[ Erato / Warner Classics / CD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 15 November 2017
This item is only available to us via Special Import.
The Arie Antiche compiled by Alessandro Parisotti are known to each and every student of classical singing.
But with Quella fiamma, Nathalie Stutzmann and Orfeo 55 breathe new fire into this primer for the voice, performing these songs and arias with original orchestrations, as they would have been heard in their day. Before they were lessons, they were high art.
This album is a selection of pieces from Arie antiche, a 19th Century collection of songs edited by Alessandro Parisotti to be a vocal primer. Though now more famous as the editor of Arie antiche, Parisotti was also a composer, and he managed to slip one of his own works into the book by attributing to Giovanni Pergolesi his song "Se tu m'ami". The collection was very much a part of the trend to rediscover old and forgotten works, and the popularity of the three-volume set has endured to this day.
For this album the musicians of Orfeo 55 have worked painstakingly to source original scores and to edit the parts as necessary. While the instrumental works are not part of Parisotti's primer, they provide brief musical interludes between the songs to enhance the overall listening experience and bring these works together into a coherent programme.
"One has to admire Parisotti's taste, as well as (not for the first time) Stutzmann's rich, win-dark voice, noble emotional articulation and, when required, flashing virtuosity. Some of these arias are simply ravishing in her hands…She conducts her Orfeo 55 orchestra with a sure hand, too, though a close-ish balance is less kind to the strings. But she is the star all right, one of the great Baroque singers of our day." Gramophone
"Her approach is highly expressive, coaxing performances are nothing if not fiery. Stutzmann wrings every ounce of meaning and emotion from the texts, lending them real dramatic power - even outside their original context. Ashe has an impressive range, too (the voice particularly plummy in its lowest register), and her vivid contrasts of light and shade would make even Caravaggio turn green." BBC Music
"it's a real winner. Conceived with great intelligence, creativity and sympathy, and performed with consummate virtuosity and dedication, it's already on my list of 'Records of the Year'." MusicWeb
Scarlatti, A: Scarlatti, A / Orch Orfeo 55: L'honestà negli amori, Act 1: "Già il sole dal Gange" (Saldino) [Orch. Orfeo 55]
Durante, F: Durante / Orch Courbier & Delaforge: Danza, Danza fanciulla gentile [Orch. Courbier & Delaforge]
Falconieri: Falconieri / Orch Tufvesson: Il primo libro di canzone, sinfonie, fantasie: XV. Passacalle (Orch. Tufvesson)
Caccini, G: Le nuove musiche: VIII. Amarilli, mia bella
Carissimi: Carissimi / Orch Delaforge: "Vittoria vittoria mio core" (Orch. Delaforge)
Scarlatti, A: Scarlatti, A / Orch Courbier & Delaforge: Il Pompeo, Act 2: "O cessate di piagarmi" (Orch. Courbier & Delaforge)
Handel: Handel / Orch Orfeo 55: Alcina, HWV 34, Act 2: "Ah, mio cor, schernito sei " (Alcina) [Orch. Orfeo 55]
Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: Conti - 3 excerpts
Bononcini, G B: Bononcini / Orch Coubier & Delaforge: Griselda, Act 2: "Per la gloria d'adorarvi" (Ernesto) [Orch. Courbier & Delaforge]
Porpora: Porpora / Orch Courbier & Delaforge: Sonata a 3, Op. 2 No. 3: I. Adagio - Allegro (Orch. Courbier & Delaforge)
Durante, F: Durante / Orch Courbier & Delaforge: "Vergin, tutt'amore" (Orch. Courbier & Delaforge)
Porpora: Cello Concerto in G Major: II. Largo
Parisotti: Arie Antiche, Book 1: XXII. Se tu m'ami
Legrenzi: Legrenzi / Orch Courbier & Delaforge: Eteocle e Polinice, Act 2: "Che fiero costume" (Antigone) [Orch. Courbier & Delaforge]
Marcello, A: Marcello / Orch Orfeo 55: Oboe Concerto in D Minor, S. D935: II. Adagio (Orch. Orfeo 55)
and much more