On the occasion of it's 40th anniversary, Tactus presents a monumental 8-CD box set that gathers for the first time the Complete Keyboard Works by Alessandro Scarlatti, one of the most influential composers of the Italian Baroque. Famous above all for his more than 600 cantatas and numerous operas, Scarlatti was also a refined and prolific author of keyboard music, a repertoire still little explored today that reveals a composer in constant dialogue between contrapuntal tradition and new expressive demands. This box set brings together the complete compositions for harpsichord and organ, including toccatas, fugues, variations, sonatas, and liturgical pieces, testifying to the extraordinary stylistic variety of the Neapolitan master. His pages, rich in virtuosity, bold harmonies, and deep expressiveness, build a bridge between the strict counterpoint of the Roman school and the emerging galant sonorities that anticipate his son Domenico. Interpreting this vast and fascinating corpus is Francesco Tasini, one of the greatest specialists in the Italian keyboard repertoire, who performs the pieces on historical instruments (organ and harpsichord) faithfully reconstructed, thus restoring the authentic colour and original sonority of these pages. The result is a total immersion in the sound universe of one of the fathers of Western music. The fruit of rigorous philological work, this edition includes numerous world premiere recordings and represents a recording event of extraordinary historical and artistic value. A unique opportunity to rediscover Scarlatti's genius beyond melodrama and to celebrate four decades of Tactus's commitment to enhancing the Italian musical heritage.

Carolina Pazzini Uccelli (Florence, 1801 - 1858) was a composer, symphonist, and a skilful self-promoter, defined as "symphoniste" by French critic Henri Blanchard in 1842. She made her debut with a Symphony published by Ricordi in 1826, but her first major success came with the opera Saul (1830), performed at Florence's Teatro della Pergola thanks to the encouragement of Gioachino Rossini. Widowed in 1832, she continued to have her works performed in Italy and Paris, where she organised concerts with her daughter Emma, a singer, earning critical acclaim and mingling with personalities such as Hugo, Berlioz and Viardot. Her output includes operas, cantatas, symphonies and numerous salon romances. Among her most significant collections are the Quattro Ariette e due Cavatine on texts by Metastasio (1827), dedicated to the British ambassador's wife in Florence, and the cycle Mes reves d'Italie (c. 1843), dedicated to the Duchess of Nemours, which includes pieces performed by celebrated artists such as Rubini, Tamburini and Giulia Grisi. Her works reveal a refined choice of texts, ranging from Metastasian melodrama to Romantic ballads and French chansonnettes. Carolina Pazzini Uccelli represents a pioneering figure in the 19th-century musical landscape, combining compositional talent with organisational ability at a time when women were often excluded from stages and academic institutions. The voice of Marina Comparato - accompanied by Elisabetta Sepe on piano - is the protagonist of this compelling world premiere recording.

Francesco Balilla Pratella is known as a musician and theorist of Futurism, but his activity was much broader: he was a writer, librettist, ethnomusicologist, and director of the "Verdi" Institute in Ravenna. He studied in Pesaro with Antonio Cicognani, to whom he dedicated the Sonata prima per organo op. 23 (1917), which blends references to the Baroque with pushes towards atonality. He contributed with dedication to the dissemination of Italian instrumental music, as evidenced by the transcriptions for viola and piano by Francesco Pasi presented here. This project also includes the 7 Composizioni per viola e pianoforte by Marco Anzoletti (1867-1929), virtuosic and melodramatic, representative of the conflict between operatic tradition and Central European influences. All the pieces on this recording - curated by Federica Cardinali and Lisa Redorici - are world premiere recordings, the result of philological research that recovers an unjustly forgotten Italian instrumental heritage.

This unprecedented recording - released precisely in the year of the celebrations commemorating one of the most significant figures in human history - explores the musical output of Padre Giambattista Martini dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi. A Franciscan friar and ecclesiastical musician, as well as a learned teacher and tireless researcher, Martini composed a Mass (incomplete) and various motets in honour of the Saint. From these, the Ensemble San Pietro - directed by Marcello Rossi and Giacomo Contro - has reconstructed a complete "Franciscan" Mass. The essay accompanying the CD also features a curious analogy between the composer and his saintly dedicatee, supported by a careful analysis of historical documents.

Platti, Giovanni Benedetto (1697-1763). Up until a few years ago, any judgement concerning the creative personality of Platti was based exclusively upon an analysis of his sonatas for harpsichord, together with a handful of his other works. This fact contributed to the inclusion of this composer from the Veneto in the company of so- called 'minor' composers of the eighteenth century, such names as G.B. Pescetti, D. Alberti, M. Vento, F. Pellegrini, G.M. Rutini, etc. In recent times, however, nearly all of Platti's production has been studied, and the results are overwhelmingly convincing that it in fact contains unquestionable masterpieces such as the Requiem Mass, the Stabat Mater, the Concerto for violin, some of the most beautiful concertos ever written for the violoncello, and many other works of notable interest. Thus Platti music may now be considered worthy of being included in the most serious the concert repertoires and recording catalogues. The Ensemble "J.M. Anciuti", featuring soloists of the calibre of Stefano Montanari on violin, Claudio Rufa on transverse flute, and Paolo Pollastri on oboe, offers us a superb period-instrument performance of the composer's chamber repertoire.

With this historic CD series, Tactus and Federico Maria Sardelli - leading Modo Antiquo - produced the first complete recording of Antonio Vivaldi's Cantatas for soprano. Having appeared only sporadically on the recording scene, the Cantatas constitute a very important group of works within Vivaldi's output. Dedicated exclusively to female voices, the Cantatas are divided - as in the Ryom catalogue - into cantatas for soprano and continuo, cantatas for alto and continuo, cantatas for soprano and instruments, and cantatas for alto and instruments. The first complete recording of Vivaldi's Soprano Cantatas is undertaken by Modo Antiquo with full respect for the original texts and the performance practices of the era. For the performance, the original manuscripts were used wherever possible, usefully supplemented by consultation of the complete critical edition by Francesco Degrada and the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, published by Ricordi. The four CDs are here gathered in a single box set on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Tactus's activity.

Marco Enrico Bossi piano music accompanies almost his entire creative life: from his first mazurka, composed at age 14, to the five concert pieces of Op. 137, the piano represents almost a moment of compositional relaxation compared to the organ, chamber music, and large symphonic-choral works, albeit with the inevitable challenges connected to the evolution of his style. Giulio Giurato, already pianist interpreter of the complete recording of Bossi's instrumental chamber music (Tactus, TC862704/05/06/07 - TC860204), now dedicates himself as a soloist to this world premiere recording of the piano works by the great Italian composer. Works that are still virtually unknown today, revealing how much ground still needs to be covered in order to arrive at a complete assessment of the composer's mastery.

Let us discard the labels we conveniently put on contemporary music productions: Diego Conti speaks an exquisitely authentic language, his own; there is no trace of timbral mannerism, display of effects, or distractions of any other kind. And above all - surprisingly - this collection of pieces starts from people: from encounters; it feeds on sharp observations or shared memories; it proceeds towards transfiguration. Like a tailor, the composer stitches together sonic garments for imagined spiritual bodies. In this new chapter dedicated to his chamber music, the performers are Cosimo Linoci on clarinet, Eugenia Lentini on violin, and Matteo Sebastiani on piano, who alternate and regroup in the performance of four substantial pieces

The voice of baritone Matteo Mencarelli - accompanied by Filippo Farinelli on the piano - magnificently interprets the chamber music anthology presented in this release: a journey through Italian lieder repertoire spanning the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. The overview of the featured composers (including a world premiere recording of works by Francesco Morlacchi) traces an intriguing path in which the use of poetic texts by both ancient and contemporary authors defines the thread running through the CD. From the literary sources employed by the composers of the Italian Historical 20th century - ranging from Dante Alighieri to Gabriele D'Annunzio, via 19th century German poetry and unique figures such as the Neapolitan poetess Laura Beatrice Mancini-Oliva - spring musical masterpieces in which the composers seek and find emancipation from the dominance of 19th-century theatrical melodrama, thereby realigning the genre of vocal chamber music with the European lied tradition.

The 12 Sonatas for mandolino and continuo by Francesco Weber represent one of the most interesting collections of compositions for the baroque mandolino that have come down to us. Despite his German surname clearly suggesting German ancestry, Francesco Weber, was an Italian lutenist / theorbist / mandolinist and composer, whose career was mainly in England. My research started from his will - drawn up in London under the name of John Francis Weber on April 13, 1745 - and proved several months after his death on June 5, 1751, in which the 'Republic of Genova' is often mentioned concerning assets and family properties. The 5-course mandolin used for this recording was built in Genoa in 1717 by Andrea Weber (1658-1740). It is the only surviving example by this maker, and one of the very few surviving Genoese baroque 'mandolinos.' It is an instrument recently discovered in a private collection, therefore completely unknown even to early mandolin experts, before this recording. An even more extraordinary aspect that distinguishes this disc is the fact that it represents a truly exceptional case - perhaps unprecedented at least in the field of early plucked string instruments - in which the music of a composer is recorded using an instrument built by his father.

The idea behind this recording by the acclaimed harpist Oliver Wass (first prize winner at the "Suoni d'Arpa" International Competition and now professor at the Royal College of Music in London) is to juxtapose music by Misha Mullov-Abbado with works by (mostly) Italian composers from four earlier centuries. The artist's ambition was to record the music he commissioned from Misha Mullov-Abbado and pair it with music for modern harp and Italian triple harp. The album is in fact performed on an Italian triple harp for the early repertoire, and on a modern pedal harp for the classical and modern repertoire. The performance also includes a chamber music section featuring Henry Roberts on flute, Luba Tunnicliffe on viola-both members, along with Wass, of the Pelléas Ensemble-and Gabriela Opacka-Boccadoro on violin. The CD also features a highly fascinating world premiere recording (and performance) of the Concerto for Harp and Orchestra by Luigi Molino, recorded live at the opening concert of the "Suoni d'Arpa" Festival in Saluzzo (Cuneo) on August 24, 2024. Oliver Wass here is accompanied by the Ensemble APM orchestra, conducted by Luca Vacchetti.

This previously unpublished opus of Carlo Rossaro's work has been deposited with the Library of the Conservatory of Music in Torino Italy. Elena Ballario, pianist, composer and teacher at the Conservatory has re-evaluated the work and is promoting it with the aim of honoring this great Piemontese composer and bringing his repertoire of chamber and piano music to lovers of classical music in concert halls everywhere. Rossaro was a fervent admirer of Wagner and was fundamental in bringing meaning to the turmoil of an expanding cultural world in the Torino of his time. This double album is including the premiere recording of the complete chamber music opera (both, vocal and instrumental) by Carlo Rossaro, talented musician born in a poor family from the Turin provence, that in year 1848 was nominated "honorary pianist of the King" Vittorio Emanuele. He was published by Ricordi till 1863, and also by Giudici and Strada of Torino, Bock & Bote of Berlin and Seuff of Leipzig. It was Giovannina Lucca of Milan, considered at that time the reference point for the forward-looking artists (unlike Ricordi), who published Rossaro's compositions. Even if some of those included in this release are written by composers of uncertain origin, their mature style suggests the work of Rossaro in his later years.

Biagio Marini (Brescia, 1594 - Venice, 1663) now is remembered not only as one of the most famous violin virtuosos of his time and an innovator of instrumental music, but also as a masterly composer of vocal pieces, both sacred and profane. The Concertos op. 7 reveal the composer's mastery. Adopting some traditional forms of the profane music of the Renaissance, such as the canto a ballo and the romanesca, and using ritornellos and refrains interspersed with different formal systematisations (nos. 1 and 5), Marini created complex, dynamic pieces, achieving a splendid synthesis of all the composition elements. These stylistic features that were typical of Marini's work arose and developed on the basis of his everyday musical life, in which he was active not only as a composer, but also as an instrumentalist and singer. The Costanzo Porta ensemble from Cremona, directed by Antonio Greco supported by the instrumental ensemble Cremona Antiqua, performs here for the first time this previously unknown collection of madrigals including texts, by famous poets of the time, inspired by themes and subjects from the pastoral poetry from the early seventeenth century. These are superbly put on music using "madrigalisms" that, a part for the voices, are extended to the accompanying instruments.

The "Scherzi Musicali a tre voci di Claudio Monteverde, raccolti da Giulio Cesare Monteverde suo fratello, et nuovamente posti in luce" ("collected by his brother Giulio Cesare Monteverde and revealed again"), were published in 1607 by Ricciardo Amadino in Venice, and dedicated to "Serenissimo S. Don Francesco Gonzaga Prencipe di Mantova, et si Monferrato." These are 18 compositions selected and edited by Giulio Cesare Monteverdi: 17 "Scherzi," strophic songs written by Claudio, except for the last two by Giulio Cesare himself, and a wider concluding ballet, "De la bellezza le dovute lodi." Even with light and schematic compositions such as "Scherzi," the rules of the "Seconda Prattica" do not fail: new polyphonic technique, innovative use of dissonance, original concertation and, above all, great importance to the lyrics, with a strong dramatic power, before harmony and rhythm. The set is a masterpiece of the history of music of that time, in the mark of eternal quarrel between ancient and modern. The EsaEnsemble, a female vocal group directed by Sergio Chierici and accompanied by the instrumental ensemble Baschenis, effectively deals with this important work by the great genius of the Renaissance, in a colorful variety of vocal and instrumental organics supported by a wide use of period instruments.

The concertos for two violins by Vivaldi are a lesser-known part of his oeuvre. He composed a considerable number of them, though. The 28 concertos for this scoring span almost his entire career. The first examples were included in his collection of 12 concertos which was printed as his op. 3 in 1711 under the title L'Estro Armonico. The latest concerto which can be dated is from 1740. It is not entirely clear for whom these works were intended. Some may have been written as part of Vivaldi's activities as teacher in the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. The character of the solo parts is various, and in many cases they are so demanding that they can only be played by real virtuosos. Vivaldi was such a virtuoso himself. In his liner-notes Fabrizio Ammetto comes up with the suggestion that Vivaldi could have played them with his father, Giovanni Battista, a skilled professional violinist and probably his only formal teacher.

The roles of the two violins can greatly differ. Sometimes they play in parallel thirds, elsewhere they are involved in a contrapuntal texture with imitation. There are also episodes in which the second violin accompanies the first or vice versa. Lastly they can develop a dialogue which can take the character of cooperation or rather confrontation. The roles of the violins can change within a single concerto or even movement. That is part of the attraction of these concertos for both performers and listeners.

The programme starts with the Concerto in D (RV 513). It is one of the most virtuosic pieces and the only one which was printed - apart from the op. 3 concertos. The edition dates from 1736 but the concerto was probably written about ten years earlier. Particularly remarkable is the written-out cadenza for both violins in the last movement which includes various modulations.

The Concertos in B flat (RV 526) and in A (RV 520) belong to a collection of twelve which Vivaldi offered to the Habsburg emperor Charles VI. Unfortunately the parts of the first solo violin are missing. These have been reconstructed by Fabrizio Ammetto. The features of the violin parts in the double concertos mentioned above are helpful in the process of reconstruction. This has resulted in two beautiful concertos with a nice interplay of the two solo violins.

The Concerto in B flat (RV 764) is a reworking of a concerto for oboe and violin (RV 548). The largo is especially beautiful, with the two violins involved in an engaging dialogue supported by the basso continuo alone. The Concerto in A (RV 521) is a case of literal imitation between the two violins, and is described by Fabrizio Ammetto as "probably the result of an experiment in polychoral composition". He suggests that Vivaldi may have placed the soloists and even the tutti violins in different locations. It is a most intriguing concerto, with demanding solo parts.

The Concerto in B flat (RV 528), another reconstruction, is also known from Bach's transcription for harpsichord (BWV 980). It exists in another version, with one solo part (RV 381). It seems not quite clear which was the original version. In this version for two violins the second plays a subordinate role; in the slow movement it doesn't participate at all. The liner-notes fail to make clear what exactly has been reconstructed here. The disc ends with the Concerto in F (RV 765) which also exists in a version with violin and organ as solo instruments (RV 767). The technical demands of the soloists are limited here.

This disc is very interesting in regard to the repertoire. No fewer than three concertos (RV 528, 764 and 765) are recorded here for the first time. The fact that some concertos needed to be reconstructed makes this disc even more valuable as such pieces are obviously not often played. Fortunately the interpreters are fully up to the job; their playing is technically sound and they grasp the character of the various concertos well.

Often this kind of music is played with one instrument per part. That is not the case here: the tutti comprises four violins, two violas and two cellos; one of the latter also participates in the basso continuo. The result is a more robust sound and a larger contrast between soli and tutti. It is impossible to say which number of players is closer to the historical truth. It seems that it could vary from one place to another or from one occasion to another. I would have liked a more intimate acoustic, but that in no way diminishes my appreciation for this disc.

-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International

For a work of this importance, there have been remarkably few recordings of Pergolesi’s delicious little intermezzo La Serva Padrona (The Housekeeper-Boss). Composed in 1733 to be performed between the acts of the composer’s opera seria Il Prigionier superbo, the piece ignited the splendidly hysterical Querelle des bouffons in Paris in 1752, pitting supporters of Italian opera (led by Rousseau) against fans of French opera (typified by Rameau). Perhaps more significantly, Pergolesi’s comedy seemed to indicate the direction in which the operatic winds were blowing–away from heavy duty tragedy and towards the buffo comedies of the nascent classical era.

The work is simplicity itself. Its two acts last barely forty-five minutes and contain five arias, two duets, a finale, and lots of secco recitative. No single number lasts much longer than four minutes, and several of the recitatives are bigger than the arias. The plot is rudimentary: Serpina the maid is so pushy that her bachelor employer, Uberto, decides to get married simply to get her under the control of the household’s new mistress. Serpina, seeing her chance, decides that she will marry Uberto herself, and after she arranges her own trumped up wedding to a stranger Uberto realizes that he loves her and all ends as planned.

Pergolesi’s music seems to have been designed to show off in the most schematic way all that was most appealing in the Italian school. The scoring is paired down to strings and continuo; the accompaniments are simple, the characters (only two of them) come from the middle and working classes, the action moves swiftly, and best of all, the tunes are pure vocal gold. Consider, for example, the sweetly lyrical aria, “A Serpina penserete”. Music historians, scholars, and theoreticians have never been able to wrap their brains around a style dependent on quality of melody as its primary constituent–it really is unanalyzable–and the result has always been a tendency to disparage Italian music as compared to the German or French schools, especially when those doing the analyzing happen to be German or French. Audiences, of course, have no such difficulties, hence the Querelle des bouffons and other, similar controversies throughout history.

This performance, fortunately, is quite a good one. As Uberto baritone Michele Govi sings with firm tone and he acts well with the voice; only a weakness in his lower register prevents him from being ideal. Federica Zanello’s soprano sounds a bit heavy, dare I say “matronly?” for the waspish Serpina, but she uses what she has intelligently and she is never unpleasant to listen to. The Ensemble Regia Accademia, a pick-up group drawn from various northern Italian orchestras, plays well under the direction of Marco Dallara, and the engineering sounds warm and well-balanced. As I said at the start, it’s very odd that there are so few choices available for this work, but this one will do nicely.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This album continues the complete edition of the chamber works by Marco Enrico Bossi, featuring a collection of instrumental works for piano and various instruments: viola violin, flute, bassoon, oboe, harp, cello, double bass and harmonium. Unexpected and surprising writing mastery by Bossi (until a few years ago only known for being one of the greatest organ performers in the history of music), this anthology pays tribute to the composer through the different facets he manages to characterize each of these instruments in their own timbre and expressive peculiarity. The SchuberTrio (Giulio Giurato, piano, Andrea Noferini, cello and Roberto Noferini, violin) - already awarded by critics for the previous albums of the Bossi Trios and the music for violin, cello and piano, is joined by Anna Noferini at the viola, Paolo dal Moro at the historical flute, Paolo Pollastri at the oboe, Roberto Giaccaglia at the bassoon, Roberto Rubini at the double bass, Emanuela Degli Esposti at the harp, and Claudio Brizi at the harmonium d 'art.