Zefiro, Arnold Schoenberg Chor & Alfredo Bernardini – Fux: La corona d’Arianna (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Zefiro, Arnold Schoenberg Chor & Alfredo Bernardini – Fux: La corona d’Arianna (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:08:15 minutes | 725 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

In 2018, the Styriarte Festival in Graz launched, in collaboration with Zefiro, a project to rediscover the operatic output of the Styrian composer Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741), Kapellmeister at the imperial court in Vienna for forty years, with the aim of restaging six of his nineteen operas, one per year. With a cast of Baroque vocal specialists, led by Monica Piccinini and Carlotta Colombo, this set of La corona d’Arianna represents the second instalment of the Arcana series which documents the recordings made in the course of this six-year cycle, following the success of Dafne in lauro (A488, 2021 – awarded Gramophone Editor’s Choice and rated Eccezionale by Musica).

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Zefiro and Alfredo Bernardini – Grand Tour a Venezia (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Zefiro and Alfredo Bernardini – Grand Tour a Venezia (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:19 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

Like many education-hungry sons of the European nobility, the 18-year-old Prince Frederick August II embarked on his Grand Tour, which took him from Saxony to Venice in 1716, where he spent almost a year. The large entourage that accompanied the young prince on this trip included such great musicians as the violinist Johann Georg Pisendel, the oboist Johann Christian Richter and the composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. In Venice, an intense exchange with local stars such as Vivaldi developed, in an atmosphere of friendship and competition. On his return to Dresden, August took with him, in addition to Lotti and Veracini, Heinichen, whom he had met in Venice and who became his Kapellmeister. After acclaimed recordings of orchestral works by Handel and Bach, Zefiro now discovers this fascinating repertoire of music by Italians who composed in the French style and Germans who wrote Venetian concertos to impress the prince.

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Zefiro & Alfredo Bernardini – Fux: Dafne in lauro (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Zefiro & Alfredo Bernardini – Fux: Dafne in lauro (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:58:14 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

In 2018, the Styriarte Festival in Graz launched, in collaboration with Zefiro, a project to rediscover the operatic output of the Styrian composer Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741), Kapellmeister at the imperial court in Vienna for forty years, with the aim of restaging six of his nineteen operas, one per year. With a cast of Baroque vocal specialists, led by Monica Piccinini and Arianna Venditelli, this set of Dafne in lauro marks the beginning of a new series in which Arcana will release the recordings made in the course of the six-year cycle. First performed on 1 October 1714 to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Charles VI, Dafne in lauro is distinguished by the numerous references to hunting in the overture and in Diana’s arias, and by the numerous dance movements typical of the French style, such as minuets, gigues and bourrées. The highlight is Daphne’s poignant aria accompanied by the viola da gamba, which, along with the chalumeau and the transverse flute, enriches the range of tone colours in the score.

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Zefiro & Alfredo Bernardini – Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Zefiro & Alfredo Bernardini – Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:51:57 minutes | 2,30 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

Following its highly acclaimed album featuring the three most richly scored Ouvertures(Gramophone Editor͛s Choice – shortlisted for the 2017 Gramophone Awards and included among the Top 10 recent Bach recordings), Zefiro comes full circle with the famous collection of Concerts avec plusieurs instruments, that kaleidoscope of colours that seems almost tailor-made to highlight the salient qualities of the ensemble founded by the three historical wind specialists Alfredo Bernardini, Paolo and Alberto Grazzi. Thanks to experience gained in countless performances and recordings with the leading conductors and ensembles, but also to thorough research into the most appropriate instruments and pitch (398 Hz, i.e. the ‘authentic’ French pitch), this brand new recording exudes liveliness, flair and knowledge, and features some of the greatest names on the Baroque music scene, among them Cecilia Bernardini, Gabriele Cassone, Francesco Corti, Lorenz Duftschmid, Marcello Gatti, Gaetano Nasillo and Dorothee Oberlinger. Also included is the more intimate B minor Suite with flute (BWV 1067), thus filling the gap left by the earlier recording.

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Zefiro, Alfredo Bernardini – Dresden (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Zefiro, Alfredo Bernardini – Dresden (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:57 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

An ensemble selected from the excellent Capelle of Friedrich August I in Dresden, the Cammer-Musique and its leader, the phenomenal oboist Johann Christian Richter, inspired some of the leading German composers and Italian guests at the court around 1720 to write sonatas in which oboes and bassoon are challenged with extremely expressive and virtuosic parts. This was the time and place in which the largest amount of impressive music with oboe and bassoon as soloists in history was written. German composers such as Heinichen, Zelenka, Fasch and Quantz wrote these pieces in the Italian style, with the typical alternation between singing adagios and brilliant allegros. Telemann composed a sonata with ornamentation and affects inspired by the French style. Lotti, who resided in Dresden between 1717 and 1719, also noticed the outstanding skills of the court’s wind players and wrote his only solo pieces for these instruments there. Vivaldi met Richter during the latter’s visit to Venice in 1716, when he accompanied the Elector to the city, and he too dedicated some remarkable oboe and bassoon solos to the German musician.

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Dominik Wörner, Zefiro and Alfredo Bernardini – Bach: Cantatas and Arias for Bass (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Dominik Wörner, Zefiro and Alfredo Bernardini – Bach: Cantatas and Arias for Bass (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:01:50 minutes | 669 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arcana

Carl Philipp Emanuel tells us of his father’s talent as a singer: ‘He had a good penetrating voice of wide range and good singing style.’ It is therefore not surprising that the three church cantatas for solo bass are among his most exquisite and personal vocal works. Singing voice and instruments enter into a special relationship in these pieces. The dense yet sensitive polyphony is filled with a warmth and tenderness that seems to bring us closer to Bach, who is otherwise so ‘hermetically closed’. The ‘I’ voice in the poems of cantatas BWV 56 and 82 becomes the composer’s voice. Bach’s solo cantatas are precious gems whose subtle beauties go straight to the listener’s heart.

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