Matteo Mancusso

This exceptional recording was made using three original instruments that belonged to Paganini himself: the powerful 1743 Guarneri del Gesù violin; a six-string guitar by Ory, Paris, dated 1797; and a magnificent 1736 Stradivari cello, property of the Nippon Music Foundation and entrusted to Clemens Hagen, cellist of the Hagen Quartet. The three instruments are played together for the first time on this release. It was Giulio Plotino who conceived this project and took upon himself the difficult task of reuniting the three instruments. Indeed, this unique recording would not have been possible without him.

If you love medieval vocal music, you'll be fascinated by this unusual collection of mass movements written by two Italian composers– Matteo and Zaccara–that are juxtaposed and organized both to contrast their styles and to make programmatic sense. There's lots of fancy ornamentation and there are many dramatic moments, as well as sections of sweet, gentle lyricism–listen to Matteo's "Gloria," sung with heart- rending tenderness by soprano Jill Feldman. The singers are alternately accompanied by recorder, harp, fiddle, bells, and organ.

Johann Gottfried Müthel was the last pupil of the great Johann Sebastian Bach. He was present at the master’s deathbed, and he performed the funeral services, taking over the duties of the deceased Cantor. Mühtel’s music (“full of novelty, taste and grace” according to the great art historian and traveller Charles Burney) is of a wide variety: his Organ Fantasias are imposing, monumental and substantial, his chorale preludes offer intimate meditations on the chorale texts, all of it written in a highly original, dynamic musical language full of contrasts and instrumental virtuosity.

Compositeur de la fin du XIVe siècle (il mourut vers 1418), Matteo de Perugia n'est pas encore suffisamment reconnu. Pourtant, à l'écoute de ce disque, on reste sans voix devant tant d'inventivité, de modernité et d'inspiration. Grâce au travail historique et musicologique de l'ensemble Mala Punica dirigé par Pedro Memelsdorff, on retrouve tout l'univers de ce compositeur charnière. Sérénité des climats, modernité des rythmes, toute la musique de Perugia est un perpétuel renouvellement.

"The evolution of guitar is firmly secure in the hands of these kind of players… it's just a new level, the tone, the touch, the notes!" - Steve Vai

Close to the Schumanns and admired by Mendelssohn and Wagner, Theodor Kirchner (1823–1903) was an accomplished pianist, organist and composer in his own right. His lifelong friendship with Brahms began when the two men met at the spa town of Baden-Baden in 1865. Robert Schumann had already mentioned him in the same breath as Brahms in the influential 1853 article which effectively launched Brahms’s career.

Romantic miniatures by a forgotten Italian cellist and composer: the first album ever dedicated to the music of Domenico Laboccetta.

Suite for Modigliani is a homage to a passion that clarinetist Matteo Pastorino has felt since childhood, his passion for Amedeo Modigliani.