Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is our prototype for the universal genius: painter, architect, military engineer, and anatomist, his far-ranging scientific curiosity placed him centuries ahead of his time. On this CD, the world of da Vinci is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of the day. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment. As soon as we discover that the nature of sound was something that absorbed the interest of Leonardo da Vinci for many years, and that, according to Vasari, he 'sang divinely, improvising his own accompaniment on the lira', we begin to realize the importance of music in his life. Exploring the music written during his lifetime forms a fascinating backdrop to his paintings, several of which are illustrated within the booklet.

Classical Music

Claude Monet (1840-1926) was at the forefront of the Impressionist revolution in painting. Together with a small group of like-minded friends, he scandalized the critics by devising a new way of representing the world in all it's bewildering variety of light and shadow. Here, the world of Monet is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. We may enjoy here some of the greatest moments in musical and artistic development in the late nineteenth century, as Impressionism was emerging triumphant. On this CD, Monet's incredible foresight and breathtaking depictions of natural beauty are musically complemented by such landmarks as Debussy's graceful Pr�lude � l'apr�s-midi d'un faune and Bizet's daring masterpiece Carmen. 1 CD with full-color, illustrated, explanatory booklet.

This uniquely cross-sectional approach to culture combines great art with great music, and examines the connections between the two. Each piece of music from the carefully chosen selection takes on a new dimension and provides a musical context to the work of leading painters and sculptors. This fascinating series, with a color booklet including a chronology of the principal artistic and political developments of the period, broadens our view of the music itself. The influence of Raphael (1483-1520) has perhaps exceeded that of any other painter in history. For centuries his works were revered as perfect models of grace and harmony, to the point where every creator of a kitsch Madonna felt obliged to plunder his manner and techniques. On this CD, the world of Raphael is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment. 1 CD with full-color, illustrated, explanatory booklet.

No artist has penetrated the human soul more deeply than Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Renowned as a young man for his portrayal of individual character and expression, as he withdrew more from the world he made his art a revelation of the inner life of his subjects. On this CD, the world of Rembrandt is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment. 1 CD with full color, illustrated, explanatory booklet.

The woodcarvings of Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460-1531) represent the final and fullest flowering of the Gothic style in Germany. In the artistic fever of the Renaissance his work was swiftly forgotten, but after centuries of neglect his reputation is now firmly restored. On this CD, the world of Riemenschneider is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment.

Classical Music

Few painters are as enigmatic as Johannes Vermeer. His works command admiration for their meticulous observation and the sensitive rendering of light and colour.

Includes work(s) by various composers.

Art and Music: Masters of the Modern Age, Vol. 1 Description CD with full-color, illustrated, explanatory booklet. Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is remembered as the painter of ballet dancers, but the scope of his genius ranged widely. An acute and witty observer, he depicted his native Paris in it's many diverse aspects, often hinting at a social isolation and unease hidden beneath the colorful surface. On this CD, the world of Degas is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment Disc Two Description Paul C�zanne (1839-1906) received almost no recognition until the last years of his life, but is now widely regarded as one of the key figures in the development of modern art. His structural use of color was the starting point for the Fauve painters; his strongly geometric approach to composition led directly to Cubism. On this CD, the world of C�zanne is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment. Disk Three Description During the past 20 years, Arvo P�rt has consolidated his reputation as one of the most significant contemporary composers with a sequence of magnificent sacred choral works. Dating from between 1990 and 2001, the works on this recording exemplify P�rt's mature idiom at it's most harmonically expressive. If Triodion represents his music at it's starkest and most unadorned, Kanon Pokajanen, the composer's largest work after the 1982 St John Passion (Naxos 8.555860), is music of a dark-hued and intensely felt contemplation. P�rt's emotionally-charged Bogor�ditse Dj�vo, is a vibrant tribute to the Virgin Mary. The Elora Festival Singers' recording of P�rt's Berliner Messe can be heard on Naxos 8.557299.

Six CD Box set available only in North America of Jeremy Summerly's comprehensive conduting career. The work sets detailed are: 1. Adrian Willaert: Missa Christus resurgens / Magnificat / Ave Maria 2. Orlando di Lasso: Masses for Five Voices / Infelix ego 3. Thomas Tallis: Mass for Four Voices / Motets 4. Carlo Gesualdo: Sacred Music for Five Voices (Complete) 5. Hildegard Von Bingen: Heavenly Revelations 6. Artist Profile Series - SUMMERLY, Jeremy

The trumpet has had many concertos written for it by composers from the Soviet era and beyond. Appealing in its unabashed melodies and colorfully nostalgic feel, Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto became popular in the West, while Weinberg’s emotive Trumpet Concerto in B flat major was summed up by Shostakovich as a ‘symphony for trumpet and orchestra’. Shostakovich’s own playful Concerto No.1, Op. 35 is recorded here with Timofei Dokschizer’s extended trumpet part, bringing it closer to the Baroque ‘double concerto’ model that the composer may initially have intended.

Includes work(s) by Arvo Pärt.

This programme brings together aesthetic and musical elements of East and West. Zhou Long captures the essence of the Chinese plucked ch'in and Cambodian aesthetics are preserved in Chinary Ung's expressive Spiral III. Tan Dun's Eight Colors combines the exotic timbres of Peking Opera with Second Viennese School tonalities. Gao Ping's Bright Light and Cloud Shadows has been admired for it's 'long-breathed brush strokes' (Washington Post). Taking it's inspiration from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake Toru Takemitsu's beautifully crafted a Way a Lone evokes a shimmering sound world.

With specially made instruments and a range that can emulate that of a whole orchestra, the acclaimed Guitarra a Seis bring us a colorful program that includes works written specially for the ensemble. Opening with a real feast for the ears in Bach’s lively Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, we further encounter the magical moods of Ravel’s Ma mere l’Oye, a blend of Bulgarian folk and modern music from Atanas Ourkouzounov, Tobias Krebs’ jazz-infused Suite Panamericana, and Sergio Assad’s humorous Juan Sebastian’s Bar, which alludes to Bach and Beethoven but is Brazilian through and through.

Astor Piazzolla' tangos, beloved around the world for their pathos, passion, longing and sensibility, are here given fresh interpretations in arrangements for piano by the Argentinean-born, Brussels-based pianist Aquiles Delle-Vigne.

Innovative music printer Pierre Attaingnant published the first editions of keyboard music ever to appear in France in 1531. Only one copy of each of these seven tiny but crucially important volumes has survived, in which anonymous composers made arrangements of some of the most beautiful chansons, motets and dances from the reign of Francois I- keyboard music that shows France at the forefront of developments in this field. Glen Wilson has corrected the countless errors in these original sources, restoring this rare and enchanting music and allowing it to shine in it's original glory.

Auber earned international adulation in the late 1820s for his revolutionary grand opera ‘La Muette de Portici’ and by the time he composed ‘La Sirene,’ the success of which inspired potpourris of its melodies, he occupied a central place in French musical life. The mysterious siren of the title is part of a plot that abounds in fantastic comedy, love, betrayal, farce, and festivity in the lineage of Italian popular theatre. The German poet Heinrich Heine wrote that “La Sirene was received with resounding bravos… The author and the composer know how to amuse us agreeably, and even to enchant us, or to dazzle us by the luminous facets of their spirit.”

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REVIEW:

The performances on this premiere recording are modest but engaging and entertaining as well. David Reiland secures bright and breezy playing from his appropriately named Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes. Jeanne Crousaud doesn’t quite live up the idealised Siren of the title but sings with charm, as do the two tenors, Xavier Flabat and Jean-Noël Teyssier. The lower men’s voices sing characterfully, as do Les Métaboles, even if some of their contributions get a little lost in the rough-and-tumble.

– Gramophone

The two leading operatic composers of their time were Rossini and Auber, one now fêted, the other largely overlooked. In 1831 Auber and his long-standing librettist Eugène Scribe produced Le Philtre, which took the concept of petit opéra to the extreme, even outdoing Rossini’s Le Comte Ory in depicting a rural setting peopled not with Arcadian shepherds but with ordinary country folk. Auber’s Franco-Italian style can be heard in the work’s ensembles, while elsewhere the opera shimmers with rich arias, buffo elements and delightful cavatinas. Le Philtre was an unalloyed success receiving 243 performances and inspired Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.

REVIEWS:

The sonorous lyrical tenor Patrick Kabongo as Guillaume achieves a great artistic achievement in every respect. His elegant phrasing, the tones set freely from above, his dramaturgically precise, word-creative ability: all this shows great class.

The Mexican baritone Emmanuel Franco as the dashing militarist Joli-Coeur and the Italian bass Eugenio Di Lieto as the cunning businessman with a weakness for the right medical diagnosis Fontanarose remain sonorous and full of humour, and take advantage of the abundant situational comedy they offer. All three male protagonists succeed in stylistically exemplary fashion in both the French and the Italian influences of the score, influenced by Rossini, with all the rondeaus, cavatinas, cabalettas, strophic airs and brilliant couplets.

-- Merker Online

Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber’s music radiates both his amiable personality and the Parisian elegance of his times. The huge success of his operas resulted in a popularity for these overtures that rivaled that of Rossini, who was an early influence. Auber’s brilliant and energetic style infuses tales of romance both rustic and aristocratic, with moods ranging from dramatic heroism to dashing ballroom dances- all portrayed with the signature charm that made him a standard bearer of musical stylishness and good taste. Auber’s opera La Sirene can be found on the Naxos label as well. This is the first volume of a project to record all the overtures to his 31 operas-comiques, seven operas, three drames lyriques and seven other stage works.

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REVIEW:

The present disc covers Auber's early period from 1813 to 1826, and, with the exception of La Neige, ou Nouvel Eginard, all are receiving their World Premiere Recording. So we open the disc with Le Macon from 1825, and by far his most successful of that era, remaining on French and German stages for the next hundred years. From one extreme to the other with Le Timide, ou Le Nouveau Seducteur that had just a handful of performances before descending into oblivion. As you go through the sixteen tracks you will find pleasing music played with a suitable elegance, the performances using the bouncy tempos requested in Auber’s metronome markings. That we have these performing scores, I gather we owe a debt of gratitude to the conductor, Dario Salvi, who also obtains neat performances from his Czech orchestra.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

The second volume in this series (Volume1is on 8.574005) continues to explore little-known examples of Auber’s elegant and refined operatic music. Julie was his first stage work, its fantasia-like beauty foreshadowing the operas, opéras-comiques and lyric dramas to come. Striking melodies and haunting episodes abound in these overtures and entr’actes, and there is restrained yet fragrant Iberian color in the overture to Léocadie. The Violin Concerto is lightly scored and gentle, with a tarantella-like finale full of folk vitality.

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REVIEW:

This disc concentrates on Auber's early career between 1805 and 1829, going back to his first opera, Julie, ou L’Erreur d’un moment, where the orchestral scoring could be just for an enlarged string quartet. At the other end of the spectrum, in Fiorella from 1826, he was in competition with Rossini and requires a much more fulsome orchestra. We then move into the world of serious opera in 1824 with Leocadie. The Violin Concerto poses no major problems for Marketa Cepicka, a ‘song-like’ quality in the first two movements concluded by a suitably frolicking dance finale. The playing of the Czech orchestra is first rate for the Scottish/Italian conductor, Dario Salvi, the musicologist who is unearthing these long forgotten scores.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

From the mid-1820s onwards Auber’s career was filled with success. His opéras-comiques and grands operas won repeated acclaim for their myriad qualities of Parisian elegance. The fifth volume in this series features two of his Sicilian operas and both center on well-delineated female characters. Brimming with grace, charm and lyricism, the extensive ballet from Zerlineexemplifies why Auber’s music was so popular. Philippe Musard’s QuadrilleNo.2on themes from Zanetta shows the extent of Auber’s contemporary popularity and is a revealing cultural souvenir of the period.

This sixth album in this series is rich in music that ranges across Auber’s creative periods where finesse of orchestral detail and piquant harmonies are met by verve and wit. It includes some of Auber's least well-known music, some in world premiere recordings, as well as scores that explore vivid dance themes. Previous volumes can be heard on 8.574335 (Vol. 5), 8.574143 (Vol. 4), 8.574007 (Vol. 3), 8.574006 (Vol. 2) and 8.574005 (Vol. 1).

Dario Salvi's acclaimed survey of overtures by Auber continues with Volume 7. The Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava who were the featured orchestra on Volume 5 (8.574335) return to the series in a volume that includes several world premiere recordings.

REVIEW:

Conductor Dario Salvi is the creative force behind these recordings. All his albums maintain a high standard of performance. And all benefit from innovative programming. The Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava is in fine form here. Under Salvi’s direction, they play with a lighthearted elegance fitting the fairy operas. And they can also deliver some dramatic thundering when necessary.

Including additional music from the operas has slowed Salvi’s traversal of the overtures. But these recordings are about the journey, not the destination. These ballets and incidental music show Auber’s genius. His orchestrations set the stage and tell the story — in music, not words. Another fine addition to this edition.

— WTJU-FM (Ralph Graves)

Daniel-Franc�ois-Esprit Auber represents the essence of Romantic opera-comique with vivacious and elegant works that enjoyed huge popularity for decades. He collaborated with a fellow luminary, Ferdinand Herold, for Vend�me en Espagne, a work rich in Spanish dances and colour. With a vivid display of Auber's gift for melody and orchestration, the overture to La Fiancee proved so successful and popular that Liszt arranged it as a fantasia three times. L'Enfant prodigue contains his longest overture, a powerful statement reflecting the tragic aspects of this Biblical parable.

Aleksandr Tsiboulski is first-prize winner in numerous competitions including the 2006 Tokyo International Guitar Competition. His playing, which transcends the image of the technically flawless competition winner, has been praised by the Age for it's '

Classical Music

The influx of European composers to England in the 18th century led to a particularly active musical life, especially in London, but the influence of composers like Hellendaal, Castrucci, and especially Handel, led to the development of a musical culture whose native participants included the likes of William Boyce, Thomas Arne, John Stanley, and Charles Avison. These and many others were eager to take up the gauntlet tossed down by the Continentals, and they did so, but with the anticipated varying results. While the names of Boyce, Arne, and Stanley are rather well known among aficionados of 18th-century music in the sceptered isle, the same is not quite true for Charles Avison (1709–1770).

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Avison spent most of his life in his native city, but for 11 years he resided in London, where he came under the influence of Corelli’s student and champion, Francesco Geminiani. Geminiani exerted a strong influence upon the young Avison and when the latter returned to Newcastle, he organized a series of 14 subscription concerts two weeks apart during the winter months. In addition to composing, Avison was a musical mover and shaker on his home turf, writing musical criticism. His treatise, An Essay on Musical Expression (which proclaimed Geminiani to be a greater composer than Handel), appeared in 1752. Avison was responsible for the introduction of Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin to England, and he cobbled together a number of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas into a set of string concertos.

Beyond the transcriptions of Rameau and Scarlatti, Avison’s authentic output is relatively small and consists of concerti grossi, keyboard concertos, and chamber music. John Johnson published the dozen concertos in this collection in London in 1758, at a time when Avison’s reputation was at its zenith. The composer’s debt to the Italian tradition in general and to Geminiani in particular is apparent, but rather than being a mere epigone, Avison strikes out on his own in a number of ways. While the majority of these concertos follow the structural pattern of the Italian concerto da chiesa, the first work in the set opens with a movement reminiscent of the tripartite French ouverture; the ninth and twelfth concertos follow the concerto da camera model with its fast-slow-fast sequence. Avison also expands the concertino, adding a viola to the normal complement of two violins and violoncello. There are also moments when—via the melodies—one is transported to the English countryside and the mind’s eye can almost envision a rustic gathering with the village folk clapping in unison while a fiddler merrily plies his craft and a band of revelers circles the brightly-colored maypole. The writing saves the truly difficult parts for the concertino, but the ripieno is given plenty to do by way of passages that are quite satisfying for musicians whose skills do not approach the virtuoso level. Led by Ukranian-born Pavlo Beznosiuk, a fixture in the early-music life in England and on the Continent, who has performed with Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music, Ton Koopman’s Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and others. The Avison Ensemble was established for the sole purpose of acquainting the musical public with the work of a composer hailed by The New Grove as being “the most important English concerto composer of the 18th century.” They have furthered the revival of the Newcastle subscription concerts that Avison established over 250 years ago.

This is uncomplicated music, calculated to entertain, not to stimulate one’s intellect. The lack of profundity here is outweighed by the ability of Avison to craft interesting music that can be taken up and be happily tossed about by members of the ensemble; the band knows how to do this and do it well. Beznosiuk and his exceptionally gifted ensemble of young colleagues further enhance Avison’s gifts by serving up performances that sizzle with energy and spring in their step. Melodic lines are well shaped and the overall presentation is texturally lean and tightly focused. Though this is far from great music, these readings are enthusiastic and polished enough to satisfy any lover of the Baroque in general or the English Baroque in particular.

Michael Carter, FANFARE

Born in Lisbon of Italian parentage, Pedro António Avondano was employed at the court of Joseph I, becoming Portugal’s leading composer of instrumental music and dances for the royal ballet. Il mondo della luna (‘The World on the Moon’) was a hugely successful libretto by Carlo Goldoni and was set by the likes of Haydn – its comic tale seeing the social climber and strict moralist Buona Fede duped into thinking that he is on the moon. This narrative of illusion in collision with love, jealousy and power struggles is set with sublime lyrical and dramatic transparency by Avondano in this, his only opera.

This new release is part of the Best Loved series, covering a substantial selection of iconic and entertaining works from the Naxos catalogue. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists. Awesome Organ includes tracks from popular releases such as Eric Lebrun’s recordings of Jehan Alain’s organ works, (Vol. 1, 8.553632), Wolfgang Rübsam’s Pachelbel series (8.554380) and Dupré’s Variations sur un Noël from Ji-Yoen Choi’s debut recording (8.555367).