L'art Cene Feta

Giuditta is based on the Biblical story of Judith, a beautiful Israelite widow who insinuates herself within the camp of the conquering Assyrian tribe and deceives their general, Holofernes, before decapitating him and carrying off his head in triumph. This is the second version of the oratorio, known as the Cambridge version after the location of the manuscript when it was turned up in modern times. Scarlatti had considered the original version, composed for Rome in 1693, to be his finest oratorio. This is no mean assessment from the composer of masterworks which have been more celebrated in our own time such as La Maddalena, for their expressive pathos and superbly grateful vocal lines.

Orlando (HWV 31) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written for the King's Theatre in London in 1733. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece"L'Orlando after Ludovico Ariosto"Orlando Furioso, which was also the source of Handel's operas Alcina and Ariodante". More an artistic than a popular success at its first performances, Orlando is today recognised as a masterpiece.

Totentanz is a rock band from Poland

Diogenio Bigaglia, a composer who at present is unknown to most people, was active in Venice in the first half of the eighteenth century, so he was a contemporary of the much better known Tomaso Albinoni, Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello, and, above all, Antonio Vivaldi, whose work shows several evident – and more or less explicit – references to Bigaglia’s production. So he turns out to be a composer who is worthy of interest not only for the intrinsic musical worth of his works, but also for the influence his activity may have had on musicians with whom we are more familiar; this is why musicologists have recently started showing an increasing interest in him.

Telemann published his Sonates sans Basse à deux Flutes traverses, ou à deux Violons, ou à deux Flutes à bec (Sonatas without Bass for Two Transverse Flutes, or Two Violins, or Two Recorders) in Hamburg in 1727 and they were published again in Amsterdam around the year l730 by Le Cène, in Paris in 1736-37 by Le Clerc and in London in 1746 as opera seconda by Walsh. Telemann, in his own autobiographical notice published by Handel's Hamburg rival Mattheson in 1740 in his Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte, writes of his ability to play the keyboard, violin, recorder, oboe, flute, chalumeau and viola da gamba, as well as the double bass and trombone, skills that at that time were not unique to him.

Diogenio Bigaglia, a composer who at present is unknown to most people, was active in Venice in the first half of the eighteenth century, so he was a contemporary of the much better known Tomaso Albinoni, Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello, and, above all, Antonio Vivaldi, whose work shows several evident – and more or less explicit – references to Bigaglia’s production. So he turns out to be a composer who is worthy of interest not only for the intrinsic musical worth of his works, but also for the influence his activity may have had on musicians with whom we are more familiar; this is why musicologists have recently started showing an increasing interest in him.

Michala Petri’s version of Vivaldi’s Six Flute Concertos op. 10 with the Academy of Saint-Martin-In-The-Fields under its first fiddler Iona Brown was recorded in July 1980 – almost the prehistory of Vivaldi interpretation, seen 35 years later. And after all, yes, 1980 is almost exactly the middle point between the beginning of the great 20th century Vivaldi revival, heralded by Louis Kaufman’s ground-breaking recording of the Four Seasons on Concert Hall in 1948 (Vivaldi: Twelve Concertos, Op. 8), and today.

In Holland in the 1720s the transverse flute enjoyed considerable popularity among amateur musicians. Aware of that keen interest, the publisher Michel Le Cene decided in 1729 to present his customers with the very first collection of concertos for flute and orchestra. Vivaldi responded to his request by refurbishing several older works. Only one of them was already in the modern concerto form: the Concerto in F major for recorder and strings. Another four pieces were hybrid in form and still close to chamber works. The predominant role of the recorder or flute in those four concertos made them ideal for adaptation.

The turn of the first millennium was experienced by people of that time not with fear that the world was coming to an end, but rather with hope that the world would be renewed, as 'the promise of a new Spring'. Thus, Christ's Passion came to symbolise the resurrection of the Church; a great reformation began. Seen in that context the lyric poem La Passion de Clermont takes on its full meaning. Brice Duisit performs vocals and vièle à archet.