Max Emmanuel Cencic - Rokoko: Hasse Opera Arias (2014) [Official Digital Download - 24bit/96kHz]

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Max Emmanuel Cencic - Rokoko: Hasse Opera Arias (2014) [Official Digital Download - 24bit/96kHz]

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Launching his new recording contract with Decca Classics, critically-acclaimed countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic performs arias from the finest of Hasse’s dramatic works. From the exquisite delicacy of the aria di sostenuto to the fiery passion of the aria di bravura, Cencic’s sensational performance brings Hasse’s greatest works to a new audience, brilliantly fresh and with maximum effect.

Rokoko follows on from Cencic’s incredibly well received Alessandro on Decca Classics. Critics from the world’s leading press recognised the album’s outstanding qualities: Gramophone described it as “an essential purchase”; Opera News observed that Cencic “commands the music totally”, while Diapason awarded it Diapason de l’or de l’année and it also won recognition in the International Opera Awards in London

For this new recording Cencic is accompanied by the superb Armonia Atenea under their internationally-renowned conductor George Petrou.

Composer: Johann Adolf Hasse
Performer: Max Emanuel Cencic, Theorodos Kitsos
Conductor: George Petrou
Orchestra/Ensemble: Armonia Atenea

Reviews: Rokoko, Max Emanuel Cencic's latest solo recording, is an homage to Johann Adolf Hasse. In recent years Cencic has become recognized as one of the world’s supreme countertenors. Here he is joined by conductor George Petrou and the Armonia Atenea to perform these beautiful arias of the Rococo period. The album features seven never before recorded arias composed by Johann Adolf Hasse.

The mighty Max Emanuel Cencic rocks "Il Sassone" . . . [a] superb recital . . . Cencic's voice is one of the richest around today with a gleaming top, a fulsome but firm bottom register and his technical facility is spectacular yet always beautifully expressive. His fiorature runs are cleanly articulated but always maintain a legato line with no nasty aspirates. The accompaniments are bold, energetic yet elegant and technically immaculate; intonation is spot on. Theodoros Kitsos plays the mandolin concerto with limpid tone. The recording is close but not annoyingly so and wonderfully firm and weighty. Hasse's arias rival Handel for invention but the whole operas can be a hard nut to crack. A recital like this is an ideal introduction to this towering figure of 18th-century opera. –Record Review / Warwick Arnold, Limelight Magazine (Australia) / 05. June 2014

Rising star countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic's easy command of the craziest diminutions – the length, rapidity and range of which challenge the physically possible – shows why Hasse's music enthralled audiences. Authority abounds: Cencic leaps elegantly across his register, and the band intervenes in delightfully unexpected ways to alter tempos and vary melodies. The richness of Cencic's timbre, especially in his bottom range, makes Hasse's lovely lines even more delectable. –Record Review / Berta Joncus, BBC Music Magazine (London) / 01. July 2014

Cencic, a complete Baroque virtuoso with a notably attractive timbre, is ready for any challenge – long legato arcs or yards of flashy, expressively hurled coloratura . . . Conductor George Petrou has recently placed himself among the go-to conductors for Baroque repertory, and his ensemble Armonia Atenea, twenty-five strong, offers Cencic worthily alert and enjoyable support throughout, with expert continuo playing.