The Italian tenor sings the world’s greatest Italian tenor arias, including the hit “Nessun dorma” – without question the most famous opera arias.
Verissimo meaning “very true” in Italian and is a play on the word “Verismo” – the late 19th century opera style from which these featured operas are taken. The style is known for its big passions, dramatic lyricism, lush orchestral sound and storylines about normal people in the throes of love, death, betrayal and revenge. Key composers of this style include Puccini, Mascagni, Cilea and Leoncavallo.

Famous Classics, Volume 3

Ib Nørholm’s Symphony No. 2 “Isola Bella” was first performed in 1972 by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. It has since been considered as of paramount importance among Nørholm’s symphonic works. Odense Symphony Orchestra and the chief conductor Edward Serov gave their superb rendition of this ambitious work inspired by the intriguing scenery on an island in the Italian lake Lago Maggiore for the Kontrapunkt’s Nørholm Symphony series.

After their explorations of Italian repertoire in Che fai t�? (MU-037) and French in Vous avez dit brunettes? (Alpha 761), Les Kapsber'girls, a vocal and instrumental ensemble founded by lutenist Albane Imbs in 2015, devotes it's third album to Baroque women composers: hidden talents, unrevealed destinies, few of these composers have had the opportunity to reveal their art, which is nevertheless very real. Recent research has made it possible to revive the fascinating works of composers such as Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704), Lucia Quinciani (1566-1611), Francesca Caccini (1587-1641), Antonia Bembo (c.1643-1715), and Francesca Campana (c.1615-c.1665), who spent sixty-nine years of her life in an Ursuline convent in Novara, although this did not prevent her from composing no fewer than two hundred works!

"Merit[s] hearty recommendation." -- Textura

Learn more about this recording on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

Naxos’s exploration of the works of Florence Price continues with this album of music for string quartet. Price and Leo Sowerby were contemporaries in the Chicago music community of the 1930s and 1940s, and they are known to have respected each other’s works. Sowerby’s String Quartet in G minor is a world premiere recording. Performed by the Avalon String Quartet – one of America’s leading chamber music ensembles.

Claudio Santoro’s remarkable final decade, in which he allied more traditional and eclectic styles to his earlier experiments. Both the Concerto Grosso and the Three Fragments on BACH were written for student orchestras, but are nonetheless substantial pieces which show his command of writing for strings. The Eleventh Symphony is one of the densest and most dramatic of the cycle, its finale exploding into an evocation of the opening of Brahms’ First Symphony, while the Twelfth Symphony is an unusual ‘sinfonia concertante’ for nine soloists and orchestra.

REVIEW:

I am enjoying getting to know some of this music in ‘The Music of Brazil’ series from Naxos. Santoro’s works have already featured and here we have a further pairing of two of his later symphonies (of a total of 14). They are complemented here by Concerto grosso for string quartet and Three fragments on BACH. Three of the four works here are world premiere recordings. Some of the music features some beautifully percussive ‘Latin’ orchestration and rhythm whilst there is also much that is reminiscent of Soviet traditions of the early/ mid twentieth century. The whole CD makes for enjoyable, interesting listening.

-- Lark Reviews

The minstrel Carlo Broschi has hidden his sister Casilda in a convent to protect her from the machinations of the clergy who wish to make a present of her for King Ferdinand VI. In Carlo's opinion, she is in love with an unknown cavalier - likewise too highborn to have any lawful intentions toward her. Carlo happens upon the King, who is possessed by melancholy and succeeds in cheering him with a song (It was, in fact, Ferdinand's predecessor Philip V, for whom Farinelli was engaged as a music therapist). As a reward, he is invited to the court, where he encounters his sister's lover, Raphael d'Estuniga. Raphael is so despondent over his thwarted passion that he is ready to sell his soul, so Carlo introduces himself as Satan, ready to lend aid for half of his takings. Casilda appeals to Carlo for protection; she has been kidnapped by the priests and brought to the king, who, only recently having recovered his sanity, takes her for a ghost. Carlo leaves to speak with the queen (Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre created this role Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre) and leaves the lovers alone. Raphael, who has obtained an office due to Carlo's influence and has had uncommon luck at gambling, is so confident of supernatural aid that he is nonplussed at the king's entrance, even when the latter orders his death. Carlo attempts to smooth things over by telling the king Raphael is her husband, but the Grand Inquisitor exposes the fabrication, enraging the king against Carlo as well. Things can only be put right by Carlo's revealing all and reminding the king that the queen still suspects nothing. Carlo, who has never hesitated to claim his 50%, tells his future brother-in-law that his share will be Casilda's happiness this time.

German-American composer Lukas Foss transformed the Buffalo Philharmonic into an adventurous and world-renowned orchestra during his tenure as music director, and he was a mentor to the orchestra’s current music director, JoAnn Falletta, at the start of her career. This album celebrates the 100th anniversary of Foss’s birth with four works, including the lyrical Symphony No. 1 and the Renaissance Concerto.

REVIEW:

Foss's music is much like the man, full of charm, brilliance, playfulness, deep seriousness, and bewildering variety. This resonant, well-filled recording gives us three early works from the 1940s, with colorful solo playing by flautist Amy Porter and violinist Nikki Chooi. The Ode, an expression of grief and admiration for men who died in World War II, begins with a funereal tread but builds in excitement, with a soaring climax showing off the excellent Buffalo brass and ending on a serene major chord.

A delightful contrast is The Renaissance Concerto, a neo-baroque piece based partly on Rameau and Monteverdi. The Three American Pieces, influenced by what Foss calls the “open-air” sound of Copland, display Foss’s lyricism and fondness for jazzy syncopation. The latter also erupts in the scherzo of his Symphony 1, which is based on classical form and has a satisfying symmetry. The finale, which exudes youthful confidence and optimism, revisits motifs from the opening movement, launches an exciting fugue for strings, and builds to a majestic culmination on an ecstatic major chord, ending a winning album with a bang.

— American Record Guide

Following a fruitful first collaboration for Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 22 and 24, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Les Violons du Roy and Jonathan Cohen return this time with Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 23. The works on this recording were composed by Mozart between 1783 and 1786, when the musician was approaching an important personal and professional turning point. First, the Concerto in A major, K. 488, was completed on March 2, 1786, two months before the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro, a work that marks Mozart's return to opera. While Concerto K. 466 is, with Concerto No. 24, the only one by Mozart in the minor mode, that also coincides with the arrival of his son Karl. The performance of the soloist and of the orchestra complement each other marvellously in these two masterpieces whose contrasts respond to each other magnificently.

Complete Works For Violin And

Kontrapunkt has been devoting large part of its catalogue to Danish composers known as well as less known to the international audiences. P. E. Lange-Müller (1850-1926) was one of the leading late Romantic composers whose main part of works were songs and state music. Though the list of chamber music is relatively short, they are true gems. Albumsblade for string quartet is a recent discovery and is world premier recording.

Symphony 7, Symphony 9

Symphonic Works

Complete Works For Choir A Cap

Clavier｜ung Zweiter Teil

The Danish Song Treasury

Sacred Music From The Court Of

Requiem, Symphonie Spirituelle

Works For Solo Violin Op.91 &

Sonatas Op. 120

The Planets

Works For Organ

Serenade Op. 11, Serenade Op.

Complete Works For Cello And P

Complete Songs, vol. 3