The musical mosaic of Velsesia’s historical organs is here enriched by two new and interesting tesserae: the organ of St. Margherita’s parochial church in Balmuccia, rebuilt by Alessandro Mentasti in 1900, and that of St. Euseo’s Sanctuary in Serravalle Sesia, built by the Ragozzi brothers in 1748. The program offered by the present release is specifically intended to emphasize the qualities of the timbres and the sonorities of both of these magnificent instruments. Organist Mario Duella studied at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi of Milano, where he received diplomas in Choral Music and Conducting, Organ, and Organ Composition. He is organist, professor, and choir director in Milan, and at the parish church of Portula.

Storici Organi della Valsesia. The series of recordings which has recently gathered the precious and varied sonorities of Valsesia’s historic organs, thanks to this release, is now being enriched by a new issue. In fact here we can come into contact with two newly repaired instruments, belonging to two different periods: the "Luigi Maroni Biroldi" organ of 1822 of Madonna delle Grazie at Varallo Sesia, and the "Fratelli Krengli" organ of 1937 in the church of San Giacomo at Campertogno. The repertorie performed on the 19th century instrument includes pieces taken from two Masses. The first one by Carlo Fumagalli is based on famous pieces transcribed and revised by the composer from Giuseppe Verdi’s best-Know. The second Mass comprises pieces by Vicenzo Petroli which enhance some sound peculiarities of the instrument.

Praised in profane poetry and honored in religious symbolism, prescribed in medicine and fundamental element of the economy, wine was a fundamental part of medieval culture. Already established in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennia BC, the wine culture arrived in Europe after having passed through Egypt, Greece and Spain. After having spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, grape vine cultivation slowed its growth during the crisis of the Roman Empire between the 3rd and 4th centuries AC due to political and economic disorders which caused security problems and thwarted long term agricultural activity. Consistent production was guaranteed by the church because of the necessity of having wine available at all times for liturgical rites. Wine brought into the Middle Ages the symbolic meanings which it had accumulated in the previous centuries. As a means of communication with the divinities and frequently present in rituals, it was fundamental in ancient Egyptian ceremonies where the grape was called “the eye of the god Horus”. In ancient religions wine was considered a gift of the gods given to man by Osiris for the Egyptians, by Bacchus/Dionysus for the Latins and the Greeks, by Saturn for the italic peoples and by Noah for the Jews, while the Etruscans considered Voltumna the deity who protected the vines. This drink which promoted life and immortality was present in funeral commemorations and banquets and was spread o­n the tombs during the so-called libation. The music on this release is dedicated to that ever-famous drink.

“Alla piffaresca, musica rinascimentale per strumenti alti,” presents a rich musical corpus, in which the ancient "pifari" are the perfect instrument to create the typical climax of Renaissance- open parties, and noble and popular festivals. With a main office in Soresina, La Rossignol is a society between artists and researchers that wishes to promote, to produce and to diffuse some initiatives with the goal of the spread of ancient music. Using a study of direct and indirect sources, musicological researches, historical, organological and iconographical investigations, particular attention to the spectacular side of their own work led the members of the group, since 1987, to an active artistic career in Italy, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Russia, India, China, Japan, Rumania, Cyprus, Espana, Syria, Lebanon, Moroc. Among the prestigious festivals in which they’ve performed we can remember above all Autunno Musicale in Como, International Venice Festival, Recitarcantando, le Colombiadi in Genova, le Settimane musicali in Ascona, il Carnevale di Venezia, and the International Reinaissance Festival of Israel.

In the devotional Christian practice, the worship for the Virgin Mary is the youngest. The little crown of pink wooden beads has been introduced in the West at the Age of Crusades, and since then it has become a symbolic and tangible object with a very strong mystical power. It is curious that the words Corona (Crown) and Koran seem to quarrel linguistically on the common etymological root, but in the end they rejoin together on the road of Memory, in the deepest sense of the term. Traditional historians supported the eastern origin of this kind of prayers, anyway St. Domenico of Guzman introduced the meditated recitation of the Holy Rosary and divulged it with his first groups of friars. The Rosary becomes Memory and at the same time evocation and tangibility. It becomes Word, Rhythm and Music, which is directed to the practice of ascesis. The intent of the work is to vivify the devotional practice through the connection between Music, Singing and Word, melted in an ancestral rhythm. Besides being a practical support to prayer, it is also an “object” of art which carries on the thin thread of memory the invitation to be brought deeply in contact with the heart of the Chosen Woman, the Goddess-Woman, the Divine Mirror, the hiatus which blends Heaven and Earth. Several artists participated to this project: the famous actor Francesco Carnelutti, the reciting voice of the Rosary Mysteries in Latin; the composer Roberto Caravella who proposes three touching meditations for solo voices, viola d’Amore, violoncello concertante, strings and organ. Beside them, there are other composers of the musical-historical landscape.

With the double album D@e Coro, Tenores Neoneli return the market to confirm the good has always said to them and to assert that traditional music is renewed, you must renew or die. Music and traditional singing along the Mediterranean, Sardinia is enhanced by the original interpretation of Elio in some songs. Tenores Neoneli was founded in 1976 for the Tonino Cau’s initiative. While most members have changed hands, one founder remains- Torino Cau- who now serves as the group’s artistic director. The group has toured and recorded extensively over the last four decades, but has seen a hiatus in the last several years. This album marks their re-entrance into the world of recording.

The 2004 film L’iguana, directed by Catherine McGilvray, is based on the novel by Anna Maria Ortese. The story follows the adventures of a rich Italian Count who, while sailing ends up on the remote island of Ocana, just off the Portuguese coast. While there, he meets three impoverished Portuguese aristocrats living cut off from the rest of the world, thrown back into the nineteenth century. This new release is the original motion picture soundtrack, composed by Roberto Caravella and performed by Il Cantiere Della Muse. Roberto Caravella specializes in music from the Middle Ages through the beginning of the 18th century. He has spent decades researching techniques of lute-making and the repair of ancient musical instruments. He founded Il Cantiere Della Muse in the late 1970s, and remains the Artistic Director. In addition to his music for theater and film, he is the composer of several critically acclaimed chamber and symphonic works.

Flumine is the title of the concert and the first solo album of Giuseppe De Trizio. After over twenty years of music with Radicanto, Raiz and Teresa De Sio, the Bari musician offers a sound trail, acoustic and instrumental through fifteen original compositions for classical guitar and mandolin. This is a fascinating journey that aims to weave through an intimate atmosphere, the author and the listener. Fifteen sound frescoes that accompanied Giuseppe throughout his whole life are featured: the first composition dates back to his early steps in music at the age of nine. Feel the music before hearing it, this is the key that moves the musician in his artistic career. Giuseppe De Trizio is also the founder of the Italian music group Radicanto. He has also composed soundtracks for film and television.

In this time of philological research about executive and instrumental typologies of Renaissance of Baroque, is timely the production of Mandolino nel Novecento, that is a Neapolitan mandolino having four iron strings. The question is: what can we play with this instrument? The ensemble Mereuer proposes two solutions: the first one is the transcription (Debussy, Piazzolla, Katchaturian), so they continue the tradition of early twentieth century in which the performance was the only way to know these songs with the plectrum group. The other one is the performance of musical pieces with the compositions of Angulo and Mereu, but most of all the ''Serenata Passacaglia'' that Ennio Morricone has composed for the Ensemble.

Preludi del Novecento is entirely based on one of the most free and complex form of music, the Preludio. The piano player and composer Roberto Russo follows an excursus which can be portrayed as a “geopolitical” overview: along with Western Europe, Asian Europe and the Americas have shown through compositions such as Debussy’s Three Préludes (from The Premier Livre), Kabalevsky’s Four Préludes op. 5, Shostakovich’s Five Preludes, Gershwin’s Three Preludes for piano and Ginastera’s Twelve Preludios Americanos, Russo’s nine Preludes. Robert Russo (b. 1966) began studying piano with his father when he was just a young boy. He went on to study piano with Daniel Rivero, Franco Scala, and Maria Tipo, and composition with Silvano Sardi and Domenico Bartolucci. He is a guest at classical music festivals all over the world, and his original compositions have been performed in Italy, France, Norway, Poland, Denmark, and the United States.

Flumine is the title of the concert and the first solo album of Giuseppe De Trizio. After over twenty years of music with Radicanto, Raiz and Teresa De Sio, the Bari musician offers a sound trail, acoustic and instrumental through fifteen original compositions for classical guitar and mandolin. A fascinating journey that aims to weave through an intimate atmosphere, the author and the listener. Fifteen sound frescoes that accompanied Giuseppe throughout his whole life: the first composition dates back to his early steps in music at the age of nine. Feel the music before hearing it, this is the key that moves the musician in his artistic career.

Colibri (Hummingbird) is my musical thought. It is an instinctive flight, a desire to taste the fruits and flowers of South America. Although filtered through my long stay in Europe, this powerful memory comes from my roots. In this particular work, I believe that my love for acoustic piano is clearly heard, the result of this was also made possible thanks to Javier Girotto, an immensely great artist with th egift of extraordinary musicality, and great friendship. He is one of those people you would always want by your side, when making music. While he's playing one piece, he is already putting energy into the next. With Javier's contribution, my compositions have acquired many colors and fragrances that deeply apply to each of us. Given that we both come from Cordoba, we speak a perfectly similar and harmonius language. We met in Rome, a city that is very dear to both of us, and with a great sense of humility, we dedicate this album to the 'eternal city'.''

Composer and saxophonist Nicola Alesini is one of the most prominent new sounders in the rhythms and melodies of the Mediterranean tradition. In his music, always open to the whole universe of the language of art, there is a meeting and mingling of jazz and popular music, ambient and world music. Visionary, magical, and suggestive are the stylistic figures of his compositions and his sometimes lyrical, sometimes scratching phrasing. He has worked with musicians such as Glen Velez, Hans Joachim Roedelius, David Sylvian, Roger Eno, David Thorn, Harold Budd, Steve Jansen, and Richard Barbieri. This new release is a concept album based on the book “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino, and is a journey in the imagination of the composer where “impressions” and “memories” become sound. A symphony of saxophones, popular clarinet, bass clarinet, and keyboards is heard here. “Totally unreal places, wonderfully without time nor space. And, once again, packed with music that knows how to scratch the soul with velvet nails.”

Faced with the musical legacy left to us by Johann Sebastian Bach, with the ineluctability of every single note in the mathematical and yet mystical corpus of his work, we are filled with sublime wonder, as in contemplating a natural landscape in which grandeur and balance imply a synthesis in the "Bach" experience. His control of sound is strikingly natural, and the objectivity of his composition almost reduces the instrumental destination to a detail. A unique case in history, Bach's musical legacy has remained intact, regardless of the instrument on which it is played. From this premise, it seemed to us to be a stimulating idea to pass through the Bach repertoire and re-read some passages with a versatile formation such as the guitar quartet. In this ensemble, the interaction of four isntruments, already individually dedicated to polyphony, gave us the possibility to articulate multi-part musical discourses, to build a consistent body of sound and to play with a mix of timbres. Furthermore, the use of a bass guitar and a soprano guitar in certain pieces allowed us to move outside the range to which the traditional six-stringed instrument is normally limited. In this way we were able, in the choice of pieces presented in this project, to move freely between the compositions of the German master written for the most varied groups, including even orchestral pieces, distributed across a wide spectrum of registers.

The program of this release refers to two favorite themes of the European Reanissance which are at the basis of a large number of compositions based on the “feelings” of war and grief. The works that function as a starting point for the repertory are the Bataille de Marignan of Clement Janequin and the chanson of Josquin des Prez Mille Regretz, both of which are closely linked to the historic-cultural context of the court of the Emperor Charles V. The musical environment of Charles V (1516-1556) was composed of the best polyphonists at the time, among whom many renowned French-Flemish musicians. The environment, as well as an intelligent strategy of political treaties and dynastic bonds called into being by the emperor, enhanced the success of the scholarly music of the North of Europe. Musicians as well as scores travelled throughout the European continent and in this way spreading the French-Flemish polyphony and on a generous scale influenced the rest of the local musical reality. Upon the departure for the journey that was to proclaim him King of Spain in 1517, Charles V took with him the “Cappella fiamminga” of Brussels under the guidance of Nicolas Gombert, specialized in the vocal polyphonic repertory. He founded another cappella exclusively with Spanish musicians attached to the royal house of Castiglia, virtuoso instrumentalists of tecla, arpa andvihuela.

The Oratorio "Angelus ad virginem" - for Soloists, Choir, Orchestra and Organ arches Narrator - originates from a theological vision of monumental proportions: The mystery of the Mariana figure. The deep and eternal sense that it represented the entire human history as a threshold between the human and divine worlds is made fully from the extraordinary music and inspired by Roberto Caravella. The Oratory text is taken from the Latin version dell'Akatisthos - the most ancient liturgical hymn dedicated to the Theotokos - Mother of God. It is divided into four music rooms that trace the fundamental moments of the life of Mary: the Annunciation, the Nativity the Passion and the Assumption, which are added as many monologues written by the same author for the figure of the Creator and entrusted here emblematically to the masterful interpretation of Piera Degli Esposti.

The singer-songwriter musician Rino Farruggio seems to connect, sometimes in a daring way and perhaps even creates a kind of peace. Here we experience the simple song of the children alongside the most elaborate songs of adults. Farruggio brings the classic Christmas tunes to life, reviving them and referencing his unique creativity. Natale della gente, a song that has daring melodies and lyrics that continue the gospel mystery and narrative.

The Italian Renaissance was an extraordinarily creative period in all areas of knowledge. Music and dance belonged to a season of incredible richness in which all the great masterpieces followed one after another in a fascinating and astonishing rise in all the town courts poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, and dancers gave life and movement to an ever-changing society. Although dance was prohibited in medieval times, it, was later considered a moral activity of educational merit and was thus treated as a refined and elegant art with a precise written form. Festivities were the natural context for dance, a complex cast of movement often reflecting ceremonial celebrations of the royalty (engagement, wedding, birth, battle victory etc... all Renaissance court activity). On the present release, the ensemble La Rossignol explores dance tunes by Renaissance composers.

Since the early years of 1500, the city of Cremona has been one of the most important points in the history of music. In order to make people aware of the great tradition of this city, this release is presented as a simple and sincere tribute to all those who over the centuries have helped develop or create the evolution of the music produced by stringed instruments over the centuries. From the intense cultural life of renaissance, going through the narrow streets of the town, the families of violin makers like Amati, Guarneri del Gesu or the Stradivari gained great fame as masters of their art and contributed to this revolutionary music- its composition and its performance. The arrangements of these songs are inspired by great composers who developed in Cremona, such as Tarquinio Merula, Claudio Monteverdi and Amilcare Ponchielli. This recording was made possible thanks to the support provided by Carlo Alberto Carutti with his collection of instruments “Le Stanze per la Musica,” which are on display at Museo Civico Ala Ponzone of Cremona.

The rose, as it already was during the Middle Ages, continues to be one of the symbolic images of Renaissance civility. Its different values have persisted for ages: the religious one (the rose symbolizing the Madonna/Mother Mary, image of absolute pureness), the profane one (as a personification of the beloved one) and the esoteric one (symbol of resurrection, immortality, regeneration). This release, recorded live in a fifth century church in Santa Maria in Bressanoro in Castelleone, creates particularly varied and rich atmospheres: the compositions of great authors like Dunstable, Ciconia, Frescobaldi and Monteverdi meet in an aesthetical rather than in a chronological order. They melt together with the very direct, popular versions of devotional praise-songs of Dammonis and, singing and dancing to them, they celebrate the spring awakening of all senses and of passion, as if on a happy trip toward a new sense of harmony, toward the perfection of music, in a period when music still contributes to the great evolution of thought.

The program proposes some songs dedicated to the rose in its various symbolic aspects in XIII and XIV sec. The release's title is the beginning of one of the most famous Cantigas de Santa Maria, which proposes the main rose medieval allegory as an image of Virgo, also used to represent many holy concerts. Many values found a metaphor in the rose. This work stresses the universality of a symbol that inspired secular, religious and music literature all around Europe, and it found equal citizenship in three great cultures, the Hebrew, Christian and Islamic ones, that stood out the medieval occident. The group Chominciamento di Gioia is among the most important in Italy for the performance of early repertoire, note their collaboration with Angelo Branduardi in the realisation of his project "Futuro Antico".

Cremona was always a host to great composers and cultural activity. It acted as a hub and many fruitful professional relationships were formed. This album presents a musical journey through Cremona as well as other cultural hubs Mantua, Ferrara and Florence, where fundamental aspects of madrigal and opera were developed. All of the works on this release, from composers such as Claudio Monteverdi and Florentio Maschera, are performed on period instruments by renowned ensemble La Rossignol.

This new release was inspired by the meeting of Japanese soprano Emi Aikawa, who lives in Cremona, with the ensemble Rossignol. The musical path proposed in this recording aims to document the paraliturgical repertoire of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, and perform it with the most true historical performance practices to bring these gems into the modern listener’s world. La Rossignol is a cultural association that deals with the music and dance of the Italian Renaissance. The group has collaborated with the greatest world broadcasting companies, and performs throughout Europe.

Mario Duella is artistic director of the Associazione Culturale Storici Organic del Piemonte and an organizer of many international organ festivals. He has also been a juror in national and internationa organ competitions. Duella is the organist and choir director in the Portula Parish Church and these recordings are him playing live, with the historic organs of the Biellese churches.

The musicians of La Rossignol write of their impetus to record this album: "At the and of a concert with music and dances of the Italian Renaissance, given in a large capital city abroad, some illustrious ladies approached us and told us that, after what they had seen and heard, they had felt '... a great desire to visit Italy to see the places where this music had been conceived, sung, played and danced... ' By itself, this motivation could justify the effort needed to record an album, quite apart from the history, the philology, the study of old instruments and all the rest." La Rossignol is an ensemble that specializes in Early music and dance. Their performances are exciting and entertaining, and above all true to the performance practices of pre-classical musicmaking.