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Countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic has emerged as a new star of the specialty partly through fearless programming, and this collection of Arie Napoletane, Neapolitan arias or arias from Naples, is no exception. There really isn't a "Neapolitan school." Rather, Naples was on the musical cutting edge in the second quarter of the 18th century, and the arias here represent both a classic opera seria style, in the pieces by the massively prolific Alessandro Scarlatti, and music by the composers who pointed the way toward the melodically simpler future of Gluck and eventually Mozart, like Leonardo Leo and Leonardo Vinci. These latter are hardly household names, and Cencic, offering several recorded premieres, renders a valuable service simply by finding and choosing the deliberate and sensuous arias heard here. Moreover, the album's stylistic contrasts play to Cencic's strengths.

It was inevitable that the abundant discography of Les Lunaisiens would one day turn its attention to the Complainte des rues, a ‘lament’ that tells the dark and tragic story of the wretched nobodies of society who can only protest their misery and hunger!

Formed in 2014 by founding Entombed member Lars-Göran Petrov, Entombed A.D. sees the influential Scandinavian death metal legends' punishing work published under a slightly different moniker…

Here is a superb recital following Piers Lane’s earlier Hyperion release of d’Albert piano concertos (4/96) and, once again, provoking astonishment that music of such quality could have lain neglected for so long. Variety is, indeed, the spice of d’Albert (1864-1932), the legendary, six times married pianist so greatly admired by Liszt. Tending to leave his wives as soon as they bore him children (one for the Freudians), his occasional sense of confusion – including an outburst to Teresa Carreno, his second conquest, “Come quickly, my child and your child are fighting with our child” – hardly detracted from a dazzling career and a series of compositions of a special richness.

Les deux chasseurs et la laitière, a oneact opera by Egidio Romualdo Dun, was premiered in Paris by the company of Théâtre de Comédiens Italiens, in July 1763. This work, staged then many times at the Opéra Comique, was soon published and its popularity among European theatres reached its peak between the 1780s and the beginning of 19th century.

Il Cerchio d'Oro were one of the many symphonic-oriented groups to come out of the initial boom of Italian productivity. They were formed in 1974 by the Terribile brothers (Gino and Guiseppe on drums and bass/guitars, respectively) and Franco Piccolini on keys. They were active on the gigging circuit around Savona but never managed to secure a recording deal, and so the only recordings initially available were a handful of singles from the late '70s following lineup changes (they're not particularly interesting from a progressive rock standpoint, either).
25 years after the band formed, Mellow records came along and dusted off some old recordings, releasing them as the self-titled "Cerchio d'Oro"…