CLASSICAL MUSIC
BOCCHERINI Guitar Quintets
Massimo Scattolin (guitar) • Franco Mezzena • Stefano Pagliari (violins) • Luca Volpato (viola) • Julius Berger (cello) Boccherini’s works may be undervalued today, but in his time the Italian achieved considerably renown as a lyrical melodist. Set apart from the Austro-German mainstream, he retained an individual and distinctive voice – and for a composer whose most admired traits included expressiveness and intimacy, it should come as little surprise that his major legacy is a fine body of distinctive chamber music. Full of energy and charisma, these are highly evocative pieces that deserve more recognition. Massimo Scattolin’s performances represent an important addition to the Boccherini discography that will help ensure that the unique delights of the composer’s music continue to be treasured.
Giovanni CROCE Missa sopra la battalgia
Motets by Bassano • Croce A. Gabrieli • G. Gabrieli • Willaert Cappella Marciana Marco Gemmani Detailing many an inspiring performance, this release celebrates the rich musical heritage of St Mark’s Basilica through a selection of liturgical works – all of which were written by composers employed at the cathedral during the 16th and 17th centuries. Using several choruses as well as a rich instrumental consort, Croce’s Mass shows how richly developed was the music at St Mark’s by the end of the 16th century. Its glorious traditions continue, as we can hear from the current choir and instrumentalists of St Mark’s, Cappella Marciana.
8802138 (2 CDs)
TARTINI Violin Concertos
Giuliano Fontanella • Enrico Casazza • Sebastiano Maria Vianello • Paolo Ciociola & Cristiano Rossi violins Interpreti Veneziani Born in 1692, in what today is Slovenia, Giuseppe Tartini originally studied law before turning his hand to composition and the violin. Having returned to Padua from Prague, where he spent three years immersed in the musical world of the Hapsburgs, he went on to establish a music school and write treatises on subjects such as the principles of harmony. Today Tartini is regarded as one of the most important composers of his generation. 8802140 (2 CDs)
SAINT-SAËNS Complete Piano Concertos Philippe Entremont (piano) Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse • Michel Plasson
Full of youthful ambition and recalling Mendelssohn’s lively style, Saint-Saëns’ First Piano Concerto was written when the composer was just 23; another ten years followed before the Second, which is generally considered the masterpiece of the set. Written especially for a concert conducted by Anton Rubinstein, No.2 is certainly Saint-Saëns’s most popular: high in spirits and full of invention, it was soon followed by the Third Piano Concerto of 1869 and much later by the Fourth, whose adventurous and novel five-section structure reveals a mature composer at the height of his career. The Fifth is an exotic-sounding work that was written during the composer’s annual vacation to Egypt in 1895.
8802144 (2 CDs)
8802139 TARTINI Violin Sonatas
Alberto Martini, Giovanni Guglielmo (violins) Antonio Pocaterra (cello) Ilario Gregoletto (harpsichord) Born in 1692, in what today is Slovenia, Giuseppe Tartini ranks among the most famous of lateBaroque composers. A colourful figure who was the subject of various scandals during his lifetime, the Italian was forced to flee Padua in 1710 when it was discovered he had secretly married the niece of the city’s Bishop. Tartini sought refuge at the monastery in Assisi, and it was there that he began lessons in both the violin and composition.
8802141 (3 CDs) MOZART Bass Arias
Ferruccio Furlanetto bass-baritone Wiener Symphoniker • Ion Marin The compilation traces Mozart’s four most famous operas and details nine separate characters in the space of an hour. From Figaro’s military-style ‘Non più andrai’ to the Count’s display of jealous insecurity in ‘Hai già vinta la causa!’ – two of four arias from Le nozze di Figaro – Furlanetto also explores the servant-nobleman roles in Don Giovanni, performing the infamous ‘Madamina! il catalogo è questo’ and ‘Champagne Aria’ among others. Così fan tutte, Mozart’s third and final collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, sees the bass-baritone take on the role of Guglielmo, while in Die Zauberflöte, written just a couple of months before the composer’s death, the singer contrasts the naivety of Papageno the birdcatcher (‘Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja’ and ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’) with the wisdom and purity of Sarastro (‘In diesen heil’gen Hallen’). 8802179
STRADELLA: Chamber Music
Mario Ferraris • Angelo Ephrikian • Giovanni Adamo • William Bignami • Giuliano Nalesso • Federico Zampieri (violins) • Giorgio Alessandri • Franco Borgatti • Armando Burattin (violas) • Enrico Miori • Antonio Pocaterra • Francesco Bruni • Nazareno Cicoria • Enrico Emiliani (cellos) • Bruno Ferraris • Osvaldo Rizzoli • Artemio Versari (double basses) • Maria Isabella de Carli (harpsichord & organ) • Emilia Fadini (harpsichord) • Edward Hankins Tarr • Holger Eichorn (trumpet & cornets) Born in 1639, Alessandro Stradella stands as one of the most productive and popular musicians of his generation – a composer who enjoyed such a high reputation that he never lacked powerful patrons and commissions. Regarded by some as the Mozart of the 17th century, Stradella wrote most of his works for voices; this set documents Stradella’s other side. Twelve sonatas for violin and continuo, nine Sonatas for two violins and continuo, various other ‘miscellaneous’ compositions such as the Sonata ‘for two choirs’, featuring two violins and two cornets (each with continuo); a joyful cornucopia of styles and instrumental combinations. Although there is little key contrast in each individual piece, variation of tempo and metre offer contrast between movements, and Stradella is deftly inventive in his use of figures based on adjacent notes. For all the density of their counterpoint, these sonatas revel in a continual readiness to push the boundaries of 17th-century conventions.
8802142 (4 CDs)
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AUG-SEP 2012