VIVALDI Recorder Concertos

The Swedish recorder virtuoso Dan Laurin has demonstrated his remarkable versatility on some thirty recordings for BIS. However, in a recording career that stretches over almost 30 years, Laurin keeps returning to one particular set of works: the concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. The Concertos RV 441, 443 and 444 are included on this, his latest release in which he has joined forces with the young and vibrant Norwegian string ensemble 1B1 (shorthand for Ensemble Bjergsted 1).

Release date: 29th Jan 2016

As he explains in his own liner notes for the present disc, he was inspired by his work on transcribing and performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons: 'A close reading of RV441 and RV443445 reveals great similarities between these works and The Four Seasons: sudden changes of moods, turbulent emotions, burlesque whims mixed with sublime beauty and elegance My aim here is to explore the recorder concertos with the same freedom and spontaneity that characterize the modern-day approach to the Seasons'.

Laurin's recording of the Seasons has been called 'undoubtedly the best transcription to date' (Diapason) and 'never hackneyed, but instead invigoratingly fresh and vibrant' (Clarino), verdicts which can only fuel the expectations concerning this latest version of the recorder concertos.

Music from the novels of LOUIS de BERNIERES

Captain Corelli's Mandolin and the Latin Trilogy

"This disc is pure joy… Craig Ogden… has always chosen his recital programmes with wisdom, and, as a performer in the specialised realm of the classical guitar, he has opened our ears to the instruments breadth of repertory and to its expressive potential." --The Daily Telegraph ‘CD of the Week’

There was a fashion throughout Europe and the USA for the mandolin between about 1890 and 1914, and this enthusiasm encouraged many Italian players (mostly from the poor south) to travel abroad to, hopefully, find their fame and fortune. They may have been quite successful for a time, but the fashion soon disappeared and many of the players simply returned to Italy to resume their daily lives where they left off. The mandolin’s cultural status was never high, and the mandolin fraternity was never well organised. Consequently, many of these players faded into obscurity.

We know little of Benedetto Persichini. He was born around 1880/90, and was a gifted mandolin player with a beautiful Roman instrument. It had a very narrow fingerboard that enabled him to finger rapid passages more easily and execute the most difficult chord work. He used altered tuning a great deal to give a more full harmonic effect with six- and seven-note fhords.

In 1954, John Anson wrote in the BMG magazine:

Perichini was a very likeable person but temperamental and excitable. He must have been the despair of some of his landladies. He actually slept with his beloved mandolin at his bedside and thought nothing of trying out some tune that had entered his head at a time when most people were fast asleep.

Another mandolinist about whom we know little is Angy Palumbo. He may have been one of the many hopefuls who left Italy and found only modest success. His name appears on some published works, and it has been speculated that, as was common practice, that this is only a pseudonym for a better known player who was unable to publish works under his own name for contractual reasons.

(Thanks to Dr Paul Spark, author of The Classical Mandolin and They Early Mandolin)

Sonatas for cello and organ by VIVALDI & BARRIERE

"These beautifully recorded performances on cello and organ are certainly free in spirit, but they offer theatre and imagination, really bringing the spirit of the genre to life." --The Strad

The young Croatian cellist Jelena Ocic has been singled out as one of the most gifted of her generation. On this CD she is accompanied by her sister, the organist Ljerka Ocic, in a recording of Sonatas by Vivaldi and one of his contemporaries, the French composer Jean-Baptiste Barrière.

Founding cellist of the great Beaux Arts Trio Bernard Greenhouse has referred to Jelena Ocic as “one of the most remarkable cello talents of today”, while the late Siegfried Palm called her “one of the most promising interpreters of New Music”. This is her third recording for Challenge Classics following the 2009 release of music by Ginastera, Kabalevsky, and Senderovas (CC72358), and in 2011 of pieces by Bach, Beethoven, and Hindemith (CC72524).

Antonio Vivaldi wrote concertos and sonatas mainly for the all-girl pupils in the Ospedale della Pietà in his home city of Venice. The works recorded here are his Sonatas in A Minor RV 43, E Minor RV 40 and B-flat Major RV 46. The performing musicians have replaced the two Allegro movements of the A Minor Sonata with the two of the Sonata in A Minor RV

44, preserved in two of the manuscripts. Although born a generation after Vivaldi, the short lifespan of Jean-Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747) tallies with that of the Italian composer. Born of humble origins in Bordeaux, Barrière initially earning his living as a cellist at the Paris Opera. Later he perfected his skills in Italy with Francesco Alborea (known as Francischello) and toured Europe as a celebrated soloist. Barrière’s sonatas are striking for their well-poised, cyclic conception.

VIVALDI L'estro armonico Op. 3, 6 Flute Concertos Op. 10

Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert's 1980s digital recordings of Vivaldi remain a highlight of the Archiv catalogue, offering benchmark interpretations of this ever-popular composer, whose rhythmic energy and plangent lyricism are unsurpassed.

Here are two complete sets of concertos: the famous L'estro armonico concertos of Op. 3 and the congenial flute concertos of Op. 10, with Lisa Beznosiuk in sparkling form - all on two CDs for over 150 minutes of music.