Tommaso D'aquino

On a rising crest of a wave, British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso seems likely to add to the approving clamour that greeted last year’s debut collection of Italian songs, Passione, with this rousingly, rapturously sung sophomore survey of arias and duets by Puccini and Bizet.

The CD, unpublished and live, features the clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich in Mozart's Concerto for clarinet and orchestra K 622 in A major, in the reconstruction by Lonquich himself for the original basset clarinet. He is accompanied by the Canova Chamber Orchestra conducted by Enrico Saverio Pagano who also perform the first version of the famous Symphony n. 40 K 550 in G minor by the Austrian composer.

Bernardo Gaffi's 'La forza del divino amore' (The Power of Divine Love) is an intriguing rarity, and receives its premiere recording on the Chaconne label. It is an oratorio (for chamber forces with solo trumpet), one of eight by the composer which were popular in their day, and it is based on an episode in the life of St Teresa of Ávila. It is a beautiful score, performed by Ensemble 'Pian & Forte', a group formed in 1989 and dedicated to rediscovering and performing works of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Ensemble is joined by three vocal soloists, renowned exponents of the music of this period.