Cecilia Bartoli QUEEN OF BAROQUE

 

QUEEN OF BAROQUE

 

Filippo Mineccia / The New Baroque Times ORLANDO

ORLANDO

 

Sara Mingardo / Cenacolo Musicale SE CON STILLE FREQUENTI

SE CON STILLE FREQUENTI

Xavier Sabata / Vespres d'Arnadí / Dani Espasa L'ALESSANDRO AMANTE

The irresistible and warm voice of counter-tenor Xavier Sabata never ends to bewitch us in his new medley of jubilant baroque arias. Alexander The Great inspired him the theme his new album: Porpora, Händel, Bononcini and many other composers were seduced by this character who mingled the strength of the Emperor and the sensibility of a man.

Xavier Sabata focuses on that multifaceted feeling that keeps nourishing music, especially baroque opera. With the Spanish conductor Dani Espasa and his ensemble Vespres d’Arnadí, the singer performs a tailor-made programme: the new exciting chapter of a unique voice and a fascinating artist.

Jory Vinikour O BARBARO AMORE

Jory Vinikour is an American harpsichordist and conductor. A Chicago native, Vinikour studied in Paris with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert on a Fulbright scholarship. He was the winner of the 1993 Warsaw International Harpsichord Competition and the 1994 Prague Spring International Music Competition, and he has appeared as a guest performer at music festivals around the world. With a concerto repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, Vinikour has been a soloist with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, working with Stéphane Denève, Martin Haselböck, Marek Janowski, Fabio Luisi, and Marc Minkowski, among many other conductors. Vinikour has performed as an accompanist for David Daniels, Hélène Delavault, Vivica Genaux, Marijana Mijanovic, Dorothea Röschmann, and Rolando Villazón, and he has toured Europe with Anne Sofie von Otter. Vinikour recorded a program of 17th century English and Italian music with lutenist Jakob Lindberg, which was released in 2005. A champion of new music, Vinikour has premiered works by Harold Meltzer, Frédéric Durieux, Stephen Blumberg, Patricia Morehead, and Graham Lynch, in addition to more established modern pieces by Cyril Scott, György Ligeti, and Michael Nyman. Vinikour has recorded for Sono Luminus, Dorian, Deutsche Grammophon, Affetto, Delos, Mandala, and Consonance.

Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble AGOSTINO STEFFANI Duets of Love and Passion

The outstanding features of Steffani’s enchanting chamber duets are their contrapuntal sophistication, and the need for extremely accomplished solo singers with the sensitivity necessary for performing complex chamber music. Johann Mattheson recognized both facets in 1739, confirming that Handel had chosen his models for this genre wisely, and also that, in his estimation, Steffani’s works remained unsurpassed. Colin Timms’ 1987 essay, Steffani’s Influence on Handel’s Chamber Duets, explored the various ways in which Handel appropriated Steffani’s thematic material, contrapuntal style, and overall duet structure for his own works. An Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham (UK), Dr. Timms provided the inspiration for this extraordinary Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) recording project and concert, and has been very generous in helping to shape it. Under the direction of BEMF Musical Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, four stunning vocalists—sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Emoke Baráth, tenor Colin Balzer, and baritone Christian Immler—and a continuo team of six brilliant instrumentalists present a selection of Steffani’s gorgeous chamber duets, as well as instrumental gems from the Baroque.