Forgotten City

Talk about forgotten composers! Marcos Portugal (1762-1830) composed some 50 operas, all of which have disappeared. This present one was premiered in 1797 in Venice but the version recorded is one that was reassembled for Lisbon in 1804. Shorn of what I can only assume were the quasi-endless recitatives that were in style at that time in farces, what we get is 69 minutes of delightful music that makes you want to hear more of this Portuguese composer. Rossini might've been pleased with the plot about two women, one a Countess and the other a peddler, who have their identities switched by a playful magician/pilgrim and who wind up better for it (and their husbands) when all is set right.

Recorded in association with a live performance from Birmingham's Symphony Hall last year, this account of Stanford's Requiem rescues a magnificent work from wholly unjustified neglect. The performance of Charles Villiers Stanford's forgotten late-Victorian masterpiece, marking 125 years since the premiere of the Requiem at the Birmingham Triennial Festival, featured a number of international soloists alongside Brabbins including Carolyn Sampson and Marta Fontanal-Simmons (both Birmingham alumni), with James Way and Ross Ramgobin.