va Italy

Christmas is upon us, which means it's time to rediscover all those favourite festive pieces of music, Find out how classical music does Christmas, from traditional carols to obscure gems you may not have heard…

As with a handsome, persuasive architectural plan, this suite of pieces is far from haphazard in its design. The web of associations and connections which have led Michelle Makarski to bring them together is the key to the whole enterprise. Italy is, of course, the common ground, but not the Italy of Rossini and Bellini, nor even of Verdi and Puccini, but rather of Tartini, the true spiritual inheritor of the intellectual musical tradition of the Florentine Camerata. Dallapiccola, Petrassi and Berio are all 20th century avatars of this same tradition, while the Americans Carter and Rochberg, both of them having close personal ties to these three, spent crucial formative time in Italy, absorbing the purity and elegance of its art and culture. The final piece on the program, the anonymous 14th century Lamento di Tristano, is one of the earliest surviving pieces of Italian instrumental music, an unassuming yet highly moving forerunner of the whole corpus of italian music. It is - to return to the architectural analogy - a small, ancient garden now standing in the shade of the villa erected alongside it.

from the CD booklet

Room Experience’s self-titled debut is truly going to be an experience for fans of high-class European AOR and melodic rock! This is perhaps the most star-studded MRR release yet. MelodicRock Records has been bringing new and fresh talent to the fore for several years now and is proud to announce signing yet another high-class new artist to the label’s roster. Room Experience is the name of a brand new high profile project, born from the artistic partnership between keyboardist and songwriter Gianluca Firmo (from Brescia, Italy) and the production team composed by Davide "Dave Rox" Barbieri (Wheels Of Fire, Charming Grace) and Pierpaolo "Zorro11" Monti (Shining Line, Charming Grace, Lionville). The debut album is recorded in Italy under the production's oversight of duo Barbieri/Monti, while mix and mastering duties will be handled by star producer of the moment, Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Edge Of Forever, Rated X, Shining Line), at his Ivorytears Music Studio in Somma Lombardo (Va, Italy)…