Rosaria Punzi

The festival "Suoni e Colori in Toscana" (Sounds and Colours in Tuscany) has, during the past years, become an important event. It has gained the unconditional approval of music lovers for the originality of its contents and for the quality of the music it offers.

This new recording brings together the chamber music that Schumann wrote featuring the clarinet, coupled with the clarinet trio by Glinka.Robert Schumann (1810-1856), visionary Romantic, was also a very practical man, who wrote works which could be played on various solo instruments. The Fantasiestücke Op. 73, the Drei Romanzen Op. 74 and the Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales) may be performed with either viola, oboe or clarinet.These relatively late works of Schumann are on an intimate scale and present idyllic musical landscapes, the world of legends and fairytales.

Bel canto and operatic reminiscences are present in all the compositions included in this cd. These works, in the wake of the melodic technicality that was typical of the nineteenth century Italian clarinet school, give the virtuoso Giovanni Punzi (First Soloist Clarinet of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Copenaghen) the chance to offer us a broad range of bravura displays. The album is a world premiere by Italian composers that with these living room fantasies are protagonists of the fervent musical life that underwent the powerful influence of the Italian melodrama that between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will hold the absolute primacy of the world music scene. Punzi is accompanied by pianist Amedeo Salvato and Calogero Presti at the small clarinet (for the duet from the Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini).

Maria du Toit is a South African clarinettist who currently lives in the Netherlands, where she profiles herself as soloist and chamber musician. She has performed as soloist with various orchestras on three different continents: the Sofia Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic, Free State Symphony Orchestra, Fort Collins Symphony, World Doctor’s Orchestra, Philharmonic Society of Corfu, Marine Band of the Royal Dutch Navy, Nieuw Nijmeegs Chamber Orchestra, Flemish-Brabant Symphony Orchestra, La Banda Municipal de Barcelona, as well as the Dutch Student Chamber Orchestra and Atheneum Chamber Orchestra.

Written during the last years of his life, The Sonatas op.120 for Clarinet and Piano and the Trio op.114 for Clarinet, cello are without any doubt considered among the best chamber music masterpieces ever written in history of the classical music. These works came after Brahms got aware of the unexpected tonal beauty and the unlimited extension of colours and dynamics of this wonderful instrument and represent one of his most magnificent testament to the music history.

Storicamente le aree geografiche del meridione d’Italia, soprattutto durante il periodo del Regno delle due Sicilie, erano famose e conosciute in tutt’Europa con il nome di “Bel Reame”, con un chiaro riferimento ai suoi splendidi paesaggi, alle sue straordinarie testimonianze artistiche e archeologiche, alla sua storia architettonica, ma anche alle peculiari caratteristiche del suo territorio, che spesso si sono mostrate in tutta la loro unicità attraverso straordinari fenomeni naturali.