Anticipating the 50th anniversary of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in 2022, we present their complete recordings on DG. The intriguing sound culture of Orpheus, especially of the string section, is often explained as a result of the cooperative mindset of the orchestra and its artistic process of rehearsing.

Boccherini's style is completely characteristic of the period in which he lived, the period, that is, of Haydn rather than that of Mozart or Beethoven. He enjoyed a reputation for his facility as a composer, leaving some 467 compositions. A great deal of his music is designed to exploit the technical resources of the cello, in concertos, sonatas, and, particularly, in chamber music for various numbers of instruments, including a remarkable series of quintets with two cellos. The twelve quintets for guitar and string quartet, of which eight have survived, are arrangements by the composer of works written for pianoforte quintet in the late 1790s. The set of six quintets were dedicated to the Marquès de Bénavent, an enthusiastic amateur guitarist.

Scarlatti published just 30 of his 550 or so keyboard sonatas. They appeared in London in 1738/9 under the title Essercizi per gravicembalo ('Keyboard exercises'). In the preface he warned players: "Do not expect, whether you be amateur or professional, to find any profound intention in these compositions, but rather an ingenious jesting with art." Scarlatti's sonatas are perhaps most famous for their flamboyant Hispanic touches, with hints of the rhythms and melodies of Spanish folk music. (The composer, born in Naples, spent 25 years in Madrid.) During his lifetime his music was not widely circulated and it's impact and influence was largely restricted to composers like Sebastián de Albero and Antonio Soler who, like Scarlatti himself, had connections with the royal household of Spain.

"The greatest cellist of modern time" – well, who could argue with a statement like that? After all, Mstislav Rostropovich is a supreme virtuoso, a charismatic performer, and a sublime interpreter and virtually every one of his recordings is as good as it gets for the repertoire.

The musicians of Les Ombres pay tribute to Luigi Boccherini. The free and audacious composer was an insatiable traveler and the inventor of the string quartet whose belatedly acknowledged genius has now earned him a major place in the history of music.

The first disc showcases four of Boccherini's six Divertimenti. These works were originally published as Sextets, but the chamber ensemble set-up employed here is an alternative apparently sanctioned by Boccherini, who further allowed that the double bass part be omitted where desired; the flute is, however, obbligato. These works go beyond the divertimenti of Mozart and Haydn: they possess the same depth and spirit of imagination as Boccherini's String Sextets (available on PE469), which were written slightly later. Both usually have four movements, two fast and two slow, with a third-movement minuet.

The legendary label, deutsche harmonia mundi, releases a special 50 CD boxset featuring star performers such as Hille Perl, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Dorothee Oberlinger, Simone Kermes, and Nuria Rial and more! This collection displays the sheer variety available from the dhm archive. A perfect collection ranging Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic music.

The main theme of this work of the Ensemble Chiaroscuro follows closely that of the first disc (also produced by Concerto Classics, “Baroque Enchantment”): the proposal is to collect a series of pieces to form a sort of concert program, in order to tell a true story in music, hence the title “Cello Tales”. The listener will in fact be led, through the notes of Antonio Fantinuoli cello, in a journey of rediscovery of the great masters and pioneers of the leading instrument of this recording, unearthed by a careful research of ancient manuscripts done by the same artist.

A beautifully-packaged 50-disc box set, released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, one of the most important and adventurous early music labels. The set contains 50 classic recordings of baroque and ancient music, chosen to represent the breadth of this huge and varied catalogue and each disc is slip-cased with artwork replicating the original CD or LP artwork.

SEON (Studio Erichson) is a period music label by the legendary producer Wolf Erichson. Erichson founded the label in 1969 as one of the first labels dedicated only to authentic music. The recordings were made with the best available recording techniques of the time and still deliver a high quality product in line with today's standards. This special boxset offers all SEON CD reissues from the late 90s on 85 CDs in a limited edition boxset.

Staier studied piano and harpsichord in the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover and Amsterdam. He studied piano with Kurt Bauer and Erika Haase, and harpsichord with Lajos Rovatkay. From 1983 to 1986 he was the harpsichord soloist for the ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, touring frequently. At the same time he continued his studies in interpretation of classical and post-classical music on the fortepiano. He resigned from the ensemble in 1986 to embark on his solo career on both harpsichord and fortepiano.

In their general layout and their style, the three quintets recorded here illustrate Boccherini’s formal variety and freedom: whether first violin and first cello are deliberately highlighted, or the roles are distributed in more balanced fashion, this composer had an unrivalled ability to use the group of instruments to create a limpid, shimmering soundscape, traversed by fleeting zones of shadow and sudden bursts of light.

Boccherini wrote two versions of his much admired Stabat mater. The original dates from 1781 and is for solo voice; then, 20 years later, he revised it, on a larger scale, using three voices, in order (he said) to avoid the monotony of the single voice and the fatigue to the singer, and also adding a symphony movement to it. This 1801 version was published during his lifetime and in several later editions and seems to have eclipsed the earlier one altogether (which survives only in the autograph manuscript). Yet on hearing this new recording of the original I feel that it conveys the message of the work much more potently than does the more elaborate later version.

“Brilliant singer … a lean, straightforward voice animated by a subtle flatée … real ‘vocal artistry’,” raved German early music expert Bernhard Morbach of Kulturradio Berlin Brandenburg about Amaryllis Dieltiens’ debut on AEOLUS in 2011. With her own ensemble Capriola Di Gioia, Dieltiens now presents a deeply touching Stabat mater in Boccherini’s original version from 1781.

Cellist Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella Orchestra focus on Luigi Boccherini, Italian composer and first virtuoso cellist in history. Born in the Tuscany, Boccherini then went to the Court of Prussa and Spain. His musical education looks like a journey around Europe, as it used to be. Long eclipsed by the violin, star of the string instruments, the cello slowly fit in the eighteenth century repertoire thanks to composers who played the instrument themselves. The now famous Suites of Johan Sebastian Bach are the first master pieces composed for the cello. Then Luigi Boccherini strengthened its place in the musical creation, thus becoming to cello what Vivaldi was to the violin one generation earlier. With rhythms of dance from Andalusia and melodies dug along the streets of Madrid, Boccherini draws with notes his adopted country such as his contemporary Francisco Goya did with colours.