Stéphanie Varnerin / L'Astrée / Giorgio Tabacco CARLO FRANCESCO CESARINI Cantatas

This album marks the rediscovery of one of the most important composers of the Italian Baroque: Carlo Francesco Cesarini (1666-1741?), a virtuoso violinist also known as Carlo del Violino. The six previously unreleased cantatas on this recording were composed in the early 18th century and regularly performed between 1700 and 1717. They are all taken from Manuscript 2248 of the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome, a rich anthological collection assembled for Cardinal Pamphili, a major figure in Roman cultural life. The themes treated are in the pure Arcadian-pastoral tradition: the suffering caused by an unreciprocated love (Penso di non mirarvi), betrayal and distance from the loved one (Oh dell’Adria reina), jealousy (Filli no’l niego io dissi). Two of the cantatas are based on mythological episodes: Ariadne for 'Già gl’augelli canori', and Phaeton for 'Fetonte e non ti basta'. This major rediscovery is sublimated by the divine Stéphanie Varnerin and L'Astrée (Academia Montis Regalis), in the expert hands of Giorgio Tabacco, enhanced by the famous Aparté recording quality that will delight the most demanding audiophile. (Presto Classical)

Sonya Yoncheva / Academia Montis Regalis / Alessandro de Marchi HANDEL

Sonya Yoncheva devotes her second solo album to the music of Handel, showing another facet of her wide-ranging repertoire. Being an alumna of William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix, the Baroque era formed her musical understanding at an early stage of her career, laying the foundation for her versatile & broad-reaching repertoire. Currently praised as “the best Traviata in the world at present” (Die Welt), Sonya Yoncheva is one of today’s fastest rising opera stars. She is a regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin State Opera, Wiener Staatsoper & the Opéra de Paris. A great composer of vocal music, Handel based some of his most beautiful operas & oratories on the enchanting sensibility of the feminine voice. His heroines are strong, independent women determining their own destiny – attributes Sonya relates to in all respects. From Mar 3rd - Apr 18th, 2017 Sonya will embark on a concert tour featuring the Baroque repertoire highlighted on the Handel album release. (Presto Classical)

“the emotional balance of the programme favours Alcina, Cleopatra and Theodora’s songs of grief and torment, with a tendency to romanticise. Morgana’s skittish Tornami a vagheggiar, a showstopper in the theatre, is the highlight here: Yoncheva displays a delightful twinkle in the eye with her plush soprano, and negotiates the coloratura with pearly ease.” (Sunday Times, 29th January 2017)

Franco Fagioli / Alessandro De Marchi / Academia Montis Regalis PORPORA Arias

Porpora (1686 - 1768) wrote operas from 1708 up until 1747 and was revising them until at least 1760 but it is with his works in the 1720's such as Meride e Selinunte (1726) that he came to prominence as part of the new Neapolitan style. The selection here includes Ezio, Semiramide riconosciuta, Didone abbandonata, Meride e Selinunte from the 1720's, Polifemo from 1735 and Carlo il Calvo from the same decade. Il verbo in carne is in fact an oratorios written for Christmas 1748 for Dresden.
Porpora taught two of the finest singers of his age, Farinelli and Cafarelli. Fagioli has explored arias by Porpora and others written for Cafarelli on his previous disc. Here, he includes two arias written for Farinelli from Polifemo which was written for London as a rival to Handel. As might be expected from a distinguished teacher, Porpora knows how to write for the voice and to show it off to its best advantage. The arias here often have a largeness of scale and can last up to eight minutes (with the aria from the cantata Vulcano lasting nearly 10). But that does not imply simplicity of scale, within these structures Porpora includes an astonishing number of notes and Fagioli copes superbly. The arias are all in the mezzo-soprano range and need Fagioli's style of high counter-tenor singing. But they also need his incredible facility with singing complex passage-work at high speed.
The results are breathtaking. Fagioli makes a very particular sound. He has a vibrato warmed voice with a soft-grained timbre, but he can move it with alarming dexterity. The more bravura items such as the opening Set tu la reggi al volo from Ezio or Gia si desta la tempesa from Didone abbandonata are done in a supremely bravura manner with style and expressivity. Listen and marvel. Often Porpora throws in trumpets and drums, and the orchestra contributes to the overall dazzling virtuoso sound.
In the slower items, Fagioli brings a shapely poise to the music. When writing the gentler pieces Porpora's style veers towards the galant, rendered stylishly by Fagioli, De Marchi and his ensemble. But the slower pieces are never simple, Porpora still includes a remarkable number of notes, and the vocal lines are often quite wandering.
Throughout Fagioli is accompanied with bravura and style by De Marchi and the Academia Montis Regalis who acquit themselves with no less virtuosity.
The CD booklet includes an article giving background to Porpora's career, with full texts and translations, but you will struggle to discover when and where each aria was first performed and by whom.
With a recital disc like this, you are never quite certain how representative of the composer's style these arias are. There are no simple pieces here, the sort of arias like Handel's Verdi prati which puzzled his Italian singers and required fits of temper from the composer to persuade them to sing. But the disc does give the lie to the idea of Porpora writing generic arias which are suitable for anything. There is some profoundly expressive music here, in stunning performances, and I now look forward to a complete opera by Porpora. In the mean time, we have this disc from Fagioli. Listen and marvel! (Robert Hugill)