Luca Donzelli & Mar t Tarabaralla

Lolli has received relatively little attention in modern times. I haven’t, for example, been able to trace a single reference to him in the pages of MusicWeb International. Despite this he holds a rather prominent place in that line of Italian violin virtuosi which runs from a figure such as Biagio Marini through Corelli and Tartini to Paganini and Viotti. The musicologist Albert Mell has, not unreasonably, written of him that he “was from many points of view the most important violin virtuoso before Paganini” (Musical Quarterly, Vol. 44, 1958) and Simon McVeigh (in The Cambridge Companion to the Violin) has described him as “the archetypal travelling virtuoso”.

Twelve years younger than Bach and Handel, Giovanni BenedePo PlaPi left us a collection of nine Concerti per il cembalo obligato which rank not only among the very early examples of composition for keyboard instrument and strings, but also and above all, the first specimens especially conceived for the fortepiano, the new instrument invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori. Billiant soloist and regular keyboard player of Zefiro, Luca Guglielmi offers us, for the first time on period instruments three brilliant and foreseeing piano concertos, interspersed with the large-scale Piano Sonata in C minor, a very widespread composition at the time, and the baroque Sonata for oboe, with a special appearence by Paolo Grazzi.

Anna Lucia Richter returns to PENTATONE after her acclaimed Schubert album Heimweh with Il delirio della passione; a recording full of Monteverdi treasures, from heart-wrenching opera scenes (Lamento d Arianna,Pur ti miro from Poppea and the Prologue of L'orfeo) and religious music (Confitebor) to bucolic songs (Si dolce è il tormento). Richter works together with Ensemble Claudiana and Luca Pianca, one of the most eminent Monteverdi interpreters of our age. They offer a fresh perspective on Monteverdi's music by penetrating deeply into the original sources.

Stradella's music is every bit as colourful and intriguing as his biography. His oratorio Ester, liberatrice del popolo Hebreo, based on the Old Testament story of Esther, whose bravery saves the Jews from slaughter and exposes the wickedness of the King's counsellor Haman, exemplifies the composer's distinctive style, while conforming to the traditions of the 17th-century oratorio. Moral teaching, vocal virtuosity and sinuous melodies are combined, in a work that expresses plethora of affects and emotions – from Esther's sorrow to Haman's malevolence.

If you believe Charles Burney, the English music scholars and European travelers in terms of music, then was hard to determine what was miserable, the Italian harpsichords or the Italian harpsichordist in the 1770s. But an exception in his polemical verdict he would certainly have done with Baldassarre Galuppi (1706-1785), whom he visited in Venice in 1770. Galuppi was not only an excellent opera composer, but also devoted to keyboard instruments truly enchanting music that was like his Opere buffe Europe estimated. The famous Italian harpsichordist Luca Guglielmi has recorded for Accent nine of his sonatas on four different types of keyboard instruments (harpsichord, clavichord, organ and fortepiano) Italian origin - a successful and very entertaining vindication for Italian harpsichordist and their instruments.

If you want a good idea of why Luca Marenzio (1553-99) was considered madrigalist during the late-16th century, the music and performances on this fine recording will provide a good starting place. The richly colorful vocal writing–and equally colorful texts!–are ideally illustrated by the tightly focused intonation, reedy timbre, and knowing inflections of the Concerto Italiano’s seven singers. Sampling from Marenzio’s five- and six-part madrigals, the ensemble avoids any temptation to over-state the music’s case with exaggerated accents or heavy-handed phrasing and dynamics (a common fault of less-competent groups). Instead, they trust the composer’s keen sense of text-setting and allow expressive effects to arise naturally from the score.

Frederick II of Prussia, better known as “the Great”, lived at a time when the decline of the absolutist powers of “Kings” came into conflict with the advent of “Reason, the Enlightenment”. Frederick reformed the military and government, established religious tolerance and granted a basic form of freedom of the press. He bolstered the legal system and established the first German code of law. Of all things, Frederick the Great, as he became to be known, left a legacy of devotion to Germany, which also was evident in his love for the arts.