Sony Classical continues its major Mozart opera project with conductor Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra & choir MusicAeterna. A ‘no-compromise’ studio recording cycle of Mozart’s three Da Ponte operas. Living in a unique artistic community established on the edge of Siberia, the musicians work and record under ideal conditions towards Currentzis’ stated goal “to show what can be achieved if you avoid the factory approach of the classical music mainstream”. The soloists’ vocal technique is also markedly different to modern operatic interpretation, with a focus on intimacy and clarity, a use of vibrato remarkably restrictive even by today’s ‘period practice’ standards as well as an approach to melodic ornamentation derived from historic sources which cannot be heard in other performances of these works.

Written in 1735 for his protégée Anna Girò, Griselda takes a story from Boccaccio and turns it into a hymn of praise to nobility and constancy. Yet though the story is tired and true, Vivaldi's music is real and vibrant and as attractive as anything in his instrumental works. In this recording by Jean-Christophe Spinosi leading the Matheus Ensemble with Marie-Nicole Lemeux in the title role, Naïve has released another strong argument for the high quality of Vivaldi's operas. Spinosi has a light hand but a dramatic touch and he keeps the music moving even while granting the soloists ample scope to develop their characters.

With that of Orpheus, the myth of Dido has no doubt been one of the most prolific in epics, drama and, as from the 17th century, in musical theatre. Teodor Currentzis, a young rising star on the international scene (let's just mention his success in 2008 at Opéra Bastille), took hold of this musical monument to offer us a version where, for once, drama prevails.

That the four main works on this disc have never been recorded before is no reflection on the quality of the music or the composer. Joseph Martin Kraus, the German-born composer-contemporary of Mozart's working in Sweden, was all but forgotten after his death in 1792 and recordings of his works have been few and far between. And his four Italian cantatas on this disc were nearly completely forgotten after the death of the soprano they were written for in 1790.

Simone Kermes is a highly idiosyncratic performer who delights in pushing the boundaries of good taste, often unafraid to inject her singing with a grab bag of vocal tricks. So it’s surprising that her latest release is that most standard of offerings, one to put next to your favourite singer’s Verdi or Puccini disc – the Handel recital.

Simone Kermes, crowned “The Queen of Baroque” by Opera News, presents her eagerly awaited follow-up album to her multi-award-winning album Lava, which was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine. Colori d'Amore (The Colours Of Love) is a selection of virtuosic baroque arias bound together by the theme of love, almost all of which are world premiere recordings, having been unjustly neglected for centuries.

Belshazzar is one of Handel’s works that could be called a total failure at the time of its first performance. Premiered in 1745 to a nearly empty house, contemporary reports say that it was a disastrously bad performance. This oratorio never gained popularity in Handel’s lifetime, and he only performed it twice after the first performance. Yet this is no minor work. Full of great Handelian arias, and stirring choral movements, this oratorio deserves to stand among his greatest works. Drama and energy play like a flame through the pages of this work. It has everything a Handel oratorio needs: tension, excitement, and attractive melodies.

The first half of the 18th century saw an insatiable demand for new opera seria, or dramma per musica, in Venice, Rome, Milan and, principally, London, where composer and teacher Nicola Porpora ran the Opera of the Nobility, putting poor Handel very firmly (though temporarily) in the shade. This collection of castrato arias includes six astonishing discoveries, many recorded for the first time, from Porpora, Johann Aldolf Hasse and Giuseppe de Majo, sung by the beguilingly agile Simone Kermes with delightfully pungent playing from La Magnifica Comunità.

LAVA is a collection of rediscovered opera gems from 18th century Naples, performed by soprano Simone Kermes and the period instrument ensemble Le Musiche Nove. Musical direction is by Claudio Osele, the Italian musicologist and conductor who worked with Cecilia Bartoli on four of her successful concept albums, including the Grammy-winning Vivaldi and Gluck releases for which he delivered the concept and prepared the performing editions. Naples and Versuvius provide the linking theme between all of the pieces, nine of which are world premiere recordings (all tracks except those by Pergolesi)

Equally known for his live performances and musicological work in establishing new performing practices for early opera, Alan Curtis enjoyed a fruitful career. A scholar, as well as a conductor and harpsichordist, Curtis edited several important works with an appreciation for authenticity, effective performance, and – in the case of opera – stage-worthiness. Several of his best recordings were issued in the 1990s and in the new millennium. Curtis studied first at Michigan State University and attained his bachelor's degree there in 1955.

When Handel had a difficult time as opera manager, in the 1730s, he turned to oratorios, which required neither the expensive Italian soloists nor complicated sets. Saul, based on the First Book of Samuel, written in 1738, and first performed in 1739, was relatively popular, with Handel reviving it several times through 1754. With all of the dramatic features of Handel’s oratorios, this work, featuring a bass in the starring role, opens with a festive four-movement instrumental Symphony.

The German composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann is mostly known for his operas. One of them, Gustav Wasa, which he composed in Sweden in 1786 and which he considered his best work, even became a Swedish national opera. This recording shows a lesser known aspect of Naumann's output: his sacred compositions. It contains three works: a large-scale cantata and two short pieces, which are much more modest in scoring and style.

Leopold Anton Kozeluch, often inaccurately and unjustly portrayed as a scheming opponent of Mozart and Haydn, was actually an extraordinarily popular and successful composer during his own lifetime. Already in 1781 Kozeluch had such an outstanding reputation that the Salzburg archbishop offered him the court organist's post left vacant by Mozart. The Bohemian composer's some 250 works include symphonies, piano music, operas, cantatas, string quartets, and a number of oratorios. Moses in Egypt, an oratorio based on the Book of Exodus from the Old Testament, was premiered in the old Burgtheater in 1787.

This is the third English Oratorio by Handel, composed in 1733 for the graduation ceremony at Oxford. It is in 3 acts to a libretto by Samuel Humphreys after the stage drama Athalie by Jean Racine. Incidentally, this was Racine's last tragedy penned in 1691. This biblical account taken from Kings 2, centres on the theme of the triumph of God through the revenge performed by his followers on those who blaspheme and oppose him.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) der als Wunderkind von sieben Jahren Meisterschüler Mozarts, 1804 noch unter Haydn Konzertmeister im Schloß Eszterhazy wurde und sein Leben als Kapellmeister in Weimar beendete, ist heute vor allem durch sein berühmtes Trompetenkonzert bekannt. Sein umfangreiches Schaffen ist leider fast völlig vergessen, auch wenn insbesondere seine damals regelrecht avantgardistischen Klavierkonzerte und Teile seiner Kammermusik seit einiger Zeit wieder vermehrt auf das Interesse von Musikern stoßen. Die Opern und Chorwerke harren noch ihrer Wiederbelebung.