Carlo Agostino Badia was one of the many Italian musicians making his fortune at the court of Vienna where he was hired as a composer in 1694.

We have no news about his education, but the musical historiography is mentioning about his great compositional period lasting forty-four years at the service of the emperors Leopold I and Joseph I, in which he produced in large quantities cantatas, melodramas and oratorios greatly appreciated at the Austrian court.

From his musical writing it is clear how he was a 'ferryer' of that late Baroque (followed by Antonio Caldara who succeeded him at the Viennese court) anticipating the forms of the imminent galant style.

In this recording, the attention is directed to the profane cantatas, from the collection Tributi Armonici – published in Nuremberg in 1699 – which represent precisely the transition from the traditional style (in particular the Venetian one) to the new eighteenth-century style. The great variety of writing that distinguishes the cantatas is well rendered by the ductile voice of the soprano Raffaella Milanesi accompanied by RomaBarocca Ensemble, under the direction of Lorenzo Tozzi.

The fame of Father Giambattista Martini is largely due to his activity as a historiographer, theoretician and teacher of music unceasingly carried out by him at the Bolognese convent of S. Francesco: his monumental Storia della musica, the first history of music ever written in Italian and published in Italy, was hailed by the most distinguished personalities of that period, who unanimously praised his deep erudition. A great number of young composers and musicographers from all over Europe, wishing to learn the secrets of this art, stopped in Bologna to receive a training or perfect their knowledge under his guidance. A less celebrated activity by Martini was that as composer that he carried out continuously as maestro di cappella in the Basilica next to the Bolognese convent from 1725 to the time of his death. The pieces presented in this CD relate a little-known episode in Martini’s life, an episode that shows how highly he was appreciated also as a composer. Alessandro Quarta, leading the Concerto Romano and the vocal ensemble Ecclesia Nova, is the protagonist of this precious world premiere recording, a live production by Tactus of the concert held in Bologna at the Basilica of San Francesco the 21st of April 2023.

This recording – culmination of a research work that started out in 2020 – follows the previously released album including the third book of madrigals by the same author (Tactus, TC531601, 2021), which was the result of the collaboration between conductor Elia Orlando, ensemble Tuscae Voces and the Tactus record label. It is safe to say that the outcome confirms how the musical landscape in the Renaissance Prato deserves way more attention than it has drawn so far, and that Biagio Pesciolini – besides being closely connected to the Florentine court – was an author whose vision went beyond the city walls of Prato. Although praised by peers Ludovico Zacconi and Antonio Brunelli for his mastery of those techniques that belong to Flemish-origin ars musica, he skilfully took on both “orthogonal” writing for double choir and winding compositions for five and six voices, which proves that Biagio Pesciolini was indeed open and receptive to the different tendencies of Italy’s most important musical centres.

The organist Andrea Toschi - already protagonist of several productions regarding rare music dedicated to the organ and harmonium, both as soloist and in chamber music ensembles (see Tactus tc810001, tc850004, tc870002 and tc890090) - is the common denominator of this collection of contemporary pieces for solo organ or for organ and instrument (trumpet, flute and cello alternate in duo with the organ). Composers in this cd include Sergio D’Aurizio, director of the Istituto Verdi of Ravenna and organist in Bologna, and Giordano Noferini, who was director of the Conservatorio of Bologna: they represent the musicians who were born in the first half of the twentieth century and were firmly connected to the late-nineteenth century tradition, which they reassessed paying attention to the harmonic aspect. The cd proceeds with Giorgio Pressato and Roberto Becheri: Toschi presents several pieces of theirs, in which Gregorian chant, the counterpoint devices, the relationship with the trumpet (as in Pressato’s In excelsis gloria), the relationship between diatonicism and chromaticism (as in In mei memoriam facietis by Becheri, who also uses the cello in Cantantibus chordis) are distinctive features that need to be carefully emphasised and smoothly blended: this is precisely what Toschi does in his interpretation. The most recent composers are Marc Giacone, Claudio Scannavini, Andrea Padova, and Daniele Venturi: in their music we can perceive an opening to stylistic influences other than the traditional ones: for instance African music in Giacone’s melodies, Scannavini’s use of perceptive deceit, the modern techniques adopted by Padova, and Venturi’s use of complexity as an element of composition.

The singular record production “Ex tempore” is proposed to us by the instrumental ensemble “The Italian Consort”, with the collaboration of Andrea Inghisciano, an exceptional guest and international star of the Renaissance cornetto.
The ancestral sounds of the consort of dulciane, accompanied by the lute of Gian Giacomo Pinardi and the organ of Cinzia Guarino, guide us to listen to a repertoire of both early music - represented by composers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries - and contemporary, thanks to the compositional contribution of Marco Betta and Giovanni Sollima. The particular timbres of the ancient instruments are the expressive key to intricate labyrinths of contrapuntal alchemies, intense relationships with sacred or poetic texts and implied invitations to dance, in a continuous search for imitation of the human voice that in the Renaissance was considered as the absolute reference for any musical instrument.

Ferruccio Busoni (Empoli 1866 – Berlin 1924) died the same year as Puccini and was born when Puccini was a child, yet he was way more than an opera composer. While he lived several years in Trieste and some time in Bologna, he mainly lived abroad and spent the second half of his life in Berlin. Way more than a composer, he was a wide-ranging artist and musician, an acclaimed concert pianist and sought-after piano teacher, a learned reviser of piano music, and the author of many and varied pieces. Busoni was also an aesthete, an intellectual, a music reformer, and author of texts on musical topics. A child prodigy, he wrote the Symphonische Suite for orchestra at the age of 17.
Nicola Bignami and Lucija Majstorovic brilliantly face the arduous task of performing the two monumental and demanding sonatas for violin and piano that the composer wrote at twenty-four (first sonata) and at thirty-two (second sonata), in which the equal and dialogical relationship between the two instruments combines with a wealth of invention with respect for the great tradition.

This collection of arias from the operas Il Tigrane, Poro, La Sofonisba, L’Ippolito is a testimony of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera activity from the year 1743 to 1745. At the age of 30, yet already successful composer, Gluck wrote his operas for the most important events in the cities of Crema, Turin and Milan, almost without a break. He seems to be at the peak of his career, yet he has not created those great compositions such as Orpheus and Euridice, Paride ed Elena, Alceste, that would have linked his name to the reform of opera theorised together with Ranieri de’ Calzabigi and which made him one of the immortal names in the music history. The autographs of these arias no longer exist, nor the scores of the entire operas. Some pieces, sometimes with only basso continuo accompaniment, are all that remain of the enormous fortune that those performances had at the time. To be as close as possible to the original performance, arias with existing orchestral part have been chosen, except for the aria""Se viver non poss’io"" from the opera Poro which was orchestrated from the basso continuo and some indication of the first violin motif, as complete scores of the opera Poro no longer exist. The curator of the work is Elena De Simone herself, a mezzo-soprano that – accompanied by Il Mosaico ensemble – already distinguished herself with the rediscovery of the works by Hasse and Maria Teresa Agnesi (Tactus' TC690801, TC720101 and TC720102).

The experience of Gregor Aichinger (Regensburg, 1564/65 – Augsburg, 20/21 January 1628) in Italy, which took place during two distinct periods, made it possible for the Bavarian musician to be an important connection between the music that was practiced at that time in Italy and the musical culture on the other side of the Alps (Aichinger was one of the very first German musicians to publish compositions with basso continuo, a practice with which he had become acquainted precisely during his visits to Italy). The Virginalia consist of twenty five-part pieces. The introductory one, Virgo, Dei mater pura, is followed by the pieces of the Joyful Mysteries (from the second to the sixth), then – from the seventh to the eleventh – by those of the Sorrowful Mysteries, and subsequently – from the twelfth to the sixteenth – by those of the Glorious Mysteries. In the last four pieces there is a contemplation of the Virgin Mary, by now projected in a light and a dimension that are beyond the world, as the mediator between mankind and God. The collection dedicated to Maria is performed by the Ensemble Concentus Vocum directed by Michelangelo Gabbrielli, already protagonist in some important world premiere recording of the Armonia Ecclesiastica 1653 by Sisto Reina [TC621801].

The Italian 19th Century is characterized by an unparalleled opera bulimia, the theaters tirelessly program stagings to be submitted to the perennial abstinents of “belcanto” and the music publishing industry that revolves around the phenomenon flourishes and gears up to not disappoint the fleets of music lovers. This inexhaustible desire is counterbalanced by the other “case” represented by the nascent idolatry for instrument virtuosos who build around themselves a legendary aura - very closed to the configuration of the romantic hero with a fascinating and mysterious biography - and an adequate literature to inflame the delirious audiences. The relapse of similar “obsessions” has an extraordinary confirmation in the salon and academic consumption of pages intended to “evoke” the emotions felt in crowded theater halls, a secular celebration is consumed between more or less prestigious salons aimed at the beloved entertainment between the promotion of young talents, noble amateurs, damsels to marry, prestigious guests. The work of Ferdinando Sebastiani, one of the most accredited clarinetist of the nineteenth century and founder of a recognized “school” which enjoyed great prestige in the national and international context, fits into this so articulated landscape. Aldo Botta on the clarinet and Giuseppe Galiano on the piano try their hand at this fascinating challenge in the name of a funambolic virtuosity and a marked theatrical expressiveness.

This world premiere recording by ArsEmble is focused on the rediscovery of the seventeenth-century composer from Rimini, Mario Bianchelli, an amateur instrumentalist (belonging to a noble and wealthy family, and therefore without the need to practice the musical profession for living) formed at the Collegio dei Nobili in the city of Parma, managed by the Jesuit fathers. The young Bianchelli excelled there in the study of the guitar, the lute and the harpsichord.

His activity as a composer was widespread and renowned, and this production is dedicated to the manuscript chamber cantatas preserved in the Gambalunga library in Rimini, one of the richest and most important public libraries in Italy. The concertation of the cantatas is by Roberto Cascio, protagonist of many productions within the Tactus catalog (tc650770, Ippolito Ghezzi; tc520003 La historia del Beato Martino; tc640001, Il Seicento Italiano “alla Spagnuola”; tc660005, Baruffe Amorose del Settecento).

The duo formed by Valentina Vanini (mezzo-soprano) and Giuseppina Coni (piano) is the protagonist of this recording dedicated to the Florentine composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, including chamber lyrics and piano pieces. All the compositions collected in this double CD saw the light in the early twentieth century, more precisely between 1913 and 1928. A kaleidoscopic panorama of impressions and emotions – from the evocation of the childhood world, to the poetic themes of great breadth up, to the pictorial evocations of the great Italian schools of the past – unravels in the succession of pieces, characterized by a very refined musical style, often not simple but incredibly fascinating and evocative. Not conventionally counted as part of the “Generazione dell’ottanta”, in reality Castelnuovo-Tedesco pursues the same ideals and intentions (because of his studies with Ildebrando Pizzetti), which are fully manifested in these compositions, superbly interpreted by the Vanini-Coni duo.

Among the musical genres that were most appreciated and cultivated in Vienna in the early eighteenth century, one that stands out decidedly is the chamber cantata. The Italian cantatas, which were favourite compositions for the cultivated entertainment of the court, were abundantly circulated in manuscript form and collected in a great quantity of books that made chiefly between the eighteen-tens and the eighteen-forties. Now these cantatas are scattered in collections and libraries that have been the object of important musicological studies.

The six cantatas presented in this recording are all drawn from the Mus.Hs.17567 manuscript in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek of Vienna, and were quite probably all composed there around 1710-1712. It is an extremely interesting handwritten-copy collection formed of twelve compositions that are attributed with certainty to Giovanni Bononcini (three), Francesco Conti (three), Antonio Caldara (three), Emanuele d’Astorga (two), and Andrea Stefano Fioré (one). The two symphonies by Caldara (for solo cello) and Giovanni Bononcini are completing the listening of this cd by the Aurata Fonte ensemble, already protagonist of the recording of some great Italian Baroque music discovery (TC670202, TC611990).

According to the composer and conductor Clarence Lucas, writing in 1935, “of the merits of d’Ambrosio... he always maintains his standard of elegance and never becomes commonplace”. By the way d’Ambrosio’s instrumental music was highly appreciated by contemporaries and played by the most acclaimed interpreters of his time, though nowadays seems hélas almost neglected. Alfredo D’Ambrosio (Naples, June 13, 1871-Paris, December 28, 1914) was a Neapolitan violinist and composer studying in Naples Conservatoire with Eusebio Dworzak, Ferdinando Pinto, Enrico Bossi, then in Madrid with Pablo Sarasate and in London with August Wilhelmj. He then set up in Nice where for years he promoted the musical programs of the Club L’Artistique, with his Colleagues Harold Bauer and Jacques Thibaud, or playing in his own Quartet with his cousin Luigi d’Ambrosio (violinist and later teacher of Salvatore Accardo). The Archos Quartet guides us on a chronological path to the discovery of the compositions for quartet and quintet of strings, using the collaboration of two exceptional soloists: Friedrich Thiele on the cello and Mio Tamayama on the double bass.

In the circles of early music lovers, documented information about performance practice is so important as to be obsessively searched for by musicians and musicologists. While iconography sometimes cannot be relied on as evidence because of its symbolic meaning, a piece of information on the aesthetics of a performance, the making of an instrument, the composition of a group of instruments, or the repertoire performed is all the more valuable if it comes from a document, be it official or private, such as a letter. Considering that Isabella d’Este was a passionate lover of music and also a musician herself, it is easy to understand that the massive corpus of letters written and received by her can be an extraordinary mine of this type of information. Here the Anonima Frottolisti ensemble (TC490001, TC250001, TC400007) continues its research in a deep introspection into the meanders of the music of Humanism, focusing on a repertoire drawn from the letters of the Marquise of Mantua Isabella d'Este, whose strong cultural and artistic sensibility deeply marked her time.

Giuseppe Mazzini, the greatest revolutionary of the 19th century in Europe, was very passionate about music, he attended theaters and organized an annual concert to support the Italian School he founded in London. He published a very interesting “Philosophy of music” in Paris in 1836 and, as we know from the letters to his mother written in periods of exile from Italy, he loved to play the guitar.

His three guitars, appearing for the first time together in a single recording, are preserved in his birthplace in Genoa, today Museo del Risorgimento – Istituto Mazziniano, at the Istituto Storico Nazionale Domus Mazziniana in Pisa, where he died, and in the private collection preserved in Milan by Marco Battaglia. The album includes a varied and fascinating repertoire of original music by Niccolò Paganini, Luigi Moretti, Giulio Regondi and Luigi Legnani, a song specifically mentioned in a letter from Mazzini, a theme by Giovanni Pacini varied by Mauro Giuliani, also author of a potpourri that includes parts of works by Gioachino Rossini, and a fantasy on Verdi's Traviata, elaborated by Caspar Joseph Mertz.