Europa Galante / Fabio Biondi VIVALDI Argippo

 

ARGIPPO

 

Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone VIVALDI Il Tamerlano

IL TAMERLANO

 

Delphine Galou / Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone VIVALDI Musica Sacra per Alto

Vivaldi, the Venetian, master of the whole palette of human emotions. From the church to the opera house, from tragedy to joy, the immediately-recognisable sensibility, the expressiveness, the inimitable colours and an unbeatable talent to say so much in just a few notes.

The contralto Delphine Galou (who recently won a Gramophone Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the classical music world) and Ottavio Dantone's Accademia Bizantina have created two recitals of sacred music and of opera that illustrate the incomparable richness of Vivaldi’s body of work and establish the emotional connections between the two repertoires.

For the first time, two volumes of the Vivaldi Edition (in this case the 59th and 60th) will be released at the same time, with their synergy also reflected in the albums’ artwork.

The recital ‘Musica sacra’ consists of six works of very diverse themes and styles, symbolising the richness of the religious fervour of Antonio Vivaldi's sacred music.

Delphine Galou / Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone VIVALDI Arie e Cantate per Contralto

Vivaldi, the Venetian, master of the whole palette of human emotions. From the church to the opera house, from tragedy to joy, the immediately-recognisable sensibility, the expressiveness, the inimitable colours and an unbeatable talent to say so much in just a few notes.

The contralto Delphine Galou (who recently won a Gramophone Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the classical music world) and Ottavio Dantone's Accademia Bizantina have created two recitals of sacred music and of opera that illustrate the incomparable richness of Vivaldi’s body of work and establish the emotional connections between the two repertoires.

For the first time, two volumes of the Vivaldi Edition (in this case the 59th and 60th) will be released at the same time, with their synergy also reflected in the albums’ artwork.

The recital ‘Arie e cantate per opera’ (Opera arias and cantatas) shines a light on and alternates between operatic arias and cantatas, which are related in style and colour.

Franco Fagioli / Il Pomo D'Oro / Maxim Emelyanychev HANDEL Serse

Franco Fagioli has all the intensity and credibility to make him the perfect guide for listeners exploring the musical world of the eighteenth century. As the drama of Serse unfolds, they will discover an opera brimming with both moving and funny moments, and one which reveals the modernity of Handel, who here travels far beyond the conventional musical confines of eighteenth-century opera seria. In this new recording for the Yellow Label, Fagioli and the rest of the cast – Francesca Aspromonte, Inga Kalna, Vivica Genaux, Marianna Pizzolato, Biagio Pizzuti and Andreas Wolf – are accompanied by the renowned period ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, who give the singers every opportunity to display their vocal talents to the full.

The artists’ delight in historically informed performance practice shines like a beacon from start to finish. In the course of the three-hour production Fagioli brings all the many and varied aspects of the intriguing character of Serse (Xerxes) musically to life. Listeners will share his pain and feel for him as he falls for Romilda, his emotions alternating between loneliness, anger and love. The aria “Ombra mai fu”, with which the king serenades a much-loved plane tree in the opening scene with, is now one of the best-known pieces ever written by Handel. “I did my best to imagine exactly what Serse might have been feeling as he sat beneath the tree, and then tried to bring those feelings into my performance of the aria,” explains Fagioli. The role is one of two that Handel wrote for the celebrated Italian castrato Caffarelli (the other being the title role in Faramondo), an artist whose repertoire the Argentinian countertenor has explored to great acclaim both on stage and in the studio: as well as starring as Farnaspe in the Decca recording of Pergolesi’s Adriano in Siria, he has also released the solo recital album Arias for Caffarelli.

This new recording from Franco Fagioli and Il Pomo d’Oro is a wholehearted celebration of Serse’s many musical delights. Their performance, full of emotional complexity and expressive beauty, is a wonderful gift to the music world.

Accentus / Orchestre de Chambre de Paris / Ottavio Dantone ROSSINI Petite Messe solennelle

Starring Julia Lezhneva, Ottavio Dantone and accentus, this live recording brings a new and fresh light on Rossini's most famous choral work. The concert took place in Paris - Basilique de Saint-Denis, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the work, first performed in March 1864, in Paris. The amazing quality of the solo voices (Julia Lezhneva, Delphine Galou, Michael Spyres, Alexander Vinogradov) meets the dynamic direction of Ottavio Dantone and is supported by the vocal dexterity of accentus chamber choir.

“Because of its uncommon instrumental forces, the ‘chamber’ version of the 'Petite Messe', for two pianos and harmonium, was long regarded as the definitive version; the orchestration Rossini made in 1867-68 was viewed as merely an arrangement. In his recent critical edition, Davide Daolmi presents a different interpretation, which makes the orchestrated version the culmination of a long genetic process, begun in 1862, in which the ‘chamber’ version is merely an intermediate stage. The posthumous premiere of the definitive version of the 'Petite Messe', which was also the work’s first public performance, took place at the Théâtre-Italien on 28 February 1869, the anniversary of the composer’s birth, with Gabrielle Kraus (soprano), Marietta Alboni (contralto), Ernest Nicolas (tenor), and Luigi Agnesi. It was at once a triumph and a highly emotional occasion. A few years later, on 30 May 1876, Verdi was to conduct his 'Messa da requiem' in the same theatre, thus continuing the homage to the great Italian composer.” (from the booklet notes)

Delphine Galou / Accademia Bizantina / Ottavio Dantone AGITATA

Delphine Galou is renowned and admired for her musicality and her appealing timbre. She has taken part in many productions of Baroque music and recordings of operas (notably by Vivaldi), but this is her first recital. It is a programme of sacred music, motets, cantatas and excerpts from oratorios, which in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were influenced by the increasingly fashionable genre of opera. From the famous ‘Agitata infido flatu’ from Vivaldi’s oratorio Juditha triumphans, here counterpointed by an aria from another setting of the story of Judith composed by Jommelli, to Stradella’s Lamentations and Porpora’s magnificent motet ‘In procella sine stella’, Delphine Galou covers a wide range of spiritual emotions. She is accompanied by the excellent Accademia Bizantina under its director and harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone. A concerto by Gregori and a sinfonia by Caldara complete this release, which includes several world premiere recordings. 

La Cetra / Marcon CALDARA La concordia de' pianeti

This release marks the world-premiere recording and rediscovery of Antonio Caldara’s La Concordia de’ pianeti, a musical serenade of operatic magnitude composed for the court of Austrian Emperor Karl VI, featuring the creme de la creme of the day’s singers, including the legendary castrato Carestini (Franco Fagioli’s part).
Unearthed and edited by Andrea Marcon, the piece offers a series of virtuosic arias, breath-taking cantilenas and ethereal duets performed by some of the finest singers of today.
Franco Fagioli and Daniel Behle, two of today’s hottest vocalists, lead a distinctive cast of early music “shining stars”, including soprano Veronica Cangemi in a welcome return to Deutsche Grammophon / Archiv. The dynamic La Cetra Barockorchester, one of the most coveted period ensembles active today, lends an idiomatic touch to the program.
This is a major new release under the Archiv imprint featuring a world-class cast of singers. The opera is new to the repertoire and the catalogue altogether and has been recorded both in studio conditions and live performances in Dortmund. (ArkivMusic)