Johann Sebastian Bach – 3 Sonatas For Viola Da Gamba And Harpsichord

Johann Sebastian Bach – 3 Sonatas For Viola Da Gamba And Harpsichord Recorded at Schloss Wannegem-Lade, Germany between 15-17/05/1974 About the work: It has now been determined that Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord were written in the early 1740s, a time when the great virtuosos of the viola da gamba [...]

Giuseppe Verdi – Simon Boccanegra

Giuseppe Verdi – Simon Boccanegra Recorded in 1973 About this Opera: In 1855, the Fenice Theatre of Venice asked Verdi for a new opera, but the contract was signed only a year later, when the composer had already seen the outline of a work by the playwright Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez: Simon Boccanegra. The Maestro started [...]

Richard Strauss & Sergei Rachmaninoff – Sonatas For Cello And Piano

Richard Strauss & Sergei Rachmaninoff – Sonatas For Cello And Piano Recorded between 21 & 22/12/1987 at the Studio 3 of Bayerischen Rundfunk. About the Work: Though Strauss is known primarily as a composer of tone poems and operas, he nonetheless made several important contributions to the chamber literature, including the present work. Highly praised [...]

Gaetano Donizetti – Lucrezia Borgia

Gaetano Donizetti – Lucrezia Borgia Recorded in May 1966 at the RCA Italiana Studios, Roma About this opera: Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. [...]

Francesco Geminiani – 12 Concerti Grossi Op.2, 3 & 4

Francesco Geminiani – Concerti Grossi Op.2, 3 & 4 Recorded in 1975-76. About the artist: Francesco Geminiani was born at Lucca, in Tuscany, in December 1687. At an early age he showed considerable talent on the violin after being taught by his father. Later he studied the violin under Carlo Ambrogio Lonati in Milan and [...]

Gioacchino Rossini – Il Barbiere Di Siviglia

Gioacchino Rossini – Il Barbiere Di Siviglia Recorded at the RAI studios on 16/04/1968 About the author: Rossini was born in Pesaro on 29 February, 1792 and died in Passy on 13 November, 1868. Both his parents were musicians, his father a horn player, his mother a singer; he learnt the horn and singing and [...]

Maurice Duruflé – Requiem & Quatre Motets

Maurice Duruflé – Requiem & Quatre Motets Recorded on 4 & 5 October, 1985 in London. About the author: Maurice Duruflé (11/01/1902, Louviers – 16/06/1986 – Louveciennes) was a French composer, organist, and pedagogue, who became in 1912 chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, where he studied piano and organ with Jules Haelling. At [...]

George Frideric Händel – Almira

George Frideric Händel – Almira Recorded between 2-8/7/1994 at Radio Bremen Sendesaal, Bremen, Germany. About the Opera: At the age of 17, the young Georg Friedrich Haendel (or as he spelled his name at the time, “Hendler” or “Hendel”) traveled to the Free City-Republic of Hamburg, home to Germany’s greatest and most famous opera composer [...]

Sylvius Leopold Weiss – Ars Melancholiae

Sylvius Leopold Weiss – Ars Melancholiae Recorded in Villa Consuelo, El Escorial, Madrid in June 1993 About the author: The master lutenist of the eighteenth century, Weiss was born in Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland) into a lute-playing family, and first learned the instrument from his father, Johann Jacob Weiss. In 1706, Weiss made his [...]

Pietro Mascagni – Cavalleria Rusticana

Pietro Mascagni – Cavalleria Rusticana Recorded at The Concert Hall of the Slovak Radio, Bratislava, Slovakia from 1-10/04/1992 About the Author: Pietro Mascagni (December 7, 1863 – August 2, 1945) was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece, Cavalleria rusticana, caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and singlehandedly [...]