Federico Lorka

Since (at least) the Greeks, humorists, moralists and satirists have been fascinated by the artistic game of inversion, of “the world turned upside down”, which is how one might translate the title of this largely forgotten opera by Salieri. It here gets its first ever recording. Present an image of society turned on its head and you enable your audience/reader/viewer to see the actual way of things in a whole new light. Your aims may be to expose the follies and errors of the actual, to propose a better way of doing things, or simply to get some laughs from the resulting improbabilities and surprises - or, of course, a mixture of all these motives and more.

Works attributable with certainty to Nicolò Corradini (1585–1646) – likely from Cremona as opposed to Bergamo or Rome as erroneously suggested in the past – are limited to a few printed editions, among them the Primo libro de Canzoni francesi a 4 e alcune suonate (a copy of which has come down to us, printed by Gardano in Venice in 1624). It includes ten French canzonas and four sonatas, works most likely conceived to be performed by several instrumentalists, including one or more possible continuists (because of the speed of some passages and the separation between different parts of often more than an octave).

Praised by Gramophone as ‘one of the more original thinkers of his generation’, the Italian pianist Federico Colli is internationally recognised for his highly imaginative and philosophical interpretations and impeccable technique. This album is the first instalment of a new, intensely personal project for the pianist: an exploration of selected piano works by Mozart. It was the discovery (at the age of around six) of Mozart’s music that caught the imagination of the young Federico and inspired him to study music, and it was winning the International Piano Competition Mozart, in Salzburg, that launched his career as a pianist. His approach has been to immerse himself completely in Mozart’s own experience at the composition of each piece: where was Mozart living, what was he doing, what were his motivations behind each composition? Only after in-depth study of biographies of Mozart, his (and others’) letters, the historical, social, and political background, the Zeitgeist, the cultural atmosphere surrounding each work, does Colli then approach the scores and start the process of building his interpretations.

Following the recent, essential compendium of great organ music on 50CD (95310), Brilliant Classics turn to a valuable but lesser-known light in the early history of the organ, Giovanni Salvatore. Active in the middle of the 17th century, this Neapolitan musician was greatly esteemed during his lifetime. One contemporary commentator even placed him above Frescobaldi on the grounds that he could compose fine vocal works without confusing their style with organ music.