Storace: Selva di varie composizioni d'intavolatura per cimb
Tactus
CD
$29.99Oct 06, 2017
The figure and work of Bernardo Storace are particularly fascinating because of the aura of mystery which surrounding both. The only information we have on this remarkable composer for keyboard instruments is printed on the frontispiece of his one known work, the “Selva di varie compositioni d’intavolatura per cimbalo ed organo by Bernardo Storace vice Chapel Master of the Illustrious Senate of the Noble and Exemplary City of Messina”. The continuous earthquakes that afflicted Messina right up to the beginning of the twentieth century destroyed any existing evidence of Storace and his works. The one example of the Selva, which has fortunately survived, was printed in 1664 in Venice, then a very important printing centre, but is without the editor’s name or a dedication. This vast florilegium is made up of a wide range of variations based on nearly all the popular themes of that time, as well as two courantes, two toccatas and canzonas, two ricercari and a pastorale. Francesco Cera, renowned early music specialist, here uses three different historical instruments: organ, harpsichord and spinetta, for a refined and competent performance, supported by Fabio Tricomi at the percussions.
This album continues the complete edition of the chamber works by Marco Enrico Bossi, featuring a collection of instrumental works for piano and various instruments: viola violin, flute, bassoon, oboe, harp, cello, double bass and harmonium. Unexpected and surprising writing mastery by Bossi (until a few years ago only known for being one of the greatest organ performers in the history of music), this anthology pays tribute to the composer through the different facets he manages to characterize each of these instruments in their own timbre and expressive peculiarity. The SchuberTrio (Giulio Giurato, piano, Andrea Noferini, cello and Roberto Noferini, violin) - already awarded by critics for the previous albums of the Bossi Trios and the music for violin, cello and piano, is joined by Anna Noferini at the viola, Paolo dal Moro at the historical flute, Paolo Pollastri at the oboe, Roberto Giaccaglia at the bassoon, Roberto Rubini at the double bass, Emanuela Degli Esposti at the harp, and Claudio Brizi at the harmonium d 'art.
On this release, Tactus continues the rediscovery of the archive of the S. Cristina monastery in Senigallia were are preserved a large amount of manuscripts by composer Giovanni Morandi, friend and collaborator of Rossini, married to the famous opera singer Rosa Morolli (acclaimed interpreter of the works of Rossini, Mozart, Cimarosa and Paisiello) and organ teacher to the nuns of the same convent. This chapter includes the organ transcriptions of operatic songs written by Morandi for the use of its nuns pupils (indisputable evidence of how the opera music could also come within the enclosure!). Morandi re-writes and adapts to the organ, symphonies and arias of the greatest opera composers of the time, Rossini's first and foremost, but also Verdi, Donizetti, Pacini, revealing interesting aspects on the performance practice of theatrical styles in the realization of the cadences or variations in the arias. Federica Iannella, specialist in nineteenth-century repertoire, here plays the Giacomo Bazzani 1856 organ, example of the organ theatrical aesthetics in the Marche region.
Malipiero: Il Finto Arlecchino, Etc / Peter Maag, Veneto Po
Naxos
CD
$19.99Apr 01, 2001
Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) originally composed his Seven Inventions and Four Inventions as a score for the 1932 Italian film Acciaio (Steel). The music's intended function as an accompaniment to visual storytelling perhaps explains its consistent use of a basic melodic idea, which sounds deceptively like a novice at the piano playing up and down the white keys. That Malipiero creates interesting and beautiful musical moments from this raw and unadorned device is most impressive, as is the ever-captivating orchestration, which at times reminds us of the colorful works of Respighi (especially in the dramatic opening and concluding movements).
The Four Inventions, though slightly more tuneful, follow the same melodic principle as the Seven, which can lead to an impression of sameness if played in succession. Malipiero's 1925 opera Il finto Arlecchino evoked the world of 18th-century Venice, and the music ranges from neo-classical to near parody of the period. For some of today's "authenic performance"-trained ears this will seem quite anachronistic, as will Malipiero's Vivaldiana (1952), a loving tribute that is true to the text of Vivaldi's concerto movements while imbuing them with newly vivid and vibrant orchestral colors. Peter Maag's insightful and committed conducting makes the most of these elements, which are wonderfully realized in brilliant performances by the Veneto Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in clear, full sound by Naxos. Do give this a try. --Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com
Bufaletti: Piano Works; Dedicated pieces; Sound documents
Tactus
CD
$29.99Aug 30, 2024
This very interesting monographic recording is dedicated to the figure of Federico Bufaletti, a forgotten artist and main exponent of that Neapolitan piano school that at the end of the nineteenth century moved to Turin. The album is based on an in-depth investigation into the dual role of the Bufaletti composer and pianist: in addition to presenting his complete piano works, we have the recovery of rare recordings of the early twentieth century with the artist performing pieces by Scarlatti, Debussy, Mozart, Liszt, and others. The album also includes works dedicated to Bufaletti by exponents of the Italian piano school such as Alessandro Longo, Costantino Palumbo, Gaetano Foschini, and Pietro Floridia. The interpreter of Bufaletti's music is pianist Massimiliano Genot, already appreciated for having brought to light the piano works by Giuseppe Unia (on TC812101).
The Voice of Stradivari - Giovanni Gnocchi (cello), Alessand
MV Cremona
CD
$24.99Aug 07, 2026
Antonio Stradivari's 1700 'ex Cristiani-Stauffer' cello, considered to be one of the master's finest works, was purchased by the Walter Stauffer Musicology Center in Cremona. It is now on display at the Violin Museum in Cremona. The history of this cello, though at times uncertain, suddenly becomes clear when it comes to Lisa Cristiani, a Parisian cellist who acquired the instrument, definitively linking her name to Stradivari and the cello. Lisa died very young in 1853 at just 26 years old, a fleeting star on the musical scene of her time: in just a few years, she enchanted audiences with her extraordinary cello. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy dedicated his Song Without Words, Op. 109, to her. But today, you can hear 'The Voice of Stradivari,' the voice of this precious cello, on this CD released by the Italian label MVcremona. The excellent performers are the cellist Giovanni Gnocchi, born in Cremona like Stradivari's cello, and the pianist Alessandro Stella. According to the renowned Italian critic Angelo Foletto, on this CD, 'Gnocchi exploits with loving interpretative skill and virtuosic ease every quality of the 18th-century 'Stauffer ex Cristiani' Stradivari cello, constructing a listening adventure of intriguing poetic subtlety and an intelligent assortment of accents.' SUONARE news, dicembre 2025 This cd includes some pieces written by cellist-composers themselves (Popper and Klengel). Other pieces were transcribed by famous concert performers and cello virtuosos of modern and contemporary times (Piatigorsky, Schiff, Isserlis). Others were dedicated by composers to their cellist friends, as in the case of Dvorak and Hanus Wihan, Liszt and Bernhard Cossmann, the living composer Ducros and Jerome Pernoo and Mendelssohn, who dedicated his Romances sans paroles op. 109 to Lisa Cristiani, then owner of this beautiful Stradivari. The final piece is an Italian masterpiece composed by Gioacchino Rossini: 'Une larme, theme et variations'. The combination of elegiac cantabile and explosive virtuosity encapsulates the characteristics that have inspired the musical choices in this CD. Rediscovered only in recent decades, it belongs to the Peches de vieillesse, the 'sins of old age' as Rossini called the many compositions he wrote in his later years and never published because, as he said, 'I do not publish anything; I only write because I cannot do anything else'. Composed in 1858, it offers the musician all the most typical elements of Rossini's genial style.
Mascagni: Sì / Vivian, Felle, Gentile, Nicoletti, Comas, Liguori, Sanna, Orchestra Sinfonica del Cantieri d'Arte de Montepulciano
Bongiovanni
CD
$20.99Jun 24, 2022
In the search for a specific form and language, the music of “Sì”, under the modernist patina, returns to our most sincere sources, to the spirits of comedy and comic opera. After all, the audience of the melodrama found in the 'little lyric' a sort of deforming nail in which situations, behaviours and conventions were reflected with polite caricature. Such was the Mascagni operetta, which, in its background of parodist grotesque, re-enacts the petty-bourgeois salacity, even in the title: Sì, from the name of the protagonist, so called because she never knew say no to anyone. In this operetta Mascagni lavished the gifts of his most spontaneous melody; the letters aria sung by Vera, the andantino of the duet in Act 1, the page of the wedding party in act 2, the seduction duet between Chablis and Vera, the “sad waltz” sung by Sì; the prelude for strings opening Act 3. The Mascagni talent however reveal itself in the entire score with his fluent streak, rhythmic liveliness, and skill for developing the ensemble scenes.
The renowned music historian Charles Burney counted Giovanni Rubinelli (1753-1829) among the three great castrato voices of the late 18th century. At a time when the era of opera seria and castrati was drawing to a close, Rubinelli was one of it's last great protagonists. Numerous composers wrote specifically for his voice, which was not the favored high soprano voice of a castrato, but that of a contralto. This program traces Rubinelli's artistic career. He made his debut in Ludwigsburg at the age of 16 in Calliroe by Antonio Sacchini, sang in Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta at the inauguration of La Scala in Milan in 1778, and made guest appearances in London in the late 1780s, performing in Handel's Julius Caesar, among other works. Countertenor Filippo Mineccia gives an emotive and virtuoso performance, creating a historical portrait of a singer who also stands for the development of opera from the virtuosity of the castrato stars to the sensitive arias of the new simplicity of Gluck's opera reform.
The latest release from renowned period ensemble La Serenissima celebrates the life and work of Nicola Matteis the Younger. Born in London to an Italian father and English mother, Matteis was immersed in the style of Henry Purcell before leaving England in 1700 for the Imperial Court in Vienna. All of the music on the album is – rather fortuitously – Carolean; either written for Charles II of England, or for (or in the realm of ) Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It is all too easy to think that the English style and English musicians were unknown on the continent in the early C18, but this selection of music shows that this wasn’t (always) the case. There are some jubilant dances and dance suites featured here as well as a ravishingly beautiful Vivaldi concerto and two superb Chaconnes, one by an Englishman, and one by an Italian.
REVIEW:
The strings of La Serenissima – notably young in personnel here – show evident enthusiasm for Chandler’s direction throughout, and respond with precision and clarity...Listening to this Englishman and his ensemble is always refreshing.
A slightly older contemporary of Vivaldi, Alessandro Marcello is a less well-known composer of the early eighteenth century, whose home town was Venice and whose younger brother was the more prolific Benedetto. These well-crafted concerti, the most famous works among his output, are sadly infrequently performed. The six 'La Cetra' concertos are unusual for their wind solo parts, instrumental contrasts and combinations, and use of counterpoint within a broadly, Vivaldian style. They provide a cross-section of Marcello's instrumental style of composition and can be seen as a last outpost of the classic Venetian baroque concerto. This was a popular CD on its original release, and is sure to be welcomed as a re-issue at Classics price.
Pegolotti: Trattenimenti armonici da camera / Opera Quinta
Tactus
CD
$21.99Nov 04, 2022
This album is dedicated to Tomaso Pegolotti, a character who held the double role of notary public and musician in the land of the Estense dukedom between Modena and Reggio Emilia. In fact, his father Livio initiated him into both the study of music and law, and thanks to his commitment and his talent, Tomaso had a brilliant career in both professions. The collection of the "Trattenimenti armonici da camera [...] opera prima", dedicated to Prince Foresto d'Este in 1698, includes his entire instrumental production, as the planned second work was finally never terminated due to Pegolotti's involvement in some unexpected political clash also connected to one of his judicial publications.
The collection consists of twelve sonatas from which can be deduced that the author possessed considerable technical skills on the violin. The Opera Quinta ensemble led by Fabrizio Longo (former protagonist of other important productions by Tactus: tc.630201, tc.670290 and tc.621602) is a solid reference in the musical practice of early and Baroque music.
Pesciolini: Il terzo libro de madrigali / Orlando, Tuscae Voces
Tactus
CD
$21.99Sep 03, 2021
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.
Zani, Piacentino, Torti & Schiatti: Concerti per plauto, archi e continuo / Trevisani
Tactus
CD
$21.99Oct 05, 2018
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were important for the development of the transverse flute: the technical improvements introduced by French and German flutists made the instrument become more accurate in its tuning, more powerful in its sound, and more agile in quick passages, so much so that it superseded the recorder and began to compete with the violin, even replacing it in some sonatas or concertos. Virtuoso flutists such as Philibert Rebillè, Michel de la Borre, Pierre Gabriel Buffordin, Michel Blavet, Johann Joachim Quantz and his noble pupil Frederick II of Prussia were undoubtedly a source of inspiration for the composers of the baroque and galant periods who composed music for the transverse flute and produced pieces that became landmarks in the history of music; but it was also thanks to the diffusion of the instrument among amateurs that the transverse flute repertoire was enriched by an extraordinary number of compositions, many of which were exquisite works. This is the case of these five unpublished concertos by Italian authors - some of them totally unknown, now rediscovered by the Baroque Ensemble “Carlo Antonio Marino”, led by Natale Arnoldi, and by the flute of Raffaele Trevisani.
Sei Solo is Italian for “Six Solos” but also for “You Are Alone”. The dual meaning may indeed have been intentional. When fair-copying his manuscript to the three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin in 1720, Bach had become a widower. The work, with a duration of well over two hours, has a total of 32 movements. The 21st of these is the iconic Ciaccona in D minor with its 32 variations on a chord sequence. The Swedish guitarist Mats Bergström made his debut as a recording artist in 1986 with the Lp “English Guitar Music” for the Polar Music label. Three decades and numerous albums later he felt ready to record his own guitar version of Sei Solo.
Scarlatti: Daniele - Il Daniele nel Lago de' Leoni
Signum Classics
CD
$20.99Jan 10, 2025
Armonico Consort present their next instalment of works by Franceso Scarlatti, this time his only surviving oratorio 'Il Daniele nel Lago de'Leoni' or Daniel in the Lions' Den. Scarlatti's Daniele conforms in all general aspects to the typical Sicilian oratorio of the late-seventeenth century, which was itself closely modelled on Roman practice: four or five singers inhabit character roles, without a separate narrator, together with a chorus often consisting of the soloists singing in ensemble.
