For close to two decades the Saint John String Quartet has captivated the hearts of listeners with their concerts, radio and television appearances and popular recordings. Their list of successes includes an ECMA for “Best Classical Recording” and in 1995 they presented the first chamber music concert on the World Wide Web Internet. The Quartet’s active concertizing schedule finds them touring Canada, the USA, and abroad to Japan, China, and Hong Kong. The group can often be heard on CBC Radio and on two other albums entitled Hidden Treasures and Saint John String Quartet. Acclaimed by critics for her floating, high pianissimos, soprano Sally Dibblee enjoys success in opera houses and concert halls throughout North America. A New Brunswick resident, Sally continues to perform in Maritime summer music festivals and is frequently heard on the CBC.

The artistic heritage of Antonio Vivaldi, acknowledged for his talent as far as the mastery of instrumental music is concerned, has waited for years for a correct evaluation in the opera music field as well. On the other hand, a musician who in 1739, at 61 years of age, was able to boast of having composed no less than 94 operas had a legitimate right to describe himself first and foremost an opera composer. Nowadays, unfortunately, only 23 of his opera scores have been preserved and not all are complete; as the scholar Reinhard Strohm writes, “We’re only able to document approximately 60 operatic performances between 1713 and 1739, in which the composer was personally involved in various ways. For these performances, he may have chosen the complete score, revised music by other composers, chosen and instructed the singers, rehearsed and conducted the performance, influenced revisions of his music by others, or worked in any combination of these possibilities. If we give a wide meaning to the word, Vivaldi was just as much an opera ‘impresario’ as an opera composer. This wasn’t at all common in Italy at that time and even less so for a priest. The least we can deduce from this situation was Vivaldi’s profound artistic passion for musical theatre.” Composed in 1724 for Rome’s Capranica Theatre, Giustino is a cornerstone work, situated on the ridge between the Red Priest’s old and new styles; precise indication of this importance is given by the fact that the customary borrowing from oneself, current usage in that period, is considerably reduced by Vivaldi for this work. Rather than to save time, since the inclusion of pre-existent episodes in the libretto and the score nevertheless involved laborious revision, this careful selection of the borrowing was used by Vivaldi to gather together a good part of his best previous music to impress the public: Giustino, as Strohm again states, is a sort of “Vivaldi anthology.” In fact, the borrowed pieces are often to be ranked among the best he’d ever written.

In the course of his recordings for Alpha, Francois Lazarevitch has explored the music of the Baroque and of oral and popular traditions. After Scottish and Irish music, airs de cour and Baroqu esuites and sonatas, he stops off in Vivaldi's Italy. With him, of course, he has his cargo of rare instruments, including the musette de cour which he uses here to perform Spring from The Four Seasons, in an astonishing and very convincing version transcribed by the great virtuoso wind player of the reign of Louis XV, Nicolas Chedeville. Lazarevitch himself has arranged the other Seasons for the transverse flute, following a frequent eighteenth-century practice. A new angle on these evergreen masterpieces. As Francois Lazarevitch says: ''I want to explore all the early sources in depth in order to challenge my performance practice of today and enrich it with an understanding of the style and the naturalness of period theory and phrasing. When I tackle old Scottish and Irish music, it is with the aim of retracing this path.'' The rest of the programme is devoted to other favorite pieces by Vivaldi, this time originally written for flute.

It is difficult to talk of Alberto Zedda in the past tense. Zedda was a person of such enthusiasm that it immediately rubbed off on all those who approached him. In addition to being an excellent conductor, he was an organizer of cultural events, a highly-efficient manager, full of ideas, who put at the service of music his omnivorous culture. For Dynamic Alberto Zedda recorded live Rossini’s Otello, Semiramide and Armida. Partially written in 1831 and only completed at the end of 1841, Rossini’s Stabat Mater was premiered in Paris, at the Theatre Italien, on January 7, 1842, delivered by fine soloists: Giulia Grisi, Emma Albertazzi, Mario de Candia and Antonio Tamburini. It has always been the composer’s best-known and most popular sacred work, because of the power of its dramatic contrasts and beautiful melodies, which make of it one of the masterpieces of Italian 19th-century sacred music, worthy of a place beside Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

Bianca e Falliero was commissioned by La Scala, Milan, for its prestigious Carnival season of 1819-20, enjoying a run of no fewer than 39 performances. Rossini responded with a score the virtuosity and expressivity of which outdid even his Neapolitan works. Prevailing tastes at La Scala meant that ensembles predominated over arias but behind the conventional dictates Rossini lavished the utmost care on his work, fashioning an opera full of dramatic coloratura and powerful theatrical craft and notable for its rich and often surprising harmony.

Marina Rebeka is one of the most successful sopranos of her generation. To mark the occasion of the upcoming Rossini year of 2018, she and the Munchner Rundfunkorchester, conducted by Marco Armiliato, have recorded an album of highly dramatic opera arias that is now being released by BR-KLASSIK. The album "Amor fatale" offers the opportunity to reacquaint oneself with the great soprano arias from Rossini's less well-known but musically convincing tragic operas, in a fine interpretation.The concept album entitled "Amor fatal" focuses on powerful female roles from the operas Otello, Armida, La donna del lago (The Lady of the Lake), Maometto II, Semiramide (Semiramis), Moïse et Pharaon (Moses and Pharaoh) and Guillaume Tell (William Tell). The women are obliged to choose between love and duty, and frequently have to subordinate their personal fate to that of their family, nation or homeland.The Latvian soprano has quite some experience with roles in Rossini, above all from his great tragic operas: the role of Anna Erisso from Maometto II, which she performed in 2008 at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the composer’s birthplace, marked the very start of her career. She went on to attract international attention in 2009 when she debuted at the Salzburg Festival, as Anaï in Moïse et Pharaon. For her album she has worked through Rossini's original handwritten manuscripts and included this in her performance; she also developed her own coloratura, which not only suits her voice both musically and technically, but also best corresponds to the specific stage events and emotions encountered in her respective operatic roles.

The genesis of Rossini’s first full-scale opera Demetrio e Polibio is shrouded in speculation, but its initial intention as a ‘family opera’ for the tenor Domenico Mombelli, with roles for his daughters and a libretto by his wife seems clear. Its narrative of political turmoil, romance, kidnap, and the ultimate blessings of true love and unity is a prelude to subjects to which Rossini would frequently turn in future triumphs. The composer’s facility for melody and his genius for combining voices into the loveliest of duets is already much in evidence in this confident but rarely heard debut.

With the "Messa da Requiem“, Christian Spuck brought one of Verdi’s key works to the stage. In a large-scale co-production by the Ballett and Oper Zurich, the German choreographer and director ventured to portray an unusual interpretation of Verdi’s funeral mass in his scenic choreographic production. 36 dancers, the choir and supplementary choir of the Opernhaus Zurich as well as four highly acclaimed soloists joined together under the direction of Fabio Luisi for 13 wide ranging scenes dedicated to one of the most fundamental themes of humanity. Christian Spuck does not seek a mere religious interpretation of the liturgical text. Instead, he is interested in focusing on people who, in their vulnerability and helplessness, are in the search for comfort. In poetic tableaux he deals with basic human emotions and focuses on the feelings of fear, rage, pain, sadness and the search for redemption.

Polychoral music is so synonymous with 16th century Venice that it is easy to forget that the longest flourishing of this style- possibly even its invention- took place in Germany. Whether or not it was in Munich with the works of Orlande de Lassus that the Gabrielis first encountered its effects, polychoral music came to define German textures and techniques for over a century. Both apprentices and rivals to their Italian counterparts, composers such as Hieronymus Praetorius, Schutz, Hassler and Scheidt, as well as Austria’s Biber, fostered a tradition whose influence would extend all the way to the motets of Bach. This performance places a giant of Baroque choral music, Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis, alongside the Venetian choral works of Monteverdi from which it takes its inspiration. The combination is a heady one, a triumphal musical celebration uniquely appropriate to mark the 200th anniversary year of Salzburg’s affiliation with Austria.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD
The cast is the best we could possible want for Vivaldi nowadays: Ottavio Dantone's skilfull conducting brings the best out of this orchestral enchantment. Sara Mingardo brings her classy voice and remarkable stage presence to the role of the naive Statira. Delphine Galou’s bright tone and excellent agility combine with perfect diction. Roberta Mameli's crystal clear notes make of the role of Alinda a masterpiece of expressivity. Recorded in high definition, this production offers subtitles in Italian, German, English, French, Japanese, and Korean. Octavio Dantone is an Italian conductor and harpsichordist who is particularly noted for his performances of Baroque music. He has served as the Music Director of the Accademia Bizantina in Ravenna since 1996.

Also available on Blu-ray

The cast is the best we could possible want for Vivaldi nowadays: Ottavio Dantone's skilfull conducting brings the best out of this orchestral enchantment. Sara Mingardo brings her classy voice and remarkable stage presence to the role of the naive Statira. Delphine Galou’s bright tone and excellent agility combine with perfect diction. Roberta Mameli's crystal clear notes make of the role of Alinda a masterpiece of expressivity. Recorded in high definition, this production offers subtitles in Italian, German, English, French, Japanese, and Korean. Octavio Dantone is an Italian conductor and harpsichordist who is particularly noted for his performances of Baroque music. He has served as the Music Director of the Accademia Bizantina in Ravenna since 1996.

Also available from John Neschling and the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège ijn their Respighi series on BIS: Sinfonia Drammatica & Belfagor Overture; Metamorphoseon; Impressioni brasiliane & La boutique fantasque.

This is a wonderful program, both for the performances and for the intelligent overview it gives of Respighi’s art generally. It begins with a piece for chamber orchestra, continues with an intimate work for voice and string quartet, and concludes with one of the composer’s splashiest orchestral blockbusters. The progression is logical, and makes an excellent hour-plus of pleasurable listening. It’s also sensationally well engineered.

In the Botticelli pictures, Neschling adopts leisurely (but never droopy) tempos that allow every detail of Respighi’s imaginative scoring to register. In The Birth of Venus, you can easily imagine how the violins’ ostinato figures actually trace the delicate peaks of the waves in Botticelli’s painting. It’s lovely and consistently ear-catching. Il Tramonto (The Sunset), after a poem by Shelley, showcases the art of Anna Caterina Antonacci. Best known for her Monteverdi recordings, she’s a fine singing actress. Although voice tends to spread under pressure, her diction and way with the text is absolutely riveting, and Neschling paces the piece perfectly (about sixteen and a half minutes).

All of which brings us to Church Windows, still something of a rarity–in concert at least. If this performance doesn’t quite match the classic Ormandy/Philadelphia version in the blazing second movement (Saint Michael Archangel), it comes close enough as makes no difference, and it’s magnificently sustained and really powerfully recorded. The organ/orchestra balances in the last movement are just about perfect, while the bass frequencies in the closing pages are crushing. In sum, if you’re into this wonderfully colorful and entertaining music, don’t hesitate for a minute.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

The flute occupies an important place amongst all the instruments celebrated by Vivaldi, il prete rosso, in his concerti. All evidence points to the instrument concerned being the recorder, given that it was still extremely popular in Italy at that time. The single publication of concerti that Vivaldi did not compose for the violin (opus X) was marked by him as being for the flute, as were the Concerti da Camera, in which the instrument rivals the violin, oboe and bassoon in virtuosity. Performing the recorder parts on this new release is Frederic de Roos. Frédéric de Roos is the recorder professor at the Royal Conservatorium of Brussels of which he has also been the director since 2003. After obtaining a university degree in musicology, he focused his studies on the recorder repertoire of the 18th century. He regularly presents conferences and seminars on the language of the baroque and gives courses and master classes both in Belgium and abroad.

REVIEW:

A suave account of Rossini’s classic comedy, with Riccardo Chailly and his La Scala forces clearly enjoying the piece and a top-quality cast fulfilling the requirements of all the principal roles.

– BBC Music Magazine

Ivan Repušić made his debut as Chief Conductor of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester on September 24, 2017 at the city’s Prinzregententheater with a concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Luisa Miller". The Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka – the orchestra’s Artist in Residence during the 2017/18 season – was successfully engaged for the title role of the tragic opera, based on Friedrich Schiller's "Kabale und Liebe". This highlight of the Munich music scene has now been released by BR-KLASSIK. Verdi's masterpiece was written during the year 1849 in Paris and Busseto, completed in Naples, and first performed there on December 8, 1849 at the city's Teatro San Carlo. Schiller's tragedy tells the story of the calamitous love of the nobleman Ferdinand for the musician's daughter Luisa Miller, who falls victim to a terrible court intrigue that ultimately drives both to their deaths. To turn the play into an opera Verdi worked intensively with his librettist Salvadore Cammarano; both men were fascinated by Schiller's tableau-like dramaturgy, which matched their own ideas of an "epic drama". The tragedy was given three acts, entitled "Amore" (Love), "Intrigo" (Intrigue) and "Veleno" (Poison). After its successful premiere, the work soon established itself and has remained a fixed part of the international opera repertoire to this day. In this concert performance at Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Marina Rebeka made her role debut as Luisa Miller. Marina Rebeka sings the challenging role with technical perfection, giving it a sparkling vocal splendor.

REVIEW:

This recording can’t quite oust my personal favorite recording, Fausto Cleva’s RCA set with Moffo and Bergonzi, but Marina Rebeka is a much more dramatic Luisa and the recording is worth hearing for her contribution alone—and there is so much more to admire. Inveterate Verdians should definitely lend their ears to this latest Luisa Miller, and those contemplating their first recording of this hidden away masterpiece could do much worse than starting here.

–MusicWeb International

Hungarian period instrument orchestra Capella Savaria has been hailed by the Canadian Opus Magazine as “one of Europe’s best ensembles”. Their new release offers an insight into Antonio Vivaldi’s concerto œuvre consisting of over 500 fascinating compositions. Besides the undoubtedly most substantial (and popular) pieces, the album also has a selection of concertos for flute and bassoon occasionally evoking the atmosphere of Vivaldi’s most renowned composition, The Four Seasons. Founded in 1981, in Szombathely, Capella Savaria has earned its fame as the first period instrument chamber orchestra of Hungary. Its innovative efforts created quite a sensation at the time in musical circles. The ensemble’s objectives were, from the onset, to play Baroque and Classical music in an authentic way by relying on genuine documents of the period. The founding artistic director was Pal Nemeth, followed by Zsolt Kallo who has been directing the ensemble since 1999. The members play authentic 18th century instruments or their copies.

Any listener who has heard the punchy, rousing and original account of Monteverdi’s Vespers released in 2016 by these forces on Brilliant Classics will be keen to hear music from the same source performed with similar vitality and attention to historical detail. Federico Bardazzi duly obliges with this recreation of Easter at the Basilica San Marco, around the year 1600. Chants alternate with spectacular, antiphonal toccatas and canzonas that bounce off the walls of the generous church acoustic, as well as a slight but still exuberant sonata by Giovanni Paolo Cima. Enclosed within are the separate movements of the four-part Mass by Monteverdi, and the liturgical reconstruction concludes with a setting of the Ave maris stella which, like the Mass, is to be found in Monteverdi’s collection of Selva morale e spirituale, no less treasurable in its way than the better-known Vespers compilation. Indeed the Selva morale dates from several decades later in Monteverdi’s output and reflects an even greater harmonic refinement: the linear polyphony of the Mass obeys the rules of the stile antico, while the psalm settings and hymns such as Laudate Dominum and Cantate Domino belong to the more sectional and vividly illustrative style of the seconda pratica which became particularly associated in his work and that of his successors with the secular madrigal. Bardazzi notes that Monteverdi would have expected to perform this music with a mixed-voice choir; the male-only ensemble is a late-19th-century practice. His lively tempi and instrumental arrangements, switching between basso continuo and colla parte instruments, are intended ‘to allow Monteverdi’s creative genius and originality to permeate the strict counterpoint.’

The "Scherzi Musicali a tre voci di Claudio Monteverde, raccolti da Giulio Cesare Monteverde suo fratello, et nuovamente posti in luce" ("collected by his brother Giulio Cesare Monteverde and revealed again"), were published in 1607 by Ricciardo Amadino in Venice, and dedicated to "Serenissimo S. Don Francesco Gonzaga Prencipe di Mantova, et si Monferrato." These are 18 compositions selected and edited by Giulio Cesare Monteverdi: 17 "Scherzi," strophic songs written by Claudio, except for the last two by Giulio Cesare himself, and a wider concluding ballet, "De la bellezza le dovute lodi." Even with light and schematic compositions such as "Scherzi," the rules of the "Seconda Prattica" do not fail: new polyphonic technique, innovative use of dissonance, original concertation and, above all, great importance to the lyrics, with a strong dramatic power, before harmony and rhythm. The set is a masterpiece of the history of music of that time, in the mark of eternal quarrel between ancient and modern. The EsaEnsemble, a female vocal group directed by Sergio Chierici and accompanied by the instrumental ensemble Baschenis, effectively deals with this important work by the great genius of the Renaissance, in a colorful variety of vocal and instrumental organics supported by a wide use of period instruments.

Also available on Blu-ray

The opera La campana sommersa (‘The Sunken Bell’) is Respighi’s operatic masterpiece. A symbolist drama on a supernatural theme, it is steeped in beauty, mystery and foreboding, and orchestrated with the Romantic opulence familiar from his sumptuous trilogy of Roman tone poems. Its triumph at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1928 was repeated at La Scala, Milan, and this most recent production at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, world-renowned for its staging of rarities, was hailed for its ‘brilliant production’ and magnificent performances. Directed by Pier Francesco Maestrini, this production features a lineup of modern opera stars including Valentina Farcas, Maria Luigia Borsi, Agostina Smimmero, Angelo Villari, and more.

In its second release on Linn, The Avison Ensemble explores the rich diversity and delights of all twelve concertos in Vivaldi’s Opus 8. It includes the composer’s most famous work, 'The Four Seasons’, which contains some of the most instantly recognizable music ever composed and is today viewed as a pinnacle of musical art. Directed by Pavlo Beznosiuk, The Avison Ensemble presents an insightful and spirited performance of the masterpiece. Each of the twelve concertos is extremely demanding and Beznosiuk’s virtuosity permeates throughout each performance. The thematic elements within each innovative work result in a collection that is colorful, fresh and emotionally charged, and is a true testament of Vivaldi’s ability for invention and variation. Beznosiuk states: ‘The Four Seasons are well-known, well-loved and great fun to play, but let us not forget how richly characterful the other eight concerti are also. Throughout the set Vivaldi’s musical energy vibrates within us, connecting us to him in an irresistible, celebratory collection’.

Giuseppe Verdi's second opera Un giorno di regno is one of the composer's least known works. The premiere in Milan in 1840 was a failure, which Verdi said was due to his own personal circumstances: During the creative process two of his children and his first wife died within two months. Despite the rather weak libretto, the stage work has its merits and captivates, for example, with fresh, catchy melodies that, although they cannot deny the influence of Rossini and Donizetti, are by no means imitative. Only in this opera does Verdi combine his renowned depth of musical characterization with the turbulent entanglements of opera buffa. Un giorno di regno offers an especially light-hearted Verdi experience. This recording of the two-at opera was taken live and features Cappella Aquileia, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, and conductor Marcus Bosch alongside a stunning list of soloists.

Gioachino Rossini was summoned to Paris in 1824 to breathe new life into its opera culture, and one of his most exciting innovations in this period was the creation of an entirely new genre of opera comedy. The risqué tale of Le Comte Ory had its origins in vaudeville theatre and is based on the story of a villainous Count who attempts the seduction of Countess Adele as she awaits the return of her husband from the Crusades. ‘Le Comte Ory’ is the last of Rossini’s comic operas, making full use of the libretto’s farcical disguises and humor in one of his most colorfully orchestrated scores. This production, staged by Linda Mallik, features the Malmo Opera Orchestra and Chorus with world renowned soloists Leonardo Ferrando as Count Ory and Erika Miklosa as Countess Adele. Linda Mallik made her directorial debut in 2012 and received unanimous praise in the Swedish and international press, making her one of the most sought-after opera directors in Sweden. She has also staged ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ at NorrlandsOperan, ‘M/S Aurora’ at the Berwaldhallen, ‘Faust’ and ‘Mayday Payday’ at Folkoperan in Stockholm, among others.

“My heart skipped a beat when [The Italian Job] from La Serenissima and Adrian Chandler landed on my desk, such was my enjoyment of their Gramophone Awards-shortlisted Vivaldi Four Seasons recording. So to discover that with this all-Italian assortment of sinfonias and concertos they’ve actually topped their 2016 triumph- and apparently effortlessly- gives me no small amount of pleasure.” So said the reviewer of the Gramophone Award-winning release, and the Vivaldi specialists are set to triumph once again with Vivaldi x2, an astonishing medley of double concertos for hunting horns, oboes, bassoon, violin and cello. Emanating from Vivaldi’s pen the double concerto- a genre of which he all but cornered the market- resulted in some of the composer’s most colorful and exuberant works. In the hands of two-time Gramophone Award-winning La Serenissima, these concertos come to virtuosic and effervescent life. “Were I asked to condense this review down to two simple words, they would be: buy it.” (Gramophone) “the freshness incinerates the cobwebs of familiarity in the heat of La Serenissima’s proselytizing zeal.” (BBC Music Magazine Concerto Choice)

REVIEWS:

The Vivaldi recordings by Adrian Chandler and his British period instrument ensemble La Serenissima, named after the nickname of the Venetian Republic and specializing in its music, are breaking new ground. Give this one a try if you haven’t heard the group before: it’s wonderful.

– All Music Guide (James Manheim)

These musicians represent one heck of a crack team when it comes to the music of Vivaldi. Bravissima, La Serenissima.

– Gramophone

Antonio Vivaldi's bassoon concertos convince not only with their astonishingly authentic composition, but also with their almost inexhaustible ingenuity and their extraordinary musical quality. On her second release for Ars Produktion, featuring bassoon concertos by the Venetian composer, Miho Fukui also plays works in which the oboe takes part as well. Miho Fukui was born in Japan. After receiving her degree in Tokyo, she went on to study in Frankfurt and Lubeck. She plays regularly in several different orchestras and ensembles in Switzerland, Japan, and Germany, where she performs on both the modern and baroque bassoon. In 2009 she founded the “Ensemble F,” which is dedicated to Vivaldi’s 39 bassoon concertos.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD
Antonio Vivaldi’s three-act opera Orlando Furioso is set to an Italian libretto by Grazio Braccioli and is based on Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem of the same name. The opera alternates arias with recitative, and is set on an island at an unspecified time. The story line combines several plot lines from Ariosto: the exploits of the hero Orlando are detailed, as well as the tale of the sorceress Alcina. Orlando is performed in this production by Sonia Prina, and Alcina by Lucia Cirillo. Recorded at the 43rd Festival della Valle d’Itria, this production is the first video recording of this rare opera. Subtitles are available on this release in Italian, German, English, French, Japanese, and Korean.