Giuseppe Giordani was an important Italian composer best known for his operas, oratorios, and sacred music. Among his greatest successes was his 1787 oratorio La distruzione di Gerusalemme, believed to be the first sacred drama presented in a theater. It drew enthusiastic praise from the local press and positive commentary from such notables as Goethe, who was present at the Naples premiere. Giordani was born into a well-to-do family in Naples on December 19, 1751. He exhibited musical talent early on and enrolled at the Santa Maria di Loreto Conservatory in Naples, where he studied under Antonio Sacchini, Fedele Fenaroli, and Gennaro Manna. The loss of his father in 1770 – when Giuseppe was 18 – apparently did not derail his education, for he would secure an important post, that of secondary maestro di cappella at the Tesoro di San Gennaro, in Naples, in 1774.
Most composers couldn't fill 20 CDs with all their works; it takes that many just to house the operas of one of the most prolific composers in classical music. These late-'70s recordings (featuring the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne under the direction of Antal Dorati) were groundbreaking at the time and remain cherished documents of some of Haydn's lesser-known works. You'll hear Armida (featuring Jessye Norman); La Fedelta Premiata ( Fidelity Rewarded ); Orlando Paladino ( Orlando the Paladin ); La Vera Costanza ( True Constancy , also with Norman); L'Incontro Improvviso ( The Unforeseen Encounter ); L'Infedelta Delusa ( Infidelity Outwitted ); L'Insola Disabitata ( The Desert Island ), and Il Mondo Della Luna (The World on the Moon ) plus additional arias
A printed version of the Motets for 2 or 3 voices Op. 4 was published in Bologna in 1715. Although Caldara was at this time still in the services of Marquis Ruspoli, he dedicated this collection to Cardinal Ottoboni who had gained a wide-ranging reputation as a patron of music during the previous decades. Caldara was appointed as imperial assistant music director in Vienna in 1716. As the favourite composer of Charles VI, Caldara was entrusted with the regular production of music for representative events at the imperial court for the remainder of his life.
This huge set is "an initiative of Radio Netherlands (the Dutch World Service) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra…" presented to Bernard Haitink on his seventieth birthday as a tribute to his consummate musicmaking." Haitink, born in Amsterdam in 1929, became joint chief Conductor of the Concertebouw in 1961, along with Eugen Jochum, and was its chief conductor from 1963 to 1988. Like his predecessor, Eduard van Beinum, Haitink also was principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, from 1967 to 1979, and in 1978 became musical Director of the Glyndebourne Opera. Ten years later he became musical director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Haitink guest conducted most of the major orchestras of the world and has received numerous awards for his services to music. In January 1999 Haitink was named "Honorary Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra."
Composed in 1783, Thrice Betrothed, Never Wed was the young Cherubini’s fifth opera and his first opera buffa. While it echoes its era—Paisiello, Cimarosa, Haydn, and early Mozart—it displays an almost Rossinian rhythmic bite and a few harmonic touches that look forward to the dramatic masterpieces of Cherubini’s Paris years (Lodoiska, Medée, Les deux journées, Anacréon, the C-Minor Requiem). Despite decades-long exploration of Cherubini, I have never encountered the opera before; this claims to be its first recording. The plot is filled with the expected inanities: disguises, mistaken identities, and Commedia dell’arte shenanigans.
Superstar tenor, Roberto Alagna, returns with his sensational new album Caruso. Caruso 1873 is Alagna’s tribute to the Neapolitan singer who Alagna considers to be the greatest tenor of all time. Alagna honours his legendary predecessor with a selection of repertoire drawn from Caruso’s own recording career, which stretched from 1902 to 1920. Alagna is accompanied by the critically acclaimed Orchestre National D’ile-de-France, singers Aleksandra Kurzak and Rafal Siwek and conductor, pianist and arranger, yvan Cassar. The music chosen is a journey back in time through Caruso’s eclectic repertoire. It showcases his personality and is blended with Alagna’s own favourites. The album offers many surprises and stretches from Handel and Pergolesi to verismo composers including Cilea and Leoncavallo, contemporaries of Caruso who wrote music for him. Puccini is represented by “Vecchia zimarra”, the bass Colline’s aria from La bohème which – as legend has it – Caruso once sang on stage standing in for an ailing colleague in perfect subterfuge. Caruso (1873—1921) was an Italian operatic tenor. Caruso was one of the first major singing talents to be commercially recorded.