Archi

Gian Francesco Malipiero led a long, busy and prolific life. His vast output includes numerous works in every genre but the most significant part of it is to be found in his operas, his symphonies and his eight string quartets.His string quartets may still be more telling than the symphonies……Recommended with any reservations.

Hubert Culot @ Musicweb-International.com

Until 20 years ago, the figure of Antonio Salieri seemed destined to remain under a cloud of widespread disrepute, in the shadow of his complex relationship with Mozart and unsubstantiated criminal allegations that have come down to us through a thread that runs from Aleksandr Pushkin’s poetic drama Mozart and Salieri (1830), later set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1897), to Miloš Forman’s famous film Amadeus (1984). In reality, Salieri, in late 18th-century Vienna, enjoyed a stature that Wolfgang could only dream of: court composer, conductor of the Italian opera and, above all, maestro di cappella of the imperial court – in other words organiser and manager of the Hapsburgs’ entire musical life.

Gloriously alert and full-bodied playing produces a disc that is just waiting to be enjoyed… The music is unmistakably , of course, but ranges from brilliant violin figuration to creamy slow-drawn chords, and from vocal transcriptions to short fugues (and what enjoyable fugues, too!). The cumulative effect of it all is like visiting a workshop and finding there examples of all the things an artist might do when freed from the demands of a particular public. ’s performances cannot be faulted. has a knack for vital and exciting music-making that is utterly straightforward and free from overworked mannerism. It is a difficult balance to achieve, but here it is allied to playing that is gloriously alert and full-bodied. This disc is just waiting to be enjoyed, so go on – it might bring you closer to as well!

Although the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra is today recognized as the world's number one orchestra for "original sound", here it proves with its extraordinary intensity its infinitely varied liveliness and always maintains the chamber music precision in the interplay. The loosening of the sequence of four quintets on the CD by the lute duos is cleverly chosen and makes the CD even more audible.

The National University Library in Turin houses several extremely important musical collections. Among these are those of Mauro Foa and Renzo Giordano, containing over 450 manuscripts of Vivaldi, many of them autographs. With the purpose of exploring this immense heritage and bringing to life many unpublished works, the Instituto per i Beni Musicali in Piemonte and Naïve [Opus 111] with the collaboration of the Library in Turin, have undertaken to record a complete edition on CD of Vivaldi scores held in Turin.