Geminiani: Concerti Grossi tratti dalle Op. 3, 1 e 5 di Arca

Antegnati: L'Antegnata

Bellinzani: Sonate a flauto solo con cembalo o violoncello,

Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia nella trascrizione per Harm

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Selva di varie composizioni d’intavolatura per cimbalo et or

Pietro Giannotti, who in the title page of Op. 1 (entirely written in Italian) is described as native of Lucca, was born in that independent Tuscan city, in an unspecified year between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. We do not have any information about his education or his musical pursuits before his activities in France began, in 1728, when he moved to Paris. From the subsequent year to 1758 we know that he served as a double-bass player at the Academie Royale de Musique. A much-appreciated performance of his as a violinist is documented at the "Concert spirituel" of 28 March 1749; on this occasion he also played some pieces of his own. He remained in Paris until his death, on 19 June 1765. In Paris he published about twenty works, all of instrumental chamber music. In all likelihood, Giannotti also carried out his activities within private circles, in the house of an influential French nobleman, as is demonstrated by his first publication, to which we must now turn our attention: Op. 1 is dedicated to Jean-Charles de Crussol (1675-1739), seventh Duke of Uzes and French peer, scion of an ancient aristocratic family, who was not only a patron but also an "amateur" who practised music for his own enjoyment. Pierluigi Mencattini, accompanied by the ensemble Labirinto Armonico (already protagonists of the edition of the sonatas by Giovanni Antonio Piani, tc 671690) in this double CD performs the full version of the Op. I collection.

The group of concertos for bassoon by Antonio Vivaldi (Venice, 4 March 1678 - Vienna, 28 July 1741) is the largest such collection in terms of quantity after those for violin: no less than thirty-nine are in fact extant, and only two are incomplete. But beyond these details, "what is remarkable", as Cesare Fertonani recently wrote, "is Vivaldi's extraordinary understanding of the technical possibilities of the bassoon, reflected in his avant- garde treatment of the instrument which attains the complete and sumptuous dignity of a soloist, and his intuition probably unprecedented in the history of music of it's expressive potential." Paolo Carlini is the soloist of this selection of the most important concerts dedicated to the instrument by Vivaldi, flanked by the famous "Virtuosi Italiani" orchestra, directed by Alberto Martini as a violin concert maestro.

Ottorino Respighi organ music production is probably his most unknown and least considered. Yet it deserves a very special attention because, despite its minor size if compared to the entire corpus of Respighi work, it shows a very secure musical writing capacity rarely found in a non practicing organist composer. Admired by Igor Stravinskij, Alfredo Casella, Georg Gershwin, Giacomo Puccini as well as by men of science and culture like Augusto Righi, Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein and Gabriele d’Annunzio (who called him “pure and firm voice over this confused world of stutterers”), Respighi is partly inspired by Bach (whose admiration is certainly reinforced by his friendship with Ferruccio Busoni) and by Reger German School, without losing sight over the Italian masters’ music heritage. Andrea Macinanti on the extraordinary Serassi-Vegezzi Bossi (1855-1910) organ of the Saluzzo Cathedral, and on the equally mighty Mascioni-Zanin (1951- 2011) organ, is the interpreter of the music by Respighi after also editing the printed edition. The Academia Symphonica di Udine, formed by young musicians led by Pier Angelo Pelucchi, crowns the album by performing the beautiful Suite for strings and organ.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music