Cicco Sanchez Sopra DI ME

There’s not much cruelty, corruption or ruthlessness in Arleen Auger’s exquisitely sung portrayal of the manipulative Poppea, but this hardly detracts from her otherwise radiantly expressive performance. This welcome reissue is not just exhilaratingly played by the City of London Baroque Sinfonia with a spareness and verve that keeps the drama taut, but impressively cast. James Bowman is an elegantly spurned Ottone; Gregory Reinhart a noble Seneca; and the wonderful Della Jones a spirited, quite convincingly masculine Nero. The only snag is Linda Hirst’s unlovely, rather hectoring Ottavia; it doesn’t do, somehow, to sympathise with Nero’s decision to dump her.

Sardinian-born trumpeter Paolo Fresu and bandoneonist Daniele di Bonaventura from Fermo, Italy, indicated the depth of their musical understanding on 2010’s Mistico Mediterraneo, a collaboration with Corsican singers A Filetta. Left to their own resources they explore a very broad range of material which includes original ballads by both men, improvisations, a Puccini theme from La Boheme, liturgical music, pieces by legendary Chilean songwriter Victor Jara and Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jaime Roos, music of Neapolitan composer Ernesto de Curtis, “O que sera” by Brazil’s Chico Buarque and more. Daniele Di Bonaventura has spent much of his creative life bringing aspects of jazz and music of South American traditions together, and Paolo Fresu is one of the outstanding lyrical voices of contemporary improvising…

Gaetano Brunetti (1744-1798) was, along with Luigi Boccherini, the main composer of symphonies during Spain ́s Classical period –both because of the quantity of his work and its diversity. Other composers active in Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century were not at the level of the work of the two Italians, although we know of a fair number that wrote symphonies, generally with a religious background. Central European and French symphonic music was freely available, at least in Madrid, and the works of the leading composers of the era were known and performed at the Spanish Court. Names like Haydn, Gossec, Pleyel, Mozart, Wranitzky, Eichner and Rosetti (Anton Rössler) appear on invoices for music purchased or copied for the Spanish court music service, although the composer that stands out above all others is Brunetti.

Gaetano Brunetti was an Italian composer of the Classical era who was employed at the royal court of Spain, for the most part writing symphonies and chamber works. A small number of Brunetti's compositions were published in his lifetime, and of these, his symphonies have attracted the most attention from period ensembles and have occasionally appeared on CD. This 2015 release by Gustavo Sánchez and Camerata Antonio Soler presents three works Brunetti composed in the reign of Charles III, the Symphony No. 9 in D major, the Symphony No. 21 in E flat major, and the Symphony No. 29 in C major, and they are played with rococo elegance in historically informed style.

When not working as one half of the production team of Deep Forest, Michel Sanchez composes eclectic worldbeat soundscapes drawn from all corners of the planet. His musical pieces often sound like flipping through radio stations from high above the Earth or a soundtrack to a film that has never been produced. Sanchez' first solo work was Windows, released in 1998, followed by Hieroglyphes in 2000.
Think of what might happen if there were a collaborative effort among Weather Report, New York Voices, Cirque du Soleil, and Rob Mounsey's Flying Monkey Orchestra - all pumped up on steroids - and you begin to get the idea…

Jerome Correas and Les Paladins invite you to listen to this new disc on b.records where you travel to the court of Mantua when Vivaldi was composing the Concerto da Camera. The works that make up the Tempesta di Mare are extremely virtuoso and expressive and were written at the time in the composers career when he explored timbres and rhythms resulting in an explosion of colour. To consumer without moderation!