Sierra Aria

Nadine Sierra’s childhood intuition – that she was born to sing opera – has proved correct in every way and is reflected in the title of her second solo album for DG. The dramatic presence, searing passion and technical brilliance for which the American lyric soprano regularly scores rave reviews are captured in Made for Opera, which trains the spotlight on three of the most demanding roles in the repertoire – Verdi’s Violetta, Donizetti’s Lucia and Gounod’s Juliette. Recorded with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai and Capella Cracoviensis under Riccardo Frizza, the album not only reflects Nadine Sierra’s command of bel canto technique and rich range of vocal colours, but also documents her insights into the psychology of the ill-starred heroines of La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor and Roméo et Juliette.

The comic-heroic romp Matilde di Shabran was Rossini’s last commission for the theatres of Rome, the city where he’d had great successes such as Il barbiere di Siviglia. Rossini took advantage of the agile, sparkling style of librettist Jacopo Ferretti to create a narrative in which the ferocious Corradino, a declared misogynist, is introduced to the resourceful Matilde, who succeeds in melting his iron heart and winning his love. This premiere recording revives the original 1821 Rome version, which was conducted at the last minute by Paganini, and caused brawling in the streets between Rossini’s admirers and detractors.

Based on an epic poem by Niccolò Forteguerri and set in the times of the Crusades, Ricciardo e Zoraide is a drama full of infatuations and jealousy, imprisonment and murderous plots, concluding with a gallant rescue and a benevolent outcome. The problems of such a complex and intense libretto were solved by Rossini through sheer dramatic skill, sophisticated melodic inventiveness, an emphasis on contrasts between dark and light, and the innovative and extensive use of on-stage musicians. This rarely heard opera is a true bel canto feast that reinvents the long tradition of chivalrous tales that still fascinate us today.

Introducing American soprano Nadine Sierra with her debut album, There’s A Place for Us. The album is not only a showcase of her stunning, MET-seasoned vocalism but also a reflection of America’s history as a refuge for all. In this spirit, the album features music by Leonard Bernstein and émigrés Igor Stravinsky and Osvaldo Golijov, as well as songs from Heitor Villa-Lobos in homage to Sierra’s Portuguese roots. Offering her sumptuous voice in a range of genres from Brazilian art music to American opera and art song, Sierra reminds us that all music and all people have a place in America.

Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1682-1732) left his hometown Florence, in which he had already been a lute player under Kardinals Francesco Maria de Medici in his teens, with 19 he applied to the royal palace of Austria. He also worked in Bernlin, where he met Giovanni Bononcini, and London. 1708 Conti became royal theorbe player in Vienna, from 1713 he was royal composer, writing operas, oratories, cantatas, Musicae sacrae, and a few instrumental pieces. Both as a instrumentalist and composer Conti was able to succeed. Sadly today he still is one of the big unresearched composers.

Facce d’amore, ‘Faces of love’ follows Jakub Józef Orliński’s first solo album, Anima Sacra, which moved Gramophone magazine to announce that “This is a voice with a big future.” It brings a switch from the sacred to the personal and passionate. As the Polish-born, New York-trained countertenor says, the programme – which includes eight world premiere recordings – comprises “operatic arias that tell a story, showing a musical picture of a male lover in the baroque era – not only the positive side, like joyful or reciprocated love, but also anger or even madness.” Spanning some 85 years of the baroque period, the arias on Facce d’amore are by Handel, Cavalli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Bononcini, Conti, Hasse, Orlandini, Predieri and Matteis. Orliński is again partnered by the instrumentalists of Il Pomo d’Oro and their Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev.

The Habsburg Imperial Court was a melting pot of many different cultures in which the zest for living of southerners, the Slav melancholy, French formalism, Spanish courtliness and the original German-speaking Alpine cultural region intermingled. Together with his Ars Antiqua Austria ensemble, Gunar Letzbor occupied himself over a ten year period to produce this 10CD "Klang der Kulturen" box, a musical tour of the individual countries that formed the roots of and influences on the music of baroque Vienna, documenting them in live recordings, with each CD representing one country.

Arthur Schoonderwoerd, one of today's most sought-after interpreters on the fortepiano, presents the fourth part of his complete recording of Mozart's piano concertos on the Accent label with this release of the two early Piano Concertos, KV238 and KV246. As on their previous issues, Schoonderwoerd and his ensemble Cristofori here liberate Mozart's works from traditional 19th-century sound concepts: each string part in the orchestra is played by just one performer; the result is a very slender, transparent sound that supports the solo instrument without ever covering it up.