Considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) nevertheless left only a small body of recordings due to his perfectionism. Nor did he give live concerts often, frequently canceling them at the last minute for flimsy reasons. Still, his playing was prized for its clarity, directness, and unique interpretations.

Baldassare Galuppi was extremely popular during his lifetime, and according to more than one contemporary source he died the wealthiest Italian composer of the 18th century. Though primarily remembered for his contribution to the development of opera (he wrote more than 100), Galuppi also composed an abundance (148 works as of last count) of oratorios, cantatas, motets, and masses. Utilizing a score that Galuppi composed earlier, conductor Filippo Maria Bressan and the Academia de li Musici and the Athestis Chorus offer a reconstruction of a service that may have taken place in 1766 during Advent at St. Marks in Venice, where Galuppi held his long-standing position of musical director.

Decca’s new release brings together five of the world’s most renowned countertenors, who bring the rich world of baroque opera to life. Once rarely heard, countertenors are now firmly established on the operatic stage and concert platform and their popularity has reached an all-time high. This album features virtuosic highlights from baroque opera and showcases the extraordinary abilities of five astonishing artists: Max Emanuel Cencic, Yuriy Mynenko, Valer Sabadus, Xavier Sabata and Vince Yi.

Masterpieces Played by Masters asserts the back cover of this reissue confidently. That gives the wrong idea of the flavor of this little disc of chamber music from the middle eighteenth century, originally recorded in 1978. The instruments are all either of the relevant period or copies of such, making this one of the earlier applications of historical-performance principles to pre-Classical music. The "Masters" part of the equation is justifiable enough; flutist Barthold Kuijken and the other players involved all had long careers in the Dutch heartland of the historical-performance movement, and, unlike so many other players trained primarily in the Baroque repertory, they take naturally to the light charm of the pieces played here.

Baldassare Galuppi was a Venetian composer, mainly noted for his large output in opera and his collaborations with Goldoni who wrote many a libretto for him, some of which that were re-used by subsequent composers (like Il Mondo della Luna and Haydn). His dates - 1706 -1785 - make him part of a later generation than Bach, Vivaldi, Haendel and Scarlatti but of an older one than Haydn and Mozart, and roughly a contemporary of Bach's two eldest sons - Wilhelm-Friedemann and Carl-Philipp-Emmanuel. The Sonatas featured here are performed in a new edition from the original sources (usually contemporary copies rather than original manuscripts) by Mario Marcarini (who wrote the liner notes) and pianist Andrea Bacchetti.

Sacred music written for female singers and instrumentalists of the Ospedali became celebrated during the 18th century. This unique musical tradition became widely famous largely through the works of such notable composers as Vivaldi, Hasse, Porpora and Galuppi, who were active as teachers at the four "Ospedali grandi".

Recording an album of arias written expressly for Farinelli, one of the most legendary castratos of the eighteenth century, is brave; his name invokes a world of superhuman vocal feats, remarkable pathos, and a uniquely strong and brilliant tone that, for obvious anatomical reasons, will not be replicated by modern singers. But that clearly does not scare Vivica Genaux who, along with René Jacobs and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, dives into Farinelli's repertory as if it were her very own. She reveals a voice capable of dizzying speed and agility, and a refreshing ability to find in the highly ornamented, expression-through-excess style that typified opera seria of the time a sincerity and musical integrity that makes a case for its wider exploration.

Baldassare Galuppi held the position of church organist, from which he composed operas for the Italian stage. Since his forte was the keyboard, his operas have nice harpsichord recitatives (which usually I detest) and the harmonics are contrapuntal. Galuppi as a youth had studied counterpoint under Antonio Lotti, the first organist at St Mark's. Galuppi became cembalist in the great opera houses of Venice, and was involved in the first presentations of Vivaldi's operas there. Galuppi himself wrote at least 111 operas, the best of which are collaborations with the librettist Goldoni. The young Mozart reused some of the librettos that already existed in settings by Galuppi, and the mature Mozart raised to sublime heights the dramma giocoso form which Galuppi practically invented. This release supplies a missing link between Mozart and the opera world before his time.

Vivaldi discoveries are not infrequent. …a third D major setting by the composer of the Vespers psalm Dixit Dominus, appears here on disc for the first time. It is a splendid piece: with scoring including woodwind and trumpet, it begins with a brief but dazzling chorus and concludes with a rewardingly worked fugue. Among the several intervening sections, a duet for two tenors, highly ornamented and vivaciously sung by Paul Agnew and Thomas Cooley, the chorus 'Juravit Dominus' and a contralto aria… sung with sensibility by Sara Mingardo.

The works on this disc—an undated Dixit Dominus, the Nisi Dominus of 1777, the Kyrie originally composed in 1746 and extensively revised in 1782, the Gloria of 1779, and the Credo of 1781—owe much to the Venetian School of the late Baroque, especially the sacred music of Vivaldi. [Several notable works previously attributed to Galuppi have, upon academic scrutiny, been re-attributed to Vivaldi, in fact.] On the surface, it seems surprising that music dating primarily from the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century is so comparatively little influenced by Classicism as it was then developing north of the Alps. It should be remembered, though, that the model of Alessandro Scarlatti remained a large influence on sacred music throughout Europe well into the first decades of the Nineteenth Century.

The Venice Baroque Orchestra and a fine line-up of singers present a pasticcio setting of a libretto by Metastasio, with contributions from composers including Caldara, Vivaldi, Galuppi, Hasse and Paisiello. In the eighteenth century, 1,300 years after the last Olympic Games in ancient times, the Olympic theme was highly fashionable. Many composers based operas on the libretto L'Olimpiade by Metastasio. This recording has been structured to contain all of Metastasio’s original arias; it is a pasticcio in the sense that the music is by 16 different composers amongst the many that set the libretto between 1733 and the end of the century.

"L’Inimico delle Donne" which means someone who doesn’t like women, is an opera written by Galuppi in 1771. He was very well-known at this time but when he died, suddenly his works disappeared from the stages. Among them ”L’Inimico delle Donne” disappeared so well that nobody knew it existed. Hence it has never been played since its first venue in Venice in 1771. Some years ago its manuscript was found in Lisbon and Royal Opéra de Wallonie decided to recreate and to stage it.

Gérard Lesne founded the Il Seminario musicale Ensemble in 1985. Since 1990, the Ensemble has been in residence at the Royaumont Foundation, where it attracts vocalists and instrumentalists who share Lesne's enthusiam for the 17th and 18th century Italian repertoire. The musicians perform on old instruments and strive to reproduce as faithfully as possible the lilt and narrative line characteristic of the baroque style as expressed in works by composers such as Monteverdi, Cavalli, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Caldara, Pergolesi, and the others. The size of the ensemble is variable depending on the repertoire. Based on a rich and varied continuo section (theorbo, cello, basson, double bass, organ and harpsichord) supporting one or more soloists, it can be expanded with the addition of a string quartet to make a small chamber orchestra suitable for performing chamber operas. Responsibility for the Ensemble's musical direction is shared by the instrumentalists and vocalists.