Piccinni

Johann Christian Bach, the only member of his family to have had any career in the opera house, began writing for the stage in Italy, continued in London and Mannherm and ended in Paris. This work is the last of his operas, written in 1779 to a revision of the libretto by Quinault that Lully had set almost a century before. It was not a success; there were only seven performances and it was never revived. One can, I think, see some of the reasons why it failed to please the French audiences at the time of the Gluck/Piccinni controversies, but there is nevertheless some superlative music here which certainly affects our view of J. C. Bach, whom we tend to regard above all as an elegant, galant composer of courtly, Italianate QG symphonies and chamber music.

Sandrine Piau and Véronique Gens have a longstanding rapport and dreamed of making a recording together. Here they pay tribute to two singers who, like them, were born within a year of each other, Mme Dugazon (1755-1821) and Mme Saint-Huberty (1756-1812): both enjoyed triumphant careers in Paris, inspiring numerous librettists and composers. Gluck even nicknamed Saint-Huberty ‘Madamela- Ressource’, while ‘a Dugazon’ became a generic name for the roles of naïve girls in love, and later of comical mothers. Rivals? They very likely were, given the quarrelsome spirit of the operatic world of the time, even if they never crossed paths on stage.

This 20cd box set dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the music of versailles. The box set is beautifully packaged with complete english translations featuring distinguished baroque artists such as les arts florissant's with william christie, les musiciens du louvre with marc minkowski, les talens lyriques with christophe rousset, paul agnew, bernarda fink, veronique gens, patricia petibon and many more. The majority of these recordings have been recorded live during the festival at versailles palace and have never been commercially available. Approximately 5% has been licensed from warners and glossa. It is manufactured in france and put out by the centre of baroque music in versailles.

Philippe Jaroussky - Caldara in Vienna (Forgotten Castrato Arias)
Concerto Köln / Emmanuelle Haim - Philippe Jaroussky
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 330 MB | Full Artwork: 519 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Virgin Classics # 50999 641927 2 7 | Country/Year: Europe 2010
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Vocal, Castrato

"…It would be hard to imagine a more compelling case for this material than that made by Jaroussky and Emmanuelle Haïm, who plays harpsichord and conducts Concerto Köln. They invest this music with such life and devote such exquisite attention to its nuances that the album fully deserves the attention of fans of the Baroque or Vivaldi, or of anyone who simply cherishes hearing terrifically talented and spirited performers giving their all to music they clearly love. The album is beautifully produced and has clean, vibrant, and natural sound, with excellent balance." ~allmusicguide

For 10 years, I’ve never had an urge to make CD as leader. I needed an encounter. Then, I met Domenico Sanna. I talked about my favorite music and shared all with him. To remember such our encounter, we decided to enter into studio, in duo, in which the swing, melodies, interplays can be more intimate and crystallized. I hope people don’t care absence of drums, instruments developed for, and with jazz. We played some standards and our compositions, where swing combines with our sentiments totally set free…

Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) was a Neapolitan composer whom academics have sometimes pushed as the missing link between Pergolesi and the full flowering of the early Classical style. Niccolò Jommelli and Gluck Piccinni were among his students, and his own operas feature smooth, lightly accompanied arias that do seem to look forward to the spirit of Gluck and even Mozart. Several recordings of the early 2000s have unearthed his almost-forgotten instrumental music, with liner notes chiding listeners (in the words of the present disc) "so entirely enamored with Vivaldi…that they have ignored music derived from other circles or styles."