D. C. Giancoli, Fisica 2 (ii o Iii Edizione), Casa Editrice Ambrosiana Contiene Ampia Raccolta di Esercizi C. Mencuccini, V. Silvestrini, Fisica II (iv Edizione), Casa Editrice Ambrosiana Contie

Queen Christina of Sweden was a lavish patron of music in her own kingdom - initially she mainly extended her patronage to French musicians but from 1652 it was largely Italian musicians whom she brought to her court in Stockholm. Having secretly converted to Catholicism, Christina abdicated in June of 1654 and almost immediately left Sweden - most of her valuable library had been smuggled out earlier - and made her way to Rome, her journey there seeming at times to be effectively a series of triumphal processions; there’s a fine account of all these events in Veronica Buckley’s Christina. Once established in Rome - where her arrival was greeted by special musical performances in the Palazzo Barberini, the Palazzo Pamphili and elsewhere - she soon became one of the city’s most active patrons of literature and music.

The Cologne-based historical-performance group Compagnia di Punto has mostly specialized in Baroque and Classical-period music, but here, perhaps due to the fact that the ill-fated year of 2020 marks Beethoven's 250th birthday, they offer arrangements of Beethoven's first three symphonies for a small orchestra. The group includes 13 players: four violinists, one each of viola, cello, and bass, two flutes, bassoon, and three horns. By now, most listeners realize that 19th century listeners, unable to just download the latest Beethoven symphony, relied on arrangements of this kind to hear new music, but the idea needs repetition and new recordings like this one.

Cleverly paired with two symphonies by C.P.E. Bach – written in 1755/56 and 1775/76 respectively – Beethoven’s first two contributions to the symphonic genre reveal the bubbling creativity of a thirty-year-old composer determined to go even further in the renewal of the genre than another, very recent reference, Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’. So much is clear from the very first chord of his Symphony no.1! Relive this decisive moment in the company of the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, under the guidance of their Konzertmeister Bernhard Forck.

The repertoire for recorder slowly dissipated after the Baroque era only emerging occasionally throughout subsequent eras but becoming reliant on transcriptions primarily thereafter. The La Cicela Ensemble's 'Naples 1759' spotlights works for recorder and chamber ensemble that did emerge ever so briefly and in small quantity during 1759 though the provenance of these pieces are not entirely certain, with some speculated to have been written earlier; still, these world premiere recordings in the hands of La Cicela directed by the recorder player Inês D'Avena are given a spirited performance.

A beautifully-packaged 50-disc box set, released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, one of the most important and adventurous early music labels. The set contains 50 classic recordings of baroque and ancient music, chosen to represent the breadth of this huge and varied catalogue and each disc is slip-cased with artwork replicating the original CD or LP artwork.

Here Bachs Trio Sonatas BWV 525-530 for organ have been re-imagined in historically informed arrangements for baroque chamber ensemble, made in the spirit of Bach, himself a serial re-arranger of his own works. They are performed by the Tempesta di Mare Chamber Players, an early-music ensemble described by Fanfare as one of the finest in the world.

The violinist, cellist, flutist and oboist Robert Valentine (Leicester, 1671 - Rome, 1747) was a prolific author of sonatas - especially for recorder - and an instrumentalist engaged in the musical life of Rome, the city where he moved, in a period between 1693 and 1700, from his native England. Valentine belonged to a group – not very large but quite important for their excellent performative qualities – of virtuosos of wind instruments (oboe and also flute) who in the first half of the eighteenth century moved to Italy, also to make up for some shortage of instrumentalists in this sector, even if recent researches show, especially in Naples, a great vivacity of local schools even for what concerns wind musicians. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, between Rome, Naples and Florence, we discover the presence of at least four foreign instrumentalists: the oboists / flutists Ignatio Rion (active in Venice, Rome and finally in Naples), Ignazio Sieber (Venice), Ludwig Erdmann (Florence) and finally Robert Valentine. The work of this English-born musician greatly fostered the development of flute music in Italy. His work as a composer and performer places him among the most prolific authors of original music for recorder of the period.