Federico Lorka

Il Farnace is the most re-written and re-proposed of Vivaldi’s operas, it’s like a beloved child who worries his father, and to whom the parent always wants to give the best. Versions of Farnace, two in 1727 and one each in 1730, 1731 and 1732, had been conceived and adapted to the different circumstances for Venice, Prague, Pavia and Mantua, always with a cast to Vivaldi’s satisfaction and with the composer in control of the production.

Robert Schumann considered Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner the most promising operatic composer in the country, yet despite his 21 operas he has been almost forgotten. Like most leading German composers of his time he took Meyerbeer’s historical grand operas, conceived in Paris, as his model. Set in Sicily at the dawn of the 1848 revolution, Il vespro siciliano (‘Die sizilianische Vesper’ / ‘The Sicilian Vespers’) is a dramatic four-act opera that reveals why he was held in such esteem by Schumann, Spohr and Mendelssohn: expressive harmonies, folksong-like strophic songs, rich orchestration, the use of the latest stylistic devices, and tuneful bel canto melodies that point to the work’s Franco-Italian lineage.

L'Arte dell'Arco now at last has recorded more instrumental works by the composer Francesco Veracini for cpo. The first release met with a unanimously enthusiastic response: »Here everything fits perfectly; here instrumentalists perform with passion; here a very great ensemble is revealed. The team effort is fascinating; here musicians, friends, and kindred spirits are at work. CD of the Month« (Toccata 1/10). The goal of this project is to record Veracinis complete overtures and violin concertos and to combine them with a selection of his most interesting sonatas from the collection without opus number (1716) and his Opus 1 (1721). When these three groups of works are juxtaposed, Veracinis various stylistic characters come into even clearer view.

The most beautiful arias from the Vivaldi Edition: Orlando Furioso, Atenaide, Farnace, Teuzzone, Armida, La Fida Ninfa, Orlando 1714, Griselda, Ottone in villa and much more. The album includes outstanding singers and arias that were sensational discoveries when first introduced in this series.

First recording of Pericoli’s 6 Cello Sonatas. Little is known about the life of Pasquale Pericoli, who lived and worked in the second half of the 18th century. He is known to have produced operas in Stockholm for some years, he himself claimed to be of Neapolitan origin. His Neapolitan roots certainly are betrayed in his 6 Cello Sonatas, in which the formal structure of the Sonata (albeit in embryonic form, not yet fully developed as in the Classical Period) is imbued with melodic charm and cantabile, the cello seeming to sing instead of play.

There is a story about Arnold Schoenberg that bears retelling now. He was in the midst of teaching a class at UCLA when a colleague burst in excitedly proclaiming "Arnold! I am just hearing Verklärte Nacht mit HORNS!" Amid much startled posturing the two rushed out to destinations unknown, leaving the class unacknowledged. But all the various arrangements of Schoenberg’s work (I’ve never heard it with horns, but the string orchestra version with timpani is quite a good one) don’t begin to compare with the numerous outrages wreaked upon this helpless Vivaldi composition.

This recording of La Daunia Felice ideally concludes a project of study and research that began in 1997 with the Study Seminar organised on the occasion of the bicentenary of the wedding of the heirs to the throne of Naples. In 2002 the Umberto Giordano Conservatory and the Foggia City Authorities promoted the first modern-day scenic performance in the restored Teatro Giordano. Paisiello’s La Daunia Felice was staged in Foggia on 25th June 1797 for the wedding of Prince Francesco, heir apparent to the throne of Naples, to the Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria.

Handel's masterpiece Rinaldo is based on Torquato Tasso's epic La Gerusalemme liberata, which tells the tale of the attempted seduction of the hero by the enchantress Armida against the backdrop of the First Crusade. Musicologists agree that Handel carried out a major cut-and-paste exercise with Rinaldo, as more than two thirds of his 1711 score was taken from earlier works. This particular production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has since travelled to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Putting aside practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, its durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of 'hyperbaroque' that deliberately avoids both literalism and cheap provocation.