In this substantial recording, the award-winning young pianist Dario Bonuccelli leads us towards the discovery of the works of Giovanni Rinaldi, a discreet and precious figure in the Italian artistic panorama of the nineteenth-century. The trait that chiefly defines Rinaldi’s personality, in addition to his composing exclusively for the piano, is the fact that his inspiration expressed itself invariably outside the established formal patterns: no Sonatas, no Themes with Variations, no substantial “concert pieces”, but only short, strongly characterized pieces. Not even an authoritative friend such as Giulio Ricordi, who urged him to compose a sonata, managed to change his conviction that the music he was creating must be the most direct expression of an emotion, and was not to be conditioned by abstract principles. The mastery of Dario Bonuccelli in the interpretation of these small portraits mainly dedicated to nature, daily life, small emotions and simple feelings, brings us back to the discovery of an alternative cultural undergrowth that flourished in the shadow of the great European romanticism and the rampant nineteenth-century Italian melodrama.

The exciting musical vein of a genius with an overflowing personality such as Gioacchino Rossini can be effectively rendered only by a performer with equal technical and musical energy: Andrea Noferini, first cello of the Rome Opera House, labeled by the specialized press as the undisputed technical reference of his instrument. On the new album he performs, accompanied by Denis Zardi on the piano, and Massimo Giorgi on the double bass, Rossini's original compositions for cello and piano and for cello and double bass, as well as two compositions written on the themes of the "Swan of Pesaro” by Bohuslav Martinu and Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco. Completing the Rossiniana silloge two compositions from the late nineteenth century: Czardas by Vittorio Monti, based on themes of Hungarian folklore, and the Valacca Legend (Serenade of the angels) by Gaetano Braga, a touching melody inspired by the dialogue between a mother and her dying daughter.

The recording of the third book of madrigals by Biagio Pesciolini, from Prato, is the outcome of a research on the figure of this composer that had begun in 2015. From this investigation, it emerged that no work of his has been published in modern notation until now. So the project started with a study on the sources and with the transcription of the third book of his madrigals, the only one that has been preserved in its entirety to this day. After a careful analysis of the work, it was possible to bring back to life this lost music, which turned out to be highly rich in nuances, contrasts and colours. So a missing piece of the musical history of the city of Prato and the Medici court of that time has finally been put back in its place. Elia Orlando conducts the Tuscæ Voces Ensemble, with the use of historical instruments.

The recording of the two harpsichord sonatas by Bernardo Pasquini, master of the Italian style of the organ and harpsichord in the period between the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, is a particularly interesting cameo in the panorama of the music dedicated to the genre of the partimento, advanced practice of the basso continuo that in Italy formed the basis of compositional and keyboard teaching in the 18th century Neapolitan school. In fact the sonatas consist of only the bass lines on which the two performers must create the entire composition thanks to the technical and expressive expertise obtained from a consummate knowledge and experience of the performance practice of the time. Marina Scaioli and Francesco Tasini face this instrumental 'challenge' on two Italian historical harpsichords copies: a 1725 Giovanni Ferrini and a 1778 Roberto and Federigo Cresci.

Planned by the violinist Alessandro Cazzato, this project is as a fascinating musical path that unfolds between the pieces for solo instrument by Goffredo Petrassi with the aim of understanding, in a single glance, the intimate and virtuosic compositional writing of the six instruments, focused on authentic instrumental monologues. It is very interesting to follow two different listening paths: the first based on listening to the pieces in chronological order, as presented in the text of the booklet; and the second, more evocative and allusive, as presented in the tracklist, based on the amazing web of associations, connections, sound analogies, unraveling between the first piece and the last one. Thanks to all the people who made this project possible, with the hope of reaching new listeners who love his music.

From the brilliant and impetuous personality of one of the most emblematic musicians of history, Roberto Noferini [former performer of the world premiere recording of the 24 capricci on historical violin: Tactus TC781690] on violin, and Donato D'Antonio on guitar, here present a chamber music program that highlights all the passion that bound Paganini to these two instruments. The composer's skill in using the technical and expressive characteristics of the violin and guitar gives space for great virtuosities that reach the physical limits of the instrument and the performer, without ever betraying that operatic and theatrical feeling that will become increasingly dominant with the inexorable rise of melodrama and "belcanto".

The cellist Antonio Mostacci is the protagonist of this album dedicated to the works for cello and strings by the contemporary composer Diego Conti; here he is accompanied by the Virtuosi of Minsk, a Belarusian strings ensemble whom with Mostacci performed this repertoire also in concert. The personal expressive language by Diego Conti passionately delivers the literary and historical themes inspiring the two main compositions of this release: the ancient legend of the birth of the city of Minsk, and a science fiction novel by Bob Shaw from the famous Urania series published by Mondadori, an absolute cult for all fans of the genre. The album also includes the transcription by Conti himself of Robert Schumann's concert for cello and orchestra, in a new premiere version for strings only, here replacing the orchestra.

Giovanni Battista Maria Pelazza was born on the 24th of May, 1947 in Carmagnola (Turin). He studied at the Salesian Institute of Turin with Mons. Giovanni Cagliero (well versed musician and collaborator of S. Giovanni Bosco). Pelazza’s family first moved to Turin, then to France and eventually settled in Buenos Aires where Giovanni Battista died in 1936. He was a close friend with Camille Saint-Saëns, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Lorenzo Perosi. The following information is the survey of this interesting and original composer and organist whose life and work we still know little of. The organist Bruno Bergamini, also curator of the printed work of these compositions, makes use of the grandiose organ of the church of San Gaetano in Romano Canavese, built in 1890 by the famous organ workshop Carlo Vegezzi Bossi, for which Pelazza contributed to the inauguration of a prestigious instrument in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Buenos Aires. The synthesis of a theatrical style less and less influential with the echoes of the new music for dance from Vienna and Paris, make in these sonatas an original compendium of the last offshoots of that type of liturgical music that in those days was succumbing to the inexorable arrival of Cecilianism, that will bring back a somehow severe style in the sacred and liturgical compositions.

The endless genre of operatic fantasy, which explodes and spreads without embankments in the musical culture of the entire Italian nineteenth century, has already been extensively explored in various Tactus productions dedicated both to chamber and sacred music. This time, however, the main protagonists are the oboe and the English horn, fascinating orchestral instruments that, thanks to the great virtuoso from Palermo, Antonino Pasculli, take part in that great musical activity - attended by myriads of Italian and European composers - that unconditionally suffered the charm of Italian melodrama. In this case they are the immortal melodies of Giuseppe Verdi - one of the most successful opera composers of all time - inspiring the fantasies of Pasculli, in the interpretation (both acrobatic to the oboe and cantabile and expressive to the English horn) of the master Paolo Grazia accompanied by the Orchestra Senzaspine conducted by the masters Matteo Parmeggiani and Tommaso Ussardi.

This record production was created thanks to the collaboration with the "Viktor Ulmann" festival in Trieste which features live performances of unpublished orchestral and chamber works dedicated to the rediscovery of those composers labeled as "degenerate" by the German National Socialist propaganda. With Hitler's rise to power the restrictive measures against the exponents of the "Entertete Kunst" ("degenerate art") and, in the name of an alleged defense of the order and values of the people, some prominent and high-profile personalities of the European artistic panorama were heavily persecuted. Just think that, in the pictorial art, entire movements such as Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism were branded as "degenerate" and artists such as Van Gogh, Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Chagall, and many others banned. Music could not escape this fate with the emblematic death by heart attack of Leone Sinigaglia in front of the Nazi-fascist who came to arrest him. Roberto Fabbriciani, Giacobbe Stevanato, and Davide Casali, accompanied by the Orchestra Abimà and the Civica Orchestra dei fiati "G. Verdi " are the protagonists of this particular music collection which, despite the adversities of the Nazi abomination, has managed to survive to the present days.

Roberto Arnoldi, a talented young violinist from Bergamo, on this album plays a mix of pieces for solo violin by contemporary composers, some of which are specifically dedicated to him. By discovering these new works by Davide Anzaghi, Fabio Vacchi, Rossella Spinosa, Giuseppe Garbarino and Natale Arnoldi (Roberto's father), the Arnoldi stretches his own abilities as well as the listener's experiences. "Side by side with my study of the great classical masterpieces for solo violin, I have always been eager to deal with contemporary compositions, stimulated as I was by the persuasion that the new techniques required for the correct interpretation of present-day pieces are an important occasion for maturing and also very useful for "going back" to confront pieces from the past." (Arnoldi)

Few musicians were as versatile as the humble Brother Martini, who insisted on being called that way in spite of all the honors rendered to him in Bologna and everywhere. He is celebrated in our time as an extraordinary keeper of books, scores and paintings; in his time, he was quite famous also as an erudite musician, an expert writer of treatises, a pioneering historian, and an authentic “maestro” of music. And as a composer, obviously; but of what? Of everything that pertained to a Kapellmeister and an organist: masses, motets, psalms, hymns, organ sonatas, and so on; and also harpsichord sonatas, concertos, cantatas, duets and profane arias. The Euridice Choir conducted by Pier Paolo Scattolin and the soloists Giacomo Contro, Angela Troilo, and Vincenzo Di Donato are the protagonists of the reconstruction (seen the several gaps found on the original score) of the intermezzo ”Azione Teatrale” of 1726, and of the realization of the “Calls of the street vendors at the Bologna market,” including 13 amongst the countless vocal canons composed by Padre Martini that, once for all is offering to us a lively cross-section of eighteenth-century Bologna in its most daily and popular aspects.

The repertoire included in this recording by Marco Molaschi represents an important evidence in the panorama of harpsichord music of the eighteenth century. It was precisely as a harpsichord and singing teacher that Paradisi met his success in London, where he moved after his studies in his native Naples. Charles Burney - an important historian of English music - called him “the great master of the harpsichord”. The sonatas in the collection - dedicated to King George II of England - were published in 1754, precisely in the composer’s London period and contributed significantly to affirming his fame as a virtuoso and composer of keyboard music.

After the opera omnia for piano (tc.901380) and the concert and chamber production (tc.901390), the record production dedicated to Franco Margola continues with this cd including works for cello. A particularly interesting figure in the panorama of the musical history of the twentieth century, Margola is a direct descendant of that neoclassical movement to which the "generation of the Eighties" belonged, in which he was able to express his talent more fully and to which he remained faithful even after a period of dodecaphonic experimentations. The protagonists of this recording are Jacopo Francini on solo cello, accompanied by Alessandro Deljavan on piano and by the Orchestra of the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, directed by Paolo Longo, with the participation of Giovanni Sollima in the duets for two cellos. At the end of the cd, the famous adagio with variations by Ottorino Respighi, one of the most loved and performed pages of the cello repertoire, thanks to its great lyrical inspiration.

The world of contemporary music is distinguished by a great variety of stylistic features and compositional solutions, often combined with the most original and unusual sources of inspiration. This is the case of this recording of lyrics for voice and guitar, whose only common aspect is represented - in addition to the performers - by the temporal (our days) and geographical (the city of Bologna) location of the composers, performers and of the record label. The ExtraTempora Duo, formed by soprano Barbara Vignudelli and guitarist Monica Paolini, overcomes the considerable challenge of rendering the multiplicity of forms and themes represented in these compositions in the most appropriate way.