This album is a story of family and friendship. Positioned between homage to a father figure and modernity, the viola da gamba sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian Bach are a revealing element in the history of the Bach family and its ties of friendship with two families of virtuoso instrumentalists, the Abels and the Hesses, who had already inspired the work of Johann Sebastian.
Mauro Borgioni (bass) dedicates this CD to the composer Cazzati. The focus is on solo motets for bass with concertante voices, for which he has enlisted the Ensemble Seicento Stravagante with organ, cornett and violin. The vocal works are complemented by instrumental sonatas by Cazzati.
Zubin Mehta’s tenure of over 16 years as the musical director of the ‘LA Phil’ marks an important chapter in the orchestra’s history. The recorded portrait of the musical partnership between the first American orchestra to be exclusively contracted by a British recording company and the dynamic maestro is explored here in this new edition.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s six ‘Milanese’ quartets constitute a milestone in his artistic activity. Written between Bolzano and Milan between 1772 and 1773, they came a few years after the Quartet K80/73f that he had composed in Lodi during his first Italian visit. More than that work, these six pieces – conceived before Mozart left the Milanese public with his third and last work for the Lombard capital, Lucio Silla K135 – constitute one of the first organic sets of string quartets ever conceived. Though based on the model of Haydn, they reveal Mozart’s modern spirit, capable of following a new path and enriching it with his own personal contribution. Thirty years after the first and only recording of these works on period instruments by the Festetics Quartet, here is the recording debut of a young Italian ensemble, with the bonus of the first ever historically informed recording of the Quartet K156’s original second movement.