Sergio Fiorentino has been one of the best pianists of the second half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, he is not as known as many other colleagues of his, who were supported by important labels. For this reason he lacks a catalogue of official recordings, but this does not mean that he has no documentation of his art. The proof is this extensive release that contains a selection of Fiorentino’s version of some of the masterpieces of Franz Liszt’s repertoire, who was one of his most beloved composers.

“With this album we wanted to fill the lack of recordings devoted to the Belgian XVIII Century keyboard repertoire. Belgian music, taking inspiration from the French style, is likewise significant from the musicological point of view.” (Luigi Chiarizia) Luigi Chiarizia, harpsichordist, organist and composer, was born into a family of artists and began to study music at the age of six. He was able to learn from his impressive teachers while at the same time maintaining his own personal musical style and interpretation. He graduated with honors in organ and organ composition at the Pescara Conservatory of music and by the age of nineteen he debuted for I Solisti Aquilani and at twenty five he had already appeared in over eighty concerts. He has studied at the l’Università di Paleografia e Filologia Musicale and, after a few years had won a bursary to study at Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena. He continued to hone his skills with Christophe Rousset and, later on, with Leonhardt, Tagliavini, Stembridge and Baiano. He was organist at S. Agata in Cremona and subsequently in S. Stefano in Tesserete (Ticino). He is the author of twenty transcriptions, an anthology of music composition, and eight books of compositions.

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 is not only Mahler’s longest work, but is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire. A typical performance lasts between 90 and 105 minutes. The six-movement piece is regarded as one of Mahler’s greatest, and has been recorded by all of the major orchestras. This recording of Mahler’s 3rd symphony was taken in Moscow, 1961, and features contralto Valentina Levko as well as the Ladies of the Moscow State Choir and Children’s Choir. Alongside Mahler’s work is Prokofiev’s October, Cantata Op 74, in a recording taken in Moscow in 1966. Both of these works feature the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin.

� With his ability, precision and sensitivity, this pupil of the celebrated Herr Mozart exceeds all expectations� (Berlinsche Nachrichten von Staats, 21 May 1789). In a letter to Eckermann in 1829, Goethe compares his playing to Napoleon's domination of the world �both feats appear amazing to us; they escape our comprehension, yet occur nonetheless - and these marvels unfold before our very eyes�. And according to Mozart himself, the young man was destined to reach the same heights with the pianoforte as Raffaello had in the world of Art.

What's missing in Verdi's vast discography is a production dedicated to ballet music. This box set contains complete recordings of Philips sources from the 1970s. The high audio quality combined with a less explored repertoire, and in some cases less-known, are the ingredients of a product that can still stand in a Verdi discography without the aftertaste of dej� vu.

MAGIC FLUTE

Franco Corelli, along with Mario Del Monaco and Carlo Bergonzi, is universally recognized as the greatest Italian tenor of the last century. This edition of his performances is based primarily on the early recordings he made for the Italian Cetra and includes a selection of great scenes from his repertoire, including a crucial, high-quality live version of Don Carlo, which Corelli never recorded in a studio.

Rachmaninov, considered by academics to be a late romantic, often draws on Baroque models: an eclecticism of languages. He experiences music as a memory of affection, and in few places, as here, his insatiable Faustian aspiration to 'stop the moment' reaches a similar intensity. Op. 19 breathes a sense of a return to life and the otherworldly cello calls shatter according to a principle of hallucinatory suspension which is already the Rachmaninov of the Symphonic Dances op. 45. Piano Sonata No. 2 in E-flat minor, Op. 36 had a complex gestation, culminating in a 1931 revision in which the Maestro reduced a certain 'pleasant storytelling' in the style of Liszt, moving closer to the neoclassical matrix, but 'Russian-style', of his later works. As an ideal encore, the programme also features the Danse orientale Op. 2, No. 2, the adolescent Sergei's homage to that narrative of exotic landscapes, musical scales infused with chromatic enchantments.

Brother of the more known, Giovanni Battista, oboe and flute virtuoso, He was judged to be an ingenious composer on a par with Corelli and Geminiani. The success of these Sonatas, was largely due to their particular instrumental use, at a time when the 'flauto traversiere' was becoming increasingly fashionable; the flute performance of this CD fully adheres to the canons of articulatory practice (bisyllabic phonetics) of the first half of 18th century Europe.

Gregorio Zucchini, Floriano Canale, and Antonio Mortaro. What unites these three composers? At least three shared traits: they all lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, they are the shining stars of their respective compositional traditions (Benedictine, Augustinian, and Franciscan), and through their customary wanderings, these monk-composers worked in various Venetian mainland territories, including Brescia. This anthology offers the listener the chance to appreciate the stylistic nuances of the three composers while presenting a historically plausible context that showcases a diversity of composers as well as a variety of compositional and performance practices In this discovery journey, the listener is gonna be exploring also the celebrated Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli from Venice.

Vladimir Delman was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary conductors to be appeared in Italy between 1970 and 1990. Unfortunately, the considerable number of his recordings (all of the highest quality) in the 1990s were partially released in mediocre editions by Fonit Cetra. Then, in the following years, his recording material disappeared after his death in the middle of the decade. Today, thanks to friends and the person entrusted with managing his estate, we can publish a good portion of those recordings, starting from the original master tapes, especially those of a group of composers much loved by the maestro, especially Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Shostakovich.

Brahms: The Symphonies, Haydn Variations & 8 Hungarian Dance

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 - Wagner: Götterdämmerung & Wesendonc

Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Respighi, Stravinsky, Mussorgs

Franco Corelli: A Discographic Career

It's hard to focus the chaotic discography of Richter, that has not left complete editions of his favorite composers. We got only scattered recordings both studio and live. With this release, Urania wants to collect two composers less frequented by the Russian pianist. Fortunately we have the great piano sonata of Schubert and the extraordinary Wandered Fantasy. Unfortunately there are not organic editions of the piano works of Liszt, but this anthology contains famous compositions - for example the Piano Sonata - and it can give a general idea of Richter's approach to the masterworks of the german repertoire of the XIX Century.

Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda

Puccini: La fanciulla del West

The Composers Conduct

The Sinfonie milanesi, unique among Zingarelli’s symphonies as they are in three movements, took their name by the American musicologist Rey Longyear, due to the place in which they are conserved (Conservatory of Milan). Composed around 1780 in a Mitteleuropean style, they reflect the stylistic changes of the epoch through the dramatic use of the minor mode, reaching new and powerful expressive meanings, after decades in which the use of the major mode was predominant. Atalanta Fugiens Orchestra is a group made up of people who share a passion for Music as a means of knowledge, in the awareness that the knowledge that Music offers us is absolutely not reducible to language (on pain of its disintegration). The knowledge that the study of treatises, of counterpoint, of the musical text offers us are certainly precious gifts, but which must be "dropped" (like the fruits that Aphrodite gave to Hippomenes) to enjoy the true and ineffable Knowledge of Music.

Weber: Der Freischütz, Op. 77, J. 277

Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia

Classical Music

Verdi: Il trovatore