Michele Bonivento - Nuances - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Between the 1920s and 1940s, Italian song was as much about memories, nostalgia and melancholy as it was about a longing for life and happiness. And although music in Italy at the time was still dominated by opera and the Neapolitan tradition, new tunes were making inroads into the country and Europe through the radio with the increasing number of broadcasts of American Jazz. The combination of Italian tradition and this modern music from the USA yielded miniature masterpieces delivered with carefree passion. A host of inspired Italian composers, including such names as Bixio and D'Anzi, rose to the occasion with the charming InchParlami d'Amore MariùInch, InchLuna MalinconicaInch, (the Italian version of InchBlue MoonInch), and many more unforgettable melodies and lyrics that fired and inspired several generations. And today The Michele Andalò Quartet brings to this timeless repertoire a new approach that, for the first time ever, teams the velvet voice of a countertenor with an original instrumental lineup in a summit meeting of Jazz and Classical intended to delight listeners with these vintage songs that combine depth and delicacy in equal measure.

Massimilian Martines - Meccanismo Estetico [COMPACT DISCS] Italy - Import date 10/07/2014

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.