Classical Music

With Gloriosus Franciscus, Anonima Frottolisti presents a cross-section of history of music relevant to the Franciscan ideal through the first three centuries of the history of the Order: this sequence of selected pieces reveals both the learned side of this music and it's closeness to "folk" devotion during the period straddling the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as a symbolic homage to the city where Anonima Frottolisti was born (Assisi): "Where the coast is more fringed than that of the coast, a sun was born in the world, as the Ganges sometimes does, but whoever speaks of it does not say Ascesi, which would say short, but East, if you really want to." (Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Paradiso, 11th Canto). The ensemble Arnonima Frottolisti is an experienced group, which specializes in early music and medieval music. Their previous recordings have been widely well-received.

Classical Music

Threnody (Trenodia) or “[if]… this is man” is a “lay” oratorio in five parts. The work can be performed also as a theatrical pièce where the spoken parts and the instrumental and vocal music take turns while accompanied by a bare and essential choreography. A simple dramaturgic path - somehow almost evanescent and oneiric - was built to form the spoken part, composed by reading a miscellany of poems and proses written by poets and soldiers who took part in the Great War or wrote about it. The music was written by Pier Paolo Scattolin in 2017: in addition to the original material evocative echoes can be heard of some melodies sung in the “ordinary custom” of life in the trenches, during the alienating and often long pauses of the aberrant war activity. Threnody is not a commemorative “musical”, but a space in time and sound to reflect upon man’s acting. To reflect upon the soldiers’ reasons, reactions and visions giving way to behaviors significantly different from those of the high officers in charge, thus unmasking the squalid strategies of the political power. In this oratorio war is shown bluntly as an anguished sharing of negative experiences from the soldiers.

The project entitled In the Sphere of Sound as Crossroad of Cultures wants to draw a semantic and aesthetic musical path based on the investigation of timbres carried out by the Italian comporary composers from Giacinto Scelsi to Biagio Putignano. The program on this recording shows the interweaving of different musical perspectives in order to interpret the idea of sound as "a crossroad of cultures".

Classical Music

The 20th century composer Terenzio Zardini, a Franciscan Friar whose sacred music compositions included a whimsical ingeniousness that still managed to stay within liturgical boundaries while at the same time being a modern continuation of the tradition. In this CD Zardini's compositions are introduced in a collection that includes a selection of his organ works interpreted by Pier Damiano Peretti playing the great Mascioni organ of the Basilica of Monte Berico in Vicenza. Messa In Simplicitate conceived for choir and organ and composed in honor of little St. Placid, the child saint and a live recording of his Minuet for Orchestra. Performers: Pier Damiano Peretti, organ Chorus: Coro del Conservatoria di Verona, da Camara Orchestra: Orchestra Giovanile Veronese.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This exploration in chamber music takes the listener through a journey through the latter half of the nineteenth century to the present day. This album features works for oboe and piano from composers such as Sinigaglia, Bolzoni, Gariboldi, Donizetti, and more. Oboist Luciano Franca was formerly the Prime Oboe in the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, and continues to work with other prestigious orchestras. He is also the oboe professor at the Conservatory “B. Maderna” in Cesena.

Within this albu, continuing the last section of the Marco Enrico Bossi complete organ works series dedicated to the transcriptions, the attention is focused on an aspect very important both to the composer and to the Cecilian movement in general: the recovery of the ancient music heritage. In fact, after the excessive power of the Italian opera of those days, two were the aspects for the revival of the instrumental music, sacred and organistic: the alignment to the main European schools, and the rediscovery of the old Italian music school, beacon to the European culture from the Renaissance onwards. In this sense, these "transcriptions of the old masters" revisited by Bossi and adapted to instruments of his time, mark the return to the study of the Italian school of music, making it an integral part and foundation of the modern school. As in the famous phrase by Giuseppe Verdi: "back to the old, it will be progress", a concept followed to the letter by the "generation of eighties." For performing these evocative songs, Andrea Macinanti is playing an organ inaugurated by Marco Enrico Bossi himself in 1893. Giovanni Battista Fabris and Elena Perera work on his side on the scores including strings.

At Puccini's time, transcriptions were very important and widespread, you just need to take a look at the some of the scores published by Casa Ricordi to get an idea: in fact, on the back cover you would be able to read an astonishing list of transcriptions, of fantasias and potpourris, either rewritten for piano solo (or four-hands) or for the most various ensembles, for piano and mandolin, violin, flute, guitar, or for other instruments, either in a solo or in combination with many others. It was the result of a publishing policy that was in full swing at that time and that was addressed to a large public of amateurs, a public keen to learn the repertoires meant to be played by many instruments, like opera scores. These pieces were played at home, in front of a very small and selected audience, the amateurs often wanted to perform operas that they had attended to. But that is not all, these performances were also able to popularize compositions that would have be left unknown otherwise. In the XIX century, the transcriptions for piano, especially for piano four hands, were an important vehicle for the diffusion of musical knowledge. Purposely thought for this formation, in this album the piano duo by the spouses Fabrizio Datteri and Nadia Lencioni is performing compositions inspired by the famous works and the immortal melodies of Giacomo Puccini.

A great literary, humanist, teacher, and composer, Giacomo Orefice was a prominent figure of early twentieth century Italian music. His artistic activities are considered a sign of sacred respect for the Italic art, taking place during a time when foreign arts were overpowering it. This collection of chamber music arias utilizes texts from poets, which include Nievo, Carducci, and D’Annunzio. Tenor Giuseppe Veneziano is joined by veritable pianist Adriano Bassi to create these vivid atmospheres painted by the eclectic maestro.