Fulvio Fiorio & Gabriele Fiorio – The Sounds of Wood (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:58 minutes | 761 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Stradivarius
One hundred years of Romanticism, about sixty years of postromanticism and another sixty of filologic research and adhesion to “original versions” of past musical compositions got used to us badly.
Romanticism conditioned us to think that what was written by the hand of a composer has to be untouchable, a sacred document that’s perfect like it is; postromanticism convinced us that this idea had to be applied to any artwork, even the ones that were written before the ‘800s; lastly, the meritorious and sacrosanct philologic enforcement to the research of the ‘original text’ have definitely forced us to believe that the only ‘original version’ of a composition is the one that reproduces exactly the text, recovered with all the tricks modern and performed with instruments as close as possible to the ‘original’ instruments of the time in which the composition was, in fact, composed.
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Camille Delaforge – Mademoiselle Duval: Les Génies ou les Caractères de l’Amour (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:20:53 minutes | 2,63 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Château de Versailles Spectacles
Would you know Miss Duval, composer of a single opera, The Geniuses, performed nine times in 1736, which was a great success and has never been revived since its creation at the Royal Academy of Music in Paris? Singer and composer, Mademoiselle Duval is the second woman to have created an opera there, following Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. If her life remains mysterious, this harpsichordist confirmed to the point of dazzling the public by holding the continuo to the creation of the Geniuses, wrote a work of contemporary entertainment of the Gallant Indies, deploying with each act a new love intrigue centered on the Geniuses of the Waters (The Nymphs), the Air (The Sylphs), the Earth (The Gnomes) and Fire (The Salamanders). It is a little wonder that Camille Delaforge’s curiosity finally delivers us, passionately directing this rarity of the French repertoire with absolute happiness!
Opera-ballet in a prologue and four acts on a libretto by Jacques Fleury, premiered at the Royal Academy of Music in Paris in 1736.
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Berginald Rash – Dathanna: Hues & Shades (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:05:48 minutes | 615 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Orchid Classics
Dathanna: Hues and Shades is the debut album from clarinetist Berginald Rash and harpist Fiona Gryson, offering late romantic and fin-de-siècle character pieces in a unique chamber setting. Created amidst the challenges of the pandemic, this album reflects a journey of resilience and artistic exploration. It began as a dream to celebrate blends of tonal textures and evolved into a testament of strength and endurance. The music is an intimate portrayal of tonal elements and musical expression, capturing subtle nuances, finger movements, and ambient sounds to create an atmosphere reminiscent of 19th-century salon concerts. Dathanna takes listeners on an emotional journey—a celebration of chamber music’s vulnerability and subtle beauty. It marks not just a debut, but a deliberate exploration of timbre and tonal virtuosity within the unique combination of clarinet and harp. Rash and Gryson delve into intricate tonal hues, inviting audiences to appreciate the vibrancy and depth of these much loved compositions through a fresh and intimate lens.
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