"mario Saban"

Mixing classical and contemporary sound, Mario Batkovic seeks to explore the sonic possibilities of the accordion, without effects or loops, rather through a mutualist symbiotic relationship between man and instrument. Challenging, hypnotic and grandiose; Batkovic’s symphonic vision is unique and he has received widespread critical acclaim, including Rolling Stone magazine who voted his self-titled debut album in the Top 10 ‘Best Avant Albums of 2017’.

Les Vêpres Siciliennes is one of Verdi’s misunderstood operas. It is usually presented to audiences today as I vespri Siciliani - that is, in a clumsy and pedestrian Italian translation and as such gives a false representation of Verdi’s original concept. This opera was composed for the Paris Opera to a libretto by Eugene Scribe, one of the greatest poets of the day and Charles Duveyrier. Verdi embraces the French idiom – the musical forms, the orchestration, the vocal writing – with the same grandeur and sense of occasion as Rossini and Meyerbeer before him. Certainly to give an opera in translation is no crime but to continually deprive the public of this particularly beautiful marriage of text and music is close to criminal. This is the third in the Verdi Originals series and this BBC recording of the opera finally restores the original French libretto.

Le astuzie femminili (Feminine wiles) is an dramma giocoso in four acts by Domenico Cimarosa with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Palomba (it). The opera buffa premiered at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples, Italy, on 26 August 1794. The opera was subsequently performed in Barcelona in 1795, Lisbon in 1797, Vienna in 1799, Paris in 1802, and London in 1804, remaining popular during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Although not performed often today, the opera is still occasionally revived and a number of recordings have been made.

After the success of their Tartini disc (Arcana 478, Diapason d'or, 5 stars from Musica), Mario Brunello and the Accademia dell'Annunciata return for an ingenious collection of six concertos, all of which are transcriptions of other works. Not only do we hear the keyboard arrangements of Venetian concertos such as Marcello's famous oboe concerto and Vivaldi's Violin Concerto RV230, but also reconstructed concertos by Bach such as those for oboe and oboe d'amore (BWV 1056 and 1055) and those that have come down to us in their original version — from the Violin Concerto BWV 1042 up to and including the renowned Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto BWV 971.

Recently, the E major Symphony has often been counted as Schubert’s 7th symphony. Unlike his other symphonic fragments, the Symphony in E major exists in a complete draft from the first to the last bar in all four movements. More recently, the symphony became accessible to a wider public again in the completed version by Brian Newbould (1982). Now the Austrian composer Richard Dünser, together with the conductor Mario Venzago, has presented a new version of the symphony fragment. The less inspired middle movements have been replaced by supplemented drafts from the year of Schubert’s death. The result: a «new» great symphony by Schubert with a playing time of over 40 minutes; an original and gripping work that immediately convinces with its idiomatic and formal unity.

Gidon Kremer and Mario Brunello pay tribute to Beethoven by presenting two of his most famous quartets in a version for string orchestra played by Kremerata Baltica. The ensembles founder Gidon Kremer directs op.131 from the violin, while Mario Brunello conducts op. 135 and adds two contemporary pieces, one by Leo Ferre, the revolutionary, anarchic, inspired singer-songwriter and great lover of Beethoven: Muss es sein? Es muss sein! We perform this hymn to free music in a version arranged by Valter Sivilotti for cello, strings and percussion with Ferres original voice Note sconte means hidden notes in Venetian dialect.