In Principio

Here are some prime works by Vivaldi that are not hot from a recording studio, but bring a new Nibiru title to our catalogue. They feature Ensemble Inegal and Prague Baroque Soloists conducted by Adam Viktora, who are legendary for their performances of music by Zelenka. We know lots about him, but it is unclear if Antonio Vivaldi ever actually visited the Czech lands - Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. Certainly his music was circulating there, as some of his operas appeared in Prague.

LEIPZIG is now touted as the “New Berlin”, a mecca for vogueish twenty-somethings who are drawn by the cheap rents in the city and an artistic vibe. In 1989 the former East German industrial hub was said to have the most polluted air in the country, but the city’s illustrious past lives on. Despite extensive bombing of the city in World War II, the famous Thomaskirche and its associated Thomasschule, one of the oldest schools in the world and where the choristers are educated, survive and flourish. The Gewandhaus orchestra, with origins dating to the time of Johann Sebastian Bach in the 1740s, is known as one of the world’s finest symphony orchestras. This recording gives us a picture of musical life in Leipzig some 300 years ago, spanning the consecutive careers of three composers who led the musical activities in the city. The programme demonstrates the connection between JS Bach and his two predecessors. Bach based the general shape of his Magnificat on that of Kuhnau’s, and it was first performed in 1723, the year Bach took over as cantor in Leipzig after Kuhnau’s death. The short Schelle piece provides a rousing advent introduction.

The fame of Father Giambattista Martini is largely due to the activity as a historiographer, theoretician and teacher of music unceasingly carried out by him in the Bolognese convent of S. Francesco: his monumental Storia della musica, the first history of music ever written in Italian and published in Italy, was hailed by the most distinguished personalities of that period, who unanimously praised his deep erudition; and a great number of young composers and musicographers from all over Europe, wishing to learn the secrets of this art, stopped in Bologna to receive a training or perfect their knowledge under his guidance.

Here are some prime works by Vivaldi that are not hot from a recording studio, but bring a new Nibiru title to our catalogue. They feature Ensemble Inegal and Prague Baroque Soloists conducted by Adam Viktora, who are legendary for their performances of music by Zelenka.

In June 1995, a virtually unknown group of Japanese musicians embarked on the monumental task of recording the complete sacred cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Almost eighteen years later, on 23rd February 2013, the Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki – by then household names in the international music world – reached their goal, as they finished recording the 55th disc in a series which in the meantime had met with overwhelming acclaim worldwide. Made in conjunction with the final cantata recording, this film commemorates the occasion. Besides filmed performances of the three last cantatas – Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV191, Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV69 and Freue dich, erlöste Schar, BWV30 – the film includes interviews with Masaaki Suzuki and key members of Bach Collegium Japan as well as behind-the-scenes footage.

Pergolesi Year 2010 marks the birth 300 years ago of a first rank composer and singular voice. Claudio Abbado's affinity for Pergolesi is a joy to the ear and balm to the soul. The introductory album of maestro's Pergolesi Project, the famous Stabat Mater, was rapturously received by the press.

Roberto Tigani directs Orchestra dell'Accademia Romana "Arcangelo Corelli" and soprano Claudia Toti in a performance of three rarely recorded Italian sacred works.
The manuscript for the mass by Scarlatti was discovered in the 1950s in the archives of the Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. It brings to eleven his surviving masses. It is the only know copy and lacks both the Benedictus and the Angus Dei.

Julia Lezhneva, Franco Fagioli and Diego Fasolis: three stars of the Baroque unite to record Vivaldi’s most popular choral work. Julia Lezhneva – “a serene, sleek voice, beatific in timbre, with a bell-like resonance” (Financial Times) – adds the glorious solo motet Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera. Franco Fagioli – “one of today's great vocal technicians” (The Guardian) – records the Nisi Dominus with its haunting ‘Cum Dederit’. Diego Fasolis and I Barocchisti are today’s Vivaldi interpreters par excellence.

Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus, RV 807, was added to the Vivaldi canon only in 2005; it was long attributed to Baldassare Galuppi. That shows you how minor composers don't get their due; it's a marvelous work, but it's only getting recordings now that Vivaldi's name is attached to it. At any rate, it's well worth hearing in this excellent performance by the rising British group La Nuova Musica, which has both vocal and instrumental components. They move like a well-oiled machine, making possible the clear communication of such vivid details as the musical depiction of a stream in the strings in the countertenor aria De torrente in via bibet (track 8) and the unusually elaborate fugue that concludes the work.

Josquin des Prez was unquestionably one of the greatest composers of Renaissance Europe. His works generally fall into one of three principal categories: motets, masses, and chansons. While his masses and chansons are consistently remarkable, it was in his motets that Josquin gave full reign to his creativity. This release featuring Daniel Reuss and Cappella Amsterdam offers a selection of Josquin's secular homages and sacred polyphony, focusing on the title work, a setting of the Miserere, which became a model for many composers that followed. This is the first of three albums from Cappella Amsterdam devoted to Franco-Flemish masters of the Renaissance.