San Pietro

The unexpected finding, in Trento, in the attic of the former German Ginnasio-Liceo, of a typical military trunk dating back to the First World War – which I had bought by pure chance in 1982 in an antique shop – makes it possible for us now to reconstruct a brilliant passage in the musical history of that city. The trunk contained some organ scores that had been written by Davide Urmacher (organist at the nearby church of San Pietro) and played by him, first on the fifteenth-century organ, then on the organ made in 1862 by Giovanni Battista De Lorenzi, from Vicenza. Together with other scores countersigned by members of the Dall’Armi family, owners of a shop near the Ginnasio in Via San Pietro, this treasure chest has yielded some invaluable organ scores that were in use in the city between the end of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. This entire collection, together with others (both public and private) existing in Trentino, provides a complex, varied and wide-ranging picture of the organ music that was being played in that period over the entire territory, with a lively circulation of material. The organist Simone Vebber makes use of a historic nineteenth-century organ in the performance of the compositions in the classic theatrical styles of the time.

Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers’ imagination and ingenuity knows no bounds. Her idea to persuade leading living composer Morten Lauridsen to transform his choral masterpiece, O Magnum Mysterium, into a work for violin and choir is a masterstroke. Teaming up with conductor Grant Gershon – who first collaborated with Anne as chamber musicians over 40 years ago – and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, for whom Lauridsen was their first Composer in Residence, Anne rounds out this digital EP with three other arrangements for violin and chorus of ever-popular works by J. S. Bach. The result is gold dust for the holiday season.

Another stunning set from Harmonia Mundi in their rare 90's boxed editions of music from the Baroque and,as in this case, the Renaissance. Well renowned performers of period music jostle for attention on discs that range from "The Renaissance of the Mass","The Culmination of the Motet" "The Era of Polyphony", "the Golden Age of the Madrigal" to "The Instrumental Art" which features some wonderful Lute performances from Paul O'Dette. Composers include Gesualdo, Josquin Desprez, Claudio Monteverdi as well as many lesser known composers that prove to be very worthwhile discoveries.