Heinrich Best

Richard Wagner, the most controversial figure the arts have ever seen, whose music can move and overwhelm like no other, continues to divide the spirits even today. The year 2013, when we celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth, is inevitably going to be devoted to the man and his work.
The Complete Wagner Operas offers the best of Deutsche Grammophon, two operas each from Decca and the BBC and EMIs Rienzi.

Luigi Zenobi, a virtuoso cornetist known as Luigi del cornetto, was born in Ancona in the mid-sixteenth century. He later moved to Vienna, where he entered the service of the Emperor Maximilian II. His reputation grew and he subsequently worked for the Este family in Ferrara, where he was the most respected and best-paid musician at court up to that time, so sought-after were his talents. Luigi was also a painter, poet, miniaturist and music scholar. An eyewitness recalled the delicacy of his playing: softer than the harpsichord when its lid is closed. Giovanni Sansoni, a composer and cornetist probably originally from Venice, was born around 1593. He was engaged by Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Graz in 1613 and followed him to Vienna when he became Emperor in 1619.

Although known almost exclusively for his instrumental concertos and the spurious Adagio attributed to him, Tomaso Albinoni was mainly a man of the theater; he composed 81 operas and, late in life, made his living as a singing coach. However, the best efforts of posterity to catch up with Albinoni's operatic creations are significantly stymied by the fact that only three of his stage works are fully extant, the rest preserved only in occasional and fugitive fragments in the form of single arias and other bits and pieces. "Il Nascimento dell'Aurora" is a serenata – or more specifically, a "festa pastorale" – a kind of courtly entertainment not really meant to be specifically dramatic or compelling and, in this case, dealing with the birth of Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora ….

Eduardo Paniagua, Música Antigua - La viola organista de Leonardo da Vinci (2011) {Pneuma PN-1340}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 309 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 129 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 Pneuma | Colección Histórica-Renacimiento Series | PN-1340
Classical / Renaissance / 15th Century / 16th Century / Early Music / Viola organista

A Concert of Renaissance Music played on instruments designed by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). This recording is an adventure through music which brings us closer to one of the most brilliant and unsettling characters in history. Leonardo da Vinci worked in nearly all the branches of knowledge that existed at his time, including music, although he is best known as the artist who painted the Gioconda or the Last Supper in Milan. He was a painter, draughtsman, sculptor, engineer, architect, musician, philosopher and inventor. He personified the great Renaissance era more than almost anybody else.