info@dynamic.it ARCHIVES 06 (2004)

FEBBRAIO 2002

Giovanni Battista Sammartini: "MEMET", Opera in three acts. 3CDs full price Mirko Guadagnini, tenor - Daniela Uccello, soprano Michael van Goethem, alto - Rosita Frisani, soprano - Laura Lanfranchi, soprano Camerata del Titano - Cond. Augusto Ciavatta FIRST RECORDING. Giovanni Battista Sammartini was undoubtedly one of most important musicians of early 18th-century Italy. The first performance of MEMET took place in 1732, when the composer was just over thirty years old. The plot complies with the enlightened music’s widespread taste for the middle-eastern world, while the structure is that of a tragedy in three acts with five characters (Memet, Solimano, Irene, Zaide and Demetrio) and without choir. The quality of the music is certainly high, thanks to Sammartini’s mature and effective orchestration and to the variety of his melodic inventiveness - quite remarkable in some solo episodes - which spans from cantabile to agility passages of virtuoso difficulty. A world première recording that is a must for opera lovers.

Francesco Antonio Bonporti: Complete works Vol. 3: Concerti a quattro Op. XI 2CDs full price Accademia I Filarmonici (on original instruments) Alberto Martini FIRST RECORDING. With this new recording Dynamic continues its project to publish all the works by Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749). Born in Trento, Bonporti remained practically unknown up to the early 1900s, when a scholar of Bach, Werner Wolfheim, realised that four compositions thought to have been by Johann Sebastian Bach were instead transcriptions, in Bach’s handwriting, of four Invenzioni a violino solo e basso continuo by the Italian Bonporti. This third volume features the Concerti a Quattro per due violini, viola, violone e cembalo, undoubtedly the apex of Bonporti’s output. From the point of view of instrumental writing, these works are half way between the concerto for solo, in the form codified by Vivaldi at the beginning of the 1700s, and the concerto grosso of Corellian tradition. All ten concertos, however, have a clearly individual imprint, which makes for very pleasant listening.

Emilio Pujol: Works for guitar 1CD full price Claudio Marcotulli, guitar FIRST RECORDING. Emilio Pujol Villarubi, who was born in Granadella, a small village near Lérida (Spain), on 7th April 1886 and died in Barcelona in 1980, can be considered the father of 20th-century guitar didactics and musicology. He was a pupil of Francisco Tárrega, whom he always admired both as a artist and as a man. The nineteen pieces that are presented on our CD (in which explicit tributes to hispanidad alternate with passages of more cosmopolitan character) offer an exemplary panorama of the guitar art of Pujol, a musician of unquestioned talent in composition even though he is known today, chiefly if not exclusively, for his didactic and musicological works. Pujol was not merely a first-class teacher and a refined music scholar; he was a complete artist, who could draw inspiration from the instrumental technique he possessed like few others to create compositions for the guitar which are perfectly balanced, and rich in poetry and colour.

IDIS - Istituto Discografico Italiano (Historical recordings)

The recording history of the violin, Vol. 5. The Italian school Vol. 1 Aldo Ferraresi plays Paganini: Concerto No.1 in D major; - Le Streghe*; - Nel cor più non mi sento* Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma - Franco Gallini, conductor * played on Paganini’s Guarneri del Gesù violin. FIRST CD RECORDING. 1CD mid price - The present CD, which adds to the prestigious series entitled “The recording history of the violin”, is dedicated to one of Italy’s greatest 20th-century violinists, Aldo Ferraresi, a virtuoso of international renown and famous interpreter of Paganini’s most demanding works. In these recordings, dating from 1965 and now published, with the consent of the family, for the first time on CD, Ferraresi gives a superlative performance, full of elan and virtuosity, of Concerto No. 1 and of two other famous Paganinian pieces, Le Streghe and Nel Cor più non mi sento (these two played on Paganini’s “Cannon”). A CD of historical importance that cannot miss from the record collection of the lovers of violin music.

Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata Renata Tebaldi, Giacinto Prandelli, S. Orlandini, Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano della RAI, Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor 2CDs mid price - In this radio recording from 1952, at the height of her youth and of her wonderful vocal resources, Renata Tebaldi offers us her more authentic and personal version of Giuseppe Verdi’s Traviata. The Italian soprano’s touching interpretation is heightened by the extraordinary conducting of Carlo Maria Giulini, who, at the beginning of the 1950s, long before the “Verdi Renaissance”, had understood that the operas by the composer from Busseto are really quite modern. A veritable milestone in the history of interpretation.

APRILE 2002

Manuel De Falla (1876 - 1946) LA VIDA BREVE Maria Rodriguez, soprano - Paola Pellicciari, mezzo - Giorgia Milanesi, soprano César Hernández, tenor - Marcello Lippi, baritone - Alex Esposito - baritone Enrique Granados (1867 - 1916): GOYESCAS: Raffaella Angeletti, soprano - Yikun Chung, tenor - Davide Damiani, baritone - Francesca Franci, mezzo Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor (Box 2 CDs full price) De Falla composed ‘La vida breve’ between 1904 and 1905 for a competition which promised to stage the winner’s opera at the Teatro Real in Madrid. De Falla won, but the opera had to wait until 1913 and undergo a long process of revision before it went on stage at the Municipal Casino in Nice. It was a resounding success. The best of the opera lies in its picturesque parts: impressions of the Spanish land, feeling for landscape, for the sky, the day, the time all envelop the characters like a subtle atmosphere: the picturesque is thus intimately bound up with the life of the drama.‘Goyescas’ by Enrique Granados was first performed in public three years after ‘La vida breve’. It is a zarzuela which cites literally many of the pieces in the piano collection of the same name – inspired by the famous paintings by Goya exhibited at the Prado museum. Completed in 1911 it soon became one of Granados’s best-known instrumental works. The Parisian première of ‘Goyescas’ was postponed on account of the outbreak of the first world war. Granados thus accepted the invitation of the Metropolitan in New York, where the opera received its first (very successful) performance on 28^th January 1916. In a very natural manner Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the entire cast bring across the depth and passion of these beautiful operas.

Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770): THE VIOLIN CONCERTOS Vol.9 CD1 Concerto in F Major D70, Concerto in D Major D42, Concerto in A Major D109, Concerto in B flat Major D123, Concerto in E Major D54 CD2 Concerto in D minor D45, Concerto in A minor D115, Concerto in C Major D13, Concerto in B minor D125, Concerto in A Major D110, L'Arte dell'Arco, Giovanni Guglielmo, violin and conductor (Box 2 CDs full price) Dynamic’s Tartini cycle continues with no fewer than ten concertos performed on period instruments. The works, which belong to Tartini’s last creative period (circa 1750-70), are characterised by their high musical value and are practically unknown to the public at large. Eight of the ten concertos are world première recordings for which there are no extant modern editions; Giovanni Guglielmo and ‘L’Arte dell’Arco’ perform them on their own editions, based on autograph manuscripts and on other existing contemporary copies. As always, the result is extraordinary: philological purity and inventive dash are blended in a series of readings which recreate as never before the authentic spirit of Tartini’s creative world. The recording was made using the 24-bit / 96Khz digital system.

Ottorino Respighi: CHAMBER WORKS. Quartet in F minor for piano and strings (1902), Adagio with variations for cello and piano, Sonata for violin and piano, Melody for violin and piano, Piano sonata in F minor. Ensemble Filarmonico Italiano, Marco Vincenzi, piano (1 CD full price) The pieces included on this interesting CD were composed between 1897 and 1910: in this period Respighi had met Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg, but had also studied with Martucci in Bologna and with Bruch in Berlin. In other words, Respighi had had the chance to assimilate the grand German instrumental tradition as well as the French and Russian ones. In most of the pieces proposed here, the influence of Brahms dominates, yet there are also examples of combined influences that are rich in undeniable charm. The performance is given by the Ensemble Filarmonico Italiano with the pianist Marco Vincenzi, specialised in the repertoire of Italian twentieth-century music.

IDIS - Istituto Discografico Italiano (Historical recordings)

Bruno Walter conducts: MOZART: Piano Concerto K.488 - TCHAIKOWSKY: Romeo et Juliette, Overture - WEBER-BERLIOZ: Invitation to the dance - WEBER: Konzertstück op.78. Live Recordings, 1942-1950 Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Leon Fleischer & Paulina Carter, piano (1 CD mid-price) This CD brings together a series of rare live recordings which Bruno Walter made with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra between 1942 and 1950. The value of these rarely-heard recordings is heightened by the superb quality of the reading: here we find Walter far more intense and diabolical than in the albeit superb studio recordings of the final years of his career. A CD that no admirer of the great German conductor can afford to miss.

Gioachino Rossini (1792 - 1868): ARMIDA Maria Callas, Licia Albanese, Mario Filippeschi, Gianni Raimondi Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Tullio Serafin, conductor Live recording, Florence, April 26th 1952 (box 2 CDs mid-price) On 26^th April 1952 the audience of the Florence Maggio Musicale Festival witnessed the revival of one of Gioacchino Rossini’s operatic masterpieces – Armida, written in 1817 for Isabella Colbran and first staged at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples. The star of this unforgettable evening was Maria Callas, then at the very peak of her magnificent vocal abilities. With rigorous sound remastering, our double CD brings back the recording of that memorable performance, one of the finest moments in the operatic career of Callas, who was never again to appear in this congenial role.

GIUGNO 2002

Niccolò Piccinni: LE FINTE GEMELLE (The fake twins) World Prémiere Eliana Bayon, soprano, Célia Cornu-Zozor, soprano, Valeri Tsarev, tenor, Camille Reno, baritone. Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Franco Trinca, conductor. Le Finte Gemelle was first staged in 1771. Success was immediate and other performances followed both in Italy and abroad. With Le Finte Gemelle, Piccinni returned to a genre he had already tried ten years previously with La Cecchina ossia La buona figliola (1760), on a text by Goldoni. A sweeping success, that masterpiece had made him famous in all theatres well before he found himself at the centre of the well-known dispute between Gluck and Piccinni supporters, which would explode in Paris in 1778, after the performance of his Roland (Dynamic CDS 367/1-3). The present live recording, in co-production with the Opéra de Chambre de Genève, features a young and qualified cast who masterfully render the spirit of this score by Piccini.

Pietro Nardini (1722-1793): VIOLIN CONCERTOS World Prémiere Orchestra da Camera Milano Classica, Mauro Rossi, violin and conductor. Nowadays nobody seems to remember about Pietro Nardini (1722-1793), but during his lifetime his renown was great, reaching beyond the boundaries of his native Italy. The recordings of his works made up to this day have nearly all been fortuitous, often based on unreliable editions. The present CD, on the contrary, offers four of Nardini’s compositions for violin and orchestra - three of which never published before - which have been recorded following criteria that are rigorously faithful to the originals. These are works of excellent musical quality; no less outstanding is the violin writing of this Tuscan composer who, in his day, was considered one of the finest violinists in existence. Leopold Mozart, who heard him in 1763, commented: “The beauty, purity and evenness of his sound, and the refinement of his cantabile cannot be equalled…”

Johann Sebastian Bach: JOHANNES PASSION Passion. conducted by Peter Schreier. Simone Nold, soprano, Elisabeth Wilke, mezzo, Peter Schreier, tenor, Markus Schäfer, tenor, Egbert Junghanns, baritone, Andreas Schibner, baritone. Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Peter Schreier. The first documented performance of the St. John Passion dates from 1724. This work is sometimes considered the “little sibling” of the St Matthew Passion, which is undoubtedly a more grandiose and spectacular work, both in terms of vocal and instrumental forces, and of duration. But it would be unfair to brand the St John Passion as a work written in a hurry, as has been done in the past and many today, rather dogmatically, still tend to do. This masterpiece is here re-proposed in a new, enthusing live recording, with a cast of first-rate specialists. Leading the performers, in the double capacity of conductor and soloist, is Peter Schreier, one of the most renowned and popular interpreters of Bach’s music.

BOOK + CD Title: MIECIO, Remembrances of Mieczyslaw Horszowski Pages: 648 (+ 1 CD), Language: English, Author: Bice Horszowski Costa Pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski's musical development, performing career and encounters of a lifetime are told day by day with the help of countless documents - letters, diaries and photographs - which depict the long, intense life of this great pianist, against the backdrop of an intere century. In fact, he died at 101, after a 93-years career! Very interesting is his encounter with an impressive number of great personalities, from Emperor Franz-Joseph to President J.F.Kennedy. Edited by Horszowski's wife, this book not only provides all the facts but also recreates the atmosphere, in particular that of early 20th-century Europe, and will prove captivating reading not only for musicians. It includes a chronology, an index to names, a small biographical dictionary and Horszowski's complete repertoire and dicography, as well as an attached CD with unpublilshed performances of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin af of two compositions by Mieczyslaw Horszowski.

IDIS - Istituto Discografico Italiano (Historical recordings)

BEETHOVEN: FIDELIO, Konetzni, Friedrich, Schwarzkopf, Schoeffler, Weber, Klein, Covent Garden Orchestra & Chorus, conducted by Clemens Krauss, Live Recording, London, 24th September, 1947 NEVER PUBLISHED BEFORE IDIS is proud to present this exceptional document, never published before on any sound support: the legendary London 1947 interpretation of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Clemens Krauss conducting and an impressive cast including the great Hilde Konetzni in the role of Leonore, Karl Friedrich as Florestano and a wonderful Elizabeth Schwarzkopf as Marcelline. A double CD absolutely not to be missed, documenting one of the heights of the 20th-century operatic world.

GIOCONDA DE VITO: The studio recordings (Vol. 2) MENDELSSOHN: Violin concerto Op.64, London Symphony Orchestra - Malcom Sargent, conductor (Year 1951) - BRAHMS: Double concerto Op.102, Giaconda De Vito, violin - Amedeo Baldovino, cello, Philharmonia Orchestra - Boris Schwarz, conductor (Year 1952) FIRST RELEASE ON CD Here featured for the first time on CD are two memorable recordings of the great Italian violinist Gioconda De Vito, who passed away in 1994 at the age of eightyseven. Mendelssohn’s Concerto was always one of De Vito’s favourite works, and in this 1951 recording she gives of it a lyrical and warm interpretation. Wonderful also the performance of Brahms’s Double Concerto.

AGOSTO 2002

Giuseppe VERDI: I LOMBARDI ALLA PRIMA CROCIATA (complete). Dimitra Theodossiou, soprano - Giorgio Surian, bass - Massimo Giordano, tenor, Coro del Circuito Lirico Lombardo, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali of Milan, Tiziano Severini, conductor. 1843 was a milestone for three important 19th-century composers: Dresden staged the première of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer; Paris that of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale; and Milan’s La Scala that of Verdi’s Lombardi alla prima crociata. I Lombardi was born in the wake of Nabucco, with the openly declared intention of following on its success: same librettist, Temistocle Solera, same choral subject of religious imprint with patriotic overtones. Not less important for the success of this work was the choice of a subject of Lombard, better yet Milanese, setting. This is a choral opera in which one finds also beautiful solo passages. The cast of this November 2001 live recording, under the baton of Tiziano Severini, is lead by the soprano Dimitra Theodossiou (the fine interpreter of Anna Bolena, Stiffelio and Attila) and by the powerful voice of bass Giorgio Surian.

Giovanni PAISIELLO: IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA (complete) Pietro Spagnoli, baritone Anna Maria Dell’Oste, soprano; Antonino Siragusa, tenor Luciano Di Pasquale, buffo; Donato Di Gioia, bass. Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Giuliano Carella, conductor. Among the works Paisiello composed during his years in St Petersburg - where he reached his peak as an operatic composer - one of the finest was Il Barbiere di Siviglia, which was premièred at the Russian court on 15th September 1782. Compared to his previous works, this opera shows more skilful characterisation as well as warmer and finer melodic writing. Undoubtedly the necessity to get across to people for whom Italian was a foreign language must have been on Paisiello’s mind, urging him towards a more intense expressiveness. The present recording was made live at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste. In the excellent cast stands out the baritone Pietro Spagnoli, who sings the title role.

Antonio BAZZINI: THE STRING QUARTETS Quartetto d’archi di Venezia, Andrea Vio, Alberto Battiston, violin, Luca Morassutti, viola - Angelo Zanin, cello. Bazzini’s six String Quartets can probably be considered the apex of his output. A musician much admired by Schumann, Bazzini wrote them in the span of almost thirty years, between 1864 and 1892. Arrigo Boito called the Quartet No. 1 in C Major a “fine, noble work, remarkable from all points of view, full of splendour”. In these works we can perceive a mind trained not only to listening but also to performing the great examples of the Austro-German tradition (essentially Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann); a mind that remained without the operatic movement and was able to dedicate itself entirely to instrumental music. Interpreters of these intense works in world première recording are the Quartetto d’archi di Venezia, whose recordings on Dynamic have always been favourably received by the international critics.

Edouard LALO: Works for violin and piano WORLD PREMIERE rediscoved in 2001 at Bibliotéque Nationale, Paris Allegro maestoso Op. 2 in C minor "à son ami Schulhoff" - Fantaisie originale Op. 1 - Two Impromptus Op. 4 "à ses amis Jules Armingaud et Henry Verley" - Pastorale Op. 8 in G Major - Scherzo alla Pulcinella in E flat Major - Soirées Parisiennes Op. 18 "à Monsieur Maurice Wehle" - Sonata Op. 12 in D Major - Arlecchino "à son ami L. Lubeck" - Guitare Op. 28 in B minor. Luigi Alberto Bianchi, violin, Dubra Kovacevich, piano. Lalo is primarily remembered for his Symphonie espagnole Op. 21, which he wrote for Pablo de Sarasate, his chamber works being - with a few exceptions - rarely performed. All the pieces featured in our CD (except "Guitare" Op.28) - full of verve, inventiveness and inspiration - were never recorded before. They have been rediscovered by Gérard Thomas-Baruet at Bibliotéque Nationale last year. Particularly noteworthy is the Sonata in D Major Op. 12, which can be considered the first modern sonata for violin and piano written by a French composer. Luigi Alberto Bianchi, who confirms his fineness as an interpreter of the late 19th-century violin repertoire, is accompanied by the pianist Dubra Kovacevich.

IDIS - Istituto Discografico Italiano (Historical recordings)

ANDRÉS SEGOVIA: Complete Bach recordings 1927 – 1947. Andrés Segovia, guitar. Andrés Segovia gained the reputation of being the “world’s greatest guitarist” not only for his technical mastery, which was undoubtedly out of the ordinary, but also - and perhaps above all - for his ability to give the guitar a status of “classical” instrument worthy to stand as an equal beside all the other traditional instruments that were regular guests of the concert hall. Segovia attained this also through the wonderful transcriptions he made, in particular those of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works. The present CD gathers, for the first time, all the Bach transcriptions recorded by Segovia between 1927 and 1947. Memorable is the Chaconne from the Partita No.2 in D minor, recorded in 1947, one of the heights of Segovia’s discography.

JASCHA HEIFETZ PLAYS BRAHMS: Conc. in D Major Op.77 - Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serfe Koussevitzky cond. Studio recording, Boston, 11th April 1939. Double Concerto in A minor Op. 102 - Emanuel Feuermann, cello. The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy cond. Studio recording, Philadelphia, 2nd December, 1939. The present CD features the 2 memorable recordings of Brahms’s violin concertos made by Jascha Heifetz in '39, at the height of his career. Heifetz’s warm and vibrantly romantic interpretation is absolutely stunning; his sound is bright and he is always perfectly in control of all its subtlest nuances. In the Double Concerto Heifetz is joined by the cellist Emanuel Feuermann, his partner in numerous other recordings. Unforgettable, in the Conc. Op.77, is the conducting of Serge Koussevitzky, leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

OTTOBRE 2002

The violin of David Oistrakh: STRADIVARI “CONTE DE FONTANA” 1702 This set contains: 1 CD, 1 Color book, 1 full size color poster in Digibox format Price: as a double CD. 1 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Concerto in G Major K219, David Oistrakh (1961), 2 - Johannes Brahms, Sonata No. 2 Op. 100 (1st mov.), Riccardo Brengola (1982), 3 - Antonin Dvorák, Four Romantic Pieces Op. 75, Franco Gulli (1985), 4 - George Enescu, Sonata No. 2 Op. 6 in F minor, Mariana Sirbu (1987), 5 - Fritz Kreisler, Introduction and Capriccio Mariana Sirbu (2002). Each volume of this new series traces the life of a famous string instrument: its history, photographs and recorded sound through the years and the artists who have owned it. The publication includes a panoramic view of the instrument with detailed colour pictures, and a full-size poster, as well as a recent digital recording to appreciate fully its current tone-colour qualities. The Stradivari violin with which we open this series dedicated to the most famous historic instruments of the great Italian violin makers, is the so-called “Conte de Fontana”, dated 1702. It was the preferred instrument of David Oistrakh who for many years used it in his concerts and recordings. Our box-set, in digibox format, includes a CD, a book with beautiful and detailed photos of the instrument and a full-size poster with technical drawings.

Gioachino Rossini IVANHOE’ World Prémiere. Inga Balabanova, soprano - Simon Edwards, tenor, Soon-Won Kang, bass - Filippo Morace, baritone, Bratislava Chamber Choir - Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia, Paolo Arrivabeni, conductor. For the last two decades or so the works of the composer from Pesaro have no longer revealed very many mysteries to the historian and the opera lover, for even Rossini’s rarer works are now regularly performed. A few operas, however, still remained in the archives, among them Ivanhoé, a famous pastiche conceived by Rossini in collaboration with Pacini, his Parisian publisher. Its revival allows us to fill in a chapter of the history of music which had remained incomplete and above all to get to know the work with which Rossini introduced himself to Parisian audiences, before offering them Le Siège de Corinthe. The composer from Pesaro, indeed, had too great a sense of publicity to feed the critics’ curiosity, lightheartedly, a new opera. Opera lovers will be surprised to find in the score of Ivanhoé the famous galop of Guglielmo Tell, a work which everybody considered to be totally new. Rossini had loved the pastiche since his youth and he never ceased amusing himself, like a talented child, muddling his audiences by using, for example, the same Overture for the very comic Il Barbiere di Siviglia and the extremely serious Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra, whose virtuoso passages are the same as Rosina’s! All admire Comte Ory, which is a pastiche of Viaggio a Reims, and so forth … This world première recording was made live in 2001 at the Festival della Valle d’Itria.

RUGGIERO RICCI, a life for the violin Special price: 10 CDs for the price of 5 CD 1 - The young Ricci (1938-1940) - CD 2 - Recordings from the 1940s and 1950s (Tchaikowski, Ysaÿe, Wieniawski, Chopin) - CD 3 - Ricci and Paganini (1): the 24 Caprices (1949) - CD 4 - The classical repertoire - CD 5 - Tartini and Paganini variations - CD 6 - Martha Argerich and Ruggiero Ricci in concert (Live Recording, Carnegie Hall, 20th October 1979) - CD 7 - Ernst / Wieniawski - CD 8 - Ricci and Paganini (2): works for violin and guitar - CD 9 - Ricci and Sarasate - CD 10 - Ricci and Vieuxtemps. The history of musical performance is full of musicians who, after being appreciated in their youth, as adults never managed to repeat the achievements of their childhood and adolescence. Ruggiero Ricci, too, was of course a child prodigy: but then he was also an adolescent prodigy, a young prodigy, an adult prodigy. And now, fully eighty-three years old, he can safely be defined as an elderly gentleman prodigy, a man who astonishes all those who hear him not only with his mastery of technique, which is still stunning despite the passing of years, but also through his still lively, almost disturbing desire to discover something new and to take on increasingly demanding violin challenges. This 10-CD box set traces the most significant stages in Ricci’s career: his first recordings from the 1930s, his outstanding late 1940s performance of Paganini’s 24 Caprices, his beautiful recital with Martha Argerich in 1979, his latest recordings on Dynamic

IDIS - Istituto Discografico Italiano (Historical recordings)

Giuseppe Verdi: "Un Ballo in maschera", Welitsch, Picchi, Silveri, Noni, Watson. The Glyndebourne Festival Opera Orchestra & Chorus. Vittorio Gui conducting - 1949 Live Recording. Vittorio Gui (Rome, 1885 - Florence, 1975) was one of the finest Verdian conductors of the 20th century. Much admired by Toscanini and Bruno Walter (who in 1933 invited him to Salzburg as a guest conductor), Gui excelled also in the symphonic repertoire: memorable are, for example, his interpretations of Brahms. In 1949 Gui conducted in Glyndebourne a performance of Un ballo in maschera which has remained justly famous. The recording of that performance is now offered for the first time after a careful sound restoration, which makes it possible to appreciate fully the exceptional talent of the Italian conductor and the fine cast, in which stand our the excellent Liuba Welitsch in the role of Amelia and Mirto Picchi as Riccardo.

DICEMBRE 2002

Gaetano Donizetti MARIA STUARDA (complete version) DVD video! Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. Price: as a double CD. Audio formats: DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, PCM Stereo 2.0. Extra features: interviews to the artists. ORIGINAL DVD RECORDING, NEW CRITICAL EDITION. Carmela Remigio, soprano - Sonia Ganassi, mezzo, Joseph Calleja, tenor - Riccardo Zanellato, bass, Marzio Giossi, baritone - Cinzia Rizzone, soprano. Coro del Circuito Lirico Regionale Lombardo, Chorus Master: Valentino Metti, Fondazione Orchestra Stabile di Bergamo “Gaetano Donizetti”, Conductor: Fabrizio Maria Carminati, Director and costume designer: Francesco Esposito. Set designer: Italo Grassi. Video director: Marco Scalfi. Gaetano Donizetti: MARIA STUARDA. 2 Cds. With the present release of this Donizettian masterpiece, recorded live in 2001, Dynamic makes an historic move, becoming the first Italian label to produce a DVD opera. This very high quality production by Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo features, in the roles of the two queens, Carmela Remigio (Maria Stuarda) and Sonia Ganassi (Elisabetta), two great artists here making a fine display of their excellent vocal and acting skills. Francesco Esposito’s direction and costumes, and Italo Grassi’s sets are very effective and superbly highlighted by the filming. What makes this release even more interesting is the use of a new critical edition made by the renowned Swedish musicologist Anders Wiklund for Casa Ricordi Publisher. - The CD booklet offers exhaustive liner notes, and plot and libretto in four languages. - The DVD has subtitles in 6 languages (Italian, English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese), - Extra features: interviews to the two female interpreters, the conductor, the director and the set-designer.

Alexander Scriabin: PIANO WORKS. 24 Preludes Op. 11, 5 Preludes Op. 16, 2 Poèmes Op. 71, Vers la flamme: Poème Op. 72, 2 Danses Op. 73, 5 Preludes Op. 74. Lucille Chung, piano (winner of 10 of Repertoire, 5 of BBC Music Magazine and 5 of Fono Forum with our CDS 358). After the success of her Ligeti CD (10 from Repertoire, 5 from Fono Forum, 5 from Classic Cd plus a wealth of excellent reviews in renowned music magazines), the young Canadian pianist Lucille Chung has turned to some of the major piano pieces by Alexander Scriabin, one of the most unique and enigmatic figures of Russian music astride the 19th and 20th centuries. The artistic course traced in our CD starts with the early 24 Preludes Op. 11 and ends with the aphoristic and innovative 5 Preludes Op. 74 (the last collection composed by Scriabin), passing through the 5 Preludes Op. 16, the two Poèmes Op. 71, Vers la flamme Op. 72 and the 2 Danses Op. 73.

IDIS-Istituto Discografico Italiano (Historical recordings)

JUSSI BJÖRLING: operatic recordings 1948-1951. Cavalleria Rusticana, Manon Lescaut, Tosca, La Bohème, Roméo and Juliette, Jocelyn, Don Carlo, La forza del destino, Aida, Otello, Faust, La Gioconda, Pagliacci, Les pêcheurs de perles, L’africana. Various orchestras conducted by Nils Grevillius & Renato Cellini. Studio recordings. Here, in rigorous chronological order, are the operatic recordings made by Jussi Björling at the height of his career, when he could display not only his splendid vocal means but also his attained maturity as an interpreter. These remarkable performances, some of which are unequalled, are thus finally available on CD, after a sound re-mastering that has brought out the great Swedish tenor’s wide range of nuances and very refined style.

Wilhelm Furtwangler conducts Mozart: Concerto in E flat Major KV 482 e Symphony No. 40 in G minor KV 550, Paul Badura-Skoda, piano, Wiener Philharmoniker, 1944 & 1952 live recordings. Furtwängler gave a discontinuous attention to Mozart, performing only some of his works and unaccountably disregarding others. For this reason his Mozart performances, especially rare ones like those featured in our CD, are extremely interesting documents, which help us understand Furtwängler’s special and tormented artistic course. His are personal and non-conformist interpretations, which belie many of the commonplaces on one of the most unique figures of the German music world in the years before and after the Second World War.

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