Musica Italiana!

[Universe]

Giusy Ferreri is one hot bitch (besides being a good singer)

[The Lawspeaker]

Composer: Francesco Geminiani
Artists: Jaap ter Linden (cello), Lars Ulrik Mortensen (harpsichord), Judith-Maria Becker (cello)

When thinking of important cello repertoire from the Baroque period of course J.S. Bach’s suites spring to mind immediately. But there is so much more out there to be discovered from this period. And not just from Germany. Italian composer and violinist Geminiani wrote just six sonatas for cello but they deserve far more attention than they are getting today. In fact Francesco Geminiani’s only set of six sonatas for cello and basso continuo is one of the finest from the Baroque era. This composer was London-based for quite a while. He then began to visit France (among other countries). When writing his cello sonatas he also drew on the French viola da gamba tradition. He combined this with his own style which was based on Corelli. But Geminiani also inserted a lot of embellishments and contrapuntal passages.

These sonatas are highly attractive and expressive pieces. Especially both ones two in minor keys touch on the emotions of the listener. The sonatas are quite demanding for the performers. Unusual is Geminiani’s frequently allowing the main cello and the accompanying parts to cross. Dutch cellist Jaap ter Linden hardly needs any introduction. He is one of the leading musicians having been involved in historically informed performances from the very start. Ter Linden has made several recordings for Brilliant Classics, including Bach’s suites and sonatas by Vivaldi. His performances of these works by Geminiani are intense and lively.

Tracklist:
00:00:00 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 1 in A Major : Andante
00:01:40 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 1 in A Major : Allegro
00:05:15 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 1 in A Major : Andante
00:06:01 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 1 in A Major : Allegro
00:09:55 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 2 in D Minor : Andante
00:12:23 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 2 in D Minor : Presto
00:14:50 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 2 in D Minor : Adagio
00:15:32 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 2 in D Minor : Allegro
00:20:05 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 3 in C Major : Andante
00:21:53 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 3 in C Major : Allegro
00:26:20 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 3 in C Major : Affetuoso
00:29:27 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 3 in C Major : Allegro
00:32:13 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 4 in B Flat Major : Andante
00:32:42 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 4 in B Flat Major : Allegro Moderato
00:35:55 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 4 in B Flat Major : Grave
00:36:44 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 4 in B Flat Major : Allegro
00:37:35 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 5 in F Major : Adagio
00:38:13 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 5 in F Major : Allegro Moderato
00:39:39 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 5 in F Major : Adagio
00:42:23 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 5 in F Major : Allegro
00:45:28 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 6 in A Minor : Mov. 1
00:46:09 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 6 in A Minor : Mov. 2
00:49:49 Francesco Geminiani: Sonata No. 6 in A Minor : Mov. 3

[PaleoEuropean]

Interesting piece, this song was absurdly popular, those vocals are soooo bad though .

[Incal]

Dello stesso Film:

[Ülev]

[Armenian Bishop]

Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria in D Major was originally performed by an all-female choir and orchestra. Vivaldi, employed in Venice, at an orphanage for girls, wrote it with all sections (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass), but the girls and women were trained to sing the Tenor and Bass Parts (normally assigned to male voices); since then, it's normally performed by both male and female voices. But this one was entirely performed by female voices, at the original location in Venice, so you can hear it as it was originally performed. It's interesting that women are capable of altering their voices to reach down into Tenor and Bass Parts.


Here you can watch the same piece (Vivaldi's Gloria in D Major) on sheet music (in Vivaldi's own handwriting), with all vocal and orchestra parts shown for us to observe in its entirety. I was a Bass Singer for this piece, and I know it well enough to sing the entirely of it, by memory.


Here's yet another version of Gloria: This one performed (in 2011) by the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, and the National Chamber Choir of Armenia. Here you can see it performed by both men and women. Armenians are a people endowed with a rich heritage or artistic talent, and I like to see them perform the music of Vivaldi.

[The Lawspeaker]

[The Lawspeaker]

TOMASO ALBINONI (1671 - 1751) Concerto No. 2 for oboe and strings in D minor Op. 9

1. Allegro e no presto
2. Adagio (3:55)
3. Allegro (7:55)

Performed by Il Fondamento Directed by Paul Dombrecht, oboe http://www.ilfondamento.be/ "Piazza San Marco with Jugglers" by Luca Carlevaris (1663 - 1730) *Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni was a Venetian Baroque composer. While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is mainly remembered today for his instrumental music, some of which is regularly recorded. Born in Venice, Republic of Venice, to Antonio Albinoni, a wealthy paper merchant in Venice, he studied violin and singing. Relatively little is known about his life, especially considering his contemporary stature as a composer, and the comparatively well-documented period in which he lived. In 1694 he dedicated his Opus 1 to the fellow-Venetian, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (grand-nephew of Pope Alexander VIII); Ottoboni was an important patron in Rome of other composers, such as Arcangelo Corelli. Albinoni was possibly employed in 1700 as a violinist to Charles IV, Duke of Mantua, to whom he dedicated his Opus 2 collection of instrumental pieces. In 1701 he wrote his hugely popular suites Opus 3, and dedicated that collection to Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1705, he was married; Antonino Biffi, the maestro di cappella of San Marco was a witness, and evidently was a friend of Albinoni's. Albinoni seems to have no other connection with that primary musical establishment in Venice, however, and achieved his early fame as an opera composer at many cities in Italy, including Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Mantua, Udine, Piacenza, and Naples.

During this time he was also composing instrumental music in abundance: prior to 1705, he mostly wrote trio sonatas and violin concertos, but between then and 1719 he wrote solo sonatas and concertos for oboe. Unlike most composers of his time, he appears never to have sought a post at either a church or noble court, but then he was a man of independent means and had the option to compose music independently. In 1722, Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, to whom Albinoni had dedicated a set of twelve concertos, invited him to direct two of his operas in Munich. Around 1740, a collection of Albinoni's violin sonatas was published in France as a posthumous work, and scholars long presumed that meant that Albinoni had died by that time. However it appears he lived on in Venice in obscurity; a record from the parish of San Barnaba indicates Tomaso Albinoni died in Venice in 1751, of diabetes. He wrote some fifty operas of which twenty-eight were produced in Venice between 1723 and 1740, while there are a few modern sources attributing - probably inaccurately - 81 operas to the composer. Today he is most noted for his instrumental music, especially his oboe concertos. He is thought to have been the first Italian composer to employ the oboe as a solo instrument in concerti (c. 1715, in his masterful 12 concerti a cinque, op. 7) and the first composer globally to publish such works, while it is likely that the first existing concerti featuring a solo oboe came from German composers such as Telemann or Händel, although probably unpublished.

In Italy, Alessandro Marcello published his well known oboe concerto in D minor a little later, in 1717. Albinoni has also been fond of the instrument regarding chamber works. His instrumental music greatly attracted the attention of Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote at least two fugues on Albinoni's themes and constantly used his basses for harmony exercises for his pupils. Part of Albinoni's work was lost in World War II with the destruction of the Dresden State Library, thus little is known of his life and music after the mid-1720s. The Albinoni Adagio in G minor is a 1958 composition entirely composed by Remo Giazotto, which Giazotto claimed to have based on fragments from a slow movement of an Albinoni trio sonata he had been sent by the Dresden State Library.

[The Lawspeaker]

ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Concerto for two violins, strings, and basso continuo in A minor RV522 Op. 3 No. 8 "L'estro Armonico"

1. Allegro
2. Larghetto e spiritoso
3. Allegro

Performed by Tafelmusik
Featuring Jeanne Lamon and Genevieve Gilardeau, violins
Conducted by Jeanne Lamon

[Tannhauser]

Gigi D'Alessio - Cosa te ne fai di un altro uomo