Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The organist Pier Damiano Peretti - living in Vienna since 2009 as a teacher at the Universit�t (formerly Hochschule) f�r Musik und darstellende Kunst - on this album is tackling the very difficult organ pages of the well-known composer from Puglia, Biagio Putignano, using the valuable 1995 Mathis organ located in the Scottekirche in Vienna, with the help of the soprano Marie-Antoinette Stabentheiner performing Three Sacred Pieces. So, it seemed therefore logical in the conception of this album, to counterpoint the poetry of a "new Middle Ages" (U. Eco) obbligato music by Biagio Putignano, with excerpts from the earliest surviving Italian keyboard music collection, the 1420 Faenza Codex: secular intabulations of great ingenuity, which on the threshold of the modern era are enticed to silent, comfortable joy. For the performance of these pieces, Peretti uses a positive organ from the Neapolitan School of the eighteenth century belonging to St. Ursula Kirche in Vienna.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, at the court of the Gonzagas, the young organist Francesco Rovigo was appreciated to the point of being sent by the Duke Wilhelm to study in Venice at Claudio Merulo, the largest master of his time. After hosting Francesco Rovigo at his court, and despite the insistence of the Gonzagas, the Archduke Charles of Bavaria would not let him return to Mantua and held him granting him a big honorary until his death, in 1590, when he returned to Mantua Rovigo. These events give us the clear idea of the caliber of this musician, for which even Claudio Monteverdi himself expressed words of the highest consideration. The live recording of this concert brings to light what is left of his music in the archives of the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua, where Rovigo was appointed Kapellmeister and where now he lies buried alongside the great Flemish master Giaches de Wert, his predecessor.

The Complete Organ Works, Vol. 11 of Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925) presents world premiere recordings including his last works for organ – 3 Momenti Francescani and Meditazione in una Cattedrale – recent reconstructions and some late 19th c. pieces. The late works form a kind of testament by the genius from Salo, whose writing here reaches its highest level of inspiration and spirituality, highlighted by the sonics of the historical instruments used, in particular, the colossal Balbiani organ of the Como cathedral, delivering a huge, impressive, and full range of colors and poetic sounds.

With this release continues the publication of Marco Enrico Bossi's opera omnia for organ. Here we have more transcriptions of various authors such as Handel, Wagner, Debussy and Saint Saens that deeply fascinated Marco Enrico Bossi in his personal discovery of symphonic and chamber music. For this work Andrea Macinanti uses an important historical instrument: the Cavaill�-Coll organ of the Saint-Antoine des Quinze-Vingts Church in Paris, an instrument specifically built in 1894 for the very wealthy Albert de l'Ep�e baron for performing Wagner transcriptions that, same as Marco Enrico Bossi, the baron passionately loved. Andrea Macinanti was born in Bologna in 1958. He attained diplomas in organ, harpsichord and voice from the Bologna and Parma Conservatories, and completed his studies with Klemens Schnorr in Munich. He obtained a first class degree in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna. He has recorded numerous albums; the most successful include recordings for two organs (with Francesco Tasini) and others released on the TACTUS label of the complete organ works by Ottorino Respighi and Goffredo Giarda, as well as previous recordings of Marco Enrico Bossi.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Padre Davide da Bergamo (Felice Moretti) has been the most representative figure of the Italian nineteenth century organ music. Having become a minor friar after studying organ music with Davide Bianchi and Antonio Gonzales, and composition with Simone Mayr, he began a flamboyant career throughout northern Italy as excellent performer and improviser. Soon he became the major reference of his time for consulting, tests and inaugurations of new organs. Lauded by the crowds and by the musicians (in Milan for an inauguration he played almost uninterruptedly for eight days!), he was the greatest and most famous organist of the Italian Risorgimento, the absolute champion of that sound that took the theatrical style to permeate the the organ music and the instrument itself. Marco Ruggeri presents here an interesting selection of works for the liturgy and for the concert, performing them on the Serassi organ of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Campagna in Piacenza: the organ designed by Father Davide himself, where he served until his death.

The great popularity of the harp in Naples began in the 16th c., during Spanish rule. The harp was highly appreciated in Spain and was often used in the choirs of religious institutions, noble families and the royal family; its popularity soon spread Neapolitan musical culture. Giovanni Caramiello’s works sometimes contain elaborate variations on the theme; in other works what prevails is the faithful transposition of the melody. In most cases, the original theme is preserved, and only very occasionally are there passages so varied as to make it difficult to recognize the theme.

Alfredo Casella certainly was the most 'European' composer of the famous "eighties generation": he arrived in Paris as a piano student then as a concert artist, then he fully lived the varied cultural movement that filled the French capital in the early twentieth century where music, painting, dance and poetry represented the main trends of the continent. The songs for voice and piano constitute one of the most sensitive means of showing how Casella managed to deal with a culture that placed the m�lodie in the forefront, by surrounding it with the subtle reverberation emitted by the intertwining of music and poetry, over the background of a social custom that resounded with precious literary streaks. The voice of Lorna Windsor, accompanied by the piano by Raffaele Cortesi, reveals in all it's nuances these compositions, belonging to the period when Casella was staying in the stimulating cultural forge of a Paris at the top of it's social and artistic importance.

This double album is a tribute of the contemporary music world to the great Roberto Fabbriciani, one of the most important musicians of our time, who, in addition to having established himself as an international performer, has been the undisputed pioneer of avant-garde and experimental music in the last decades. A sort of standing ovation in the form of music dedicated to him by some great composers of our century, and this album finally is a significant reference. Starting with names such as Ennio Morricone, Salvatore Sciarrino and Brian Ferneyhough, then reaching some younger artists from the Italian compositional panorama, through the use of almost all writing techniques. A must for the lovers of this genre.

Classical Music