XV's court in the 1730s) produced solo sonatas (and duos) as well as his acclaimed concertos. In her booklet notes, Leila Schayegh, who currently teaches Baroque violin at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, comments on how Leclair - an outstanding violinist himself - was in thrall to the Italian instrumental style but was concerned that his music should not be played too fast; he was praised for his nettet�, a combination of impeccable technique and musical perfection. This second volume in Schayegh's projected series of recordings of the Leclair violin concertos embraces the Nos 1 and 3 works from the two six-concerto series of Opp 7 and 10. For this dazzling new exhibition of the Swiss violinist's art, Schayegh - who plays a late-seventeenth-century Andrea Guarneri instrument - directs Basel's La Cetra Barockorchester, which features Eva Saladin as it's Konzertmeisterin and Christoph Rudolf as a further principal violinist (Leclair's concertos often called for up to three soloists).

Classical Music

After their recent releases of Conti's Missa Sancti Pauli and Rameau's Les Indes galantes, conductor Gy�rgy Vashegyi and his Orfeo Orchestra and Purcell Choir present a world premiere recording of a passion by a today virtually unknown composer, Gottfried Heinrich St�lzel. The name of St�lzel does not ring a bell even with the keenest lovers of Baroque music, even though he was a significant figure in the musical life of Germany in the first half of the 18th century; he was held in highest respect even by Johann Sebastian Bach himself, just to name the greatest authority of all, as documents of the time show. The work recorded here is a so-called "passion oratorio", a musical form widely used in the German-speaking world in the 18th century built upon a series of lyrical contemplations resting on the story of Christ's passion. The libretto for Ein L�mmlein geht und tr�gt die Schuld was written by St�lzel hiself, and features a succession of recitatives, arias and chorales sung by the "Evangelist", the "Faithful Souls" and the "Christian Church". The work, premiered in Gotha 1720 and recorded here in the 1731 version, had such a great impact that it got performed in other German cities, including Leipzig on Good Friday of 1734 (where the church community did not relive Christ's passion through Bach's music but through St�lzel's oratorio).

Classical Music

It is to the distinctive compositional voice of Jan Dismas Zelenka that Ruben Jais and la Barocca turn for their latest release from the Glossa label with a new recording of the Missa Omnium Sanctorum. For more than thirty years Zelenka worked as a composer and as a double-bass player at the Dresden Court, the musical establishment which - in the first half of the eighteenth century - was regarded as one of the glories of it's age. Zelenka finished this mass, an expansive, dynamic multi-movement work (notably the Gloria) scored for soloists, chorus and orchestra, in 1741; by this time the composer was in his sixties, and the mass stands as one of the summations of his creative endeavours. The Milanese Ruben Jais - who has previously prepared programmes of Bach and Gluck for Glossa- provides exuberant conducting for music which takes in studied chordal sections, exhilarating fugues, High Baroque flourishes as well as the dance-like tendencies of the galant style. In this musical diversity Ruben Jais is accompanied by a solo team consisting of Carlotta Colombo, Filippo Mineccia, Cyril Auvity and Lukas Zeman, but with more than important contributions being required from the choral and instrumental forces of la Barocca.

From the early Symphonia-label days of Antonio Florio and his ensemble, now renamed I Turchini, we bring back to the market an important recording of early Baroque Neapolitan liturgical music: divided into three sections (Liturgy of the Dead, Corpus Christi and Christmas), Florio presents fine works of Veneziano, Provenzale and conteporaries, all sourced from the period's active Neapolitan Conservatories and beautifully explained by scholar Dinko Fabris in the included booklet notes.