Giancarlo Alfano

This is, by operatic standards of fidelity, a very faithful musical treatment of Edmond Rostand's classic drama about the swashbuckling poet and swordsman with the big nose. The music is competent but not spectacular; that quality is found in the libretto. The title role is expertly filled by Roberto Alagna, who not only has the best tenor voice in France but also turns out to be an accomplished actor in a demanding role. He is well-supported by a cast that clearly loves the story, its various characters and its often brilliant dialogue.

John Cage (1912–92) is regarded as one of the most influential and controversial composers of the 20th century. It is not only his music that this reputation is based on – his ideas were revolutionary, and he cast doubt on the supremacy of European art, and music when it was unchallenged and such views were considered heretic. Cage rejected the status held by harmony, instrumentation, and even the development of music from one point to another. He disconnected harmony from rhythm to liberate western music from its hitherto privileged hierarchies – iconoclastic stuff for 1940s America!

For the first time complete (including 3 world CD premières): the piano works of Ildebrando Pizzetti. Pizzetti was a contemporary of Respighi, Malipiero and Casella. His style is retrospective, nostalgic and influenced by the Italian Belcanto. Excellent performances by Giancarlo Simonacci, a specialist in 20-th century music, as demonstrated in his superb recordings of the piano music of John Cage on Brilliant Classics. Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968) belonged to the group of Italian composers (the so called ‘Generation of the ‘80s’), his contemporaries were Respighi, Malipiero and Casella. Of these composers, Respighi and Pizzetti composed relatively little for the piano, and their works for the instrument tend recall music of the past - with echoes of baroque and Gregorian chant detected in many of them.

An expanded and remixed 10th Anniversary version of Tim Bowness and Giancarlo Erra’s 2011 album ‘Warm Winter’ (now issued as ‘Memories Of Machines’, the original project name).