The first complete recording of the keyboard works of Andrea Gabrieli (1532-1585), one of the most famous and influential composers of the late Renaissance and the most important representative of the Venetian School. A native of Venice, he went to Germany to study with Lassus. Later he became organist of the famous San Marco in Venice, the most important post in Northern Italy at that moment.

Though several of Vivaldi’s most delightful concertos are written for the flute, he left relatively little chamber music for the instrument: the ‘Il Pastor Fido’ set which used to be attributed to him is now known to have been composed by Nicolas Chédeville. On this valuable new recording, Mario Folena and Roberto Loreggian offer what seems to be all that is left of Vivaldi’s output for the genre, informed by the latest scholarship and in delightful and lively period-instrument recordings. They couple it not with the previously recorded ‘Il Pastor Fido’ sonatas, but with a genuine rarity: an arrangement of ‘Spring’ from The Four Seasons made by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the composer and philosopher who argued that, in politics as in music, Man should return to first principles.

Today we know that the reason for this penetration of Italian musical tastes into the small principality of Weimar lay elsewhere: the passion of the young prince Johann Ernst of Saxony for the Venetian concertos (and those of Vivaldi in particular). During the prince’s long period of study in Amsterdam, he had occasion to enjoy the exhibitions on the organ in the local Nieuwe Kerk by the blind virtuoso Jan Jacob de Graaf.

If we think of Albinoni beyond the ubiquitous and apocryphal Adagio (not so much arranged as concocted by a 20thcentury musicologist, Giazotto), we may remember collections of lively oboe and violin concertos, maybe also some trio sonatas and works featuring solo flute and trumpet. But Albinoni, the composer of cantatas and operas?
This quartet of Italian musicians puts the record straight with a new recording of secular cantatas. In fact Albinoni married a soprano, Margherita Raimondi, and apparently had a fine singing voice himself.

The Goldberg Variations are the most complex of J. S. Bach’s works from a technical point of view. All the harpsichord’s technical and expressive resources are thoroughly explored and used to great effect. The complexity, imagination, richness of ideas and internal references that animate this work make it a monumental piece of immeasurable depth. The instrument that Roberto Loreggian plays for this recording is a copy of a harpsichord made by Michael Mietke in the early years of the 18th century; exchanges between the maker and Bach are historically documented. Consequently, Loreggian is able to fully convey the complexity of this legendary work. An outstanding scholar in organ and harpsichord performance, Loreggian has appeared at some of the most important international music venues and at renowned festivals. Both as soloist and accompanist, he has collaborated with numerous performers and orchestras, recording his performances on several music labels and receiving praise from music critics, in addition to several awards.

Born in 1681, Georg Philip Telemann would inevitably suffer from comparisons with one of the towering figures of western Classical music, born just four years later: Johann Sebastian Bach. Although after his death Telemann may have been constantly cast into the Leipzig composers shadow, during his lifetime he was exalted as Bachs equal and was considered one of the greatest German composers of the early 18th century. Certainly, the size of his output compares very favourably with Bachs; Telemann was also a highly productive composer, writing over 3,000 works during his lifetime (although not all have survived). Despite his popularity falling away in the 19th century, today Telemann is almost as highly regarded as he was in his own lifetime ¬ the large number of new recordings on this edition pays tribute to the flurry of interest that has grown around the composer Telemann over the past 30 years.

The father of the Baroque period, Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the greatest composers of all time. His works, covering a wide range of instruments and voice types, continue to flourish to this day, forming a core part of musical learning. This special disc brings together the Trio Sonatas BWV525–530, works that originally appeared in a manuscript of works for organ. In this form, the pieces naturally became part of Bach’s teaching – a notable contribution to his oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann’s virtuoso organ technique.

New to the catalogue, delightful chamber music by an Italian celebrity of 18th-century London.