Piccoli - Les Essais - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This latest MarchVivo is a remastering of the concert given by Benjamin Alard at the Fundación Juan March on 1 February 2020 as part of a series entitled The Couperins at the harpsichord. The album focuses on the stylistic connections between different members of the most significant family in the history of the French Baroque the Couperins. The harpsichord epitomized the intimacy and sophistication of salon music and, with the repertoire they composed for their instrument, the clavecinistes français helped forge a distinctive national style. This was renewed and enlivened by successive generations of the Couperin dynasty as they introduced innovative aspects of contemporary Italian style into their works, thereby creating an eloquent new idiom that was to have a lasting influence on the history of keyboard music.

L'Ebreo (the Jew) was staged at La Fenice in Venice on the 23rd of January 1855; the result was triumphant and made the 33 year-old Apolloni immediately famous. The score, bought by Ricordi, started making the rounds right away and in a few years there was no Italian theatre which had not staged at least one edition. What did the public find in this opera? A kind of melodic idea, certainly not banal and often adequate and incisive, an insistent rhythm and a logical, feverish narrative movement. There was certainly a clear subjection to Verdi's expressive form; the score is entirely entrusted to the singing the recitatives are short and the composer rarely makes use of declamatory or arioso parts. The present recording was staged and recorded at Teatro Chiabrera di Savona in October 1989.

Richard Wyands - Get Out of Town [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/11/1997