Ensemble Roma Sinfonietta - Panni: Popsongs - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Vivienne Dimarco - Pressure [VINYL LP] date 05/15/2026

Carlo Agostino Badia was one of the many Italian musicians making his fortune at the court of Vienna where he was hired as a composer in 1694. We have no news about his education, but the musical historiography is mentioning about his great compositional period lasting forty-four years at the service of the emperors Leopold I and Joseph I, in which he produced in large quantities cantatas, melodramas and oratorios greatly appreciated at the Austrian court. From his musical writing it is clear how he was a 'ferryer' of that late Baroque (followed by Antonio Caldara who succeeded him at the Viennese court) anticipating the forms of the imminent galant style. In this recording the attention is directed to the profane cantatas, from the collection Tributi Armonici - published in Nuremberg in 1699 - which represent precisely the transition from the traditional style (in particular the Venetian one) to the new eighteenth-century style. The great variety of writing that distinguishes the cantatas is well rendered by the ductile voice of the soprano Raffaella Milanesi accompanied by RomaBarocca Ensemble, under the direction of Lorenzo Tozzi.

Architetture ('Architectures'), a concerto for orchestra in seven linked sections, was the piece that catapulted the Italian composer Giorgio Federico Ghedini to fame in his home country at the late age of 48. On this disc it is coupled with two more of his fi nest orchestral works. The powerful atmosphere and stunning orchestral effects of Marinaresca e baccanale ('Sea Piece and Bacchanale'), written several years earlier, prove that Ghedini's belated recognition was fully deserved. Contrappunti ('Counterpoints'), which Ghedini composed much later in life, fi nds him responding to the inspiration of one of his lifelong musical heroes, Beethoven.