Sûpâ Mario Yosshî Airando

Anton Bruckner's early symphonies are not as widely performed or recorded as his mature works, so Mario Venzago's double-disc on CPO of the Symphony in D minor, called "No. 0" or "Die Nullte," and the Symphony No. 1 in C minor is a stand-out from the nearly unstoppable run of recordings of the Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth. Venzago and the Tapiola Sinfonietta give exceptional performances that have technical polish and expressive warmth, and the charm the musicians draw out of these pieces makes one wonder why they aren't more popular. Certainly, both symphonies approach the later ones in expansiveness and seriousness, and there's more than a little Brucknerian sonic grandeur in these fledgling efforts. Yet even though these are works of the late 1860s, the music is still strongly governed by Classical models, and because the influence of Richard Wagner is absent in the symphonies prior to the Third, listeners who ordinarily find Bruckner too complicated, heavy, and ponderous may find these lighter works more accessible and enjoyable.

Gidon Kremer and Mario Brunello pay tribute to Beethoven by presenting two of his most famous quartets in a version for string orchestra played by Kremerata Baltica. The ensembles founder Gidon Kremer directs op.131 from the violin, while Mario Brunello conducts op. 135 and adds two contemporary pieces, one by Leo Ferre, the revolutionary, anarchic, inspired singer-songwriter and great lover of Beethoven: Muss es sein? Es muss sein! We perform this hymn to free music in a version arranged by Valter Sivilotti for cello, strings and percussion with Ferres original voice Note sconte means hidden notes in Venetian dialect.

In this wonderful DSD 256 recording, cellist Lorenzo Meseguer and pianist Mario Mora bring together four composers who have historically been undervalued. From Fanny Mendelssohn’s Fantasia to Gustav Jenner’s Sonata in D major, the album also includes Felix Mendelssohn’s Sonata op. 58, a masterpiece for this combination, and an arrangement for cello and piano of Clara Schumann’s Three Romances op. 22.

After the success of their Tartini disc (Arcana 478, Diapason d'or, 5 stars from Musica), Mario Brunello and the Accademia dell'Annunciata return for an ingenious collection of six concertos, all of which are transcriptions of other works. Not only do we hear the keyboard arrangements of Venetian concertos such as Marcello's famous oboe concerto and Vivaldi's Violin Concerto RV230, but also reconstructed concertos by Bach such as those for oboe and oboe d'amore (BWV 1056 and 1055) and those that have come down to us in their original version — from the Violin Concerto BWV 1042 up to and including the renowned Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto BWV 971.

Mario Schifano was a leading Italian pop artist, and a friend of The Rolling Stones and other prominent 1960s countercultural figures. Inspired by Andy Warhol's association with The Velvet Underground, in 1967 he decided to sponsor a band. The album that resulted combines a lengthy improvisation with five shorter, psychedelic-influenced tracks, and is a landmark in the development of Italian rock. Pressed in tiny quantities, it was released in November 1967 (with artwork designed by Schifano), and original copies have sold for thousands of Euros, making this long-awaited CD reissue especially welcome. Includes background notes.