Giovanni Gabrieli is one of these Venetian musicians who appears in all music history surveys, but who is actually much less well known than he deserves to be. Modern brass ensembles sometimes perform some of his instrumental pieces in odd transpositions, and motets in concertato style end up in anthologies to illustrate the combination of cori spezzati sacred music. Yet, he was one of the major organists of his time, who wrote in virtually all common vocal and instrumental musical genres, introduced new compositional techniques, worked in the most important Venetian sacred institutions after a sojourn in Bavaria, and trained some of the most important German and Italian composers of the early 17th century. Giovanni Gabrieli’s complete compositional output is preserved in both printed and manuscripts collections, and consists of about 250 compositions between madrigals (mostly in anthologies), motets, instrumental canzonas and sonatas, and organ pieces. The printed collections of instrumental music that became best known were the Canzoni per sonare con ogni sorte di stromenti (Venice, 1608), and the posthumous Canzoni e Sonate (Venice 1615). Why such polyphonic compositions designated “per ogni sorte di stromenti” (for all sorts of instruments) are performed by two organists in this recording is a consequence of absolute common practice in the 16th and early 17th centuries. In the present recording, the organists have selected eleven double-choir instrumental pieces (for 8, 10 and 12 parts) taken from the three aforementioned prints (of 1597, 1608, and 1615). This selection of eight-to-twelve-part pieces, performed on two of the most beautiful and suitable organs for this repertoire, offers an excellent panorama of Giovanni Gabrieli’s double-choir compositions in the older (canzoni and madrigals) and newer (sonate) forms and styles of the two decades between the late 16th and the early 17th century in Venice.

Full of fire, spirit and life. Mozart's positive verdict on Josef Myslivecek (1737-1781) was intended to make the listener aware, for the fact that the extremely critical Salzburg composer expresses himself positively about a colleague is an absolute exception. His oratorio Adamo & Eva, performed in Florence in 1771, was composed at precisely the time when contact with the Mozart family seemed to have been particularly close. The work presented by Il Gardellino under the direction of Peter van Heyghen gives a good impression of what Mozart appreciated about Myslivecek's music: melodic ingenuity as well as transparency and lightness of musical language.

This album unites a substantial selection of exceptional historical musicians, repertoire and instruments. The works on this recording were choosen as much for their intrinsic musical value as for their links to the Generaci�n del 27 [Generation of '27], a literary movement which marked an inflection point in the history of modern art in Spain. Importantly, this recording features some of the first solo pieces ever written by non-guitarist composers, but who were working in an atmosphere that could be best described as a guitar renaissance. Born in Greece, Yiannis Efstathopoulos is a guitarist who performs, teaches and lectures in Brussels where he is based, as well as internationally. Drawn to the Spanish guitar at an early age, he took his first lessons with Evi Pavlidou in the Conservatory of his hometown Dr�ma, in the north of Greece. He then chose to enroll in music high school, studying both classical and traditional music; at the age of 15 he performed his first guitar concerto with orchestra. Aside from his performances, he gives regular lectures in academies and conservatories in Belgium, and has also presented his research in major guitar conferences such as "IGRC-University of Surrey" (UK) "The instrument of change-Melbourne Conservatory of Music"-Australia, 3rd Altamira Guitar Symposium in Hong-Kong and published as well in international magazines.

When Eugène Ysaÿe composed his cycle of 6 sonatas op. 27 for solo violin in June 1923, gut strings were still very common and highly appreciated - statements by contemporary violinists such as Mischa Elman, Toscha Seidel and Jacques Thibaud confirm this. However, neither the dedicatees of Eugène Ysaÿe's solo sonatas nor other contemporaries made recordings of these works. Martin Reimann has now performed them on gut strings, and the special charm of his recording is that it gives these wonderful works a sonority that is likely to correspond to the aesthetic ideas of their time of creation.

Vienna. 1803: George Bridgetower, a violinist of Afro-European descent, caused a furore with his virtuosity and captivated Beethoven, who was fascinated by his unique and exotic character and wrote a hellishly difficult and magnificent sonata for him. Despite the enormous success of the premiere by Beethoven and Bridgetower, a clumsy remark by the violinist about a friend of the composer led to this famous sonata finally being dedicated to Rodolphe Kreutzer, by whom, however, it was never to be played because of its enormous difficulty. Ten years later Beethoven composed his next and last violin sonata, dedicated to Pierre Rode, in a completely different character, enormously poetic and introverted. Written in the phase of Beethoven's life that is widely associated with his "Immortal Beloved", the sonata nevertheless has the typical, incomparable energy. Described as a "fiery virtuoso" (The Strad), "soul violinist" (Sankei Shinbun) or "devil violinist" (Bayerischer Rundfunk), Lina Tur Bonet now joins forces with Aurelia Visovan, who won the 2019 competition of the MA Festival in Bruges, to celebrate Beethoven's anniversary with the recording of these sonatas. After intensive research, inspired by Clive Brown's extensive research on the subject, among others, a daring and innovative version is offered, combining Beethoven's fire, poetry and humor with the search for the authentic.

Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630), the great mathematician and astronomer, was very much concerned all of his life with the connection between practical music and cosmology. He felt strongly that music mirrors the cosmos and used phrases such as “the Song of the Earth” and “Nature's secret whispering”. He broke from his contemporaries who thought that the motions of the planets and other heavenly bodies actually made sound, but thought that those motions and all of the geometry of the heavens were reflected in the most perfect polyphonic pieces of his time. Concerto Palatino proposes a program centered on the ideas of Johannes Kepler and the music of his lifetime. Taking Tui sunt coeli by Orlando di Lasso as a point of departure the group explores other polyphonic and polychoral music of Lasso and his contemporaries (Andrea Gabrieli, Lambert de Sayve, Hans Leo Hassler, etc.). In addition, they commissioned a new work for the project by the renowned composer Calliope Tsoupaki. Her new piece is called ASTRON (to the stars) and is based on a Delphic Hymn. For this project, Concerto Palatino was joined by a truly “star-studded” lineup of singers: Hana Blažíková and Barbora Kabátková, sopranos; Alex Potter, countertenor; Benedict Hymans and Jan van Elsacker, tenor; Tomáš Kral, baritone; and Jaromir Nosek, bass.

José Pizarro and David Aijón, because of the chosen instrument and their interpretative approach, show us a very different Schumann from the norm, but possibly closer to how this might have sounded during the composer‘s lifetime: less concert-like and markedly intimate and domestic, quite distant from modern sounds and manners and, therefore, revealingly historical.

The Belgian chamber music ensemble Oxalys celebrates it's 25th anniversary in 2018. Founded at the Brussels Conservatory of Music, the musicians have convinced critics and music lovers alike in recent years, not only through their top-class interpretations, but also through their curiosity and intuition-influenced programmes. This release, which features the ensemble's best recordings to date, testifies to this. Oxalys was founded in 1993 by a group of ambitious young students from the Brussels Conservatory of Music. Since then the ensemble has developed into one of the most esteemed professional chamber music groups in Flanders. The composition of this ensemble remains open to new musicians in order to complete an original string quintet, a flute player, a clarinet player and a harp player, which permits to interpret a broader repertoire and to realize uncommon projects.

The Monteverdi contemporary Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) is now unfortunately almost exclusively seen as an important and influential composer of works for keyboard instruments, but he also composed both sacred and secular vocal music throughout his entire creative period. The Italian Lorenzo Ghielmi and his ensemble La Divina Armonia show in their recording with PASSACAILLE that sacred vocal music is no less important and in connection with his organ works even results in a particularly charming program. La Divina Armonia was founded by Lorenzo Ghielmi in 2005. All the musicians involved in the Italian group have distinguished themselves for many years in the performance of Baroque music as soloists and musicians in several of the most renowned ensembles in this field. In La Divina Armonia they're coming together to play music from the Baroque up to the early Classical period, playing extraordinarily vividly, but in a beautifully cantabile manner at the same time.

After years of inactivity, Rossini began composing again at his retirement home in the Paris suburb of Passy. During this time, in addition to the Petite Messe solennelle, he also wrote numerous pieces for piano, singing voice and small ensembles, which he ironically called P�ch�s de vieillesse (Sins of Age). Many of these works were written for the musical-culinary "Samedi soirs", to which the composer also invited his friends. The present release offers a program that could have been played during a visit by Rossini's friend and horn virtuoso Eugene Vivier, so we are delighted here with chamber music and fantastic opera arrangements. The musicians performing on this release include Alessandro Denabian, a natural horn expert, mezzo-soprano Lucia Cirillo, and Francesca Bacchetta on the fortepiano.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The most beautiful polyphonic canzoni, chansons, motets and madrigals, were used like today's pop standards in the 16th century; musicians would improvise on them, tailoring their playing and imagination to each other. The colourful and varied selection of works on this recording is made up of different combinations of voices and instruments. A special aspect, a kind of renaissance violin band stands at the centre of this project: ensembles of violins were generally used to accompany certain moments in the Mass, at banquets, receptions, princely entertainments, entries into cities and palaces, diplomatic negotiations and sacred and secular processions as well as the long hours of dancing that followed the evening meal in northern Italy from the 1530s onwards, until the 1580s and 1590s announced the arrival of the new baroque style. The word Sonadori, the name of the ensemble, is Venetian in origin; the Scuole Grandi or confraternities there employed full-time ensembles of singers and musicians. The confraternity of San Rocco was the first to replace the older instruments such as the fiddle, harp and lute with sonadori nuovi - new players - of the violin in 1531.

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988) wrote 61 works for solo piano, of which only nine were published before the middle of the 1930s. The last of these publications was the Opus Clavicembalisticum, a work of unprecedented complexity and it is considered one of the longest and most complex pieces ever written for solo piano. It shows the composers desire to push the boundaries of what is possible in piano music and remains a fascinating and challenging work within the realm of 20th-century classical music.

Without doubt, Benjamin Britten (1913-76) left an indelible impression on all genres of 20th century English music. His vocal repertoire in smaller instrumentations is particularly fascinating. With three of Britten's "Canticles" as well as a selection of his best "realizations" (or "arrangements", if you will) of songs by Henry Purcell (1659-95), this recording provides an insight into the mature phase of the renaissance of the English song. The "Canticles" (Nos. 1-3) presented on this recording are masterful, morally charged pieces. They require the singer and pianist to pay careful attention to the text, which Britten uses as a starting point for all his works. The "Purcell Realizations" further illustrate Benjamin Britten's genius. Benjamin Britten creates the ideal balance between an incredibly captivating music and the service of the text without overburdening its message. This recording illustrates Britten's outstanding position among the song composers of the 20th century.