At the outset of the eighteenth century, Naples had gained ground as one of the most important musical centers in Italy. In 1729 Charles de Brosses wrote with great admiration in his "Lettres familieres:" "Naples es la capital du monde musician." (Naples is the capital of the musician world.) The Galant Style must be considered to be groundbreaking, and as preparatory for the Classical Style. For example, an unbroken teacher-student lineage can be documented which reaches from Gaetano Greco to Nicola Antonio Porpora, further to Joseph Haydn and then on to Ludwig van Beethoven and Carl Czerny. Robin Johannsen presents this release, which includes several world premiere recordings and focuses on Early music from Naples- that center of the musical world. Johannsen is one of the most sought-after singers in Early Music.

This new release from Moritz Ernst showcases the enormous variety of the keyboard works by Miklos Maros. Maros writes: "A composer communicates by means of his music. To express oneself, one needs a language, a musical language which is personal and at the same time imparts itself by it's own internal logic: to the musicians interpreting the music as well as to the audience listening to it... Anyway, curiosity is one of the most important traits of a composer: one should be aware of what has been achieved already but also know what does not fit into one's musical language. Students of music are often required to work with different styles, compositional techniques and musical languages. They analyze and imitate the music of the great masters also to gain practical experience. However, this may as well result in a high or sometimes exaggerated respect for certain kinds of music. And not without reason: After all, what can a young composer add to a repertoire already developed by the greatest minds through the centuries by writing new symphonies or sonatas? To devise my own musical universe in my work, I thoroughly went through the different aspects and elements of music. I wrote many little pieces which concentrate primarily on the melodic, harmonic, or rhythmical elements and studied possibilities for numerous new sound combinations with unconventional ensembles."

Cleopatra, Adelaide, Alcina, Laodice, Medea, Atalanta, Melissa & Morgana: Audacious fighters, indomitable queens, and evil witches: On their debut album, soprano Margriet Buchberger and the musicians of Il Giratempo put Handel’s strongest and most mesmerizing women center stage - where they rightfully belong. The “wild” women in Georg Friedrich Handel’s operas are truly queens of their own destiny. They rule over empires, fight in bloody battles, are courageous hunters and passionate lovers. Their adventures are gems in a sea of female characters bound to tradition and cliché. “Good girls” may go to heaven, but in baroque opera they do so either as victims or trophies. At best they come into their own when they sacrifice themselves virtuously to the mercy of fate and/or the men surrounding them. We have searched for strong, self-determined women – and found fascinating, modern characters, brought to life through beautiful music.

Fear and trembling are never, but never presented in a single, monotonous tone color! Our characters often go through an
emotional rollercoaster: from deepest despair to sorrow and anger, from flight to fight, from love and longing to sheer insanity. Truly, a painters box full of affects, inviting composers to go wild with musical expression. “Scenes of Horror” is a baroque cabinet of grotesqueries featuring music by Georg Friedrich Handel, Attilio Ariosti, Antonio Vivaldi and Carl Heinrich Graun.

Barbara Heindlmeier & La Ninfea spend a day as a gentleman in baroque London “Gentleman for a Day” is la Ninfea’s second production with Perfect Noise, this time with founding member and renowned recorder player Barbara Heindlmeier as the soloist, also known for her excitingly innovative concepts.

When thinking of a true London gentleman, the first thing that comes to mind are top hats and courteous behaviour, elegance and elevated status. Recorder, too? But of course! Well, the fine gentleman didn’t (yet) have a top hat around 1700, but of course it was excellent manners to have a recorder in your pocket for you to, for example, serenade the lady you adored at any given moment - a welcome occasion for Barbara Heindlmeier and her colleagues to be “Gentleman for a Day”. Everything is included: from getting up in the morning to going for a walk, visiting the royal court and going to the opera, to the obligatory five o’clock tea and preparing for the said serenade.

An exciting and busy day plotted out with music by composers such as G.F. Handel, H. Purcell, M. Locke and J. Playford. The Bremen baroque ensemble La Ninfea stands for the highest artistic standards. They have since made a name for themselves with creative, cross-genre concert formats. This baroque ensemble with a varying line-up is completely dedicated to the art of baroque ornamenation and improvisation. Their own contributions such as the divisions on ‘Strawberries and Cream’ or ‘John come kiss me now’ underline the richness of colour, emotional density and fast-moving contrasts so inherent to this repertoire.

In September 2020 Florian Berner travelled to Tuscany. Playing in the local church, and initially just for himself, he recorded the first three of Bach’s six suites for solo cello. By early 2023 he completed the cycle in Köthen, where Bach was Capellmeister from 1717-1722. The two separate experiences captured performances of unique intuition and power.

Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703) pondered the difference between dreaming and waking in his personal diary, which the Secretary of State of the Royal Navy and passionate amateur musician kept during the years 1660 -1669. He played the lute and noted 1668, that he had begun to learn the recorder. This disc is a collection of musical treasures between dream immersion and joie de vivre from the multinational melting pot of baroque London.

A musical journey to foreign worlds: rediscovered music by Sebastian George, a German composer who rose to become a style-defining figure in Moscow and St. Petersburg at the end of the 18th century.

The journey of this album started in Karlsruhe where Fruzsina Hara and Antonio Faillaci were studying in the class of Prof. Reinhold Friedrich and started playing the baroque trumpet with Dr. Edward H. Tarr. During these years they not only became good friends but also developed a mutual musical appreciation. Later Fruzsina became an internationally renowned professional baroque trumpet soloist who also performs with different ensembles and Antonio, also a modern and baroque trumpet soloist became professor at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italia in Lugano, Switzerland. Bologna (then the Papal States, now Italy), as one of the chief musical centers of the Italian peninsula, has maintained a practically uninterrupted outstanding tradition of music. Kremsier, a town in central Moravia (now Kromeriz, Check Republic), was the residence of the bishops of Olomouc from the 13th century onwards. Bishop Karl II von Lichtenstein – Castelcorno rebuilt the city and the palace after the war which brought the most brilliant period of time in the history of Kremsier. The bishop not only rebuilt the residence and the town but also maintained a well-equipped court orchestra. Its leader was the trumpeter and composer Pavel Vejvanovsky. Join us on this journey from Bologna to Kromeriz!

Swan Hennessy is a real discovery for lovers of impressionistic piano music from France. Swan Hennessy was born in Rockford, Illinois, of Irish origin and grew up in Chicago. Swan Hennessy's music before 1900 was heavily influenced by his conservative education and his teachers' predilection for the music of Robert Schumann. Around the time of his move to Paris, he also been an admirer of Max Reger. Although his later music shows the influence of several contemporary stylistic directions, he never shook off this profound influence of the German Romantics. During the period 1907 to 1913, Hennessy wrote increasingly in an Impressionist style, with a prolific series of piano works and art songs in a descriptive and programmatic style inspired by sounds in his environment including nature, traffic, and industry. He also excelled in humoristic and satirical pieces, similar to but independent from Satie. One contemporary critic wrote, "Il fut un humoriste d'une verve drue dont la drôlerie était faite à la fois d'observation et d'invention, de fantaisie et depsychologie." ("He was a humorist of great verve whose humor derived from observation and invention, fantasy and psychology").

Joy, despair, love, hate, exuberance: in Vivaldi’s music, the outermost extremes of emotion connect within the smallest of spaces. Leaping over genres, “Villa Vivaldi” palpably, audibly, and movingly links Antonio Vivaldi’s virtuoso instrumental concerti to modern commissioned works that were written specifically for this program. Every moment on stage can be transformed into magic - that is the conviction of the VOLCANIA ensemble. The musicians find glamor, glow and joie de vivre in Vivaldi's and Bach's scores - and commission living composers to write effective music for their ensemble of international adventurers that ties in with the depths of baroque emotional intensity in today's fashion. The focus is on the encounter: between the musicians and the music, which every evening can turn out differently than rehearsed; and between the musicians and the audience, when the encounter creates the special tension of the concert.

Venice 1600 – The age that witnessed the birth of opera as we know it today also saw the emergence of a liberal, secular musical culture. The polyphonic rigor of earlier times gave way to expressive solo voices and breathtakingly virtuoso instrumental music. Composers were able to have a career outside the restrictions of the church. Young musicians, painters and Bohemians took the salons of the rich elites by storm. Barbara Strozzi, composer as well as acclaimed singer, became one of the leading voices of her generation. A true child of Venice, the lagoon city became a supportive home for her art. Her works reflect the adventurous spirit of a musical world moving towards a new era. In their musical journey, mezzo-soprano Laila Salome Fischer and jazz saxophonist Magnus Mehl revive the Venice 1600 Zeitgeist of awakening and discovery. Backed by the exciting baroque ensemble Il Giratempo, Magnus Mehl translates the ancient tunes and rhythms into his very own musical language.

The idea for this release developed during a recording of the Fantasy No. 7, and quickly established its own momentum. What began as a spontaneous thought experiment soon demanded fulfillment, and morphed swiftly into the desire to take part in the reawakening of this music. What followed was months of intensive dialogue with, and examination of, the 12 Fantasies. What would rank as of the greatest possible adventures for a gambist? To approach Telemann‘s 12 Fantasies which, having long lain dormant, were recently rediscovered. This is music which paints pictures, is sometimes melancholy and longing, sometimes wild, and often humorous – an inexhaustible wellspring of ideas, moods, sounds and colors.

The musical life in the late 18th century‘s Russian metropolises still needs to be researched more extensively: With this recording, the musicians of the Altera Pars ensemble impressively demonstrate what masterpieces are waiting for their discovery. The international ensemble “Altera Pars” (in English: Other Side) specializes in the performance of baroque and classical music. The musicians are leading soloists of European orchestras on period instruments. This allows for a variation of the line-up from 3 to 9 people and opens up a rich chamber repertoire from the 18th to the early 19th century. In the last four years, the ensemble initiated a much-praised series of concerts in the Oldenburg Palace.

On his debut album, the young pianist Corbyn Beisner indulges in the complexity, mysticism and passion of major piano works by Franz Liszt. Since his performing debut in 2006 playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, op. 37, Corbin Beisner (born 1988) has been active as a classical pianist throughout Europe and the United States. Notable performances have included recitals at the Conservatoire Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, the Liszt Saal at the Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome, Italy, All-Liszt recitals throughout Switzerland, including a recital in the famous “Le Troi Roi” hotel in Basel, numerous concerts in Budapest, Hungary, and performances at the Liszt Summer Piano Festival at Schloss Schillingsfürst in Schillingsfürst, Germany.In the United States, he has been invited to perform by Chopin societies in Connecticut, Texas, the Chopin Foundation in Florida, and the American Liszt Society.