Cuarteto Italiano

Notated on four staves, as though intended for some unspecified set of instruments (or even voices? or keyboard?), these thirteen erudite contrapuncti, four canons, and an unfinished triple fugue—incorporating the letters of Bach’s name—are often considered to be his musical testament. Shrouded in myths traceable to its very origins, The Art of Fugue is a puzzle for the performers and for the listeners alike, but when a brilliant string quartet takes up the challenge, a solution becomes obvious, and the music takes flight.

Spain's Cuarteto Casals has resolved to mark its 20th anniversary in a suitably ambitious way, by recording a complete cycle of the Beethoven string quartets and taking them on the road throughout Europe, paired with new works composed especially for the occasion. The group has rightfully gained attention for its performances of core repertoire from Haydn to Schubert, and this first volume of the cycle does not disappoint.

A dream comes true, CUARTETO SOLTANGO negotiated for a long time with the star Tango singer LEONEL CAPITANO until he came to Munich for the production - a co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk. Arranger and pianist Martin Klett and Leonel Capitano have put together 16 tangos in different styles of famous Tango composers. There are famous styles and their founders: Aníbal Troilo, Osvaldo Puglieses, Horacio Salgán, Oswaldo Tarrantino. Elías Randal, Virgilio Exposíto, Acho Manzi, Sebastián Piana etc.

The three string quartets of Johannes Brahms are difficult beasts to master. On the one hand, they contain some of the densest, richest harmonization in the repertoire. This can be quickly followed by moments of utter transparency and serenity. The Cuarteto Casals, however, only delivers on one half of this sonic spectrum. When it comes to the lighter sound quality as heard, for example, in the beginning of the third movement of the A minor quartet or the fourth movement of the B flat major quartet, the sound quality produced by the Cuarteto Casals seems just about right.

After the early quartets and the famous ‘Dissonance’ Quartet, the Cuarteto Casals continues its exploration of the set of works Mozart dedicated to Joseph Haydn. Here one composer took on the mantle of the other: the younger man, who had now settled in Vienna and had just started a family, was going through an exceptional period of creativity, transfiguring everything he touched with his genius. An exhilarating experience for our Catalan musicians, following hard on the heels of their acclaimed Beethoven cycle.

Jaime ROSAS is a Chilean keyboards player, who followed the same path as his British idols Keith EMERSON and Rick WAKEMAN. That is to say, a good dose of heavily twirling Progressive rock, full of Seventies-like sounds may be expected. After being the leader of a power-trio, he is back with three fellow musicians. The new guitarist Jaime SEPULVEDA suits perfectly the symphonic music of this ensemble, adding some exciting Progressive heavy-metal digressions. This outfit released the excellent "Creciendo" in 2005 through the Musea and Mylodon labels. In order to prove that Jaime ROSAS CUARTETO is not just another mere studio avatar, the band went to Rio ArtRock Festival 2005 with the aim to show how brilliant its live performance can be.

Spanish Composer Ruperto Chapí was born in 1851 in Villena, Alicante province, where he began his musical studies at an early age. Showing an exceptional talent, he moved to Madrid at the age of sixteen, continuing his studies at the capital’s Conservatorio under the tutelage of Emilio Arrieta. After stints in Rome and Paris (where he met Saint-Saëns), he came back to Spain in 1880, where he began his affiliation with the world of zarzuela (Spanish lyric opera), eventually becoming one of the major exponents of this genre in the history of Spanish music. It is with his zarzuela La Tempestad (1882) that he achieves his first national success. Many more would follow during his lifetime, with over a hundred lyric works, including the one that made Chapí a household name in Spain, La Revoltosa (1897).