Salvatore Accardo, Laura Manzini – Plays Paganini’s Guarneri Del Gesù 1742 (1995)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:14:32 minutes | 2,99 GB
Genre: Classical | Publisher (label): Dynamic
Il Cannone Guarnerius of 1743 is a violin created by the Italian luthier Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri of Cremona (1698–1744).
Il Cannone is also known by the variants Il Cannone del Gesù, the Cannon, often appended with Guarneri del Gesù, the Guarneri trademark. The violin received its name from a former owner, the Italian violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840), because of its power and resonance. So associated is Paganini with Il Cannone that it is common for the violin to be referenced as Il Cannone, ex Paganini.
Paganini lost a valuable Antonio Amati violin as a result of his penchant for voracious gambling. He was given a neglected Guarneri violin, a gift from an amateur violinist and businessman. Paganini played on this instrument for the rest of his life, fondly calling it “my cannon violin,” referring to the explosive sound that he was able to make it produce. He bequeathed it to the city of Genoa, Italy upon his death, and it is now considered a national treasure.
When in need of repair, Il Cannone would be sent to the workshop of Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875) in Paris, the greatest luthier of his day. Not only did Vuillaume repair the Guarnerius, but he also made an exact replica. The copy was so exact, that not even Paganini could distinguish one from the other. It was not until Paganini noticed subtle differences in tone that he could identify the original. Paganini presented the copy to his only student, Camillo Sivori, who would later bequeath the instrument to the Municipality of Genoa, where it now is exhibited with the original Il Cannone.
Il Cannone is exhibited alongside other Paganini memorabilia within the Paganini room of the Palazzo Doria-Tursi, the Genoa town hall. The original violin is maintained in playable condition, and is taken out and played monthly by its curator. The Cannone was played each year by the winner of the Premio Paganini contest for young violinists, which sees the Italian city attracting the cream of the crop of young violin performers (since 2002 the contest has been held every two years). On occasion, Il Cannone is loaned to musicians for performance. In 1996, violinist Eduard Schmieder was invited and gave a recital on Il Cannone in Genoa at the Palazzo Ducale for the audience of 2000 (with pianist Valentina Lisitsa); on this rare occasion, a posthumous International Peace Prize ceremony was given by the Italian government to Yitzhak Rabin. Violinist Shlomo Mintz performed a special Il Cannone concert on Paganini’s violin with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra of the Netherlands, in 1997. In 1999, Eugene Fodor played Il Cannone at a special concert in San Francisco, California, USA. It was the farthest the violin had ever been from Italy. Conditions of its travel included a multimillion US dollar insurance policy and an armed escort of Italian police officers. This violin has been played several times by jazz violinist Regina Carter. Carter recorded an entire album with it, Paganini: After a Dream. In February 2006, Il Cannone was taken to London’s Royal Academy of Music, where it was displayed and played at a festival devoted to Paganini.
The violin was the subject of 2017 Documentary “Strad Style”, in which director Stefan Avalos follows manic-depressive violin-maker Daniel Houck in his dilapidated rural Ohio farm as he makes an Il Cannone replica for Razvan Stoica.
In 2019, the violin journeyed to Columbus, Ohio, for a one-week display at the Columbus Museum of Art under the auspices of the Columbus-Genoa sister cities relationship. Columbus Symphony concertmaster Joanna Frankel performed a single concert on the instrument.
Salvatore Accardo, I Solisti Delle Settimane Internazionali di Napoli – Vivaldi: The Four Seasons – Concertos for 3 & 4 violins (1987/2022)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:04:00 minutes | 2,52 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: SACD | Artwork: Front cover | © Decca
A Tribute to Stradivari:
“During the period of his apprenticeship in Nicola Amati’s workshop, Stradivari began to modify the form of the instruments he was constructing, first by reducing the dimensions of the arching and then – during a period of intense experimentation – by changing the position of the sound-holes, the dimensions of the entire resonance chamber, the working of the scroll, the thickness of the wood, and, most important, the chemical composition of the varnish coating.
“But it is at the beginning of the new century that his violins attain their greatest elegance of design and best sound quality: this ‘golden age’ saw not only the perfection of formal design and choice of dimensions, but also extreme care in the choice and treatment of materials, so that a quality and ease of sound production was achieved that, even today, remains a paragon for violin-makers and is highly regarded by the most famous violinists.
“Some of the most splendid of these instruments have been chosen by Salvatore Accardo for this concert of music by Vivaldi recorded live at the fifth Cremona Festival. In particular, Accardo has decided to highlight the qualities peculiar to some of them by allowing them to be heard as solo instruments one after the other in the famous series of four concertos by Vivaldi, “Le quattro stagioni.” Taken from the collection “Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione,” Op. 8, these concertos may be regarded as Vivaldi’s most serious attempt to obtain new sonorities and variety of effects within the traditional form of the concerto gross; thus they represent the perfect showcase for the sound qualities of the solo instruments.” – from liner notes by Luca Tutino: English translation by Michael Ferris
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Salvatore Accardo, Laura Manzini – I Violini Di Cremona: Homage To Kreisler Vol. II (1994) [Reissue 2004]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 68:01 minutes | Basic Scans + PDF | 4,15 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Basic Scans + PDF Booklet | 1,79 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/48 kHz | Basic Scans + PDF Booklet | 809 MB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound | Label: Fonè Records # SACD 030
The Violins of Cremona: Homage to Kreisler 2 features violinist Salvatore Accardo accompanied by pianist Laura Manzini on this recording from Fonè Records. It features the works composed by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorák and more. These selections have been chosen to honor Fritz Kreisler. Accardo plays the finest music of Fritz Kreisler on several famous and treasured violin models produced by Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari. It is the best of the best. The album is a treasure with violinist Accardo, pianist Manzini and the listener.
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Salvatore Accardo – I Violini di Cremona, Omaggio a Kreisler (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:08:46 minutes | 2,74 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: hd-klassik.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Fonè Records
The Violin Room at Cremona Town Hall is home to some of the most famous historic violins, with instruments by Guarneri, Stradivarious and Amati on display. To celebrate these fine instruments acclaimed violinist Salvatore Accardo was invited to record an album highlighting the different personalities of each violin. This recording also serves as a tribute to Fritz Kriesler, the prodigy who advanced the art of the violin throughout his extensive playing and composing careers.
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Salvatore Accardo – Il Cremonese – Stradivari, 1715 (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 58:20 minutes | 2,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Fonè Records
The most extraordinary nucleus of the Stradivari Museum is represented by the tools which Antonio Stradivari used to realize his unique masterpieces. These include numerous forms, starting basis for the manufacture of an instrument, which were used to model the ribs and subsequently seal them to the top, bottom and corner-blocks. The forms, usually in walnut and maple, are sometimes accompanied by sets of models in wood or paper, such as, for example, the ones used for the manufacture of the alto Medicean viola or the tenor Medicean viola, the ones used for the making of a violino piccolo, or those used to realize the 1727 twelve string viola d’amore.
When designing his instruments Antonio Stradivari proceeded with extreme meticulousness. Once an instrument had been completed in each of its parts, the set of models that had been used for its realization was marked with a letter of the alphabet, collected and stored up in paper sheet.
The forms for violin exhibited are arranged in chronological order. The first two forms, undated, belong to the period in which Stradivari’s violins showed a clear legacy of Niccolò Amati’s typical style. Simone Ferdinando Sacconi allocated them to the period before 1689. The three successive forms, always according to Sacconi, are also allocated to the period prior to 1689 and they recall the phase following the so called Amati production.
The remaining forms used by Stradivari in the course of his long activity of violin making belong to the years of maturity. These are all dated, with the only exception of the one that Stradivari used to make, along with many other famous violins, the 1715 Cremonese ex Joachim, which is now in the collection “The strings of the Palazzo Comunale of Cremona”. Only three forms for viola are exhibited at the Stradivari Museum: the first one was used for the manufacture of the alto viola of 1672; the second one was used for the alto viola of the 4 October 1690; the third one for the tenor viola also dated 4 October 1690. As far as bassetti and cellos are concerned, no original forms have unfortunately reached us together with the other precious material which is now exhibited
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Salvatore Accardo – Accardo Plays Paganini – The Complete Recordings (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 06:47:02 minutes | 7,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
It was not until he was twenty-seven years old that Paganini embarked on the concert tours which made him the most talked-about violinist of his time. He gave up his permanent position at the court of Princess Élisa Baciocchi in Lucca in December 1809, and began by giving concerts in various towns in northern Italy. His triumphs in Milan in 1813 established his national reputation, and he finally gained international fame in 1828, on his first tour outside Italy. Of the six concertos he is currently known to have composed, he wrote nos. I and 2 for performance in Italy, the first probably in 1815–16, the second in 1826. …
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Salvatore Accardo, Orchestra da Camera Italiana – Astor Piazzolla: Oblivion (2002) [Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 61:37 minutes | Scans included | 4,03 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,19 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.0 multichannel surround sound | Fone # 019SACD
This stunning audiophile album features the great violin virtuoso Salvatore Accaro leading Italy’s Orchestra da Camera Italiana through new transcriptions of Astor Piazolla’s work.
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Salvatore Accardo, Orchestra da Camera Italiana – Astor Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango (2001) [Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 51:31 minutes | Scans included | 2,1 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1005 MB
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneon player. This stunning audiophile album features the great violin virtuoso Salvatore Accaro leading Italy’s Orchestra da Camera Italiana through new transcriptions of Astor Piazolla’s work.
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Salvatore Accardo, Orchestra da Camera Italiana – Astor Piazzolla: Adios Nonino (2001) [Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 64:15 minutes | Scans included | 4,24 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,25 GB
Features 2.0 Stereo and 5.0 multichannel surround sound | Fone # 020SACD
This stunning audiophile album features the great violin virtuoso Salvatore Accaro leading Italy’s Orchestra da Camera Italiana through new transcriptions of Astor Piazolla’s work.
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Salvatore Accardo – The Best Of Violin (2010) [Reissue 2019]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 75:48 minutes | Scans + PDF Booklet | 1,16 GB
or FLAC 2.0 (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Scans + PDF Booklet | 1,57 GB
Salvatore Accardo is an outstanding Italian violin virtuoso, best known as a master of the works of Niccolí Paganini, but equally accomplished across a wide variety of repertory for the instrument. His playing is characterized by a taut, visceral tone and a disciplined musical approach that avoids self-indulgence. Having also established himself as a successful conductor, chamber musician, and teacher, Accardo may be considered one of the most accomplished and influential musicians of his generation. This compilation album contains some of the greatest interpretations of the violist Salvatore Accardo. Salvatore Accardo has been playing for 26 years with Foné’s Giulio Cesare Ricci and this disc contains some of the most beautiful recordings for violin solo, violin and piano, quartet, violin and orchestra.
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Salvatore Accardo – Antonio Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni (2009)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:03:59 minutes | Basic Scans included | 2,59 GB
Genre: Classical | Label: Fone Records
Concerti delle Stagioni sono fra le creazioni più originali e straordinarie di
Antonio Vivaldi. Lo sa il pubblico d’oggi ma lo compresero immediatamente anche i contemporanei del “Prete Rosso”. L’originalità è tanto più sorprendente in quanto i Concerti seguono sostanzialmente il modello usuale: ripartizione in tre movimenti Veloce-Lento-Veloce e alternanze «tutti»-«solo» sulla via aperta da Giuseppe Torelli.
Salvatore Accardo, Laura Manzini – Debussy, Ravel – Music for Violin and Piano (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:11:58 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Fonè Records
Two composing masters of impressionism – Claude Debussy with his final Sonata No. 3 and some transcriptions of famous pieces for piano, and Maurice Ravel with his youthful, short Sonata No. 1, combined with tributes to friends who were virtuoso violinists.
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Salvatore Accardo & Laura Manzini – Pablo de Saraste: Spanish Dances for Violin and Piano (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:15:59 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Fonè Records
This album was recorded in the Sala dell’Ermellino — Casa della Musica in Milano in November 2019. For this prestigious recording Giulio Cesare Ricci used the legendary original tube microphones Neumann U47, U48. Recordings are in Stereo DSD on Pyramix using the dCS A/D and D/A converters. A state-of-the-art system without any sound manipulation, neither equalization, nor reverberation, nor compression and expansion … but natural sound with true timbre to best enhance the acoustics of the Sala dell’Ermellino.
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Salvatore Accardo & Bruno Canino – Johannes Brahms Sonaten op.78, op.100, op. 108 (2010/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:15:36 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Fonè Records
Brahms was a severe critic of his own work, often assailed with uncertainty and reluctant to publish works he considered immature or incomplete. With the exception of the Scherzo in C flat for the Sonata F.A.e. he made his first violin solo work known to the public only at the age of forty five with the publication of the Concerto in D major, op. 77. Cheered by the great success he had had in the summer of that year, 1878, he set to work composing the first of his three splendid violin sonatas. They are the only ones we know, as three previous similar sonatas were destroyed by the composer himself. Brahms wrote these three masterpieces during three happy and fruitful summer holidays which he spent away from the city, inspired by the mountain scenery.
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Salvatore Accardo – Niccolò Paganini: 24 Capricci Op.1 (2021)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 01:33:43 minutes | 3,7 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:33:43 minutes | 1,45 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital booklet | © Fonè
~ Cremona, Palazzo Affaitati sede del Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone” e del Museo Stradivariano on February 17-19, 2002 ~
Salvatore Accardo and Giulio Cesare Ricci have been working together for a good 26 years. Among the many interpretations by violinist Salvatore Accardo that Giulio Cesare Ricci has recorded during these years, the 24 Capricci album by Nicolò Paganini represents another immortal page of the violin repertoire – an absolute reference interpretation.
Regarding the location, Giulio Cesare Ricci chose the Affaitati Palace in Cremona, which houses the City Museum “Ala Ponzone” and which at the time of the photo was also a Stradivarius Museum. The recording was made in the part of the museum dedicated to the restoration laboratory, precisely in the room where the tools of the great violin makers of the historical Cremona tradition are housed.
It was fascinating to use this place for the recordings, where the instruments are traditionally restored, and to hear and record the legendary interpretation that Salvatore Accardo gave the 24 Capricci by Nicolò Paganini.
It should be mentioned that the first 12 capricci were played with the violin “Il Cremonese” by Antonio Stradivari (1715), kindly provided by the municipality of Cremona, and the other 12 capricci with the violin “Hart” by Francescatti von Antonio Stradivari (1727).
Another special feature of this album is that Salvatore Accardo played all 24 Capricci in full version with all “refrains” (first and second refrains), so that Giulio Cesare Ricci had to publish the project in two albums and not in one. This means that the other editions of the 24 Capricci, which are only on the market as a CD, were recorded without the refrains.
Giulio Cesare used the legendary Neumann tube microphones U47 and M49 for this recording. Recorded in DSD stereo on a Pyramix recorder from Merging Technologies with dCS Analog to Digital Converters.
The recording was made without any manipulation of the sound, without equalization, without reverberation, without sound compression or expansion. Exclusively with natural sound and real timbre.
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