Classical Music

Affective contrasts, seducing vocality, effortless virtuosity, and a penchant for intimacy; these are some of the lures of Italian music around 1600. Peter Van Heyghen and Kris Verhelst, two leading specialists in this field, have dedicated their latest recording to this music. Discover and enjoy their flowery selection of ornamented motets and madrigals, song variations, ricercars, toccatas, intonations, capriccios, canzonas and sonatas, performed on historically accurate instruments (three recorders, two harpsichords and an organ).

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Arnold Sch�nberg's "Verein fur musikalische Privatauffuhrungen" concerts regularly featured music by Reger, R. Strauss, Mahler, Ravel, Debussy, Busoni, Stravinsky and Bartok, arranged for chamber music ensemble by himself or his pupils. The Dutch pianist, conductor and composer Reinbert de Leeuw followed the same approach when arranging some of Zemlinsky's lieder. The Belgian ensemble Oxalys and, in the songs, German baritone Dietrich Henschel, present some of these delightful chamber versions on this recording of works from the exciting and excited fin de si�cle era in Vienna.

The city of Mannheim played an important role in mid-eighteenth century musical life. The city attracted several cellists who settled there, such as Innocenz Danzi and Anton Filtz. The pieces recorded on this album are chamber works written by composers from Mannheim. Cellist Marco Testori performs these historic works, accompanied by pianist Davide Pozzi.

For the baroque faithful death was not the end but rather a release from the agonies of earthly existence. + Death was like a deep sleep from which he would be called on the day of judgment to rise from the dead and experience the eternal, blissful life in the light of his creator with the other blessed. + Accordingly, the cantatas on “death”, selected by Marcel Ponseele and il Gardelino, feature the theme not as much as a fear of death but rather assurance of eternal life. + This is the final release of the small cantata cycle by il gardellino with cantatas based on various theological topics.

The late romantic Jean Cras (1879-1932) managed to unite his passion for the sea and music throughout his life. As a naval officer he was even appointed Konteradmiral in 1931, but this did not prevent him from being a brilliant composer. Cras liked to combine free melody with austerity, but was as influenced by the music of his Breton homeland as he was by the sounds of the Orient or other regions he discovered on his numerous journeys. The formidable ensemble Oxalys presents here three major works of chamber music which show him as a remarkable contemporary of Debussy and Ravel.

We may wonder whether the violin was a northern Italian invention, for the instrument was also to be heard in the great cities of southern Italy at an early stage, from the beginning of the 17th century onwards. Certain southern Italian composers had clearly understood that the instrument was unequalled in it's ability to express emotion allied to virtuosity, including Montalbano in Palermo, Pandolfi in Messina, Falconieri and Trabaci in Naples, and Leoni in Rome. They wasted no time in channeling the freedom and expressivity of the violin into rare, fascinating and original works, some of them recorded here for the first time.

Recorded in the summer of 2013, with an ensemble of seven musicians, 'Dolce Napoli' presents unique concertos and sonatas by amongst others Fiorenza, Rosa, Leo, Pullj and Mancini, including works only very recently rediscovered. The CD also premieres two copies of Italian Baroque recorders never heard in modern times, which were the focus of this project. Also unique is the use of three different pitches for the recording, accompanying the original pitches of the recorders utilized. In this way, the sonority of all the instruments used is varied in a 'pitch wave' that fluctuates in frequency.