Contralto

The most beautiful arias from the Vivaldi Edition: Orlando Furioso, Atenaide, Farnace, Teuzzone, Armida, La Fida Ninfa, Orlando 1714, Griselda, Ottone in villa and much more. The album includes outstanding singers and arias that were sensational discoveries when first introduced in this series.

Venetian liturgical music of the early 18th century tended to be indistinguishable from opera except that the texts were sacred rather than theatrical, allowing congregations to hear the same kinds of displays of flamboyant virtuosity they could expect in the opera house (and often with the same singers). Vivaldi's two settings of the Gloria, both in D major and both from 1715, are no exceptions to that trend, and offer a spectacular showcase for soloists. This Naïve release, part of its Vivaldi Edition, features the singers and players of Concerto Italiano, led by its founder Rinaldo Alessandrini, and contralto Sara Mingardo. Alessandrini's mastery in this repertoire is evident in the supple elegance of the performances, his keen sense of pacing, and particularly in the nuanced balance of the choral parts.

Giovanni Battista Sammartini, son of the French oboist Alexis Saint-Martin, was most likely born in Milan in 1700 or 1701; his death certificate, dated 1775, gives his age as 74. Not much is known about his childhood. In 1724 he is already documented as being a maestro di cappella; we also know that he was active as a performer on the oboe and organ, winning admiration for the individuality of his touch on the latter instrument…
Maria Daniela Villa / Translation by David S. Tabbat

This recording gathers together vocal gems from the Italian baroque and some of the most renowned artists in this repertoire: Il Giardino Armonico’s co-founder Luca Pianca, soprano Roberta Invernizzi and contralto Sonia Prina. This intense and heart-stretching programme on love and sadness gathers a series of amazing duets by Monteverdi, Handel (when living in Italy), Marcello, Scarlatti, Lotti…

For anyone compiling a directory of the ‘greatest recordings’ of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra some nominations are easy to classify. Sir Thomas Beecham’s 1937/8 Berlin recording of Mozart’s The Magic Flute is certainly one of them. Originally re-mastered in 1991 it is pleasing to have this Nimbus set available in the catalogue…
– Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Despite its arcane Latin title, Supraphon's four-CD set Musica Antiqua Citolibensis delivers on a part of the literature that coheres: the music created by local kapellmeisters in the Czech city of Citoliby. Although located outside of the loop of Bohemia's main cultural centers such as Prague and Brno, Citoliby enjoyed a period of primacy in music in the late eighteenth century owing to the refined tastes of its rulers, the Pachtas; the city's coat of arms bears the image of an organ. There is a Citoliby School of composers whose work is comparable to those of the contemporary Mannheim School, though quite different in style.