Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Among the most interesting personalities needing to be rediscovered in the musical world of late-nineteenth- century Italy, a very distinctive one is undoubtedly the Piedmontese composer Pietro Eugenio Luigi Hugues (Casale Monferrato, 27 October 1836 - 5 March 1913). The available information about Hugues is no longer as scanty as it used to be. Thanks to the data obtained by archive researches, Hugues has been revealed as an unexpected figure: he was not only a renowned flutist, organist and composer, but also an important geographer, a university professor, and one of the main supporters of the study of geography in Italian schools. His life shows surprising similarities with that of a contemporary of his, the flutist-composer-chemist Aleksandr Borodin (1833-1887). So this recording is quite precious. In the first place, because of it's monographic character (it is the first disc entirely devoted to Luigi Hugues); secondly, for the exclusive performance of original works such as Sonata in C major op. 119, Studio da Concerto in D minor op. 3, Sonata Romantica op. 57, Capriccio "Le Silfidi" op. 29 no. 2, Sonata Fantastica op. 100, "Dans le Bois" op. 67 and, lastly, Sonata in Fa Op. 95: a masterly selection among the best original works of Hugues's vast production of flute pieces (which is even more vast after the recent discoveries). These works are essential for understanding the deep soul, the truest nature of this composer.

With this new album, the Euridice Choir, Bologna achieves a major objective with regard to the divulgation of some choral works by two authors, Ildebrando Pizzetti (Parma 1880 - Rome 1968) and Giorgio Federico Ghedini (Cuneo 1892 - Genoa Nervi 1965), who are at the top of the history of 20th century Italian choral music; unfortunately most of these masterpieces seldom find place in concert programs and are, by consequence, little known. These compositions are set on very different stylistic sides) but their musical quality outlines a clear profile of the expressive depth and aesthetic consistency of Italian choral music from the early 1900. The imposing polyphonic structure of Pizzetti's Requiem and the "neo-Madrigalism" (as defined by Massimo Mila) adopted by Giorgio Federico Ghedini are based respectively on the suggestions of Gregorian chant and on the stylistic modules of the Renaissance compositional heritage, whose recovery constitutes the founding cornerpiece of this music.

The record was produced to revive the personality of a great musician from Abruzzo, who has left a considerable mark on Italian musical culture. The work is the result of a passionate historical research carried out by Prof. Francesco D'urbano, a musician and scholar that, through numerous cultural initiatives, for years has been dealing with the rediscovery of this relevant artist and composer. The research undertaken through the public and private archives and in the various national libraries has led to a historical relocation of the figure of the musician and the recovery of all his printed production. The piano works by Giuseppe Dell'Orefice is performed by maestro Mevio di Federico, highlighting in his performance the peculiar traits of works related both to the Neapolitan school of the nineteenth century and to the influences from the great European masters.

Written to commemorate the centenary of Giacomo Matteotti's death, the opera "Il pellegrino del nulla" does not focus on historical events. Instead of depicting the tragic events of the political assassination, it abstracts them to convey a everlasting message, detached from cultural contingencies. Antonio Gramsci described Matteotti as a "pellegrino del nulla" (pilgrim of nothingness), rebelling and sacrificing for an idea, a value that can symbolically transcends the limitations of his time. Perugini and de Santis exalt the notion that every uncorrupted ideal of freedom is destined to prevail over oppression. The strength of a pure idea allows to overcome the impositions of a prevailing power, causing pain and threatening death. Contrarily, the murder legitimises the censored ideal and a means to eternalises the value of his sacrifice.

The library of Bologna's Conservatory of Music contains a wide set of books about music, which are almost exclusively manuscripts. The library once belonged to the nobleman Antonio Puccetti (1792-1841), a native of Cingoli, a small town in Macerata located in the Marche region. It is indeed an aristocratic music library made up of works which range from the end of the 18th to mid 19th centuries. The interesting aspect of these works consists in the fact that they make up the bibliography of a nobleman who was not a collector but rather an amateur musician. The scores represent important documents about Puccetti's family private music performances within their own four walls, the so-called hausmusik, more intimate, which was different from the brighter salonmusik genre. The recording of these vocal and instrumental scores - including composers of the caliber of Ferdinando Carulli and Giovanni Paisiello - is entrusted to the young talents of ArsEmble, continuing the historical research that began with the rediscovery of composer Mario Bianchelli from Rimini (Tactus, tc 660201).

Classical Music

Classical Music

Scarlatti & Bononcini: Cantate da Camera

Vivaldi: Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, Op. 8, N

This recording production rebuilds the complex events of a composition by Gennaro D'Alessandro (Neapolitan musician, pupil of Leonardo Leo) believed to be hopelessly lost after the bombing in Dresden during the Second World War: the "Ottone", opera on the libretto by Antonio Salvi accommodated by Carlo Goldoni. The opera was performed for the first time at the Grimani of S. Giovanni Grisostomo Theatre in Venice in the carnival season from December 26, 1739 to January 31, 1740 in the presence of Frederick Christian Leopold. In 2019 the musicologist Giovanni Tribuzio could finally reconstruct the Ottone thanks to several sources and witnesses. A score from the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria in Modena, partially hands down the work by Gennaro D'Alessandro (including the recitatives and ten arias). This new version was, in fact, represented with great success as "Adelaide/Adelaide, Queen of Italy" in 1744 in Prague, Leipzig and Hamburg. To this highly significant finding we have to add the discovery of a precious nucleus of arias, from the private library of composer Everett Burton Helm (now at the Lilly Library in Bloomington and the National Library of Australia in Canberra).

Classical Music