Cesarini / Fonte - Dynamic Band - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The light and airy chamber-scaled divertimenti on this recording were composed in London in the early 1720s. They must have been among the first works with which Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747) sought to make an impression on the discerning audiences and business-minded entrepreneurs who, at the time, were instrumental to a music-rich environment that made the city one of the main centers of European culture. It is perhaps to the detriment of his posthumous reputation that Bononcini became known as Handel's direct rival for the favor of London's musical public the rivalry between the two men was even immortalized in a piece of satirical doggerel which popularized the English expression 'Tweedledum and Tweedledee'. In fact these divertimenti scored a popular success as soon as they were published; so much so that these harpsichord transcriptions were quickly produced - and then republished two decades later, when they appeared as Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin, placing them in direct competition with the collection of works under the same name by Handel. The divertimenti are three- and four-movement works designed not to place any great strain upon the listener's attention the longest movement here lasts barely three minutes. Even the slow movements are simple arias, originally conceived with a high melody instrument in mind - violin or transverse flute - and conforming to a serene and courtly character. By and large, however, they are filled with lively, dance-like quick movements, cheerful in temperament even when the tonality is minor, as it is in half the divertimenti. This is the debut album on Brilliant Classics for the harpsichordist Giovanni Paganelli. Album Tracks 1. Divertimenti Da Camera 2. Divertimento I in C 3. Divertimento II in a Minor 4. Divertimento III in E minor 5. Divertimento IV in D minor 6. Divertimento V in G 7. Divertiment

The Naples of Antonio Valente was the principal city of the Spanish Empire of the day, second only to Istanbul of Mediterranean cities in population, a cultural and intellectual hub where ideas were traded as readily as goods at the port. This is the context for ready wit and vivid characters dancing before us in the harpsichord manuscript left to us as the principal work of an instrumental virtuoso who was blind from birth. Little else is known of Valente, though he became an organist in one of the city's private chapel between 1565 and 1580, and we know that this Intavolatura was published in 1576, by which time the composer's reputation had spread far beyond the kingdom of Naples. It seems certain that the collection was the first of it's kind to be written in southern Italy. These are popular dances rather than original melodies, and Valente transcribes and elaborates them in various genres of song and dance there are hymns (a Salve Regina), galliards, ricercars, ballads, even a flamboyant 'Bascia Flammignia', placed in exuberant juxtaposition, hardly designed to be heard in strict order but a collection to delight and entertain. The Intavolatura does so here, thanks to the imaginative re-instrumentation and sparkling performances of an Italian early-music ensemble, L'Amorosa Caccia. The songs are reattributed to a pair of singers (Giulia Valentini and Marcos Garcia Gutierrez), accompanied by two violas da gamba and a recorder, with the overall artistic direction undertaken from the keyboard by Fabio Antonio Falcone. Album Tracks 1. Fantasia Del Primo Tono 2. Qui la Dira 3. Chi la Dirra, Disminuita 4. Recercata Del Ottavo Tono 5. Bascia Flammignia 6. Gagliarda Napolitana 7. Recercata Del Primo Tono 8. Lo Ballo Dell'intorcia 9. Gagliarda Lombarda 10. Ballo Lombardo 11. Recercata Del Sesto Tono a Quatto Voce Con Lo Basso in Canone a L'otta

Album Tracks 1. Symphony No. 8 in G Major, B. 163 (Op.88) (First Published As No. 4) Allegro Con Brio 2. Symphony No. 8 in G Major, B. 163 (Op.88) (First Published As No. 4) Adagio 3. Symphony No. 8 in G Major, B. 163 (Op.88) (First Published As No. 4) Allegretto Grazioso - Molto Vivace 4. Symphony No. 8 in G Major, B. 163 (Op.88) (First Published As No. 4) Allegro Ma Non Troppo 5. Slavonic Dance No. 1 for Orchestra in C Major, B. 83/1 (Op. 46/1) 6. Vltava (The Moldau), Symphonic Poem (MÁ Vlast No. 2), JB 1 112/2 7. Prodaná Nevesta (The Bartered Bride), Opera, JB 1 100 Overture