The organist Andrea Toschi with this work continues the musical research he started with his two previous record productions. The repertoire features composers that in the period of the early twentieth century adhered to the new impulse given by the Cecilian Movement strongly reacting to the domination of the theatrical style that during the nineteenth century ‘contaminated' the liturgical music. (Tactus)

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were important for the development of the transverse flute: the technical improvements introduced by French and German flutists made the instrument become more accurate in its tuning, more powerful in its sound, and more agile in quick passages, so much so that it superseded the recorder and began to compete with the violin, even replacing it in some sonatas or concertos. Virtuoso flutists such as Philibert Rebillè, Michel de la Borre, Pierre Gabriel Buffordin, Michel Blavet, Johann Joachim Quantz and his noble pupil Frederick II of Prussia were undoubtedly a source of inspiration for the composers of the baroque and galant periods who composed music for the transverse flute and produced pieces that became landmarks in the history of music; but it was also thanks to the diffusion of the instrument among amateurs that the transverse flute repertoire was enriched by an extraordinary number of compositions, many of which were exquisite works. This is the case of these five unpublished concertos by Italian authors - some of them totally unknown, now rediscovered by the Baroque Ensemble “Carlo Antonio Marino”, led by Natale Arnoldi, and by the flute of Raffaele Trevisani.

This first complete edition of organ music by Pietro Alessandro Yon represents an important piece in the mosaic of the Italian organ production of the Cecilian generation where Marco Enrico Bossi, Giovanni Tebaldini, Oreste Ravanello, were the main exponents. Pietro Yon, friend of Bossi, was like a career concert artist, and was acclaimed by the masses for the virtuosity and singability of his performances; he made his fortune in America, where he developed his musical talent like his great business skills, never forgetting Italy, which always remained in his heart. The young Bolognese organist Elisa Teglia performs this repertoire on four historical instruments alternating pieces of rare expressiveness with others based on spectacular technicalities, often including popular themes, national anthems and famous melodies, that Pietro Yon used for bewitching the crowds at his extraordinary performances.

Includes song(s) by Anonymous. Ensemble: Accademia I Filarmonici.

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

VIADANA Officium defunctorum. Missa pro defunctis • Giovanni Battista Columbro, cond; Capella Musicale di Viadana; Vocale Consortium • TACTUS 562201 (69:35 Text and Translation)


Ludovico Grossi da Viadana (c. 1560–1627) is surnamed, like Palestrina, from his place of birth, while Giovanni Moro da Viadana may be found under M (according to The New Grove , although record catalogs differ). Until now I had no full disc of his music, though several can be found in Italian catalogs, including a solemn Requiem on Stradivarius back in 1995 that may be the same as this music, since both works are dated 1604. We are told by the conductor, who wrote the notes, that he “is nowadays considered to be one of the greatest composers of all times,” though little of detail is known about his life. He was a Franciscan friar who served as maestro at cathedrals in Mantua (from 1594 to 1609) and several other cities. He is called “the inventor of the basso continuo ,” but that notion, which originated in Germany among scholars who relied on Italian writers, has long since been set aside.


Although the headnote reflects the booklet cover in identifying two works on the program, it would be more correct to describe this as an Office of the Dead consisting of the invitatory and three psalms (with their antiphons) for the first nocturn of Matins, seven movements for the Mass of the Dead, and the responsory Libera me Domine for the burial rite. Since I can’t find the earlier disc for comparison, it’s not clear whether this is all the music that was published. Oddly enough, the responsory Libera me Domine is sung entirely in chant, the same as the one found in modern chant books, raising the question of why it is listed as Viadana’s work. The three psalms of Matins and the Dies irae alternate between polyphony and chant.


The singers are accompanied by a small instrumental group consisting of three brass, three violins, and two organs. They make quite a big sound, not suggestive of the basso continuo for which Viadana is famous. In the fashion adopted by Columbro the performance is convincing, the singers and players highly accomplished. We may be getting more of this music from the same source, since Columbro directs an annual festival. This may make the great composer better known.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

Classical Music

Famed Lisztian pupil Giovanni Sgambati’s (1841-1914) Piano Concerto, op. 15, was the first work of its kind in Italy in the second half of the 19th century. + His masterly inventive piano writing is placed at the service of a fully symphonic form, thus revealing his true vocation as a symphonist. + The overture to Pietro Cossa’s Cola di Rienzo and the Jules Massenet transcription for small-orchestra instrumentation of Sgambati’s Berceuse-Rêverie receive here their world premiere recordings.

The feast of the Nativity held a special place in the hearts and lives of Italian nuns. In a letter to archbishop Federigo Borromeo, a Milanesenun thanked him for his gift of a lute which “has cheered all of the nuns with me, [...] and thus on the night of Holy Christmaswe went to play Matins to all the nuns, singing Gloria in excelsis [...]”. This recording presents works composed by and for these women that might have been heard or performed at Christmastime, andthey call for a great variety of forces ranging from solo voices to double choirs of both singers and instruments. The nun composers represented include the Ursulines Maria Xaveria Perucona and Isabella Leonarda, author of 20 collectionsof vocal and instrumental music; Chiara Margarita Cozzolani and her conventual sister Rosa Giacinta Badalla from the renownedMilanese convent of Santa Radegonda; and Caterina Assandra, composer and dedicatee of various collections. The CD also featuresworks by eminent male composers (Massenzio, Rota, Reina, Speer et al.) and dedicated to these remarkable cloistered musicians.

The absolute rarity represented by this world premiere concerning the historic mandolin is offered to us by the rediscovery and performance of the specialist Davide Rebuffa, that, on two original eighteenth century instruments brings to light the Six Partitas for solo mandolin by Filippo Sauli. Unfortunately we do not have much information about the life of the composer of Florentine origins, but we know that he was hired in Vienna at the Hapsburg court in the early eighteenth century when he probably composed this music that, as compared to the seventeenth-century manuscripts (whose content consists of simple dances, not yet in extended musical forms such as Suites or Sonatas), mark an important change in the nature of the mandolin repertoire of the Baroque period.

Includes work(s) by Gio Battista Sammartini. Soloists: Gianfranco Iannetta, Roberto Noferini, Andrea Noferini, Bruno Canino.

Seven women composers, all new to the current catalogue, their music exquisitely sung – a delightful find. Impassioned monodic motets with colourful continuo contrast with four-part settings, bass (sometimes tenor too) transposed up to fit the female voices of a nunnery choir.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- George Pratt, BBC Music Magazine

Includes work(s) by Ludovico Roncalli. Soloist: Giacomo Parimbelli.

The long, productive period of activity of the Neapolitan musician Raffaele Calace, because of its timing (1863-1934), fell into an era of great social and political transformations that also had important cultural consequences. A radical cultural renewal concentrated chiefly on a gradual increase of musical interest in instrumental production. These world premiere recordings introduce the listener to Mr. Calace’s Complete Works for Mandolin and Guitar, performed by the duo of Sergio Zigiotti and Fabiano Merlante, who also contribute the booklet text.

PRAYER TO AN ANGEL: Rare Works of Italian Romanticism • Roberto Noferini (vn); Andrea Toschi (org) • TACTUS 810001 (62:45)


ELLENA 6 pezzi religiosi: selections. SIVORI Andante religioso. LANZI Prece ad un Angelo. ALBERTI Petit nocturne. VITALI-RESPIGHI Chaconne. NEGLIA Largo espressivo. CASELLATI Andante. DE ANGELIS Rêve d’amour. RAMACCIOTTI Canto Religioso


Violinist Roberto Noferini and organist Andrea Toschi have uncovered a number of works for violin and organ in a genre and style that the notes by Massimiliano Guido suggest have become unfashionable. The notes also mention Pope Pius XII’s 1903 Moto Proprio , which mandated a renewal of sacred music, but it’s hard to imagine that Pontiff enjoying, not to mention tolerating, many—or, possibly, any—of these works in a liturgical context. Noferini plays the program on an 1865 Giuseppe Scarampella violin, while Toschi plays the organ of the Basilica of Saint Stephen in Bologna, an instrument surprisingly described in the booklet’s English translation as “electric.”


The recital opens with three of the Six Religious Pieces by Giuseppe Antonio Ellena, who, according to the notes, dedicated them to, among others, violinist Enrico Polo (composer of a very musical and logical introduction to double-stops still studied by many students). The first, “Intrada,” opens with a double-stopped section in which the violin and organ balance well (not always the case in works performed by these two instruments), as they do in the broad melodic section that follows. Noferini plays with a declamatory strength and Toschi with a discretion that assures that their musical personalities, as well as their instruments, never conflict. In the second piece, “Preghiera” (Prayer), Toschi concedes center stage to Noferini. Again, the harmonic devices, with indulgent chromatic twists, sound as though they might have come directly from another era. Some may find it nostalgic and others, cloying; few will fail to react. The last piece, “Adorazione,” continues in the harmonic and melodic vein of the second, near the end quoting the hymn Adoro te devote . The Andante religioso by Camillo Sivori, the only pupil of Nicolò Paganini, seems almost a facsimile of the Larghetto from Louis Spohr’s Duo Concertante for Two Violins, op. 67/2, the correspondence holding even through the triplet accompaniment in the middle section. Guido describes Bernardino Lanzi’s Prece ad un Angelo , op. 118, as both “impressionist” and “evocative,” although it’s hard to hear the harmonic techniques of the Impressionists in the writing, individual though it may be (in fact, it sounds harmonically less mannered that the pieces that precede it or than Ferruccio Carlo Alberti’s brief Petit nocturne , which follows it on the program).


Ottorino Respighi’s reworking of Tomasso Vitali’s Chaconne occupies the center of the program and serves, with its length and gravity, as the anchor. This piece or setting will hardly be unfamiliar to violin aficionados; Jascha Heifetz recorded it with Richard Elsasser in 1950 (although some differences appear in the violin part; Heifetz’s came from an edition made by Leopold Charlier and Leopold Auer). While Heifetz played this piece with transcendental virtuosity and soaring nobility of style, Noferini and Toschi explore its timbral subtleties more effectively, and they’re aided by greater clarity in the recorded sound. In doing so, however, they take a more leisurely stroll through some of the variations, allowing the organ’s sonorities to resonate at the grand climaxes but diminishing slightly the violin part’s urgency.


The quiet expressiveness of the Largo espressivo , op. 40, by Francesco Paolo Neglia and the Andante by Antonio Casellati strike a similarly ingratiating vein of almost salon-like sensibility, though Casellati’s work includes some figuration that sounds very violinistic (though not at all virtuosic). Girolamo de Angelis’s Rêve d’amour (subtitled a prélude mélodique ), op. 4, encloses a more agitated middle section; both Noferini and Toschi seem to sense, as they do throughout the program, when and how to shift gears. Finally, Tullio Ramacciotti’s Canto Religioso , op. 17, replete with double-stops and more developed writing for the violin, brings the program to an exciting end.


For those who like this kind of thing (and some of it, echoing the same era, occasionally sounds like excerpts from a theater organ score for silent movies), this will be the kind of thing they like. While such almost indulgent romanticism may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and this disc may not make Eugenio Pacelli’s Want List, both the sumptuously toned Noferini and the regal (no pun intended) Toschi play well and, more importantly, play well together. Tactus has recorded them without overload or even distortion, a feat in itself. It’s hard to imagine this repertoire, except perhaps Vitali’s Chaconne, which Heifetz belted with incomparable aplomb, championed more sympathetically. Most strongly—I’d even say urgently—recommended to its special audience.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham