Giovanni Sollima, Federico Guglielmo & Il pomo d’oro – Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:22 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
The charismatic, cosmopolitan cellist Giovanni Sollima joins the instrumentalists of Il Pomo d’Oro for Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto.
The album, which crosses cultures and eras, sets Vivaldi, born in Venice in 1678, in the context of his native city’s historical relationship with the eastern Mediterranean and Asia. Al-Bunduqiyya is the Arabic name for Venice and ‘The Lost Concerto’ (Il Concerto Perduto) is a work composed in 2021 by Sollima. His starting point was all that remains of one of Vivaldi’s concertos for cello: the orchestral viola part, now preserved at the Venice Conservatory.
Among the other items are complete concertos by Vivaldi, solo improvisations by Sollima, a piece by Vivaldi’s contemporary Tartini, and music of the Cypriot and Albanian traditions.
When the programme of Al-Bunduqiyya was performed at London’s Wigmore Hall, Seen and Heard International wrote: “Sollima conjured a feast of tone colours, plunging into pizzicatos, climbing to the heights of the fingerboard with Romantic bravura, conjuring ornamental flourishes with improvisatory flair, finding intense sentiment before whipping up a wild dance and concluding with some glissandi yelps! This was as much theatre as music.”
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Il Pomo dOro, Maxim Emelyanychev, Ivan Podyomov – Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 29 & 40 – Oboe Concerto (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:04 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d’Oro continue their uncommon Mozart symphony cycle. The idea is the following: put together great symphonies of the late Mozart and youth pieces. Maxim Emelyanychev, who has already gathered the first and the last symphonies – the beginning and the end –, has chosen to record the symphony no. 29 and the legendary no. 40 in the present volume. The ensemble makes us follow Mozart, from Salzburg to Vienna, in the yearning for liberty his life was. Perfectly suited to this repertoire, Maxim Emelyanychev uses the exceptional and period-instrumented sonority of Il Pomo d’Oro to deliver a dramatic and powerful Symphony no. 40, while rendering all the lyricism and contrasts of the no. 29. The Oboe concerto, interpreted by the soloist Ivan Podyomov, first oboe at the Royal Concertbouw Orchestra, adds a concertante supplement to this programme.
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Jakub Józef Orliński, Il Pomo D’oro – Beyond (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:18 minutes | 1,56 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Jakub Jozef Orlinski brings forgotten works back to today with Beyond: “We take you on a journey that leads to new places – beyond the places you know,” is how Jakub Josef Orlinski describes the idea behind his album Beyond. The multiple award-winning countertenor has already been acclaimed by international critics for his selection of works for his album Facce d’amore. Now he has put together an extraordinary program of vocal and instrumental works by 18 composers of the early Italian Baroque. They were significant figures in their day, but now their names are all but forgotten. Among the musicians still known today, besides Claudio Monteverdi, are certainly Giulio Caccini, Johann Caspar Kerll and Francesco Cavalli – among those hardly heard: Names like Pallavicino, Marini and Jarzebski.
Read more![Raffaele La Ragione, Il Pomo d'Oro, Francesco Corti - Mandolin on Stage (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/24/rwxwnrv152csa_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Raffaele La Ragione, Il Pomo d’Oro, Francesco Corti – Mandolin on Stage (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:54 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana
Two years after the great acclaim aroused by “Beethoven and his Contemporaries”, his first recording for Arcana, Raffaele La Ragione returns with an album containing the four best-known mandolin concertos, which appear in a new light here thanks to the use of three different period mandolins. For this ambitious project he is joined by the brilliant orchestra Il pomo d’oro, universally renowned for its lively, dynamic interpretations of instrumental and vocal music from the Baroque and Classical periods (with Joyce DiDonato, Franco Fagioli, Jakub Józef Orliński) and directed here by its principal guest conductor Francesco Corti, a harpsichordist of international repute.
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Max Emanuel Cencic, George Petrou, Il Pomo d’Oro, Lauren Snouffer – Handel: Ottone, HWV 15 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:23:08 minutes | 3,66 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.
One should not think that at the time when Handel was around, an opera was a finished product, etched in stone, the score of which was some kind of Holy Grail that would not suffer any tampering with, be it so benign. From that point of view, Handel’s Ottone is a case in point. Some extensive adjustments probably arose from Handel’s collaboration with the famous prima donna Francesca Cuzzoni, who had arrived in London in December 1722, but a fortnight before the first performance, and immediately threw a tantrum. Several of her arias she rejected and had had Handel substitute with entirely different new music. According to Mainwaring’s Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel (1760), having one day some words with Cuzzoni on her refusing to sing the aria Falsa imagine, the composer had shouted, in French: “I know very well that you are a veritable she-devil: but I will show you that I am Beelzebub the Chief of the Devils ” and with this he took her up by the waist, and, if she uttered another word, swore that he would fling her out of the window. This being said, many of the modifications he made during the rehearsal period had nothing to do with Cuzzoni. All in all, eleven arias and one duet were finished but then discarded and replaced before the first performance, and several other arias were considerably revised . It is impossible to determine which changes were instigated by Handel himself on artistic grounds and which were compromises in order to satisfy his singers’ whims and overblown egos. In addition to rejections, redrafts of scenes and wholesale substitutions by Handel during the opera’s composition and preparation, further amendments were also made during its first run . Moreover, he replaced and also added several extra arias for the twelfth performance, which took place on 26 March 1723 after a break of several weeks because of Lent. So: what does “the real” Ottone look like? This recording presents a reconstruction of the complete first performance version, but it also incorporates Handel’s expansions to two scenes reworked especially for Cuzzoni. As an appendix, there are three bonus tracks of new arias composed for the title-role in Handel’s 1726 revival, making it an Ottone as complete as possible. All this extra music will allow the listener to enjoy even more the great voices of the recording, to begin with the countertenor Max Cencic, but also the soprano Lauren Snouffer – who sings the part initially held by the infamous Cuzzoni –, accompanied by the ensemble Il pomo d’oro playing on period instruments and conducted by George Petrou.
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Lisette Oropesa, Il Pomo d’Oro & Antonello Manacorda – Mozart: Ombra compagna (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:21:28 minutes | 2,85 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Soprano Lisette Oropesa presents her solo debut album “Ombra Compagna”, a kaleidoscope of concert arias by Mozart, whose music is very dear to her heart. These concert arias, written for important sopranos in his life, contain the most lavish and virtuosic music Mozart composed, both for the voice and for the orchestra. The emotional centre of the album is the aria Ah, lo previdi, in which the most sublime music accompanies the journey between life and death, as the spirit of a loved one slips away. For Oropesa, to be an “Ombra compagna” means to be with someone in spirit, a comforting yet heart-breaking testament of love.
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Michael Spyres, Il Pomo D’oro, Francesco Corti – Contra-Tenor (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:12:54 minutes | 2,71 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Michael’s vision is to bridge the gap between ‘early music’ and ‘classical music’, directing fans of both eras to each other’s territory through these unique and distinct album concepts.
Read more![Kathryn Lewek, John Chest, Il Pomo d'Oro, Francesco Corti - Handel: Apollo e Dafne, HWV 122 & Armida abbandonata, HWV 105 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/02/28/d7vdo9g64f5nc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Kathryn Lewek, John Chest, Il Pomo d’Oro, Francesco Corti – Handel: Apollo e Dafne, HWV 122 & Armida abbandonata, HWV 105 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:25 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone
Compact cantatas with expressive depth. Il Pomo d’Oro and Francesco Corti present Handel’s Apollo e Dafne and Armida abbandonata, together with two outstanding vocalists: soprano Kathryn Lewek (Armida and Dafne) and baritone John Chest (Apollo). Handel composed these two cantatas shortly after his Italian sojourn (1706-1709), and they demonstrate his acquaintance with and aptitude for Italian operatic music. Compared to opera, supporting roles are left out of these relatively compact cantatas, increasing the focus on the main characters, and heightening the expressive depth of their music. Il Pomo d’Oro performs these pieces with historically-informed ears, lively and colourful. The cantatas alternate with several delightful orchestral pieces by Handel, including several movements from his Almira-Suite.
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Il Pomo d’Oro, Giuseppe Maletto – Gesualdo: Sacræ Cantiones (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:05:32 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
The year 1603 marked a turning point for Carlo Gesualdo: at the age of thirty-seven, the Prince of Venosa, having made a name for himself with his first four books of madrigals, turned to sacred compositions with two substantial collections of Sacræ Cantiones, published that year in Naples by Costantino Vitale. The first volume (presented here) consists of nineteen five-part motets, while the second one, which has not survived in its entirety, contains the same number of six- part motets and a motet for seven voices. The references to sin and the pleas for forgiveness might suggest a personal desire for atonement: thirteen years previously, in 1590, Gesualdo had ordered the murder of his wife Maria d’Avalos and her lover Fabrizio Carafa, caught in flagrante delicto. But it is perhaps unwise to gauge the possible consequences of that tragic event four centuries later, when mentalities are not at all the same. Religion was very important to Gesualdo, and it was present in his own family, with a maternal uncle, Carlo Borromeo, who was canonised in 1610, and a paternal uncle, Alfonso Gesualdo, who was a Cardinal from 1561 until his death in 1603. In 1585, five years before the honour killing, Gesualdo, then aged nineteen, had published his first motet, Ne reminiscaris Domine delicta nostra (Remember not our faults, O Lord). Although this early attempt at sacred music displays no harmonic audacity, it already shows a subjective adherence to the penitential text. So, if we were unaware that the piece was written in the 1580s, we would tend to associate it with the guilt of having organised the killing of his wife – an interpretation that would be historically unfounded.
The two books of Sacræ Cantiones of 1603 pick up the thread of that early motet, but show a more mature style. We notice first of all Gesualdo’s desire to assert his technical mastery, then to infuse his polyphony with a highly subjective pathos that was generally absent from religious music of that time.
Read more![Joyce DiDonato, Il pomo d'oro, Maxim Emelyanychev - EDEN (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/03/21/t3up8i2pb286b_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Joyce DiDonato, Il pomo d’oro, Maxim Emelyanychev – EDEN (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:29 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Exploring the majesty, might, and mystery of Nature through both arresting and evocative music and theatrical effects, Joyce DiDonato takes us on an emotional journey to reconnect to the power and fragility of Nature, exploring our place within the kaleidoscopic, wondrous world around us. Joined by the original instrument ensemble il Pomo d’Oro and Maxim Emelyanychev, as well as the French stage director Marie Lambert, Joyce will perform a wide-ranging program cycling from Handel to Ives, Gluck to Mahler, inviting the audience to consider their own place in the world… and perhaps to even change it.
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Karina Gauvin, Philippe Jaroussky, Emöke Baráth, John Mark Ainsley, Teresa Iervolino, Luca Tittoto, Il Pomo D’oro, Riccardo Minasi – Handel: Partenope (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:23:24 minutes | 3,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Erato – Warner Classics
Handel’s sparkling opera Partenope reunites Erato’ star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and the captivating Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin, who both made such an impact in the Erato recording of Steffani’s rediscovered opera Niobe, released in early 2015 and welcomed as a “landmark event” by Gramophone.
Jaroussky’s Erato catalogue is rich, varied and extensive – and this summer he appeared as Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina in a spectacular new production at the Aix-en-Provence Festival – but it is some time since he last recorded a complete Handel opera for the label: Faramondo, which was released in 2009. If Faramondo remains something of a rarity on the world’s stages, Partenope – which offers plenty of comedy as Queen Partenope juggles an array of suitors – is a popular work, and in recent years has even enjoyed productions in such large theatres as the San Francisco Opera and English National Opera.
Jaroussky takes the role of Arsace, Prince of Corinth, while Karina Gauvin is Queen Partenope herself. She has superb credentials as a Handelian and has recorded Ariodante (with Joyce DiDonato and the late Alan Curtis) and Giove in Argo (with Ann Hallenberg and Curtis) for Erato. Gramophone has spoken of her “ideal Handelian mix of grace and profound emotional truth,” while the Sunday Times has praised her “glinting soprano, bright-edged yet deliciously rounded and sensual … used with rare understanding for character” and the “sculptural beauty” of her phrasing.
The conductor is Riccardo Minasi, who, with his ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, also appears on Joyce DiDonato’s bel canto collection, Stella di Napoli and Edgar Moreau’s new Erato album Giovincello. Praising conductor and orchestra for their command of Handel’s operatic style, Forum Opéra has written: “A real drama unfolds from the overture onwards … The conductor brings true brio as he engages with Handel’s rhetoric … The players of Il Pomo d’Oro can switch in a moment from the role of interlocutor to commentator … Add to this a perfect mastery of the way the recitatives lead into the arias, and you have the formula for an approach that remains constantly fresh.”
The rich-voiced Italian mezzo-soprano takes the role of Rosmira – Arsace’s former lover, who is disguised as a man, Prince Eurimene – while the diamantine Hungarian soprano Emőke Baráth takes the role of a real man, Prince Armindo, who is in love with Partenope. “Supremely stylish” were the words used by the Telegraph to describe John Mark Ainsley when he sang Emilio (yet another prince seeking Partenope’s hand) at English National Opera, and the distinguished Italian bass Luca Tittoto brings authority to the role of Partenope’s advisor Ormonte.
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Il Pomo d’Oro & Maxim Emelyanychev – Mozart: The Beginning & The End (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:20 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Maxim Emelyanychev’s affinity with Mozart is well known, especially when it comes to piano works. In 2018, the conductor and keyboardist treated us to a recording that not only displayed his virtuosity and musicianship, but also revealed his remarkably close understanding of the composer’s music. Today, the symphonies are the focus of his first long-term project with Il Pomo d’Oro, an ensemble he has been working with as it’s conductor since 2013. As he points out, this project, aiming eventually to provide a complete set of the Mozart symphonies, is unlike anything he has recorded with the ensemble hitherto on period instruments. The approach here is original: each volume will feature an early symphony by Mozart, together with one of his great mature symphonies, which will enable the listener to perceive his many facets, revealed in the course of his development. Each volume will also include a bonus work, featuring a special guest. Inaugurating the series, Maxim Emelyanychev himself provides the hors d’œuvre with Concerto o.23 K.488, played on a fortepiano, before going on to conduct Mozart’s Symphonies Nos.1 and 41.This is a new, unopened CD in its original packaging.
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Franco Fagioli, Il Pomo d’Oro, Zefira Valova – Handel Arias (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:50 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
This album isn’t just for fans of the counter-tenor’s voice – Franco Fagiolo being one of the stars in the market – but also for lovers of the airs from Handel’s operas, and any serious baroque orchestra enthusiast, the orchestra here being Il Pomo d’Oro. When you unite all these elements together in a recording, the result is spectacular. This record includes the thrills of big hits like “Ombra mai fu” from Serse or “Cara sposa” from Rinaldo, as well as a number of no-less-interesting rarities, which have the advantage of shining a light on the lesser played works of the caro Sassone. After all,Ariodante, Partenope, Imeneo and Oreste (the album covers the composer’s entire period of lyrical creativity) all have some great moments, and completely original airs, often loaded with the instrumental surprises that Handel arranged so well. And so, fans, if all three of the big elements are there – or if you are just curious to hear a very well made record – get stuck in!
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Francesco Corti & Il Pomo d’Oro – J.S. Bach: Harpsichord Concertos (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:06 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Bach’s harpsichord concertos are arguably the first in the history of music designed specifically for this instrument. Composing them, Bach aimed to adapt the string writing of Italian instrumental concertos to a keyboard instrument, while simultaneously enriching this style with typically-German traits such as counterpoint and motivic development.
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