Pagnini La Campanella

Gitlis plays the violin concerti at a faster tempo than most soloists. It doesn't work very well for violin concerto number one, but it completely rocks for concerto number two I absolutely love it! In fact it's my favorite classical work. I can't rave enough about it. He uses his own cadenza which is fantastic. He uses Emile Sauret's cadenza in the first concerto, which I don't like very much too drawn out and long winded. The three Caprices and the I Palpiti are as good as it gets too..

Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions, and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.

Cecilia Bartoli both thrills the senses and touches the heart in Rossini's sparkling comedy, her feisty Cinderella combining rebelliousness with pathos, vocal beauty with stunning virtuosity. She and a star cast of Italian principals captivate the Houston audience in this exuberant Bologna production, recorded live in November 1995.

During the 1750s Niccolo Piccinni was one of the most popular opera composers at the major houses in Rome and Naples - but of the more than one hundred works he wrote for stage, most have fallen into oblivion. His greatest enduring success was the buffo opera La Cecchina, which enjoyed its premiere performance in Rome in 1760. The libretto was written by the Venetian poet Carlo Goldoni, based on the Samuel Richardson novel Pamela published in 1740. Piccinni's opera was pioneering in terms of style and helped establish his fame far beyond Italy's borders. Although the composer stayed true to the traditional form, he replaced the caricaturing and parodying depiction of the characters with an affectionate, sensitive and very human interpretation.

La fille du régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment) is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, set to a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard. It was first performed on 11 February 1840 by the Paris Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse.

Franz Liszt was without doubt one of the greatest (if not The Greatest) pianists of all time, as well as an innovating and visionary composer, in one word…a Genius!