Includes song(s) by Giuseppe Martucci. Soloists: Chiarastella Onorati, Luisa Prayer.

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973), one of the most creative Italian composers within the so called ‘Generation of the Eighties’, began self-taught, studying the Italian masters of the 17th – 18th c. before moving on to the Hochschule in Berlin and devoting his long life to teaching and composition. The piano pieces presented here give an idea of his great spirit of creative innovation that, with the basics well anchored, he was able to give new life to the writing of chamber and symphonic music that in those days was painfully resuming his way after the dominance of the rampant Italian melodrama.

Classical Music

Forgotten as a composer in spite of her remarkable skills and obvious appreciation of her contemporaries - including Amadeus Mozart and JC Bach - Maddalena Lombardini was grown in Venice in a small bourgeois family, and given her exceptional musical talent, at only seven she was admitted at at the school of the Hospital of the Mendicanti (one of the four major music education schools for girls who then served during the political and religious ceremonies of the city). At fourteen Maddalena is sent to study with the greatest master of her time, Giuseppe Tartini, who will remain a point of reference in her entire life: in fact it seems that on his advice Maddalena will marry another of his pupil, Ludovico Sirmen. She will then leave her work at the Mendicanti Hospital and started a lavish concert career in London, Dresden, Petersburg, and Paris, where she will perform and publish the six quartets included in this edition. The execution is entrusted to the splendor of the Academy of the Magnificent Community, under the guidance of Enrico Casazza.

Includes toccata(s) by Girolamo Frescobaldi. Ensemble: Nova Ars Cantandi. Conductor: Giovanni Acciai.
Includes work(s) by Isabella Leonarda, Andrea Cima. Ensemble: Nova Ars Cantandi. Conductor: Giovanni Acciai.

Among practices distinguishing the European music scene in the second half of the eighteenth century, the performance of music for two players on the same keyboard is certainly one of the more remarkable and, in some ways, significant examples. The rendition of a four-handed piece on the harpsichord or the fortepiano can be considered an example of the direction that music of the second half of the eighteenth century was about to take: light-hearted, convivial, and educational, in which quality existed alongside the intention to satisfy the new “galant” tastes of the aristocracy, as well as the needs of the rising middle class. The four-handed genre becomes, in this regard, an ideal setting to express the new musical feeling. Four hands can double possibilities and exploit the keyboard’s full range. The search for expressivity is maintained by combining extended melodies with arpeggios or broken chords. In the case of performance on the harpsichord, the increased opportunity to “mix” the stops facilitates the search for unexplored colors and contrasts. On a historical copy of the famous harpsichord maker Martin Sassmann, Alberto Firrincieli and Mario Stefano Tonda perform the singular repertoire that sees protagonists Nicolò Jommelli, Muzio Clementi and Giovanni Maria Rutini, in these compositions reflecting their different peculiarities.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Canzoni et sonate date to 1615, three years after his Giovanni Gabrieli's death. +There are 17 canzonas for 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 or 12 voices, and 4 sonate for 14, 15 or 22 voices, and the last for three violins. +In their magnificence, these works celebrate the glory of the Venetian state and blend the old compositional style with the new - polyphonically, harmonically, rhythmically and melodically. +This historic recording features the Consort Fontegara directed by René Clemencic.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Recent research has revealed the existence of a practice which has been hitherto ignored: that of doubling the instrumental music composed and conducted by Corelli with all sorts of wind instruments. This practice forces a re-examination of the faithful reproduction of the compositions as printed, which has prevailed up until now. This is thus the first complete performance of the twelve Concerti Grossi by Corelli which attempts to accurately reconstruct the works' historical-musical context.

This release contains the complete works for organ by Girolamo Cavazzoni and is a must for Italian Renaissance music lovers. The works are performed in the beautiful acoustic setting of the Basilica of Santa Barbara in Montova on the Graziadio Antegnati 1656 organ, designed by the same Cavazzoni and played by him as Gonzaga court organist until his death. Through the great sound of this rediscovered instrument, Ivana Valotti, assisted by the Cantus planus by Gianluca Ferrarini for the alternatim, offers the listener a perfectly philogical interpretation yet full of suggestion - an absolute reference in the rediscovery of Italian musical history.

CAVALIERI Lamentationes Hieremiæ prophetae cum Responsoriis officii hebdomadæ maioris • Livio Picotti, dir; I Madrigalisti del Centro di Musica Antica di Padova • TACTUS 550401 (51:15 Text and Translation)


The only liturgical music of Emilio de’ Cavalieri (c. 1550–1602), this was hailed as a first recording when it was new (14:4). The series of nine lamentations followed by the series of nine responsories is actually the correct order, for the former belong to the first nocturne, while the latter belong to the third. A newer recording (29:1) gives three lamentations and three responsories, alternates them for contrast even though they don’t belong together in that way, and fills out the disc with somewhat unrelated material instead of more relevant parts of this set.


These were highly original works anticipating the developments of the coming century. It was the beginning of monody with basso continuo in both sacred and secular music, and Cavalieri was in at the beginning. The two recordings are not notably different in their approach, although the Alpha version adds more strings to the continuo group and it is also one verse longer in the first lamentation. It’s curious that the original issue was timed 51:44, while this one is 51:15, but my player reads them identically at 51:26. If you did not snap this up when it was new, you still have time to add it to your collection. It has held up well in the meantime.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber