Simply Verona

The tradition of presenting operas in the Arena of Verona was inaugurated by Aida when it was performed there in 1913. The wide-open spaces of this opera-the blue skies and fragrant forests of Ethiopia, the starry nights on the Nile-and its picture of Egypt's ancient civilisation found their ideal setting in the grandeur of this centuries-old Roman amphitheatre and in the open air of Verona's summer nights.

Since (at least) the Greeks, humorists, moralists and satirists have been fascinated by the artistic game of inversion, of “the world turned upside down”, which is how one might translate the title of this largely forgotten opera by Salieri. It here gets its first ever recording. Present an image of society turned on its head and you enable your audience/reader/viewer to see the actual way of things in a whole new light. Your aims may be to expose the follies and errors of the actual, to propose a better way of doing things, or simply to get some laughs from the resulting improbabilities and surprises - or, of course, a mixture of all these motives and more.

Manuscript number Mus. Ms. 31528 of the British Library, London, is a collection of 46 undated works for violoncello. Of these at least 30 are autograph works from Giuseppe Dall’Abaco (a mix of solo sonatas with basso continuo, 2 virtuoso cello duos, as well as 1 ‘Duetto’ of debatable provenance) including his unpublished „Op.1“ (XII Sonate | Per il Violoncello, e Basso | Del Sig. Giuseppe Barone | Dall’Abaco). The very high quality script, along with the appearance of bass figures at critical moments, strongly suggests that this set of pieces was in preparation for publication. The manuscripts of the remaining 18 sonatas are not so carefully prepared, including scribbled revisions, and are in need of some final corrections. Furthermore, the bass line appears almost entirely without figures, leaving ambiguity as to which instrument(s) would have made up the continuo section.

Manuscript number Mus. Ms. 31528 of the British Library, London, is a collection of 46 undated works for violoncello. Of these at least 30 are autograph works from Giuseppe Dall’Abaco (a mix of solo sonatas with basso continuo, 2 virtuoso cello duos, as well as 1 ‘Duetto’ of debatable provenance) including his unpublished „Op.1“ (XII Sonate | Per il Violoncello, e Basso | Del Sig. Giuseppe Barone | Dall’Abaco). The very high quality script, along with the appearance of bass figures at critical moments, strongly suggests that this set of pieces was in preparation for publication. The manuscripts of the remaining 18 sonatas are not so carefully prepared, including scribbled revisions, and are in need of some final corrections. Furthermore, the bass line appears almost entirely without figures, leaving ambiguity as to which instrument(s) would have made up the continuo section.

Manuscript number Mus. Ms. 31528 of the British Library, London, is a collection of 46 undated works for violoncello. Of these at least 30 are autograph works from Giuseppe Dall’Abaco (a mix of solo sonatas with basso continuo, 2 virtuoso cello duos, as well as 1 ‘Duetto’ of debatable provenance) including his unpublished „Op.1“ (XII Sonate | Per il Violoncello, e Basso | Del Sig. Giuseppe Barone | Dall’Abaco). The very high quality script, along with the appearance of bass figures at critical moments, strongly suggests that this set of pieces was in preparation for publication. The manuscripts of the remaining 18 sonatas are not so carefully prepared, including scribbled revisions, and are in need of some final corrections. Furthermore, the bass line appears almost entirely without figures, leaving ambiguity as to which instrument(s) would have made up the continuo section.

Italian label Stradivarius is actively recording all 86 known works of Veronese composer Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco and a previous entry consisting of trio sonatas from Dall'Abaco's Opp. 1 & 3 was quite good. This follow-up recording of concertos, Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco: Concerto à più Istrumenti Opera Quinta, taken from Dall'Abaco's Op. 5, though, is really quite outstanding thanks to the performers involved, the Veronese Baroque orchestra Il Tempio Armonico, whose first commercial recording this is. The group has a terrific sense of ensemble dynamics, and the swells of volume in the Allegro of Dall'Abaco's Concerto Op. 5/3 are placed exactly where they should be, flowing right along with the music.