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LABtrio – Nature City (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 59:18 minutes | 614 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Outnote Records
Nature City is LABtrio’s third album, a range of new collectively composed works and older, never-heard compositions combined with two pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. The strong personalities of all three members of LABtrio shine through with this release, showcasing their fresh and adventurous approach to music.
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Labirinti Armonici – Bonporti: Sonatas, Op. 2 for 2 Violins and B.C. (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 57:59 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Brilliant Classics
Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749) was a priest first and musician second: a ‘gentiluomo di Trento’ as he described himself on the title page of his Op.1 trio sonatas. Chamber music continued to be Bonporti’s preferred creative outlet, at a time when cantatas and increasingly operas obtained wider favour, and his increasingly strenuous attempts to gain royal or aristocratic preferment by dedicating and sending his works to kings, queens and princes proved ever fruitless: he died as he worked, a humble cleric.
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laBarocca & Ruben Jais – Missa omnium sanctorum, ZWV 21 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 50:14 minutes | 542 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa
It is to the distinctive compositional voice of Jan Dismas Zelenka that Ruben Jais and laBarocca turn for their latest release from the Glossa label with a new recording of the Missa Omnium Sanctorum. For more than thirty years Zelenka worked as a composer and as a double-bass player at the Dresden Court, the musical establishment which – in the first half of the eighteenth century – was regarded as one of the glories of its age. Zelenka finished this mass, an expansive, dynamic multi-movement work (notably the Gloria) scored for soloists, chorus and orchestra, in 1741; by this time the composer was in his sixties, and the mass stands as one of the summations of his creative endeavours. The Milanese Ruben Jais – who has previously prepared programmes of Bach and Gluck for Glossa – provides exuberant conducting for music which takes in studied choraal sections, exhilarating fugues, High Baroque flourishes as well as the dance-like tendencies of the galant style. In this musical diversity Ruben Jais is accompanied by a solo team consisting of Carlotta Colombo, Filippo Mineccia, Cyril Auvity and Lukas Zeman, but with more than important contributions being required from the choral and instrumental forces of laBarocca.
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Noemi La Terra, Ensemble Donnafugata, Lamentatori di Montedoro – La voce della passione: Passion chants between the Middle Ages and Sicilian Folklore (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:13:32 minutes | 739 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Raumklang (edition raumklang)
The tradition of Passion songs during the “Settimana Santa,” Holy Week, exists to the present day in many areas of southern Italy: weeping Madonna statues are carried in processions through the streets of the cities and villages so that the Mater Dolorosa can see “with her own eyes” the Crucifixus – the Christ statue taken down from the cross – laid out in every church. The songs that are heard during these processions number among the most moving testimonies of Christian musical history, linking, as they do, the transcendental sorrow of the devout at the death of Jesus and the very real sorrow of a mother for her deceased son. They are the last legacy of a direct participation of the people in the rites around Jesus Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.
The singer NOEMI LA TERRA has researched the traditional Passion songs of her native Sicily and compiled for her debut CD, together with DONNAFUGATA and the LAMENTATORI DI MONTEDORO – singers of lamentations from a small village in the Sicilian province of Caltanissetta – a unique collection of medieval Passion music still sung today: archaic, heartfelt, and touching.
Read moreLa Venexiana – Bononcini: La conversione di Maddalena (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]
La Venexiana – Bononcini: La conversione di Maddalena (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:45:10 minutes | 1,93 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa
Giovanni Bononcini composed the four part oratorio La Conversione di Maddalena for the Habsburg emperor Leopold I in 1701. The musician from Modena, at the time at the apex of his European fame, had at his disposal the best forces of the Imperial Chapel: four singers (two sopranos, a contralto and a bass) of top rate and an instrumental ensemble, limited to strings but adequately consistent to articulate a concert dialectic with tutti-concertino, including soloist pages for the violin, the cello and the viola da gamba.
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La Vaghezza – Sculpting the Fabric (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:48 minutes | 990 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ambronay Éditions
Inspiration, energy and freedom compose the alluring menu of La Vaghezza’s very first opus. The five instrumentalists of the young Italian ensemble, recent winners of the EEEMERGING+ scheme, sculpt one by one these magnificent pieces of 17th century Italy, like jewels to be (re)discovered. La Vaghezza is a trio sonata ensemble playing music from the 17th and early 18th Centuries, with a special interest in the unpredictability, extravagance, originality and freedom found in 17th Century Italian music. Their musical interpretations are historically informed, but always guided foremost by their common sensibility as an ensemble and their search for ‘La Vaghezza’, an aesthetic concept which describes a beauty impossible to understand or grasp: like smoke, something calling to be touched yet remaining intangible.
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La Tempête and Simon-Pierre Bestion – Monteverdi: Vespro (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:22:04 minutes | 2,64 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Do not adjust your set, there is no mistake: you’re not listening to a Marcel Perez record. This is indeed the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin by Monteverdi for the label Alpha. Simon- Pierre Bestion, faithful fixture of the Cris de Paris and Insula Orchestra, conducts his own ensemble, La Tempête. With its wild vocal polyphonics, it is rooted in the folk traditions of Sardinia and Corsica. These Vespers are simply stunning, and enriched by Gregorian faux-bourdons. As the instrumentation wasn’t always set down precisely, the orchestra is able to make use of uncommon timbres, while still respecting the Italian cosmopolitanism of the Venice of the day (a shofar, harps, trombones, chitarrones).
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La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Larmes de Résurrection (Collection château de Versailles) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:16 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
In 1623, when the Thirty Years War was raging, Europe was torn apart by the confrontation between Protestant and Catholic peoples. Schütz and Schein, close friends with a deep-rooted Lutheran faith, were thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of their time when they wrote these works imbued with frugality, humility, even austerity. Yet these two great minds were still driven by a burning passion, paradoxically very attached to Italianate style, which is very evident here. With his ensemble La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion has now become established as one of the most creative interpreters on today’s musical scene, revisiting the repertory, juxtaposing works in varying styles and from different periods, as he demonstrated in his first two recordings for Alpha (The Tempest – Diapason d’Or – and Azahar – Choc de Classica). At the head of an exceptional group of performers, equally at home in medieval and contemporary music, he presents here a ‘rewrite’ for a large and colourful orchestra, featuring a Lebanese singer specialising in Byzantine chant in the role of the Evangelist: a radical new take on the ardent mysticism buried in this music, bringing it unexpected vitality and warmth.
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La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Azahar (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:22:27 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
French vocal and instrumental ensemble La Tempête contrasts and interweaves the polyphony of Machaut with the poetry of the Spanish cantigas and the century of Stravinsky and Ohana on Azahar (“orange blossom” in Spanish). Ensemble founder and leader Simon-Pierre Bestion enjoys disorienting listeners by shifting between different historical periods. He says that Stravinsky wrote his Mass after discovering Machaut’s setting, while Ohana’s Cantigas de Santa Maria allude to Alfonso the Wise and to folk song.
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La Tempestad – D. Scarlatti: Venezia 1742 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:09 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © IBS Classical
Imagine how the rhythmic emphasis of Scarlatti’s sonatas sounds on other instruments, beyond the harpsichord or other keyboards, can be a temptation difficult to overcome. It was difficult for us and it must have been, too, for those who had in their hands some of the hot manuscripts, fresh out of the oven, in the eighteenth century. Because, in this point, a new mystery emerges: what happened to all those acquaintances that Scarlatti had the opportunity to find in Rome or Venice? Did he keep in contact with other European composers, such as Thomas Roseingrave, once at the service of the court in Madrid? What happened to the bridges built with London? How is it possible that some of the sonatas that today are only preserved in the manuscript of Venice were known in England as early as 1744 (even before)?.
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La Stagione Armonica – Alessandro Scarlatti: Responsories for Holy Week – Holy Saturday (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:20 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi
Even according to the liner notes for this album from Alessandro Balestracci and his ensemble La Stagione Armonica, we are not 100% certain that these pieces are indeed the work of Alessandro Scarlatti; but a number of elements, including the period itself, indicate that these anonymous hand-copied manuscripts are indeed reproductions of the Responsories that Scarlatti composed at the start of the 18th century for the Grand Duke of Tuscany. And in any case, one only needs to compare these with other works which are definitely by Scarlatti to begin to suspect that if the composer isn’t him, then whoever it is is doing a damn good impression! Either way, the music gives you the feeling of coming face to face with a flourishing and inspired talent: the writer manages to channel an intense and expressive form, all the while respecting the traditional rules of rigorous counterpoint, which is a recurrent characteristic of Scarlatti’s. It is also interesting to note that these Responsories are put together in such a way that the tonalities vary from one nocturne to the next and from one day to the next, in an ascending pattern, symbolising the progress of Christ’s Passion up to the death which precedes the Resurrection. In order to separate out the different days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday – the album offers four purely instrumental compositions for organ, thus breaking up the very ample and moving vocal programme; the instrument used is that of the church of Saint Catherine of Padua, dating from the 17th century, heavily altered over the centuries before being recently restored to its ancient glory.
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La Stagione Armonica – A. Scarlatti: Responsories for the Holy Week: Good Friday (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:30 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi
Wenn es um alte italienische Vokalmusik geht, hat der aus Padua stammende italienische Chor “La Stagione Armonica” unter der Leitung von Sergio Balestracci mehrmals sein hohes musikalisches Niveau bewiesen: “Der Klang, den sie erzeugen, ist höchst ansprechend in seiner festen Ausdruckskraft sowie in der Art und Weise, wie Balestraccis interpretative Details irgendwie einen Hauch von einfacher, aber inbrünstiger Frömmigkeit erzeugt.”, schrieb die Presse über sein Album bei deutsche harmonia mundi mit den Responsorien, die Alessandro Scarlatti für Karsamstag komponierte. Jetzt erscheint das Nachfolgealbum mit Scarlattis Responsorien für den Karfreitag. Der 1660 auf Sizilien geborene Scarlatti komponierte für die Karwoche diverse Responsorien (Wechselgesänge), die in ihrem musikalischen Reichtum und ihrer emotionalen Ausdruckskraft die Leidensgeschichte Jesu Christi packend nachvollziehen lassen. Obwohl es nicht gesichert ist, dass diese Stücke tatsächlich Werke von Scarlatti sind, geht Sergio Balestracci davon aus, dass es genügend stichhaltige Elemente gibt, die darauf hinweisen, dass die der Aufnahme zu Grunde liegende handkopierte Manuskripte in der Tat Reproduktionen der Responsorien sind, die Scarlatti zu Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts für den Großherzog der Toskana komponierte. “Ad Dominum cum tribularer”, “Caro mea”, “Domine in auxilium meum” oder “Exaltabo te Domine” sind diese Responsorien betitelt, die in jedem Fall wertvolle Werke von tiefer Inspiration sind, in denen Scarlatti eine intensive Ausdrucksform innerhalb der traditionellen Regeln des eingehaltenen Kontrapunkts findet. Die berührenden Werke erklingen teilweise mit Orgelbegleitung (Organist: Carlo Steno Rossi) und vier Solo-Werke für Orgel von Scarlatti setzen außerdem an verschiedenen Stellen einen reizvollen Kontrast. La Stagione Armonica schafft es wie auf dem ersten Album, die emotional packende Musik intensiv und expressiv zu gestalten.
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La Spagna & Alejandro Marías – Morel: Premier Livre de pièces de violle (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:26 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Brilliant Classics
French Baroque chamber music by a much-admired contemporary of Marin Marais.
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La Sfera Armoniosa, Mike Fentross, Lidewij van der Voort – Willem de Fesch: Concerti Grossi & Violin Concertos (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:00:07 minutes | 597 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
Willem De Fesch was born in Alkmaar in 1687. He deserves an honorable place alongside such greats as Vivaldi and Handel, as his works sound at least as colorful, playful, inventive and sparkling as those of his contemporaries. Sometime after 1700 his parents returned with him to Amsterdam. By then, the city had become an epicentre of music publishers. Many Italian composers published their work in the city; Vivaldi made public appearances and in 1729, Pietro Locatelli even opted to move there. In 1708, De Fesch was appointed violinist in the orchestra of the Amsterdam City Theatre. He composed a lot of music for stage performances himself, such as the concerts in C and A minor of this recording. As far as we know, orchestral works only started to appear again in 1741: the audibly matured Opus 10, also on this recording.
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La Serenissima, Adrian Chandler & Tabea Debus – Settecento (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:46 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Settecento is the style of art, music and architecture that emerged in Italy in the early 18th century, celebrated here by La Serenissima and Adrian Chandler with a collection of works from that era. The works are grouped by the areas of Italy where each composer worked, including the Kingdom of Naples (Scarlatti, Mancini), Republic of Venice (DallAbaco, Vandini, Tartini & Vivaldi) and the Papal States / Bologna (Brescianello). The ensemble La Serenissima is recognized as the UKs leading exponent of the music of 18th-century Venice and connected composers. Uniquely, the groups entire repertoire is edited from manuscript or contemporary sources. It has become synonymous with virtuosity, dynamism and accessibility, uncovering new repertoire and making it available to all through live performance, recordings and educational initiatives.
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