Ciquelo Marco Mezquida

Little is known about one of the most productive of Italian musicians, Adriano Banchieri. Relegated to a marginal sector of Renaissance history, still defined by madrigals, Banchieri lived in the most extraordinary innovative period of Italian 'harmonic' music: we find clear signs of a new 17th-Century sensibility in adaptation, or rather in making the word serve representational needs, in the use of the basso concertante and in the extensive use of continuo. The two works presented on this CD represent the chronological heart of Banchieri’s most typical production and may be appreciated in modern recordings for the first time: this is an ambitious project to shed light on Italian 'minor' musical history of the end of the 16th century.

Italian multi-instrumentalist Marco De Angelis grew up listening to classic prog bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes, as well as related groups, such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. His music shows evidence of his roots, but listens might notice most a resemblance to Floyd, and also Alan Parsons. He is proficient on guitar, bass and keyboards, and is one of Italy's few Chapman Stick masters. Although he has been performing for over thirty years, as well as producing and engineering, he didn't release his first album under his own name until 2013. Marco De Angelis is an Italian solo artist, songwriter, musician, audio engineer and record producer. Started his musical journey when he was 10 and puts for the very first time his hands on a musical instrument.

The Opera\-Oratorio Passio Christi narrates the events of the Lords Passion from the Last Supper to the dawn of Resurrection. The story is told through the feelings and emotions of some of the characters who took part in it in various ways: Peter, Judas, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, the Cyrenean, the soldier Longinus and the Angels. Each character sings the verses of the saints and poets of the world in a different language (Italian, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Latin and ancient Greek) to represent the whole world before the mystery of human suffering. The dramatic structure of the Opera follows the ancient structure of the Sacred Representations: in fact, its original form is designed for dramatization and scenic action. The events of the Gospel are interspersed with the arias of the various characters, which constitute a sort of cinematographic still image.

Marco Ceccato and Anna Fontana are well-known performers on the international baroque circuit and familiar faces thanks to their recordings for Outhere labels Alpha, Arcana and Zig-Zag Territoires (including Marco's 2015 Diapason d'or Award winning recording of Boccherini with Accademia Ottoboni). Now they have come together to tackle the two revolutionary works for piano and cello composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1796 and dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia. Their interpretative approach deepens our understanding of the final years of that century when a young Beethoven, a child of the 18th century, was grappling with one of his most extraordinary stylistic innovations. These two expert performers have set out to reconstruct historically reliable versions of the works, linking Beethoven’s revolutionary harmonic solutions with the 18th-century stylistic features that were still in vogue, from phrasings to Beethoven’s meticulously notated articulations.

Italian multi-instrumentalist Marco De Angelis grew up listening to classic prog bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes, as well as related groups, such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. His music shows evidence of his roots, but listens might notice most a resemblance to Floyd, and also Alan Parsons. He is proficient on guitar, bass and keyboards, and is one of Italy's few Chapman Stick masters. Although he has been performing for over thirty years, as well as producing and engineering, he didn't release his first album under his own name until 2013. Marco De Angelis is an Italian solo artist, songwriter, musician, audio engineer and record producer.

Marco Albonetti writes: ‘”Amarcord” signifies memory, the nostalgic re-enactment of the past. Here, it evokes the idea of joining two instruments, the saxophone and the bandoneón, both of which were invented in the middle of the nineteenth century. The bandoneón, created as a more agile substitute for the organ in the world of sacred music in Germany, was brought by German immigrants to Buenos Aires, where it became central to the tango, a music enlivened by rhythmic ideas from Africa and inextricably linked to dance.