The Leuven Chansonnier (1470-75) includes fifty compositions by leading 15th-century Franco-Flemish names as Johannes Ockeghem, Antoine Busnoys, and Firminus Caron but also twelve newly re-discovered works, found in no other source! The Ensemble Sollazzo brings a selection of this music to life in the present recording in the most refreshing and brilliant interpretation. The Sollazzo Ensemble was founded in 2014 in Basel and brings together musicians with a strong interest in late medieval and early renaissance repertoires. The ensemble is directed by fiddle player Anna Danilevskaia and benefits from the different musical backgrounds of it's members: while some of them come from Early Music families, others have found their calling via modern classical music, theatre or even musical.

Los Libros del Delphin de m�sica para vihuela, by composer and vihuelist Luys de Narv�ez is one of the finest monuments of Iberian music of the Spanish Siglo de Oro. Xavier D�az-Latorre here presents a splendid version of the complete works for vihuela solo by de Narv�ez; the beauty of the composer's counterpoint, the clarity of his part-writing and the sensivity of the performer cannot leave the listener unmoved. For this recording, Xavier D�az-Latorre has used the vihuela La Aldonza by the luthier Carlos Gonz�lez (Aguadulce, 2017) and the vihuela L'hollandaise by the luthier Patrick Hopmans (Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues, 1997), both strung entirely with gut strings.

Classical Music

This release on PASSACAILLE with the exceptional baroque violinist Mayumi Hirasaki presents masterpieces of the virtuoso violin literature with scordatura, which had its heyday between about 1600 and 1730. In addition to well-known names such as Biber and Tartini, the varied and cleverly arranged program also features charming rarities by Johann Joseph Vilsmayr and Pietro Castrucci. Mayumi Hirasaki was born in Japan and initially studied modern violin at the Tokyo University of the Arts and Music. She then continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Nuremberg-Augusburg under Prof. Daniel Gaede and specialized in Baroque violin under Prof. Mary Utiger at the Hochschule für Music and Theater Munich. Further study programs followed under Prof. Giuliano Carmignola in Lucerne and under Prof. Christine Schornsheim in Munich, where the harpsichord was her field concentration.

Aurélien Delage has recorded with numerous artists and received invitations to festivals around the world. Delage became passionately interested in early instrument building and works with instrument makers in Paris on a regular basis. The music of Francois Couperin was the first step into the world of French harpsichordist repertoire and this recording offers a representative cross-section through the composer's work.

Classical Music

A small size, four gut strings, and a short bow were the beginning ingredients of the magic that is the violin. Such a magic happened in Italy, the birthplace of the violin, during the seventeenth century. "Seicento!" is a multifaceted time-travel through the Early Baroque, from Venice to Sicily, exploring the wonders of the first violin virtuosos and their dexterous-impassioned playing. Enrico Onofri was born in Ravenna, Italy. His career began with an invitation from Jordi Savall to be the concertmaster of La Capella Real. Very soon he found himself working with groups such as Concentus Musicus Wien, Ensemble Mosaiques and Concerto Italiano. From 1987 to 2010 he was the concertmaster and soloist of Il Giardino Armonico. In 2002 he entered into a conductor's career, which has brought him great critical acclaim and numerous invitations from orchestras, festivals and opera houses in Europe, Japan and America. From 2004 to 2013 he was the principal conductor of Divino Sospiro and since 2006 he has been a principal guest conductor with Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla. He conducted ensembles such as Akademie f�r Alte Musik Berlin, Camerata Bern, Festival Strings Lucerne, Bochumer Symphoniker, Kammerorchester Basel, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Orchestre de l'Op�ra de Lyon, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia and more. In 2002 he founded the chamber group Imaginarium Ensemble to perform the Italian baroque repertoire.

Scorrete lagrime mie, flow my tears: tears of sorrow, of joy; pious tears, passionate tears; tears of longing, of betrayal; of death, and of life. In their treatment of these themes, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Sigismondo d'India, Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Lodovico Viadana, Giovanni Bassano and Bartolomeo Barbarino use highly-colourful word-painting and encourage and require an extreme level of subtlety and variation in sound colours, articulations and shading; their sacred and secular monodies thus constitute a perfect conduit for exploring the vocal virtuosity of the trombone, an instrument that historically has perhaps more than any other been associated with the voice. These vocal compositions are supplemented with select instrumental works including three original compositions. For this project, Maximilien Brisson is joined by Christophe Gauthier and Luc Beausejour on organ and harpsichord, who provide a basso continuo approached here not as mere accompaniment, but as an equal and essential partner.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The three cello concertos by C.P.E. Bach are among the highlights of the concertante cello literature between the genre contributions of Vivaldi and Haydn. In the meantime, it is also certain that the no less popular versions of the three concertos for flute and keyboard instrument were later transcribed and arranged by the composer himself, from the cello concertos which he wrote between 1750 and 1753. In their musically sophisticated and inspiring recording, Christophe Coin and the Orquesta barroca de Sevilla under Enrico Onofri underline the outstanding rank of the three concertos as masterpieces from the era of sensitivity.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Carlo Graziani was an Italian cello virtuoso who left to posterity thirty-eight compositions for his instrument: 36 sonatas, a short Recueil de Rondeaux and a solo Capriccio. All the compositions date to around 1778. In presenting the sonatas, this recording offers a rare opportunity to rediscover an important trait d’union in the North-German cello repertoire between the better-known works of C.P.E. Bach and Boccherini, and the early Romantic literature of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, among others.