Rinaldo Alessandrini – Monteverdi: Madrigali, Libri primo e nono (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini – Monteverdi: Madrigali, Libri primo e nono (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:19:00 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

Born in Cremona in 1567, Claudio Monteverdi served at the court of the Dukes of Mantua from the early 1590s until 1612, when he moved to Venice as maestro di cappella at the basilica of St Mark, a position he retained until his death in 1643. His importance as a proponent of the so-called seconda prattica, the new concerted music characteristic of the early Baroque, is unquestioned, as is his pre-eminence in the development of the new form of opera that sprang from the combination of music and rhetoric in the art of Italian monody.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Bach: Ouvertures for Orchestra (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Bach: Ouvertures for Orchestra (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:10:12 minutes | 2,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

Facce d’amore, ‘Faces of love’ follows Jakub Józef Orliński’s first solo album, Anima Sacra, which moved Gramophone magazine to announce that “This is a voice with a big future.” It brings a switch from the sacred to the personal and passionate. As the Polish-born, New York-trained countertenor says, the programme – which includes eight world premiere recordings – comprises “operatic arias that tell a story, showing a musical picture of a male lover in the baroque era – not only the positive side, like joyful or reciprocated love, but also anger or even madness.” Spanning some 85 years of the baroque period, the arias on Facce d’amore are by Handel, Cavalli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Bononcini, Conti, Hasse, Orlandini, Predieri and Matteis. Orliński is again partnered by the instrumentalists of Il Pomo d’Oro and their Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – 1700 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – 1700 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:05:01 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

A player of the harpsichord, organ and pianoforte; a choirmaster and conductor; Rinaldo Alessandrini is a teacher too, who loves to use his records and concerts to draw his audience into thrilling themes. This Roman is well-placed to know just how much history – and musical history is no exception here – is made up of strata which build up over each other, creating a jumble which can be anarchic, but which always drives invention.

After an album that retells the story of 150 Years of Italian Music (Naïve 1994), and then another dedicated to the beginnings of Italian baroque in 1600 (Naïve 2012), we were treated to an enchanting black pearl, as incongruous as it was strange: Monteverdi – Night. Stories of lovers and Warriors (Naïve 2017) offers a collection of works that celebrate the night. Here is a recording dedicated to the flourishing of instrumental music in the later baroque period around 1700.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini – Bach: Klavierwerke (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini – Bach: Klavierwerke (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:19:15 minutes | 1,62 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

Numbering more than 200, Bach’s keyboard works form the most substantial part of his output. Any attempt to of er an exhaustive representation of this particular compositional universe on a single CD is bound, therefore, to end in failure if it tries to do more than simply provide a source of listening pleasure. Such a statement should come as no surprise if we bear in mind the fact that the work of the master of Eisenach also reveals a development from modal counterpoint to the tonal harmonic system across a repertoire which – as refl ected on this album – encompasses everything from pieces designed for those in the early stages of learning to play a keyboard instrument to the legendary Well-tempered Clavier collection, via an endless array of preludes, suites, inventions and sinfonias.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Monteverdi: Daylight. Stories of Songs, Dances and Loves (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Monteverdi: Daylight. Stories of Songs, Dances and Loves (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:01:45 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

This new recording is like an insert between the books of madrigals that mark the course of Rinaldo Alessandrini’s discography, in his long-term progress towards a complete recorded edition.

Daylight is a continuation of Night, which appeared on the occasion of the 350th Anniversary of the composer’s birth. Not only do we have the same thematic, non- chronological concept – a sort of ‘Best Of’ Monteverdi’s nine books of madrigals and opera arias, augmented by instrumental pieces by Falconieri and Marini – but it also has its own discrete dramaturgy, from dawn to the full sunlight of day, a scenario conceived by the Italian conductor and harpsichordist.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Bach: Variations on Variations (Arr. for Baroque Ensemble) (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Bach: Variations on Variations (Arr. for Baroque Ensemble) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:08:15 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

In this programme entitled Variations on Variations, Rinaldo Alessandrini, one of the today’s references on Baroque music, has chosen to adapt the Goldberg Variations and the Aria variata alla maniera italiana – initially composed for the keyboard – for small string ensemble, from duo to quartet. An intellectual and affectionate re-reading of some of the titans in music, Alessandrini’s ‘variations’ echo a common practice found in Bach himself (and many composers thereafter): we see in the Mass in B Minor, for example, numerous elaborations of earlier works; several movements of the Brandenburg Concertos have been taken in various ways in other cantatas; while his German version of Psalm 51 is adapted from the score of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. The passionate work of Rinaldo Alessandrini, who has sought to remain as faithful as possible to the spirit of the original work and to the practice of writing instrumental music during this period, results in a breathtaking new light shone upon the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini – Louis Couperin: Suites (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini – Louis Couperin: Suites (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:19:25 minutes | 1,55 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

The dichotomy that characterises Louis Couperin’s output for harpsichord is not merely formal in nature. On the one hand, préludes non mesurés; on the other, dance movements: the former are essentially innovative, while the latter continue a typically French tradition.

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Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini – Vivaldi: Concerti per archi II (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini – Vivaldi: Concerti per archi II (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 51:14 minutes | 569 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

The concertos for strings are a very special genre in Vivaldi’s output. Contrary to the concertos for solo instruments, those offer a real balance and amazing range of colours between all the intruments concerned. Following a very successful first volume, released in 2004, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano offer a new milestone recording in Vivaldi’s instrumental music, full of colours and refinement.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Vivaldi 12 Concertos Op.3 ‘Estro Armonico’, Bach Keyboards Arrangements (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano - Vivaldi 12 Concertos Op.3 'Estro Armonico', Bach Keyboards Arrangements (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Vivaldi 12 Concertos Op.3 ‘Estro Armonico’, Bach Keyboards Arrangements (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:38:02 minutes | 2,83 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

By its title and its twelve violin concertos, Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico immediately captures the imagination. Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano, with the addition of high-calibre keyboardists, present the full collection with the six additional adaptations for keyboard by Bach.
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Rinaldo Alessandrini – Monteverdi: Vespri solenni per la festa de San Marco (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini – Monteverdi: Vespri solenni per la festa de San Marco (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:19:43 minutes | 733 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

Unanimously recognized as one of the leading interpreters of Monteverdi, Rinaldo Alessandrini’s recordings of the Madrigals, the 1610Vespers, Orfeo, etc., have become standard references. In celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of his orchestras, Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo returns to his preferred composer creating, in the magnificent Basilica of Mantova, an imaginable Vespers service for San Marco assembled from various parts of the Selva Morale. In doing so he has found “the expressive logic which is at the heart of the liturgies for which this music was composed”…

This represents a first step in the recording of the Selva Morale, which will be completed in the coming years.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Giovanni Legrenzi: Mottetti (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Giovanni Legrenzi: Mottetti (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:13:13 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano dedicate their new album to the motets of Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), a very influential composer of the seicento, and a reference even after his time in Italy. The name Giovanni Legrenzi, almost contemporary with Carissimi and Lully, is largely unknown today. And yet his reputation during and after his time, far exceeded the walls of Saint Mark’s in Venice, where he officiated from 1685 until his death: his numerous pupils included Lotti, Caldara and Vivaldi, his themes were borrowed by Bach and Handel, and he composed in all musical genres, instrumental and vocal, sacred and profane.

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Laura Pontecorvo & Rinaldo Alessandrini – Bach: Sonate a cembalo obligato e traversiere solo (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Laura Pontecorvo & Rinaldo Alessandrini – Bach: Sonate a cembalo obligato e traversiere solo (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 58:29 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

Sadly, the majority of Bach’s works for transverse flute and clavier (be that obbligato or continuo) have survived only in truncated form, in manuscripts stuffed full of mistakes – surely the result of a hasty copy job from an older work, now lost – to say nothing of doubtful attributions, meaning that flautists have little choice but to take what they’re given and do the best with it they can. And that is exactly what Laura Pontecorvo is doing, ably accompanied by Rinaldo Alessandrini on the harpsichord: the truncated works have been finished, the errors corrected, the transpositions restored to their original form, with the result that we find ourselves confronted by works which are almost “new”, but still very much by Bach! What links all these works is that the harpsichord part is more than a simple basso continuo – which would require that the harpsichord player improvise an accompaniment, or at least write one for themselves – but a concerting part, written by Bach himself. Incidentally, this gives us an excellent idea of how one should write one’s own basso continuo: imitations galore, a great harmonic transparency, unflagging elegance. The missing parts of the Sonata BWV 1032 – the original manuscript is sadly incomplete – have been deftly filled in by Alessandrini, who manages to perfectly respect the Cantor’s discourse.

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Enrico Gatti & Rinaldo Alessandrini – Cross-dressing Bach: Chamber Rarities & Alternative Versions (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Enrico Gatti & Rinaldo Alessandrini – Cross-dressing Bach: Chamber Rarities & Alternative Versions (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:54 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa

The musical partnership of violinist Enrico Gatti and harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini now goes back a number of decades to when this pair of Italians, both with a voracious appetite for early music, were setting out on their careers. The years pass and both artists make fabulous recordings, often directing their own ensembles.

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Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Monteverdi: Concerto. Settimo libro de’ madrigali (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano – Monteverdi: Concerto. Settimo libro de’ madrigali (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:12:22 minutes | 2,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

With this recording of Book VII of Claudio Monteverdi’s Madrigals (1619, Venice), Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano devote themselves to a love theme with a very pastoral edge the composer particularly savoured.

The Italian harpsichordist and conductor once again offers us a collection of Monteverdi madrigals of the highest quality, in which the poems not only lead the singing, but also determine the arrangement of the madrigals by poet. Inspired by “the hitherto unpublished stamp of a literary intention” indicated by the composer at the start of the collection, Rinaldo Alessandrini and his ensemble, accustomed to enlightening dramatics, offer a sparkling polyphony varying from one to six voices, in a wide range of pitches.

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Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini – Un viaggio a Roma (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini – Un viaggio a Roma (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:12 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

Handel, Scarlatti, Corelli, Stradella, Muffat … From 1650 to the beginning of the eighteenth century, Rome exercised an immense power in attracting composers from all over Europe and experienced an intense moment of musical activity, because of – or in spite of – the papal administration. It was a prosperous period with a melting pot of influences. The programme devised here by the Roman conductor, Rinaldo Alessandrini, offers a complete and personal vision of the time, passionate and secular, lyrical (made sublime by Sandrine Piau) and orchestral, romantic in every way. Rinaldo Alessandrini is one of the leading figures in the international early music scene. His predilection for the Italian repertory and his constant preoccupation with the expressive characteristics specific to the Italian style of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are the decisive factors that orientate his musical approach and interpretative options, both as the head of Concerto Italiano, of which he is the founder and director, and as a soloist and guest conductor.

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