Stile Antico

The Spanish label Glossa seems to be releasing a fair amount of sacred music, especially from the Neapolitan realms of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as the rerelease of the Alessandro Scarlatti Lamentations reviewed elsewhere, though to be fair they are also a conduit, as in this recording, for other European firms as well. This selection of late 17th-century Lessons from Holy Week, along with a few instrumental works for filler, fits nicely within Glossa’s repertoire, which includes Johann Sebastian Bach and Pierre Bouteiller, in addition to a rather quirky offering titled Monteverdi Meets Jazz .

Jordi Savall - Bach - Messe en si mineur, BWV 232 (2012) {2CD Alia Vox AVDVD 9896 A/D}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 508 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 240 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 136 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Alia Vox | AVDVD 9896 A/D
Classical / Baroque

During the final years of his life, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) created the monumental body of music that can be considered his “Testament”, comprising the Musical Offering, the Art of Fugue and the B minor Mass. This latter work is a perfect synthesis of all his skill and flair in the art of composition (and essentially in that of counterpoint), as well as his gift for invention and his extraordinary sense of form, structure and number.

This studio album from soprano Angela Gheorghiu sometimes has almost the flavor of experiment as she tries to find new roles in the verismo repertory to replace the Puccini heroines with which she made her reputation. The results are a mixed bag, but for those specifically interested in verismo the album is probably a must-have: It's rare to hear a singer of Gheorghiu's caliber in novel works: a piece like Stefano Donaudy's O del mio amato ben, one of the 36 Arie di Stile Antico, both showcases the alluring cream of Gheorghiu's voice and enlarges the concert repertory.

Jan Dismas Zelenka - 6 Sonate a due Hautbois et Basson
Dombrecht, Ponseele, Banchini, Ebbinge, Bond, Meer, Kohnen
EAC+LOG+CUE | WV: 559 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Accent # ACC30048 | Country/Year: Europe 2004, 1988
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

An innovative Baroque composer whose reputation was steadily on the rise during the anything-goes years of the waning twentieth century, Jan Dismas Zelenka was born in Lounovice, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). He was a court musician in Dresden for most of his career, and both J.S. Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann knew and admired his music. Except for brief periods of travel, during which he refined his craft (he took lessons from Fux and Lotti even after his own technique had been perfected), he served as a double bass player in the court orchestra and later aided the ailing court music director Heinichen in his duties…

The Art of Fugue , Bach’s final and most quintessential work, while a monument, is far from being a monolith! Here, Les Récréations present a new version using different combinations of instruments that best suit each individual movement, from the piccolo violin to the cello with a detour via the violoncello piccolo; such revelations of the work’s extraordinary variety, from the Stile antico to the beginnings of the Empfindsamer Stil, refresh our perception of this masterpiece.