Filippo Riccardis Viaggi

Born in Granada in 1934, Antonio Ruiz-Pipó learnt the guitar in his youth but trained as a pianist in Barcelona, where he was taught by Frank Marshall, doyen of the Spanish piano school made famous by Alicia de Larrocha. Further study in Paris refined Ruiz-Pipó’s compositional technique, and he taught at the École Normale from 1977 until his death in 1997.

Giulio Cesare Ricci is particularly fond of the music of the Argentinean tango king Astor Piazzolla, and so his label Fone repeatedly releases high-quality music by Piazzolla. On "Duettango", it is a top-class quartet that brings the Tango Nuevo to life: At the centre is violinist Fernando Suarez Paz, who played tango with Piazzolla himself in his Quarteto Nuevo in the 70s. Next to him, we hear his daughter Cecilia, whose singing is in no way inferior to her father's playing. Now you need a bandoneon player for the tango, and on this record it is Cesare Chiachiaretta, one of the best in the world at the moment. Add Filippo Arlia, a classically trained pianist, and you have a tremendously emotional and virtuoso tango formation, captured by Ricci in excellent sound quality.

Modern day recognition of the music of Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) has been totally eclipsed by the music of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). If one looks back at Marcello's popularity in the first half of the 18th century in Venetian Music, you will find that he was considered to be one of the musical glories of Italy on a par with Palestrina and Pergolesi, and was referred to as the 'Noble Venetian'. He was admired for his skillful counterpoint, his masterly attention to the words of the text he set and the noble simplicity of his melodies. All of these attributes are present in this lovely and entertaining Requiem.

An oratorio / cantata type composition by a little known eighteenth century musician written when he was only twenty two does not sound too promising. However, with this convincing performance there is much to enjoy.

Between 1769 and 1773, Mozart made three travels to Italy, under the guidance of his father Leopold. The present program traces the stages especially of his first two trip from 1769 to 1771, during which the young Mozart played an important role in Milan's musical life, and reconstructs the most important musical encounters. Arias from Mitridate, Ascanio in Alba (written for the Teatro Regio Ducale Milan) and Betulia liberata (written for Padua) can be heard here. The program is rounded off by the musical background that Mozart found on the peninsula, illustrated by arias from operas by Guglielmi, Myslivecek and Gluck - all representatives of a style and a search for language that was precisely the reason why the "viaggio in Italia" was an essential stage in the training of a young composer.

Like all castrati, Gaetano Berenstadt's hormones had gone crazy, but Berenstadtis were particularly strong. With a height of about 185 cm, he is said to have had 130 cm long legs, arms that were far too short and a corpulent belly; a field day for the caricaturists. But when he stood on the opera stage and sang, he was idolised.

Any recording of an opera by Benedetto Marcello will, for many, bring to mind his literary satire, IL TEATRO ALLA MODA, subtitled "a safe and easy method of properly composing and producing Italian operas according to modern practice." Within its pages, no one involved in the creation of opera-librettist, composer, singers, impresario-is spared. In one passage, the composer is admonished to "oblige the impresario to provide a great number of violins, oboes, horns, etc., preferring to let him economize on double basses, for these should not be used except in the preliminary tuning."