Dmitry Skobelev Photography

Dimitry Sinkovsky is a dazzlingly multi-talented artist a brilliant violinist, countertenor, conductor, and founder in 2011 of the ensemble La Voce Strumentale. In Virtuosissimo, his fifth venture with Naïve, he has teamed up again with the ensemble Il Pomo dOro, his partners in numerous recordings and concerts, to cast more light on Pisendel, a celebrated violinist and composer who led the prestigious Dresden Court Orchestra, and a Vivaldi devotee who copied out several of the Venetian masters concertos for performance in Dresden.

Are the songs on this new double album musical letters between the genius composer siblings Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn? Through their joint musical training, the children of a pianist and a respected Jewish banker were musically kindred spirits; music was their soul language. Later they exchanged many entertaining and poetic letters about their compositions. The sister, three years older, was the closest advisor to the "child prodigy" Felix throughout his life. According to those who knew her, she was his equal as a pianist and composer.

With Water & Fire, B’Rock Orchestra and Dmitry Sinkovsky present Handel’s Water Music alongside his Music for the Royal Fireworks. Both spectacular works were written for royal open-air ceremonies, and may well have been drowned out by the noise of pyrotechnics and the waves of the Thames. Still, after Handel’s lifetime, they quickly became audience favourites. B’Rock performs these captivating suites with an ensemble that approaches the ca. 50 musicians that Handel originally employed, conveying the pomp and splendour of the occasion while also highlighting the coloristic richness and refinement of the score.

Glazunov’s beautifully scored incidental music for Lermontov’s play Masquerade has only survived in manuscript. With characteristic genius, he illustrates both the glittering atmosphere and dances of splendid St Petersburg balls and depicts the horrifying descent into madness of the play’s protagonist, Evgeny Arbenin, who jealously poisons his innocent wife. The shorter works on this disc likewise show Glazunov’s amazing command of orchestral resources, whether evoking an exotic oriental vision, the vivacious spirit of Hungarian music, in the Pas de caractère, or painting a mood of gentle romantic lyricism.