12 Discoveries

A fascinating compendium of first thoughts, alternative versions and lost works: the fruits of Leslie Howard’s assiduous fossickings in the Lisztian workshop, and all believed to be first recordings. This is the fifth CD of 'new discoveries' (the third volume having contained two discs): these works were not available to be included in the Liszt boxed-set issued in 2011, and so this release constitutes a supplement to that edition.

Over the past ten years, thanks in part to the stimulus of the Vivaldi Edition project, several manuscripts by Vivaldi have surfaced in different countries. Federico Maria Sardelli has decided to record the finest of them. So this recording does indeed present new works by Vivaldi. The content is very diverse, ranging from a motet, which is performed by the mezzo-soprano Romina Basso, to an Oboe Concerto, a Recorder Concerto, arias and other gems. There is a clear pattern to these discoveries. Almost all come from peripheral sources, and most appear to originate from special commissions at the margin of the composer’s activity.