Various Artists - Il Paese Degli Uomini Integri - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The best-known piano studies are the 27 by Chopin, most of them composed in the 1830s. But Chopin did not create the genre a number of prominent pianist-composers had already established the piano study, or étude, in the decades before Chopin sat down to write his. Although this repertoire is as good as unknown today, it is a treasure-trove of miniature jewels, many of them announcing the dawn of Romanticism in their combination of Classical delicacy and a new harmonic warmth. Anna Petrova-Forster received her first piano lessons at the age of six. After graduating as a soloist in the class of Professor Liuba Entcheva at the Sofia Music Academy, she entered Louis Hiltbrand's master- class at the Geneva Conservatoire, where she remained until his death. She obtained a second solo diploma at the Lucerne Conservatoire in Hubert Harry's class. For over two years she worked on various chamber-music programs with Nathan Milstein in London. Anna Petrova-Forster has appeared on radio and television broadcasts as both soloist and chamber musician. Her wish to rediscover the compositions of lesser-known composers from the past has led to recordings of music by such unfamiliar figures as William Baines, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Alexander Grechaninov, Josef Matthias Hauer, August Alexander Klengel and Daniel Steibelt.

In 16th century Italy was by far the largest exporter of music. But some Italians preferred to stay at home big names like Alessandro Scarlatti and Albinoni, but also delightful incogniti such as Leonardo Leo, Nicolo Fiorenza, Giovanni Antonio Canuti or Francesco Mancini. They developed a hyper-personal style which was impervious to international fashion, and (especially in the South) characterized by extravagance and a distinct couleur locale. Their works are virtually unknown, but as local archives are shedding their treasures through digitization projects, more and more gems are finding their ways to recordings such as the present one. There is no better advocate for this sun-drenched repertoire than the Antwerp ensemble RedHerring.

La banda is the organic concept of an Italian orchestra that is without strings, relying completely on wind instruments and percussion. In the late 19th century there was not a town, city or community that did not have at least one banda. According to conservative estimates, Italy still has at least 5,000. In Italian, banda means not just a local brass band, but also a gang of bandits. It is surely no coincidence that musicians who are more likely to come from the alternative music scene also use this ambiguity to express what differentiates them from the rest. What is emerging is neither a revival nor a revolution, it is much more.