Arturo

On 7th February 1857, after a delay of one year due to problems of copyright on a possible production of King Lear, Verdi accepted and signed a new agreement with the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples for an opera to be staged in January or February 1858. Not long after he had put behind the experiences of Simon Boccanegra (June 1857) and Aroldo (August), Verdi, then, had to face the issue of a new subject for Naples, which would no longer be King Lear, discarded for various reasons, and not even El tesorero del Rey by António García Gutiérrez or Ruy Blas by Hugo, to which he had given more serious thought, but Gustave III by Eugène Scribe, a play written in 1833 for Daniel Auber in which the king of Sweden is assassinated, in 1792, by a group of noblemen led by Jacob Ankarström. The composition of the score, between October 1857 and January 1858, went hand in hand with Verdi’s complex relationship with the Neapolitan censors, who would end up distorting the libretto and unnerving the composer to the point that he ended up refusing to stage the opera and breaking his agreement with the theatre.

The present installment of Arturo Sacchetti’s encyclopedic Organ History survey for Arts Music drops anchor in late-19th/early-20th-century France. It can be argued that the five instrumental sections from Satie’s Mass for the Poor that open this recital lose poignancy when shorn of their surrounding vocal movements, although the organ is a perfect instrument for the composer’s quirky, instantly identifiable harmonic language. By contrast, D’Indy’s Les Vêpres du Commun des Saints, Roussel’s Prélude et Fughetta, and Honegger’s Deux Pièces pour Orgue make an arid, academic impression. After Wayne Marshall’s pulverizing speed through the Pastorale by Roger-Ducasse (Virgin Classics), Sacchetti’s relatively conservative virtuosity proves less engaging. However, his incisive hand/foot coordination enliven Tournemire’s Improvisation on “Te Deum” and Langlais’ Hymne d’Actions de grâces “Te Deum”, although the latter yields to Andrew Herrick’s more vivid and better engineered traversal on Hyperion. Organists looking for an effective, unhackneyed encore should consider Ibert’s Musette or Milhaud’s Pastorale.

The legendary Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920 - 1995), playing at the height of his powers, performs two Beethoven sonatas in an historic recording now digitally restored and re-mastered. He also plays earlier sonatas by Scarlatti and Galuppi. Michelangeli's fine control and perfect clarity - always present in his playing - have positioned him as one of the most outstanding recording artists of any generation.

What does integrity do in the face of adversity / oppression? What does honesty do in the face of lies / deception? What does decency do in the face of insult? How does virtue meet brute force? These four questions posed by the great African American civil rights activist and author W. E. B. Du Bois in his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk are expounded upon in a speech given by Dr. Cornel West based on his book, Black Prophetic Fire, given October 9, 2014 at Town Hall in Seattle.

Despite his close associations with the likes of Brahms, Casals, and Grieg (and in some respects, because of them), the works of Julius Röntgen have had some difficulty gaining popularity outside of his adoptive homeland of the Netherlands. Like Brahms, Röntgen was a conservative composer and though his output was vast, he never truly succeeded in creating his own unique, identifiable musical sound. He was also often criticized for failing to polish or refine his completed compositions. Nevertheless, his compositions – and in particular his three cello concertos heard here – are replete with the best and most enjoyable qualities of German Romanticism.

In this edition Deutsche Grammophon brings together for the first time all the performances by pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli that have appeared on the "Yellow Label" as well as the legendary early recordings of Beethoven and Scarlatti made for DECCA. Excellent documentation includes numerous rare photographs and a new appreciation of the enigmatic pianist by DG producer, conductor and longtime Michelangeli collaborator Cord Garben.

In this edition Deutsche Grammophon brings together for the first time all the performances by pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli that have appeared on the "Yellow Label" as well as the legendary early recordings of Beethoven and Scarlatti made for DECCA. Excellent documentation includes numerous rare photographs and a new appreciation of the enigmatic pianist by DG producer, conductor and longtime Michelangeli collaborator Cord Garben.