Complete Organ Works Vol.1 - Six Organ Sonatas Op. 65
Artist
Luca Benedicti, organ
Composer
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Organ
Vincenzo Mascioni (1910)
Venue
Cattedrale di Sant'Eusebio, Vercelli, Italy
About this album
The Six Sonatas for organ op.65 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, commissioned by the editors Coventry and Hollier in London, represent the synthesis of the full artistic and creative maturity of the composer. The passion for this instrument revealed very early in the musician’s life, as witnessed by the fact that he wrote his first composition, “Sei piccoli pezzi”, when he was only 12. His incredible talent in composing for organ was due not only to his constant interest, but also to the many years of attendance with prestigious teachers (he studied harmony and counterpoint with Friederich Zelter while he gained a solid mastery of the instrument with August Wilhelm Bach, who was then the titular organist of the Marienkirche in Berlin) and to the focused knowledge of Bach’s masterpieces. It is indeed important to remark that, as is well known, Mendelssohn played a fundamental role in their rediscovery. He was renowned and appreciated for his interpretation virtuosity as well as for his mastery in improvisation. He was invited, not yet an adolescent, to play in Germany in different concerts, among which we remember those in Weimar in 1821 and in the Bern cathedral the year after. The experience gained in this period was decisive when, between the summer of 1844 and January 1845, Mendelssohn started to compose the Six Sonatas. We can recognize therein different genres like the theme with variations or the aria with “da capo” and the use of several composition techniques in the treatment of single movements. If the fourth Sonata played a pioneering role towards the organ symphony of the 19th century, with the sixth Sonata Mendelssohn composed what we could consider the first “Sonata ciclica”. The theme of the choral “Vater unser im Himmelreich” became the starting point and the pretext not only for the elaboration of the first four variations, but also of the last two movements (the subject of the fuga and of the conclusive Andante are built essentially on the same choral), transforming them into the fifth and the sixth variations. An amazing counterpoint technique appears also in the “Allegro moderato e serioso” of the first Sonata in F minor, where the subject of the “Fugato” is masterfully developed, interrupted in some points by the harmonization of the Choral “Was mein Gott will, das g’sche hall zeit”. The same magnificent counterpoint technique reappears to remark the outstanding qualities of the German composer in the elaboration of the double fuga of the third Sonata in which the Choral “Aus tiefer Not schrei’ ich zu dir” appears, sustained by the pedal. The idea of an organ with more tonal and expressive resources can be identified in the use of violent sound contrasts, like in the “Andante recitativo” of the third movement of the first Sonata or in the great opening of the third Sonata, where a simple theme, declaimed through the second keyboard, is alternated to the powerful chord masses of the first one. In the same way the drawing of the dotted quavers design that characterises the pedal of the “Andante con moto” of the fifth Sonata expresses effectively the usual method of “pizzicato” in the strings. The technique entrusted to the pedal notes reveals to be innovative for the time. Mendelssohn resorts to it confidently in his Sonatas assigning to the pedal difficult passages. In this way he provided a significant boost to the building of new organs with a bigger pedal and a larger number of corresponding stops with respect to the typical early 19th century English instruments.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Cattedrale di Sant'Eusebio, Vercelli, Italy, in February, 26th, 27th 2019
Booklet di 12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography,
Full organ specs card included
The Six Sonatas for organ op.65 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, commissioned by the editors Coventry and Hollier in London, represent the synthesis of the full artistic and creative maturity of the composer. The passion for this instrument revealed very early in the musician’s life, as witnessed by the fact that he wrote his first composition, “Sei piccoli pezzi”, when he was only 12. His incredible talent in composing for organ was due not only to his constant interest, but also to the many years of attendance with prestigious teachers (he studied harmony and counterpoint with Friederich Zelter while he gained a solid mastery of the instrument with August Wilhelm Bach, who was then the titular organist of the Marienkirche in Berlin) and to the focused knowledge of Bach’s masterpieces. It is indeed important to remark that, as is well known, Mendelssohn played a fundamental role in their rediscovery. He was renowned and appreciated for his interpretation virtuosity as well as for his mastery in improvisation. He was invited, not yet an adolescent, to play in Germany in different concerts, among which we remember those in Weimar in 1821 and in the Bern cathedral the year after. The experience gained in this period was decisive when, between the summer of 1844 and January 1845, Mendelssohn started to compose the Six Sonatas. We can recognize therein different genres like the theme with variations or the aria with “da capo” and the use of several composition techniques in the treatment of single movements. If the fourth Sonata played a pioneering role towards the organ symphony of the 19th century, with the sixth Sonata Mendelssohn composed what we could consider the first “Sonata ciclica”. The theme of the choral “Vater unser im Himmelreich” became the starting point and the pretext not only for the elaboration of the first four variations, but also of the last two movements (the subject of the fuga and of the conclusive Andante are built essentially on the same choral), transforming them into the fifth and the sixth variations. An amazing counterpoint technique appears also in the “Allegro moderato e serioso” of the first Sonata in F minor, where the subject of the “Fugato” is masterfully developed, interrupted in some points by the harmonization of the Choral “Was mein Gott will, das g’sche hall zeit”. The same magnificent counterpoint technique reappears to remark the outstanding qualities of the German composer in the elaboration of the double fuga of the third Sonata in which the Choral “Aus tiefer Not schrei’ ich zu dir” appears, sustained by the pedal. The idea of an organ with more tonal and expressive resources can be identified in the use of violent sound contrasts, like in the “Andante recitativo” of the third movement of the first Sonata or in the great opening of the third Sonata, where a simple theme, declaimed through the second keyboard, is alternated to the powerful chord masses of the first one. In the same way the drawing of the dotted quavers design that characterises the pedal of the “Andante con moto” of the fifth Sonata expresses effectively the usual method of “pizzicato” in the strings. The technique entrusted to the pedal notes reveals to be innovative for the time. Mendelssohn resorts to it confidently in his Sonatas assigning to the pedal difficult passages. In this way he provided a significant boost to the building of new organs with a bigger pedal and a larger number of corresponding stops with respect to the typical early 19th century English instruments.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Cattedrale di Sant'Eusebio, Vercelli, Italy, in February, 26th, 27th 2019
Booklet di 12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography,
Full organ specs card included
Organ Concertos Op. 4
Artist
Massimo Gabba, organo
Composer
George Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Organ
Mascioni Op. 570 (1942)
Venue
Chiesa di San Francesco, Moncalvo (AT) Italy
About this album
«“We can say that Hӓndel, in particular, cannot be easily overcome by anyone in his cleverness on the organ, if not maybe by Bach from Lipsia”. With this very flattering judgment of 1739 Johann Mattheson, famous German composer and theorist of the XVIII century, allows us to discover an almost unfamiliar characteristic of the composer of Halle’s production, nowadays known most of all for his works and oratorios. It was really for his oratorios that Hӓndel wrote between 1735 and 1736 the six concerts for organ, strings and basso continuo op.4, that he performed himself in-between his monumental sacred works. In any case, it is not at all about simple occasional works, conceived to pleasantly entertain the public waiting for the restarting of the “real performing”, but pieces of remarkable artistic depth, in which the composer used virtuosic passages and singing movements. These six beautiful works are performed in this CD by Massimo Gabba, as seen before in Elegia Classics.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded: in chiesa di San Francesco d’Assisi, Moncalvo (AT), Italy, on November 2018
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
«“We can say that Hӓndel, in particular, cannot be easily overcome by anyone in his cleverness on the organ, if not maybe by Bach from Lipsia”. With this very flattering judgment of 1739 Johann Mattheson, famous German composer and theorist of the XVIII century, allows us to discover an almost unfamiliar characteristic of the composer of Halle’s production, nowadays known most of all for his works and oratorios. It was really for his oratorios that Hӓndel wrote between 1735 and 1736 the six concerts for organ, strings and basso continuo op.4, that he performed himself in-between his monumental sacred works. In any case, it is not at all about simple occasional works, conceived to pleasantly entertain the public waiting for the restarting of the “real performing”, but pieces of remarkable artistic depth, in which the composer used virtuosic passages and singing movements. These six beautiful works are performed in this CD by Massimo Gabba, as seen before in Elegia Classics.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded: in chiesa di San Francesco d’Assisi, Moncalvo (AT), Italy, on November 2018
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Seicento - Italian Early baroque music
Artists
Accademia del Ricercare Pietro Busca, conductor
Lorenzo Cavasanti, Manuel Staropoli,flauti,
Antonio Fantinuoli, violoncello
Claudia Ferrero, clavicembalo
Composers
Francesco Turini (1589 circa–1656)
Giovanni P. Cima (1570 circa–1622)
Dario Castello (1602–1631)
Antonio Caldara (1670–1736)
Venue
Basilica di Sant’Apollinare (Roma), Italy
About this album
During the seventeenth century in Italy the genre of instrumental sonata developed and it was an artistic route that involved a great number of cities and of composers, starting from Sonate concertate in stil moderno by the venetian Dario Castello – a composer that nowadays is wrapped in a fascinating mystery – up to the smooth style and technically unexceptionable of Arcangelo Corelli, who was an example all over Europe. This CD sketches a pleasant fresco of this glorious tradition with a sort of circular path, that starts from Castello, Francesco Turini – a composer born in Praha and active in Brescia for many years – and the Milanese Francesco Paolo Cima, up to Antonio Caldara, coming back finally to the three forerunners: a choice that underlines the coherence with which the sonata spread. A new CD of great interest by Accademia del Ricercare, that, after the beautiful record dedicated to Georg Philipp Teleman’s production, celebrates the Italian 17th century in music. Looking forward to the release of a new CD dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s time, stay tuned for an incredible offer by Elegia Classics.
Additional info about this CD
Booklet 12 pages full colour (It, En)
Recorded: in chiesa di San Raffaele Arcangelo, San Raffaele Cimena (TO), Italy, on 9th-10th March 2018.
Artists biography
Musicology comment
Lorenzo Cavasanti, Manuel Staropoli,flauti,
Antonio Fantinuoli, violoncello
Claudia Ferrero, clavicembalo
Giovanni P. Cima (1570 circa–1622)
Dario Castello (1602–1631)
Antonio Caldara (1670–1736)
During the seventeenth century in Italy the genre of instrumental sonata developed and it was an artistic route that involved a great number of cities and of composers, starting from Sonate concertate in stil moderno by the venetian Dario Castello – a composer that nowadays is wrapped in a fascinating mystery – up to the smooth style and technically unexceptionable of Arcangelo Corelli, who was an example all over Europe. This CD sketches a pleasant fresco of this glorious tradition with a sort of circular path, that starts from Castello, Francesco Turini – a composer born in Praha and active in Brescia for many years – and the Milanese Francesco Paolo Cima, up to Antonio Caldara, coming back finally to the three forerunners: a choice that underlines the coherence with which the sonata spread. A new CD of great interest by Accademia del Ricercare, that, after the beautiful record dedicated to Georg Philipp Teleman’s production, celebrates the Italian 17th century in music. Looking forward to the release of a new CD dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s time, stay tuned for an incredible offer by Elegia Classics.
Additional info about this CD
Booklet 12 pages full colour (It, En)
Recorded: in chiesa di San Raffaele Arcangelo, San Raffaele Cimena (TO), Italy, on 9th-10th March 2018.
Artists biography
Musicology comment
Toccate e variazioni sulla follia
Artist
Diego Cannizzaro, organ
Composer
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Organ
Antonino La Valle (1630 ca.)
Venue
Chiusa Sclafani (PA), Italy
About this album
Inside the huge production of Alessandro Scarlatti, the keyboard instruments works are a very restricted part under the quantity profile, but under the stylistic one they have many reasons of interest. As we can see even in the most famous pieces, as oratorios and cantatas, the great Neapolitan master was able to create in fact an extraordinary writing, that genially blend some elements of the seventeenth century tradition with a series of modern ideas: as a whole, they bring to a listening of extraordinary pleasantness, as we can see for example in the famous Toccata e Partite sulla Follia di Spagna, theme that was put in music, among the others, by Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi. Beside this work, the programme of this CD also includes unreleased pages taken from the manuscripts preserved in Santa Pietro a Majella (Naples) at Biblioteca del Conservatorio and in Fondo Foà- Giordano (Torino). Realized inside the celebrations for Palermo Capitale Italiana della Cultura, this CD has an inspired protagonist in Diego Cannizzaro, at the keyboard of the splendid organ of San Sebastiano di Sclafani (PA), built around 1630 by Antonio La Valle.
Additional info about this CD
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Artist biography
Musicology comment
Full organ specs card included
Inside the huge production of Alessandro Scarlatti, the keyboard instruments works are a very restricted part under the quantity profile, but under the stylistic one they have many reasons of interest. As we can see even in the most famous pieces, as oratorios and cantatas, the great Neapolitan master was able to create in fact an extraordinary writing, that genially blend some elements of the seventeenth century tradition with a series of modern ideas: as a whole, they bring to a listening of extraordinary pleasantness, as we can see for example in the famous Toccata e Partite sulla Follia di Spagna, theme that was put in music, among the others, by Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi. Beside this work, the programme of this CD also includes unreleased pages taken from the manuscripts preserved in Santa Pietro a Majella (Naples) at Biblioteca del Conservatorio and in Fondo Foà- Giordano (Torino). Realized inside the celebrations for Palermo Capitale Italiana della Cultura, this CD has an inspired protagonist in Diego Cannizzaro, at the keyboard of the splendid organ of San Sebastiano di Sclafani (PA), built around 1630 by Antonio La Valle.
Additional info about this CD
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Artist biography
Musicology comment
Full organ specs card included
Giuseppe Tartini & amici, maestri, rivali
Artists
L'Arte dell'Arco
Federico Guglielmo, violino
Francesco Galligioni, violoncello
Diego Cantalupi, tiorba
Roberto Loreggian, cembalo
Composers
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Antonio Vandini (1690-1778)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Francesco M.Veracini (1690-1768)
Venue
Basilica di Sant’Apollinare (Roma), Italy
About this album
This CD represents the first title of the collaboration between Elegia Records and Roma Baroque Festival, one of the most prestigious Italian shows dedicated to the pre romantic repertoire, come to the eleventh edition in 2018. Lovers of around the world will be able to live the emotion of a great concert in one of the main historical churches of the Eternal City: the same in which ages ago played authors like Palestrina, Corelli and Scarlatti. Recorded on December 15th 2017 in Sant’Apollinare, this CD have Federico Guglielmo and L’Arte dell’Arco, his ensemble of original instruments, as protagonists with a programme about Giuseppe Tartini: the great virtuoso of which Guglielmo is considered among the greatest specialists worldwide. In particular, this recording underlines the fascinating background of Tartini through his friends, masters and rivals such as Corelli, Vivaldi and Veracini up to Antonio Vandini. An overwhelming virtuosity and a great vitality are characteristics of this CD.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Roma, Basilica di Sant’Apollinare on 15 december 2017, Italy
full colour booklet (Italian, English, French e Spanish)
L'Arte dell'Arco's biography
Musicology comment.
Federico Guglielmo, violino
Francesco Galligioni, violoncello
Diego Cantalupi, tiorba
Roberto Loreggian, cembalo
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Antonio Vandini (1690-1778)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Francesco M.Veracini (1690-1768)
This CD represents the first title of the collaboration between Elegia Records and Roma Baroque Festival, one of the most prestigious Italian shows dedicated to the pre romantic repertoire, come to the eleventh edition in 2018. Lovers of around the world will be able to live the emotion of a great concert in one of the main historical churches of the Eternal City: the same in which ages ago played authors like Palestrina, Corelli and Scarlatti. Recorded on December 15th 2017 in Sant’Apollinare, this CD have Federico Guglielmo and L’Arte dell’Arco, his ensemble of original instruments, as protagonists with a programme about Giuseppe Tartini: the great virtuoso of which Guglielmo is considered among the greatest specialists worldwide. In particular, this recording underlines the fascinating background of Tartini through his friends, masters and rivals such as Corelli, Vivaldi and Veracini up to Antonio Vandini. An overwhelming virtuosity and a great vitality are characteristics of this CD.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Roma, Basilica di Sant’Apollinare on 15 december 2017, Italy
full colour booklet (Italian, English, French e Spanish)
L'Arte dell'Arco's biography
Musicology comment.
Noëls de Provence
Artists
Jean Christophe Maillard musette baroque,
François Dujardin galoubet, tambourin,
Silvano Rodi orgue
Organ
Alessandro Collino (1859, op. 175),
Gioacchino Concone (1790-'91),
Lingiardi (1874) - Bonizzi (1998).
Venue
Fenestrelle, Bussoleno, Imperia-Oneglia. Italy
Information Album
It is not simple to realize an original Christmas CD indeed, that know how to stand out from the countless classic collections, without arriving for this reason to the opposite with a specialized repertoire, only reserved to few connoisseurs. Christmas is the sweetest feast of the year, the one that gather distant families and that can involve with its joy even the simplest people. According to those statements, Elegia Classics presents with touching spontaneity a sparkling anthology of traditional works from Provence, a repertoire that has its roots back in very remote times and that during XVIII century became “cultured” by a group of composers like Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet Charpentier, Micolau Saboly, Michel Corrette, Louis Archimbauded Etienne-Paul Charbonnier. Those works have a touching delicacy, proposed to us in the performance by Stefano Rodi (organ), Jean-Christophe Maillard (musetta barocca) and François Dujardin (galoubet, fifre and tambourin). For a very different kind of Christmas.
Additional info about this CD
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Artist biography
Musicology comment
François Dujardin galoubet, tambourin,
Silvano Rodi orgue
Gioacchino Concone (1790-'91),
Lingiardi (1874) - Bonizzi (1998).
It is not simple to realize an original Christmas CD indeed, that know how to stand out from the countless classic collections, without arriving for this reason to the opposite with a specialized repertoire, only reserved to few connoisseurs. Christmas is the sweetest feast of the year, the one that gather distant families and that can involve with its joy even the simplest people. According to those statements, Elegia Classics presents with touching spontaneity a sparkling anthology of traditional works from Provence, a repertoire that has its roots back in very remote times and that during XVIII century became “cultured” by a group of composers like Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet Charpentier, Micolau Saboly, Michel Corrette, Louis Archimbauded Etienne-Paul Charbonnier. Those works have a touching delicacy, proposed to us in the performance by Stefano Rodi (organ), Jean-Christophe Maillard (musetta barocca) and François Dujardin (galoubet, fifre and tambourin). For a very different kind of Christmas.
Additional info about this CD
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Artist biography
Musicology comment
Complete Italian Organ Concertos
Artist
Luca Scandali, organ
Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach
Organ
Dell’Orto e Lanzini (2007)
Venue
Chiesa di M. Assunta, Vigliano Biellese, Italy
About this album
During his youth, Johann Sebastian Bach studied with passion the great Italian composers’ works, were at that time style models both for their perfection about their harmonic architecture both for the brilliant vitality about their melodic vein. In order to capture the secrets of the Italian style, the young composer realized a series of transcriptions for organ from orchestra pieces, in which it is possible to see the future genius. The programme of this CD includes five works based on famous concerts by Vivaldi (four from Estro Armonico op. 3 and one from Stravaganza op. 4) and a transcription from a piece by Alessandro Marcello, who is today almost forgotten but very appreciated at Bach’s time, as his younger brother Benedetto. Those works were proposed thanks to the great performance by Luca Scandali, organ player of magnificent talent, who for Elegia has already recorded many CDs of great interest, among which stand out the two volumes of the symphonies by Padre Davide da Bergamo. A Cd that deserves to be considered even for Dell’Orto & Lanzini’s beautiful sounding palette inside the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Vigliano Biellese and for the excellent quality of the recording.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in 17-18 maggio 2018, chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, Vigliano (Biella)
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
During his youth, Johann Sebastian Bach studied with passion the great Italian composers’ works, were at that time style models both for their perfection about their harmonic architecture both for the brilliant vitality about their melodic vein. In order to capture the secrets of the Italian style, the young composer realized a series of transcriptions for organ from orchestra pieces, in which it is possible to see the future genius. The programme of this CD includes five works based on famous concerts by Vivaldi (four from Estro Armonico op. 3 and one from Stravaganza op. 4) and a transcription from a piece by Alessandro Marcello, who is today almost forgotten but very appreciated at Bach’s time, as his younger brother Benedetto. Those works were proposed thanks to the great performance by Luca Scandali, organ player of magnificent talent, who for Elegia has already recorded many CDs of great interest, among which stand out the two volumes of the symphonies by Padre Davide da Bergamo. A Cd that deserves to be considered even for Dell’Orto & Lanzini’s beautiful sounding palette inside the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Vigliano Biellese and for the excellent quality of the recording.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in 17-18 maggio 2018, chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, Vigliano (Biella)
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Antonio Caldara - Vespro della Beata Vergine. Missa in Sol
Artists
Collegio Musicale Italiano
Adriano Gaglianello, conductor
Composer
Antonio Caldara (1670-ca.1736)
Venue
Chiesa confraternitale dei Santi Giovanni Battista e Marta - Chivasso - Turin- Italy
About this album
Among many Italian baroque composers, set aside in spite of them in the background, stands out the name of Antonio Caldara, who had the misfortune to be overshadowed by the bright star of his contemporary and fellow citizen Vivaldi. Left Venetia at 29, Caldara moved first to Mantua and then to Rome, where he was offered the prestigious position of kappelmeister of prince Ruspoli, set free by Georg Friedrich Händel, in order to dock in the end to the Austrian court of Karl VI Hasburg, where he remained until his death. This CD presents as a first worldwide recording two of the most significant liturgical works of the venetian composer, Messa in sol maggiore and Vespro della Beata Vergine: this last one composed after 1716 and transcribed by Adriano Gaglianello from the manuscripts kept at the Staatsbibliothek of Munich. They are works with great suggestion, varied and original style, also appreciated by Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, that got inspiration for some of their sacred pages. An absolute first time not to be missed, even thanks to the magnificent performance of Collegio Musicale italiano directed by Adriano Gaglianello.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa confraternitale dei Santi G. Battista e Marta, Chivasso, Turin, Italy, in March 2012
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artists biography
Adriano Gaglianello, conductor
Among many Italian baroque composers, set aside in spite of them in the background, stands out the name of Antonio Caldara, who had the misfortune to be overshadowed by the bright star of his contemporary and fellow citizen Vivaldi. Left Venetia at 29, Caldara moved first to Mantua and then to Rome, where he was offered the prestigious position of kappelmeister of prince Ruspoli, set free by Georg Friedrich Händel, in order to dock in the end to the Austrian court of Karl VI Hasburg, where he remained until his death. This CD presents as a first worldwide recording two of the most significant liturgical works of the venetian composer, Messa in sol maggiore and Vespro della Beata Vergine: this last one composed after 1716 and transcribed by Adriano Gaglianello from the manuscripts kept at the Staatsbibliothek of Munich. They are works with great suggestion, varied and original style, also appreciated by Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, that got inspiration for some of their sacred pages. An absolute first time not to be missed, even thanks to the magnificent performance of Collegio Musicale italiano directed by Adriano Gaglianello.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa confraternitale dei Santi G. Battista e Marta, Chivasso, Turin, Italy, in March 2012
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artists biography
Organ transcriptions
Artist
Roberto Cognazzo, organ
Composer
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Organ
Carlo Vegezzi Bossi (1884)
Venue
Chiesa Parrocchiale di San Massimo, Turin, Italy
About this album
After the two beautiful CDs dedicated to the transcriptions of the most known works by Giuseppe Verdi, the organ player Roberto Cognazzo pays attention to the production by Pietro Mascagni, composer which posthumously fame continues to be based almost exclusively on Cavalleria Rusticana, considered with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo the maximum manifesto of the musical Verismo flourished in Italy between XIX and XX centuries. The programme proposes the transcriptions of ten pieces, realized by the same Cognazzo: not only from Cavalleria (il Preludio con la Siciliana, la Preghiera and the unequalled Intermezzo), but also from L’amico Fritz, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Silvano, Iris and Le maschere, works that had great reputation and that deserve today to be rediscovered. As it already happened in the previous CDs, the performance is characterized by theatricality, that widens from singing sections with brilliant inspiration to passages of more dramatic tones and it can count on the Carlo Vegezzi Bossi’s rich sounding palette: the organ was built in 1884 and it is placed in San Massimo in Turin.
Additional info about this CD
Registrazioni: Recorded in Organ Carlo Vegezzi Bossi (1884), February 2016, Turin, ltaly
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
After the two beautiful CDs dedicated to the transcriptions of the most known works by Giuseppe Verdi, the organ player Roberto Cognazzo pays attention to the production by Pietro Mascagni, composer which posthumously fame continues to be based almost exclusively on Cavalleria Rusticana, considered with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo the maximum manifesto of the musical Verismo flourished in Italy between XIX and XX centuries. The programme proposes the transcriptions of ten pieces, realized by the same Cognazzo: not only from Cavalleria (il Preludio con la Siciliana, la Preghiera and the unequalled Intermezzo), but also from L’amico Fritz, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Silvano, Iris and Le maschere, works that had great reputation and that deserve today to be rediscovered. As it already happened in the previous CDs, the performance is characterized by theatricality, that widens from singing sections with brilliant inspiration to passages of more dramatic tones and it can count on the Carlo Vegezzi Bossi’s rich sounding palette: the organ was built in 1884 and it is placed in San Massimo in Turin.
Additional info about this CD
Registrazioni: Recorded in Organ Carlo Vegezzi Bossi (1884), February 2016, Turin, ltaly
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Musicalisches Opfer BWV 1079
Artisti
Solisti della Turin Baroque Orchestra
Ensemble Sol Invictus
Francesca Odling, traversiere
Svetlana Fomina, violino e viola
Paola Nervi, violino
Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Organ
Pinchi (1996) op. 412
Venue
Chiesa Madonna del Rosario, Chivasso, Turin, Itally
About this album
In 1747 Johann Sebastian Bach went to Potsdam visiting his second son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was at the court of Frederik the Great. In that occasion the elderly musician was welcomed with all the honors by the king of Prussia, great music lover, who asked him to improvise at the harpsichord a fugue for three voices on a deeply chromatic theme proposed by him. After happily completing this task, the king asked Bach to create a fugue for six voices on the same theme. The achievement however was too difficult to be improvised and for this reason Bach answered the king that he would send him a copy of this work after his return to Lipsia. From this memorable evening arose the Offerta Musicale, one of the huge masterpieces by the genius of Bach, a speculative work that continues nowadays to arouse regard and astonishment in the public. This piece is proposed by Elegia thanks to the Turin Baroque Orchestra soloists’ masterful reading, that already in 2017 has emerged with the splendid CD dedicated to the organ concerts by Vivaldi and that came up to the music of Bach with the same musicality and the same high interpretation.
Instruments
Nicola Brovelli: violoncello barocco, Maurizio Vella, Cremona 2016, modello Maggini
Francesca Odling: traversiere, Carlo Palanca, 1750ca. Copia di Martin Wenner
Paola Nervi: violino barocco, Federico Lowemberger, Genova 2004. Copia di Maggini
Svetlana Fomina: violino barocco, Johannes Fichtl, Mittenwald, 1767; viola barocca: anonimo del 18 sec.
Gianluca Cagnani: organo Guido Pinchi op. 412, 1996; clavicembalo Bizzi, costruito secondo il modello italiano Giusti.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Madonna del Rosario (paris church), Chivasso, Torino Italy, in January 2018
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artists biography
Ensemble Sol Invictus
Francesca Odling, traversiere
Svetlana Fomina, violino e viola
Paola Nervi, violino
In 1747 Johann Sebastian Bach went to Potsdam visiting his second son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was at the court of Frederik the Great. In that occasion the elderly musician was welcomed with all the honors by the king of Prussia, great music lover, who asked him to improvise at the harpsichord a fugue for three voices on a deeply chromatic theme proposed by him. After happily completing this task, the king asked Bach to create a fugue for six voices on the same theme. The achievement however was too difficult to be improvised and for this reason Bach answered the king that he would send him a copy of this work after his return to Lipsia. From this memorable evening arose the Offerta Musicale, one of the huge masterpieces by the genius of Bach, a speculative work that continues nowadays to arouse regard and astonishment in the public. This piece is proposed by Elegia thanks to the Turin Baroque Orchestra soloists’ masterful reading, that already in 2017 has emerged with the splendid CD dedicated to the organ concerts by Vivaldi and that came up to the music of Bach with the same musicality and the same high interpretation.
Instruments
Nicola Brovelli: violoncello barocco, Maurizio Vella, Cremona 2016, modello Maggini
Francesca Odling: traversiere, Carlo Palanca, 1750ca. Copia di Martin Wenner
Paola Nervi: violino barocco, Federico Lowemberger, Genova 2004. Copia di Maggini
Svetlana Fomina: violino barocco, Johannes Fichtl, Mittenwald, 1767; viola barocca: anonimo del 18 sec.
Gianluca Cagnani: organo Guido Pinchi op. 412, 1996; clavicembalo Bizzi, costruito secondo il modello italiano Giusti.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Madonna del Rosario (paris church), Chivasso, Torino Italy, in January 2018
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artists biography
Lieder Op. 74
Artists
Dominika Zamara, soprano
Franco Moro, pianoforte
Composer
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
About this album
Even if it seems incredible, inside the most famous composer’s production there are still treasures to discover. In the case of Fryderyk Chopin, among these unknown gems, stand out the seventeen Lieder op. 74, less considered by their author so that they were only published after his death. As we know, Chopin did not love to write for voice, but from these works extremely vivid images of the great Polish musician emerge: they recall the youth years, spent in Poland and the echo of his love for Konstancja Gladkowska with moments of sincerity that remind the best Schubert on many points of view. In this CD of intense beauty Dominika Zamara, Polish soprano with great talent, opens the Elegia catalogue and for the occasion she is accompanied by the piano player Franco Moro with refined taste. Beside the Lieder op. 74, the programme of this CD includes Jakież kwiaty, jakie wianki, a virtually unknown piece by Chopin, and two beautiful pages by Stanislaw Moniuszko and Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the first considered the father of the Polish national opera and the second a great piano talent, who for some time was the Poland Prime Minister.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Pink Sound Studio, Padova Sound engineer and Digital Editing: Massimo Gabba
24 pages full colour booklet (It , En and Pl)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Franco Moro, pianoforte
Even if it seems incredible, inside the most famous composer’s production there are still treasures to discover. In the case of Fryderyk Chopin, among these unknown gems, stand out the seventeen Lieder op. 74, less considered by their author so that they were only published after his death. As we know, Chopin did not love to write for voice, but from these works extremely vivid images of the great Polish musician emerge: they recall the youth years, spent in Poland and the echo of his love for Konstancja Gladkowska with moments of sincerity that remind the best Schubert on many points of view. In this CD of intense beauty Dominika Zamara, Polish soprano with great talent, opens the Elegia catalogue and for the occasion she is accompanied by the piano player Franco Moro with refined taste. Beside the Lieder op. 74, the programme of this CD includes Jakież kwiaty, jakie wianki, a virtually unknown piece by Chopin, and two beautiful pages by Stanislaw Moniuszko and Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the first considered the father of the Polish national opera and the second a great piano talent, who for some time was the Poland Prime Minister.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Pink Sound Studio, Padova Sound engineer and Digital Editing: Massimo Gabba
24 pages full colour booklet (It , En and Pl)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Opera Overtures
Artist
Roberto Cognazzo, organ
Composer
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901
Organi
Organo Felice Bossi - San Giorgio Canavese
Organo Tiburzio Gorla - Coassolo Torinese
About this album
After the great success of the first CD, Roberto Cognazzo comes back to this repertoire with a program most of all based on a series of works composed by Verdi in the first phase of his career, the so-called anni di galera. These are the pieces that have more interest, because allow to listen to titles nowadays barely performed such as Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio and Il finto Stanislao and because they lead us to the discovery of this composer, who later would have written masterpieces. During the XIX century it was a habit to write the most famous arias and choirs for organ or piano, a praxis that allowed them to reach a great popularity even among those that did not attend theatres. These works are performed by Cognazzo with verve, that it is emphasized by the rich timbre of the four great symphonic organs.
Additional info about this CD
Booklet 12 pages full colour (It and En)
Artists biographies
Musicological comment
Full organ specs card included
Organo Tiburzio Gorla - Coassolo Torinese
After the great success of the first CD, Roberto Cognazzo comes back to this repertoire with a program most of all based on a series of works composed by Verdi in the first phase of his career, the so-called anni di galera. These are the pieces that have more interest, because allow to listen to titles nowadays barely performed such as Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio and Il finto Stanislao and because they lead us to the discovery of this composer, who later would have written masterpieces. During the XIX century it was a habit to write the most famous arias and choirs for organ or piano, a praxis that allowed them to reach a great popularity even among those that did not attend theatres. These works are performed by Cognazzo with verve, that it is emphasized by the rich timbre of the four great symphonic organs.
Additional info about this CD
Booklet 12 pages full colour (It and En)
Artists biographies
Musicological comment
Full organ specs card included
Concertos and triosonatas
Artisti
Accademia del Ricercare
Lorenzo Cavasanti, recorder and flute
Manuel Staropoli, recorder and flute
Luisa Busca, recorder
Composer
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
About this album
Despite his endless discography, Georg Philipp Telemann is always able to pleasantly amaze with his huge production, most of which awaits to be discovered. Among the skills of the Magdeburg’s composer, stand out a natural talent for the tune and an amazing ability in expressing himself in all the important styles of his time, moving from Corelli’s musicality to the sublime refinement of the French eighteenth century, without neglecting the traditional polish and bohemian elements. This CD focuses on his chamber production for more flutes and transverse flutes, suggesting, next to three quite famous pieces from Tafelmusik and Der getreue Musik Meister, many unknown tracks, but not for this reason less fascinating. The main stage belongs to Introduzione per due flauti dolci e basso continuo, that in barely 13 minutes outlines with mastery five great ancient women, from Santippe to Clelia, closing with Dido. Accademia del Ricercare is the leading actor of this recording: it is an original ensemble, that with this beautiful CD makes its debut with Elegia Classic.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa di San Raffaele Arcangelo, San Raffaele Cimena (Italy), on 11st & 12nd March 2017
8 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Accademia del Ricercare's biography
Musicology comment,
Lorenzo Cavasanti, recorder and flute
Manuel Staropoli, recorder and flute
Luisa Busca, recorder
Despite his endless discography, Georg Philipp Telemann is always able to pleasantly amaze with his huge production, most of which awaits to be discovered. Among the skills of the Magdeburg’s composer, stand out a natural talent for the tune and an amazing ability in expressing himself in all the important styles of his time, moving from Corelli’s musicality to the sublime refinement of the French eighteenth century, without neglecting the traditional polish and bohemian elements. This CD focuses on his chamber production for more flutes and transverse flutes, suggesting, next to three quite famous pieces from Tafelmusik and Der getreue Musik Meister, many unknown tracks, but not for this reason less fascinating. The main stage belongs to Introduzione per due flauti dolci e basso continuo, that in barely 13 minutes outlines with mastery five great ancient women, from Santippe to Clelia, closing with Dido. Accademia del Ricercare is the leading actor of this recording: it is an original ensemble, that with this beautiful CD makes its debut with Elegia Classic.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa di San Raffaele Arcangelo, San Raffaele Cimena (Italy), on 11st & 12nd March 2017
8 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Accademia del Ricercare's biography
Musicology comment,
Organ Masterpieces
Artist
Massimo Gabba, organo
Composer
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Organ
Mascioni III/47 (2010)
Venue
Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista, Alessandria, Italy
About this album
Wagner’s works became rapidly famous and allowed the transcriptions for the most different instruments, among which we remember the ones for piano by Franz Liszt. Soon after his death, a young English organ player, known as Edwin Henry Lemare, became so passionate about Wagner, that he realized a series of organ transcriptions, considered as the most inspired of all time, both for the perfect performance of the difficult writing by the German composer and for the extraordinary sounding richness, able to rival with a great orchestra. This CD presents five transcriptions by Lemare, from the ouverture of Der fliegende Holländer to the pilgrims choir of Tannhäuser, thanks to Massimo Gabba’s performance at the keyboard of the great Mascioni organ of San Giovanni Evangelista (Alessandria), an instrument that has huge technical and expressive resources, perfect for this repertoire. The program is completed by other brilliant transcriptions by William Joseph Westbrook, Herbert Brewer and Théodore Dubois. A compelling vortex of organ emotions!
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa Parrocchiale San Giovanni Evangelista, Alessandria, on December, 2017.
Sound engineer and Digital Editing: Massimo Gabba
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment, rtist biography Full organ specs card included
Wagner’s works became rapidly famous and allowed the transcriptions for the most different instruments, among which we remember the ones for piano by Franz Liszt. Soon after his death, a young English organ player, known as Edwin Henry Lemare, became so passionate about Wagner, that he realized a series of organ transcriptions, considered as the most inspired of all time, both for the perfect performance of the difficult writing by the German composer and for the extraordinary sounding richness, able to rival with a great orchestra. This CD presents five transcriptions by Lemare, from the ouverture of Der fliegende Holländer to the pilgrims choir of Tannhäuser, thanks to Massimo Gabba’s performance at the keyboard of the great Mascioni organ of San Giovanni Evangelista (Alessandria), an instrument that has huge technical and expressive resources, perfect for this repertoire. The program is completed by other brilliant transcriptions by William Joseph Westbrook, Herbert Brewer and Théodore Dubois. A compelling vortex of organ emotions!
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa Parrocchiale San Giovanni Evangelista, Alessandria, on December, 2017.
Sound engineer and Digital Editing: Massimo Gabba
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment, rtist biography Full organ specs card included
Gli Organi Agati e Tronci
Artist
Andrea Vannucchi, organ
Composer
Autori toscani dal XVI al XIX Sec.
Organs
Organo Cosimo Ravani (1626),
Agati-Tronci (1890 ca.), Cutigliano (PT).
Organo Pietro Agati (1789), Bargi (BO).
Organo Onofrio Zeffirini (1555),
Antonio e Filippo Tronci (17869, Colle di Val d’Elsa (SI).
Organo Domenico Cacioli-Antonio e Filippo Tronci (1745), (PT).
Organo Giosuè Agati, 1820, Limite sull’Arno (FI).
About this album
Always committed to increase the value of the Italian historic organs, Elegia Classics outlines in this CD a fascinating cutaway of the Tuscan instruments with regard to four organs realized between the half of the XVIII century and the beginning of the XIX century by Agati and Tronci families, that are almost like dynasties. The wide programme is conceived to reach the highest improvement of the timbre and expressive characteristics of each instrument, with an exhaustive anthology of the Tuscan organ literature, that ranges over the sixteenth century authors such as Gioseffo Guami and Francesco Bianciardi to Giuseppe Gherardeschi, composer of whom Elegia has recently published the opera omnia, performed by Andrea Vannucchi. Among the most interesting authors, it is also important to remember Bernardo Pasquini and Domenico Puccini, grandfather of Giacomo. For this repertoire Andrea Vannucchi was the best, because he proposes a very appropriate performance, that also underlines four splendid organs.
Additional info about this CD
20 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Agati-Tronci (1890 ca.), Cutigliano (PT).
Organo Pietro Agati (1789), Bargi (BO).
Organo Onofrio Zeffirini (1555),
Antonio e Filippo Tronci (17869, Colle di Val d’Elsa (SI).
Organo Domenico Cacioli-Antonio e Filippo Tronci (1745), (PT).
Organo Giosuè Agati, 1820, Limite sull’Arno (FI).
Always committed to increase the value of the Italian historic organs, Elegia Classics outlines in this CD a fascinating cutaway of the Tuscan instruments with regard to four organs realized between the half of the XVIII century and the beginning of the XIX century by Agati and Tronci families, that are almost like dynasties. The wide programme is conceived to reach the highest improvement of the timbre and expressive characteristics of each instrument, with an exhaustive anthology of the Tuscan organ literature, that ranges over the sixteenth century authors such as Gioseffo Guami and Francesco Bianciardi to Giuseppe Gherardeschi, composer of whom Elegia has recently published the opera omnia, performed by Andrea Vannucchi. Among the most interesting authors, it is also important to remember Bernardo Pasquini and Domenico Puccini, grandfather of Giacomo. For this repertoire Andrea Vannucchi was the best, because he proposes a very appropriate performance, that also underlines four splendid organs.
Additional info about this CD
20 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Complete Organ symphonies vol.2
Artist
Luca Scandali, organo
Composer
Padre Davide Da Bergamo (1791-1863
Organ
Fratelli Serassi op. 384 (1821)
Venue
Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, Caluso, Italy
About this album
After the great success gained by the first volume, Elegia publishes the second one of the complete collection of Padre Davide da Bergamo’s organ symphonies. He is one of the most emblematic composers of the first period of Risorgimento and his knowledge is still confined almost exclusively to the organ field. Since the first listening these pieces deserve a prominent place in the instrumental repertoire of the Italian nineteenth century, nowadays overshadowed by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi’s melodramas. From these authors Padre Davide often took inspiration for his symphonies, in which it is possible to perceive an overwhelming atmosphere, that contributes to render the listening extremely pleasant. For this CD, that includes very rich works under the timbre profile as the brilliant Sinfonia con trombe e fagotti obbligati e risposte in Eco, Luca Scandali decided to use the great organ built by Fratelli Serassi in 1821 for Santa Maria Assunta in Caluso: this is a contemporary instrument of Padre Davide that adds authenticity to the performance.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in parish church of San Calocero and Sant’Andrea, in May 2017.
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
After the great success gained by the first volume, Elegia publishes the second one of the complete collection of Padre Davide da Bergamo’s organ symphonies. He is one of the most emblematic composers of the first period of Risorgimento and his knowledge is still confined almost exclusively to the organ field. Since the first listening these pieces deserve a prominent place in the instrumental repertoire of the Italian nineteenth century, nowadays overshadowed by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi’s melodramas. From these authors Padre Davide often took inspiration for his symphonies, in which it is possible to perceive an overwhelming atmosphere, that contributes to render the listening extremely pleasant. For this CD, that includes very rich works under the timbre profile as the brilliant Sinfonia con trombe e fagotti obbligati e risposte in Eco, Luca Scandali decided to use the great organ built by Fratelli Serassi in 1821 for Santa Maria Assunta in Caluso: this is a contemporary instrument of Padre Davide that adds authenticity to the performance.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in parish church of San Calocero and Sant’Andrea, in May 2017.
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
L’Organo Jaquot della Cattedrale di Catania
Artist
Diego Cannizzaro, organo
Composers
Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Nicolas Couturier (1840-1911)
Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
Filippo Capocci (1840-1911)
Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925)
Pietro Branchina (1876-1953)
Organ
Nicolas Jaquot (1877)
Venue
Cattedrale di Catania - Palermo, Italy
About this album
Elegia opens, with this amazing and beautiful CD, a new collection dedicated to the Italian organs, that will allow to discover some of the most interesting instruments of our country, thanks to a repertoire thought for emphasize its technique and expressive resources. For the first volume the choice was the huge Jaquot organ of Catania Cathedral, a massive instrument built in 1877 and restored in 2014. Diego Cannizzaro, organ player who performed Office Divin by Filippo Capocci and two volumes of the complete collection about Pietro Alessandro Yon, selected a fascinating anthology of French and Italian authors, combining Sonata op.56 n.3 by Alexandre Guilmant and two suites of the unknown Nicolas Couturier to a series of pages by Marco Enrico Bossi, king of the Italian organ between the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century, Capocci and Pietro Branchina, making homage to Vincenzo Bellini, immortal glory of Catania. A CD that will conquer both the passionate and the connoisseurs.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded Catania’s Cathedral in December, 2015, Italy.
Sound engineer & Digital Editing: Giuseppe Faranda – Wave Studio,
Mastering: Centro Studi Auditorium Pacis,
12 pages full colour booklet,
Musicology comment,
Artist biography,
Full organ specs card included
Nicolas Couturier (1840-1911)
Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
Filippo Capocci (1840-1911)
Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925)
Pietro Branchina (1876-1953)
Elegia opens, with this amazing and beautiful CD, a new collection dedicated to the Italian organs, that will allow to discover some of the most interesting instruments of our country, thanks to a repertoire thought for emphasize its technique and expressive resources. For the first volume the choice was the huge Jaquot organ of Catania Cathedral, a massive instrument built in 1877 and restored in 2014. Diego Cannizzaro, organ player who performed Office Divin by Filippo Capocci and two volumes of the complete collection about Pietro Alessandro Yon, selected a fascinating anthology of French and Italian authors, combining Sonata op.56 n.3 by Alexandre Guilmant and two suites of the unknown Nicolas Couturier to a series of pages by Marco Enrico Bossi, king of the Italian organ between the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century, Capocci and Pietro Branchina, making homage to Vincenzo Bellini, immortal glory of Catania. A CD that will conquer both the passionate and the connoisseurs.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded Catania’s Cathedral in December, 2015, Italy.
Sound engineer & Digital Editing: Giuseppe Faranda – Wave Studio,
Mastering: Centro Studi Auditorium Pacis,
12 pages full colour booklet,
Musicology comment,
Artist biography,
Full organ specs card included
Complete organ music
Artist
Andrea Vannucchi, organ
Composer
Giuseppe Gherardeschi (1759 - 1815)
Organs
Giosuè Agati (1820) - Limite sull’Arno (Firenze), Italia Pietro Agati (1797) - Vignole di Quarrata (Pistoia), Italia Pietro Agati (1789) - Bargi, Camugnano (Bologna), Italia Organo Cesare Romani (1587), Pietro Agati (1776), Giosuè e Nicomede Agati (1824), Luigi e Cesare Tronci (1856) - Gavinana, San Marcello Pistoiese (Pistoia), Italia
About this album
During the XIX century the Italian organ repertoire assumed brilliant and very lively connotations that largely resumed the styles and melodies of melodrama, genre that in this period became the most characteristic element of the musical heritage of the nation. Today this style is known most of all thanks to Padre Davide da Bergamo’s works, but this route was walked also by other forgotten authors. Among them stands Giuseppe Gherardeschi, an author of Pistoia with great talent, of whom in this CD were played all the organ works in the beautiful interpretation of Andrea Vannucchi on four remarkable historic organs. As we can read on the cover notes signed by Umberto Pineschi: “gli offertori di Gherardeschi risentono dello stile dell’ouverture, le Elevazioni e le Benedizioni di quello della romanza, mentre nel Postcommunio riecheggia lo spirito civettuolo della cabaletta, sempre però con fantasia, equilibrio e, soprattutto, buon gusto”. A great discovery!
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Vignole di Quarrata on 9th September 2006, Gavinana on 23rd December 2006, Limite sull’Arno on 30th December 2006, Bargi on 18th July 2017, Italy | Sound engineer & Digital Editing: Paolo Fedi (tracks 1-16, 21-28), Daniele Boccaccio (tracks 17-20)
20 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included.
During the XIX century the Italian organ repertoire assumed brilliant and very lively connotations that largely resumed the styles and melodies of melodrama, genre that in this period became the most characteristic element of the musical heritage of the nation. Today this style is known most of all thanks to Padre Davide da Bergamo’s works, but this route was walked also by other forgotten authors. Among them stands Giuseppe Gherardeschi, an author of Pistoia with great talent, of whom in this CD were played all the organ works in the beautiful interpretation of Andrea Vannucchi on four remarkable historic organs. As we can read on the cover notes signed by Umberto Pineschi: “gli offertori di Gherardeschi risentono dello stile dell’ouverture, le Elevazioni e le Benedizioni di quello della romanza, mentre nel Postcommunio riecheggia lo spirito civettuolo della cabaletta, sempre però con fantasia, equilibrio e, soprattutto, buon gusto”. A great discovery!
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Vignole di Quarrata on 9th September 2006, Gavinana on 23rd December 2006, Limite sull’Arno on 30th December 2006, Bargi on 18th July 2017, Italy | Sound engineer & Digital Editing: Paolo Fedi (tracks 1-16, 21-28), Daniele Boccaccio (tracks 17-20)
20 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included.
Spanish Organ Fantasy
Artist
Montserrat Torrent Serra
Composers
Antonio De Cabezon (1510-1566)
Juan De Cabezon (1515-1566)
Hernando De Cabezon (1541-1602)
Antonio Carreira (ca.1529/30-1587/97)
Francisco Correa De Arauxo (1584-1654)
Manuel Rodriguez Coelho (1555-1635)
Juan Batista Cabanilles (1644-1712)
Organ
Luigi Concone e Figli (1838)
Venue
Oratorio San Filippo Neri, Turin, Italy
About this album
When we talk about organ production, spontaneously we think of Bach’s Germany, Dupré, Vierne and Widor’s France and Frescobaldi’s Italy, not sure of Spain, that it is famous most of all in other genres. This CD contributes to enlight a series of composers that were wrongly forgot: among them shines Antonio de Cabezón, unknown author that stayed in Italy for some time and that instilled in his eclectic style some elements of the authors of the time. Cabezón’s family is also represented by some pieces by Juan and Hernando, this one son of Antonio, to whom is the credit of the persistence of many works of his father. The programme is not limited to Spain, but also offers some evocative pieces of Portuguese authors as Manuel Rodrigues Coelho and Antonio Carreira: it ends with the beautiful Xácara of the Catalan Juan Bautista Cabanilles. These works, with an unmistakable Iberian atmosphere, are performed with an incomparable technical and expressive mastery by Montserrat Torrent, one of the most important performer of this fascinating repertoire.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in San Filippo Neri Oratorio, Turin in march, 2016.
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Juan De Cabezon (1515-1566)
Hernando De Cabezon (1541-1602)
Antonio Carreira (ca.1529/30-1587/97)
Francisco Correa De Arauxo (1584-1654)
Manuel Rodriguez Coelho (1555-1635)
Juan Batista Cabanilles (1644-1712)
When we talk about organ production, spontaneously we think of Bach’s Germany, Dupré, Vierne and Widor’s France and Frescobaldi’s Italy, not sure of Spain, that it is famous most of all in other genres. This CD contributes to enlight a series of composers that were wrongly forgot: among them shines Antonio de Cabezón, unknown author that stayed in Italy for some time and that instilled in his eclectic style some elements of the authors of the time. Cabezón’s family is also represented by some pieces by Juan and Hernando, this one son of Antonio, to whom is the credit of the persistence of many works of his father. The programme is not limited to Spain, but also offers some evocative pieces of Portuguese authors as Manuel Rodrigues Coelho and Antonio Carreira: it ends with the beautiful Xácara of the Catalan Juan Bautista Cabanilles. These works, with an unmistakable Iberian atmosphere, are performed with an incomparable technical and expressive mastery by Montserrat Torrent, one of the most important performer of this fascinating repertoire.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in San Filippo Neri Oratorio, Turin in march, 2016.
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Pietro Alessandro Yon. Complete organ music vol. 4
Artist
Diego Cannizzaro, organ
Composer
Pietro Alessandro Yon (1866-1943)
Organ
Pacifico Inzoli (1898)
Venue
San Domenico Church, Palermo, Italy
About this album
The first three volumes of the complete collection for organ by Pietro Alessandro Yon have allowed to show the eclectic personality of the composer, suspended between sacred and profane. His music is full of the suggestions characterized by motherland’s melancholy and the precious miniatures of his new “home” in USA. This CD instead presents three works that allowed to appreciate Yon, putting it in relationship with the style of the main authors of his time and revealing surprising analogies with Marco Enrico Bossi, great organ musician who gets a huge success, beyond the Ocean, a generation before Yon. Performing those sonatas of extraordinary fascination and of challenging writing, Diego Cannizzaro has chosen the organ Pacifico Inzoli inside Chiesa di San Domenico in Palermo, an instrument built in 1898 that exalts at its maximum the brilliant sonorities of those works.
Additional info about this CD
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Artist biography
Musicology comment,
Full organ specs card included
The first three volumes of the complete collection for organ by Pietro Alessandro Yon have allowed to show the eclectic personality of the composer, suspended between sacred and profane. His music is full of the suggestions characterized by motherland’s melancholy and the precious miniatures of his new “home” in USA. This CD instead presents three works that allowed to appreciate Yon, putting it in relationship with the style of the main authors of his time and revealing surprising analogies with Marco Enrico Bossi, great organ musician who gets a huge success, beyond the Ocean, a generation before Yon. Performing those sonatas of extraordinary fascination and of challenging writing, Diego Cannizzaro has chosen the organ Pacifico Inzoli inside Chiesa di San Domenico in Palermo, an instrument built in 1898 that exalts at its maximum the brilliant sonorities of those works.
Additional info about this CD
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Artist biography
Musicology comment,
Full organ specs card included
Preludes, Arias and Ballet music
Artist
Roberto Cognazzo, organ
Composer
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Organ
Tiburzio Gorla (1856)
Venue
Chiesa di San Massimo vescovo, Coassolo Torinese, Turin, Italy
About this album
Verdi, from the organ of Roncole to the opera houses. Among the great Italian opera composers, actives between the first part of the nineteenth century and the first one of the twentieth, two had a serious relationship with organ: Verdi and Puccini. It’s worth pointing to differentiate the position, that Puccini played this instrument close to the gradual exhaustion of the striking coexistence between melodrama and liturgy, while Verdi, not only learnt to play on the small organ of Roncole, but he also had to deal with pipes and choirs since his debut at La Scala in 1839 with Oberto conte di San Bonifacio. This coexistence was natural for us at least three quarters of the nineteenth century. Even if we do not have direct documents, we can consider that Verdi played his own music and that of others (padre Davide da Bergamo lived near Busseto), built on theatrical scheme, a deep transcription repertoire in order to embellish sacred services with the latest opera newness. The popularity reached by Verdi with Nabucco made his scores (until Aida) inexhaustible sources for the organ players of the time. This CD is designed to suggest a “Verdi route” realized on three instruments of the time, very similar to those played by Verdi in Busseto and surroundings. The catalogue includes, distributed in the space of thirty years, titles and pieces not all famous, but all significants. Significant examples are the great Congiura of Ernani and the curious almost bandist Gran Marcia Trionfale of Giovanna d’Arco. To a more darker and pessimistic Verdi belongs instead the Prelude to Attila (soundtrack of the film Noi credevamo), while The Prelude and Aria of the less famous Masnadieri open to a plastic melodism that allows exploiting the typical registers of the English horn and of the human voice. The English horn, equivalent of baritone and tenor voices in organ, lights in any case the famous and touching Aria sung by Rodolfo in Luisa Miller, opera that closes the first period of the composer. The following pages belong to the international Verdi who wrote for Paris Opera and Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatre the great scores of / Vespri Siciliani and of La forza del destino, creating one of his most popular opera. Those are works written for great theatres, where the decorative part (choirs and ballets) has a huge relevance, addressed to satisfy the eye, not only the ear. In Vespri the choreographic action based on seasons alternating lasts over thirty minutes with waltz, mazurka, polka and gallop. Pleasant and fantastic are, closing to a complicated third act rich in coup de theatre, the Tarantella and the Rataplan (this last piece for choir without accompaniment I that introduce us, in the dramatic tale of La forza del destino, a peaceful digression. Different is the bizarre exotic atmosphere of the wild ballable introduced in the second act of Aida, as a diversion to the triumphal marches and the great musical pieces of the whole. (Roberto Cognazzo)
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa Madonna del Rosario, Chivasso, Turin, Italy, on 22-23 February 2011; Chiesa di San Nicolao in Coassolo, Turin, on 16-17 April, 2013; Chiesa di San Massimo vescovo, Turin, on 24-25-26 February 2015.
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Verdi, from the organ of Roncole to the opera houses. Among the great Italian opera composers, actives between the first part of the nineteenth century and the first one of the twentieth, two had a serious relationship with organ: Verdi and Puccini. It’s worth pointing to differentiate the position, that Puccini played this instrument close to the gradual exhaustion of the striking coexistence between melodrama and liturgy, while Verdi, not only learnt to play on the small organ of Roncole, but he also had to deal with pipes and choirs since his debut at La Scala in 1839 with Oberto conte di San Bonifacio. This coexistence was natural for us at least three quarters of the nineteenth century. Even if we do not have direct documents, we can consider that Verdi played his own music and that of others (padre Davide da Bergamo lived near Busseto), built on theatrical scheme, a deep transcription repertoire in order to embellish sacred services with the latest opera newness. The popularity reached by Verdi with Nabucco made his scores (until Aida) inexhaustible sources for the organ players of the time. This CD is designed to suggest a “Verdi route” realized on three instruments of the time, very similar to those played by Verdi in Busseto and surroundings. The catalogue includes, distributed in the space of thirty years, titles and pieces not all famous, but all significants. Significant examples are the great Congiura of Ernani and the curious almost bandist Gran Marcia Trionfale of Giovanna d’Arco. To a more darker and pessimistic Verdi belongs instead the Prelude to Attila (soundtrack of the film Noi credevamo), while The Prelude and Aria of the less famous Masnadieri open to a plastic melodism that allows exploiting the typical registers of the English horn and of the human voice. The English horn, equivalent of baritone and tenor voices in organ, lights in any case the famous and touching Aria sung by Rodolfo in Luisa Miller, opera that closes the first period of the composer. The following pages belong to the international Verdi who wrote for Paris Opera and Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatre the great scores of / Vespri Siciliani and of La forza del destino, creating one of his most popular opera. Those are works written for great theatres, where the decorative part (choirs and ballets) has a huge relevance, addressed to satisfy the eye, not only the ear. In Vespri the choreographic action based on seasons alternating lasts over thirty minutes with waltz, mazurka, polka and gallop. Pleasant and fantastic are, closing to a complicated third act rich in coup de theatre, the Tarantella and the Rataplan (this last piece for choir without accompaniment I that introduce us, in the dramatic tale of La forza del destino, a peaceful digression. Different is the bizarre exotic atmosphere of the wild ballable introduced in the second act of Aida, as a diversion to the triumphal marches and the great musical pieces of the whole. (Roberto Cognazzo)
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Chiesa Madonna del Rosario, Chivasso, Turin, Italy, on 22-23 February 2011; Chiesa di San Nicolao in Coassolo, Turin, on 16-17 April, 2013; Chiesa di San Massimo vescovo, Turin, on 24-25-26 February 2015.
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
The Italian Baroque Trumpet - Concertos and Sonatas
Artists
Maurizio Fornero, organ
Daniele Greco D'Alceo, baroque trumpet
Composers
Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani (1638-1693)
Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709)
Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Pietro Baldassare (1683-1768)
Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
Organ
attributable to
Francesco Maria e Giovanni Battista Concone (1752)
Venue
Chiesa parrocchiale di San Genesio Martire, Corio, Turin, Italy
About this album
The organ and the trumpet were for centuries an inseparable combination both in sacred and profane field, accompanying the joy of Easter or the coronation of kings. This CD traces an interesting cross-section of this repertoire, matching works conceived for these instruments and a series of brilliant transcriptions, written at first for orchestra, starting from the sonatas by Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani – the original and more ancient works for trumpet and organ – arriving to more known pages by Alessandro Scarlatti, Tomaso Albinoni and Giuseppe Tartini. This varied programme sees as protagonists Daniele Greco D’Alceo, part of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and brilliant soloist of baroque trumpet, and Maurizio Fornero, for the occasion at the keyboard of the eighteenth century organ by Francesco Maria and Giovanni Battista Concone of Corio Canavese. A CD with bright shades.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Corio, Italia, nel 2017
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included.
Daniele Greco D'Alceo, baroque trumpet
Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709)
Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Pietro Baldassare (1683-1768)
Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
attributable to
The organ and the trumpet were for centuries an inseparable combination both in sacred and profane field, accompanying the joy of Easter or the coronation of kings. This CD traces an interesting cross-section of this repertoire, matching works conceived for these instruments and a series of brilliant transcriptions, written at first for orchestra, starting from the sonatas by Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani – the original and more ancient works for trumpet and organ – arriving to more known pages by Alessandro Scarlatti, Tomaso Albinoni and Giuseppe Tartini. This varied programme sees as protagonists Daniele Greco D’Alceo, part of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and brilliant soloist of baroque trumpet, and Maurizio Fornero, for the occasion at the keyboard of the eighteenth century organ by Francesco Maria and Giovanni Battista Concone of Corio Canavese. A CD with bright shades.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Corio, Italia, nel 2017
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included.
Complete organ music vol. 3
Artist
Massimo Gabba, organ
Composer
Pietro Alessandro Yon (1886-1943)
Organ
Mascioni (1948) op. 632
Venue
Insigne Basilica Collegiata di San Gaudenzio, Novara, Italy
About this album
In the previous volume of this complete collection of Pietro Alessandro Yon’s organ music (Settimo Vittone, 1886 – Huntington, 1943) we have proposed a musical production purely dedicated to concert performances, made of virtuosic compositions rich in spectacular sound and technical effects. If the organ used in the other recording retraces the American organ aesthetic, the chosen instrument for this third volume is the historic Mascioni of 1948, placed in the Basilica of San Gaudenzio in Novara, with the typical Italian sounds. This is due to the characteristics of the repertoire here proposed, no longer strictly virtuosic, but with a major attention to the typical colors and sounds of the Italian instruments, built in the first half of the XX century. Here is therefore a medley of heterogeneous works that practically concern all the styles: Toccata, Suite, Divertimento, Nocturne, March, Pastorale, all written in Yon’s American period and published between 1912 and 1943. Toccata in Re maggiore is dedicated to Remigio Renzi, Yon’s teacher and professor at Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, from whose Toccata in Mi maggiore he gets his own inspiration, retracing broadly the structure. A collection of descriptive pieces is 12 Divertimenti, almost a sort of symphonic poem in miniature, each of them with their own characteristics and so executable even separately. Toccatina and Rapsodia italiana are nowadays present in the concert programs, while the other pieces are, unfortunately, forgotten. Published in 1943 Advent, First Religious Suite for Organ is about Gregorian and Christmas themes. Already in France, between XIX and XX century, composers as Ch. M. Widor, Paul de Malingreau, Léonce de Saint-Martin have written religious symphonies for organ, based on specific ecclesiastical melodies. Yon uses the musical material in a very personal way, far from the French style very popular at the time. Canto Elegiaco and Sheperd’s March are two pieces published in 1937 and 1942. The first is a dramatic and introspective nocturne for organ, while the second is a joyful pastoral march on free themes. Dedicated to the beloved Mario and published in 1921, La Concertina is a very brief suite in three movements, in which the traditional organ pipe plays as a Wurlitzer, a kind of theatre and cinema organ, used in the days of silent cinema to reproduce the most varied sounds (train, wind, rainstorm) with the typical thrilled and shrilled sound. Christ Triumphant is at first a composition for Soli Coro ed Organo, here proposed in the organ transcription of the same Yon. Based on the Easter hymn Aurora Coelum Purpurat, it is a magnificent and solemn piece, in which the register Campane is used for the first time in this CD.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Novara, Italia, nel 2017
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
In the previous volume of this complete collection of Pietro Alessandro Yon’s organ music (Settimo Vittone, 1886 – Huntington, 1943) we have proposed a musical production purely dedicated to concert performances, made of virtuosic compositions rich in spectacular sound and technical effects. If the organ used in the other recording retraces the American organ aesthetic, the chosen instrument for this third volume is the historic Mascioni of 1948, placed in the Basilica of San Gaudenzio in Novara, with the typical Italian sounds. This is due to the characteristics of the repertoire here proposed, no longer strictly virtuosic, but with a major attention to the typical colors and sounds of the Italian instruments, built in the first half of the XX century. Here is therefore a medley of heterogeneous works that practically concern all the styles: Toccata, Suite, Divertimento, Nocturne, March, Pastorale, all written in Yon’s American period and published between 1912 and 1943. Toccata in Re maggiore is dedicated to Remigio Renzi, Yon’s teacher and professor at Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, from whose Toccata in Mi maggiore he gets his own inspiration, retracing broadly the structure. A collection of descriptive pieces is 12 Divertimenti, almost a sort of symphonic poem in miniature, each of them with their own characteristics and so executable even separately. Toccatina and Rapsodia italiana are nowadays present in the concert programs, while the other pieces are, unfortunately, forgotten. Published in 1943 Advent, First Religious Suite for Organ is about Gregorian and Christmas themes. Already in France, between XIX and XX century, composers as Ch. M. Widor, Paul de Malingreau, Léonce de Saint-Martin have written religious symphonies for organ, based on specific ecclesiastical melodies. Yon uses the musical material in a very personal way, far from the French style very popular at the time. Canto Elegiaco and Sheperd’s March are two pieces published in 1937 and 1942. The first is a dramatic and introspective nocturne for organ, while the second is a joyful pastoral march on free themes. Dedicated to the beloved Mario and published in 1921, La Concertina is a very brief suite in three movements, in which the traditional organ pipe plays as a Wurlitzer, a kind of theatre and cinema organ, used in the days of silent cinema to reproduce the most varied sounds (train, wind, rainstorm) with the typical thrilled and shrilled sound. Christ Triumphant is at first a composition for Soli Coro ed Organo, here proposed in the organ transcription of the same Yon. Based on the Easter hymn Aurora Coelum Purpurat, it is a magnificent and solemn piece, in which the register Campane is used for the first time in this CD.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Novara, Italia, nel 2017
12 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Concerti con organo obbligato
Artists
Turin Baroque Orchestra
Gianluca Cagnani, organo e direzione
Francesca Odling, traversiere
Svetlana Fomina, violino
Enrico Groppo, violino
Nicola Brovelli
Composer
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Organ
Pinchi (1996) op. 412
Venue
Chiesa Evangelica Valdese, Torino, Italy
About this album
The rediscovery of the Pre-Romantic repertoire, occurred during the last decades, has brought back the Vivaldi’s production under the spotlight, but, despite this, much still remains to be discovered. One of the more unknown field is that of the concerts that see the organ free its role of basso continuo in order to take on an unpublished soloist garment for the time in front of a huge strings group. The programme of this CD presents six works characterized by the melodic vein of the Red Priest, in which the organ shows off both its virtuosic potential and its extended melodiousness. These works were presented in the reliable performance of Gianluca Cagnani, in the double garment of soloist and director of the Turin Baroque Orchestra. An unusual and beautiful Vivaldi.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Torino, Italia, nel 2017
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included
Gianluca Cagnani, organo e direzione
Francesca Odling, traversiere
Svetlana Fomina, violino
Enrico Groppo, violino
Nicola Brovelli
The rediscovery of the Pre-Romantic repertoire, occurred during the last decades, has brought back the Vivaldi’s production under the spotlight, but, despite this, much still remains to be discovered. One of the more unknown field is that of the concerts that see the organ free its role of basso continuo in order to take on an unpublished soloist garment for the time in front of a huge strings group. The programme of this CD presents six works characterized by the melodic vein of the Red Priest, in which the organ shows off both its virtuosic potential and its extended melodiousness. These works were presented in the reliable performance of Gianluca Cagnani, in the double garment of soloist and director of the Turin Baroque Orchestra. An unusual and beautiful Vivaldi.
Additional info about this CD
Recorded in Torino, Italia, nel 2017
16 pages full colour booklet (Ita and Eng)
Musicology comment,
Artist biography
Full organ specs card included