Francesco Orlando

In 1968, six former choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge established the King’s Singers, later described by The Times as “the superlative vocal sextet”. The group has always comprised two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass, and over the years it has proved consistently exceptional for vocal distinction and breadth and diversity of repertoire. This celebratory collection of eight CDs focuses on Renaissance composers from Italy, England, France, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries.

Goffredo Petrassi (1904-2003) - Piano Concerto, Flute Concerto - Canino, Ancillotti, Rome Symphony, La Vecchia (2014) {Digital Download}
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© 2014 Naxos | 8.573073
Classical / 20th Century / Concerto

Goffredo Petrassi’s long creative life was marked by ceaseless absorption of ideas and by constant invention. His Flute Concerto is notable for its boldness of design and the surprise of its unorthodox sound world, where instruments rotate in block form. The Piano Concerto is more overtly virtuosic, even showing some influence from Prokofiev. The orchestral suite drawn from the ballet La follia di Orlando (The Madness of Orlando) is often clothed in Petrassi’s experimental orchestral sonorities.

Due at least in part to Naïve's growing catalogue of exemplary recordings of the relatively obscure operas of Antonio Vivaldi, more and more singers are happily turning to his vast operatic output as a source of new material. Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozená brings an earthy emotionality to this selection of arias that is weighted toward the ravishingly lyrical, but which also includes the floridly virtuosic.

This series of state-of-the-art recordings by the Sistine Chapel Choir for Deutsche Grammophon makes an authoritative and profoundly beautiful case for the continuing relevance of Humanist, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces in the Papal Celebrations of the 21stCentury, and in the wider world. This album breathes new contemporary life into a precious tradition at the highest artistic level and transfers its listeners into a meditative, peaceful and conscious state.