Fabio Scoto

A delightful anthology of lovely songs transcribed for clarinet and strings by Fabian Müller that will surely be welcomed by all lovers of the clarinet – and indeed perhaps appeal to followers of the morning radio programmes of Classic FM, who often feature miniature masterpieces of this kind. Fabio Di Càsola creates a true vocal line. He plays gently and phrases persuasively, with warmly beautiful timbre, so that one hardly misses the words of these outstanding songs (except perhaps in Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’, Grieg’s ‘Ich liebe dich’ and Schumann’s ‘Mondnacht’).

Mayr had established himself as a highly successful composer by the beginning of the 19th century. Medea in Corinto is one of his best-known operas, based on a libretto by Felice Romani. For decades after its 1813 première at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, it provided one of the speciality roles for Isabella Colbran and Giuditta Pasta. In this recording, Italian conductor Fabio Luisi gives an intense reading of Mayr’s music and masterfully underlines its deep psychological dimensions, enhancing the drama that unfolds on stage. Luisi, a Grammy Award-winning artist, is also principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and general music director of the Zurich Opera. Michael Spyres and Enea Scala, take the important roles of Jason and Aegeus. The role of Medea is entrusted to the Spanish soprano Davinia Rodriguez, who effortlessly delivers Act I’s demanding cavatina with obbligato violin, usually omitted in most productions.

Composed for the Carnival season in Verona in 1735, Bajazet is a ‘pasticcio’ opera based on the familiar story of the eponymous Turkish sultan’s imprisonment at the hands of the Tartar tyrant Tamerlane. As such, it openly uses arias by other composers, including Hasse, Broschi and Giacomelli, as well as re-cycled pieces from Vivaldi’s own operas (L’Olimpiade, Giustino, Farnace, Semiramide and Montezuma among them). But this is no mere patchwork of recycled numbers. All the ‘borrowed’ arias are expertly placed within the dramatic fabric of the work and are held together with richly composed recitatives. What we end up with is the best of the best in terms of Neapolitan-style opera – tuneful, virtuosic and passionate. Virtually every number in this recording is a highlight. What really lifts the recording is the quality of the performances. There are no holes or flaws among the experienced cast.

Fabio Bonizzoni returns with his long-awaited new recording of Handel’s 'Aci, Galatea e Polifemo'. Who better to team up with Bonizzoni, performing the role of the luckless shepherd Aci, than scintillating soprano Roberta Invernizzi. Her captivating contributions to Glossa's Handel series with La Risonanza as well as her 'I Viaggi di Faustina' have drawn powerful critical plaudits, including more than one disc of the Month.

The Clemenza di Tito, which goes back to an original libretto by Pietro Metastasio, known even the educated music lover in general only in the version of Mozart (1791), which represents a late culmination of the genus Opera seria. The material was particularly popular in the Age of Enlightenment, no less than 46 different versions are known, some come from greats of the musical life of the time such as Hasse, Gluck, Jommelli, Traetta, Anfossi and Myslivecek. Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785) was already a mature man and highly respected composer when he created his version for the Venice carnival season in 1760. It was his 65th opera, but there is no sign of fatigue in the score.

With this second contribution to the Vivaldi Edition, Fabio Biondi and his ensemble Europa Galante sign here the recording of the twentieth opera of the collection - a pasticcio in which Vivaldi ‘recycles’ hit tunes from the ‘World of Warcraft’ operas of his contemporaries.

Discovered by Michael Talbot in 1973, the 12 sonatas of the Manchester manuscript are generally considered the high point of the composer’s chamber music. They are performed here by Fabio Biondi, one of the most authoritative Vivaldi performers, accompanied by an allstar continuo group: Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rolf Lislevand, Paolo Pandolfo and Maurizio Naddeo.