Núria Rial / Edin Karamazov CON GUITARRA

 

CON GUITARRA

 

Nuria Rial / Juan Sancho HANDEL Human Love, Love Divine

HUMAN LOVE, LOVE DIVINE

 

Chor & Orchester der J.S. Bach-Stiftung / Rudolf Lutz BACH Kantaten No. 26

KANTATEN No. 26

Nuria Rial / Artemandoline VENICE'S FRAGRANCE

VENICE'S FRAGRANCE

Nuria Rial / Maurice Steger / Kammerorchester Basel BAROQUE TWITTER

During his travels in Italy in 1739–40, the French scholar Charles de Brosses wrote the following: “The Italians want arias of all kinds imaginable, to con- vey all the many and varied images that music can portray.” There was so- mething in what he said – the Baroque aria is the ideal place to find the most emblematic images of the age. Birdsong was the most perfect form of sin- ging, so why not try to mirror it in music for the human voice? The poetic and musical vocabulary of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century arias was rich in avian life: eagles, swans, turtle-doves and nightingales – among other birds or winged divinities – were used as messengers of love or unutterable tor- ment, or as a metaphors for every possible state of mind (in so-called “simi- le arias”). Another characteristic of ornithologically influenced arias was the presence of a solo instrument whose role was on a par with that of the sin- ger. The selection of birdsong-inspired works included here, for flautino or flauto dolce (sopranino and descant recorders) and soprano, conjure a range of emotions conveyed by a variety of winged messengers. Arias from operas and serenatas, composed between around 1700 and 1740, are interleaved with a selection of instrumental works for the same forces.

Baroque Twitter offers listeners an exiting journey into the world of early 18th -century Baroque poetry and music, a world filled with musical variety and soloistic brilliance.

Together with the Kammerorchester Basel, Nuria Rial and Maurice Steger have recorded an album of Baroque arias and concertos inspired by birdsong and Twitter. In their search for works they have discovered some dazzling jewels, some well known, others previously unrecorded: dreamily playful arias about love, infatuation and the beauties of nature.

Nuria Rial / El Concierto Español / Emilio Moreno FRANCISCO CORSELLI Music at the Spanish Court

The first disc from El Concierto Español, the orchestra founded by the violinist Emilio Moreno (who is both a founding member of Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and a great champion of Spanish music) is dedicated to one of the most important composers of the 18th century in Spain, Francisco Corselli. Of Italian origin, Corselli spent a considerable part of his career working for the Spanish court, to which he brought the opera seria which was enjoying so much success elsewhere in Europe at the time. Lively orchestral passages and colourful opera arias alternate here with deeply-felt Holy Week lamentations in a recording from 2002, which as the vocal soloist also involved the great Catalan soprano Nuria Rial, who once again is demonstrating her precious talent in Spanish music. (Glossa)

Christina Pluhar / L'Arpeggiata HÄNDEL GOES WILD

With Händel Goes Wild Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L’Arpeggiata once again embark on some musical time travel, this time in the company of soprano Nuria Rial, countertenor Valer Sabadus and jazz clarinettist Gianluigi Trovesi. The album features sumptuously reimagined versions of some of Handel’s most celebrated operatic arias. “All baroque composers used strict forms,” explains Christina Pluhar, “but those forms would also allow the singers and musicians to improvise and add ornament freely.” Highlighting the composer’s dynamism and temperament, she says: “Händel must have been pretty wild himself.” 

George Friderich Händel now joins Purcell, Monteverdi and Cavalli on the list of composers who have inspired an album by Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L’Arpeggiata. The title of this new album refers first and foremost to the imaginative treatment his music receives from L’Arpeggiata, but Christina Pluhar reminds us that “Händel must have been pretty wild himself,” quoting this famous anecdote: “At a rehearsal for his opera Ottone, when the celebrated soprano Francesca Cuzzoni refused to sing the aria ‘Falsa immagine’, he became so furious that he grabbed her round the waist and threatened to throw her out of the window.”

Fortunately, the ‘wildness’ on this album is purely pleasurable. Händel Goes Wild is in the beguiling vein of Music For A While – Improvisations on Henry Purcell, released by L’Arpeggiata on Erato in 2014. Praising that album, BBC Music Magazine wrote: “Long experienced in fusing Baroque with jazz-inspired performance styles, L'Arpeggiata's approach breathes new life into the Restoration composer, whose ground basses are akin to riffs, his melodies folk-like in their raw simplicity... Baroque instruments and a jazz-style combo mix to intriguing effect.” (Warner Classics)

Orphénica Lyra / José Miguel Moreno / Nuria Rial / Carlos Mena FUENLLANA Libro de mùsica para vihuela intitulado Orphénica Lyra

The Libro de mùsica para vihuela intitulado Orphénica Lyra is one of the most important vihuela publications of the 16th century. The work of the blind vihuelist Miguel de Fuenllana, it appeared in 1554 bearing a dedication to "Philip, Prince of Spain, King of England (1554 was the year of Philip's short-lived marriage to Mary Tudor) and Naples." Fuenllana, who subsequently entered into the service of Philip II, was rated one of the best performers of the day, so skilled that he was apparently even capable of playing on an untuned instrument. His ambitious and extraordinarily diverse Orphénica Lyra contains 188 works spread over six books that include both his own compositions and arrangements of works by some of the most popular composers of the period, among them Josquin (with 13 works, second in quantity only to Morales), in addition to those listed above. 

While it is not unusual to come across the odd piece from the publication on recital discs, the present issue is the first I've encountered to be wholly devoted to Orphénica Lyra. Only two original works by Fuenllana himself are included, the remainder of the program being devoted to his arrangements, in themselves rearranged for the vocal and instrumental ensemble that bears the name of the publication. There cannot, of course, be the slightest aesthetic objection to such a procedure, although given that Moreno is probably the greatest vihuelist of his day, it might have been agreeable to hear him play a few more solo tracks. Such regrets, though, are soon banished by the sheer quality of these performances. How well this group works together! The opening track, an extract from Flécha 's well-known ensalada La Bomba featuring the entire group of soprano Nuria Real, countertenor Carlos Mena, three violas da gamba, recorder, Renaissance guitar, gentle percussion, and Moreno's vihuela, displays a lively idiomatic approach symptomatic of what follows. Few of the tracks are quite so fully scored, and for me some of the highlights of the disc are the captivatingly lovely songs by Juan Vazquez, surely the greatest of all 16th-century Spanish song-composers, and the name most frequently represented. Also here is Sermisy's famous chanson Tant qui vivray in a fascinating arrangement, one of the few in which Fuenllana allowed himself instrumental embellishment. 

The production is well up to Glossa's usual high standard, with splendid sound, and an exemplary note by Ivan Moody. A splendidly varied collection that by turn delights, seduces, and haunts the mind. Strongly recommended. (FANFARE / Brian Robins)

Orphénica Lyra / José Miguel Moreno MÚSICA EN EL QUIJOTE

We stand before Glossa's distinct and definitive contribution to the 4th centennial celebration of the Quixote: this is no "music in the times of...", nor an association of a composer to the myth on the sole basis of their coincidence in time, nor a work inspired by the novel, but precisely that which everybody felt to be missing: a kind of "soundtrack" for the Quixote, in which the musical references which pepper Cervantes great work and some of his Novelas Ejemplares are collected and lovingly performed. Romances and songs alternate with dances such as chaconnes, folías and jácaras, creating a beautiful and accurate musical landscape in which the reader will easily locate our hero's adventures.

This disc also marks the reencounter of José Miguel Moreno with his renewed group, Orphénica Lyra, after some rather quiet years on the discographic front. Nuria Rial, with a voice that soars to sublime heights of beauty, sensitivity, and agility, shares the scene with a surprising Raquel Andueza, and both sopranos are joined by the voice of Spain's probably best countertenor of the day, Jordi Domenech. On the instrumental level, an ensemble that knows how to convey the taste of an era like no other: Eligio Quinteiro, Fernando Paz, Fahmi Alqhai, and Álvaro Garrido, conducted from the vihuela by a Moreno in full command of his powers. (GLOSSA)

Nuria Rial / José Miguel Moreno CLAROS Y FRESCOS RÍOS

Spanish soprano Núria Rial has a voice ideally suited for early music. Her tone is marvelously pure and strong, but unforced. Her delivery is natural, and the easy agility she brings to even the most florid passages has the unmannered directness of folk song. Especially distinctive and attractive are the warmth and lively intelligence of the personality she puts across in her singing; she's equally at ease in playful whimsy and in heartfelt laments. These Spanish songs and villancicos from the Renaissance, many of which have the spontaneity, simplicity, and memorable lyricism of folk song, are an ideal showcase for displaying Rial's gifts. The vihuela, a close relative of the guitar, was the most popular instrument for accompanying songs in Renaissance Spain, and José Miguel Moreno plays various vihuelas and Renaissance guitars here, performing with fluidity and finesse. He also has several solo tracks. The composers, including Alonso de Mudarra, Diego Pisador, Miguel de Fuenllana, Esteban Daça, and Enríquez de Valderrábano, who are likely to be known primarily to fans of the Spanish Renaissance, wrote these songs and dances during the 16th century. The gentle charm of the music and lovely, graceful performances make this a recording that should be of strong interest to early music fans. Glossa's sound is clean, clear, and warmly present. (Stephen Eddins)

Maria Grazia Schiavo / Nuria Rial / La Risonanza / Fabio Bonizzoni HANDEL Aminta e Fillide

Two new voices join Fabio Bonizzoni's project of recording the entirety of the cantatas with instrumental accompaniment which Handel composed when in Italy: sopranos Nuria Rial and Maria Grazia Schiavo enter the compan of Roberta Invernizzi, Emanuela Galli, Raffaella Milanesi and Salvo Vitale, the singers who we have been able to hear in the first three volumes of the collection. In this fourth instalment (out of a total of seven CDs planned for release up to the end of 2009), we rediscover the patronage of the Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli, which lay behind the important cantata a due entitled Aminta e Fillide; this was a work which was to provide the composer with a veritable seam of musical material for use, as "borrowings", in his operas Agrippina and Rinaldo - one of the reasons perhaps why this cantata has been rarely performed and even less recorded.

Both Aminta e Fillide and the extensive cantata for soprano, Clori, mia bella Clori, which rounds off this new disc, had their origins in the special environment of the Accademia degli Arcadi, that literary society founded by a group of aristocrats, cardinals, poets, thinkers and composers in 1690, which used to hold its meetings in idyllic spots around Rome. Karl Böhmer's informed notes contained in the CD booklet suggest a number of stimulating points of view about the meaning and significance of these works for the Arcadians. (GLOSSA)

Nuria Rial / Artemandoline SOSPIRI D'AMANTI

With their ensemble Artemandoline, formed in 2001, Juan Carlos Muñoz and Mari Fe Pavón chose to go back to the original documents in order to the establish the true pedigree of this incomparable family of instruments. They have made a major contribution to launching a movement to encourage musical freshness and rigour. A better understanding of the compositions, closer study of the early treatises, the playing styles, the musical environment of the glorious era of the mandolin, leads to better appreciation of Baroque music, which itself became over time a mode of thought and action.

Searching for early mandolins, working on the manuscripts, hunting down early treatises, exploring the iconography: these are the means by which, for more than ten years now, the musicians of Artemandoline have sought to do fuller justice to the works of Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Weiss, and their contemporaries. The success of this approach based on a return to the sources, which constitutes the most important development in the history of the interpretation of ‘serious’ music in the course of the twentieth century, has been made possible by the cooperation of many protagonists – musicians, but also concert organisers, recording producers, publishers, musicologists, and instrument makers. 

To ensure that music composed in the past does not sound like mere ‘early music’ in the present, the performers must manage to be sufficiently free, spontaneous, anticipative and astonished in their intimate act of creation and the newness it engenders. Juan Carlos Muñoz and Mari Fe Pavón spend their lives searching out and reviving forgotten masterpieces of the mandolin repertory. They are not content with simply presenting their finds like ‘musical archaeologists’, but endeavour to transmit them to the wider public by means of the essential act of communication between interpreters, composers, and listeners.

Nuria Rial / Valer Sabadus / Kammerorchester Basel SACRED DUETS

Sony Classical present Italian duets and arias with baroque stars Nuria Rial and Valer Sabadus. The Spanish soprano Nuria Rial and the countertenor Valer Sabadus are both stars of the booming baroque music scene. Nuria Rial is a bright soprano with her “addictive timbre“ and Valer Sabadus's velvety "dramatic, crystal clear and lyric voice" (Süddeutsche Zeitung) are for the first time united in one recording. With the excellent Kammerorchester Basel they send the listener on a voyage of discovery to Italy, to lesser known music by Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Paolo Colonna, Giovanni Gabrieli, Antonio Lotti, Giovanni Battista Bononcini, Bernardo Pasquini and Antonio Caldara. The arias and duets are mainly from oratorios, which have already fascinated many listeners. (Presto Classical)

L'Arpeggiata / Christina Pluhar FRANCESCO CAVALLI L'Amore Innamorato

With L’Amore innamorato – ‘Love in love’ – Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata return to their own first great love, Italian music of the 17th century, and specifically to composer Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676).

A luminary of the glamorous and innovative world of Venetian opera, Cavalli was a protégé of Claudio Monteverdi – the composer around whom L’Arpeggiata built Il teatro d’amore, the ensemble’s first Warner Classics album, which was released in early 2009. “Cavalli’s music excites my passions”, says Christina Pluhar. He composed some 40 operas, some of which have achieved new currency since the 1960s, such as La Calisto, Il Giasone, L’Egisto and L’Ormindo and La Didone. Arias and instrumental numbers from six of his operas feature in L’Amore innamorato. The instrumentalists of L’Arpeggiata are joined for the album – which also includes pieces by two of Cavalli’s contemporaries, Girolamo Kapsperger and Andrea Falconieri – by two sopranos, the Catalan Núria Rial and the Czech Hana Blažíková.

While L’Arpeggiata’s recent Warner Classics CDs – Music for a While, Mediterraneo, Los Pájaros perdidos and Via Crucis – have explored fusions of cultures and musical styles, L’Amore innamorato adheres to the conventions of historically informed performance of Baroque music. The members of the ensemble use stringed, keyboard, wind and percussion instruments to flesh out Cavalli’s score, which comprises only a vocal line, basso continuo and indications for the ritornello (a recurring instrumental section). As Christina Pluhar points out, the line-up of instruments is unusually lavish: she herself performs on theorbo and harp and is joined by the other players who create a sumptuous soundworld, accompanying arias for goddesses and nymphs with a fascinating array of instruments: cornetto, violin, archlute, guitar, harp, psaltery, viola da gamba, lirone, cello, violone, double bass, organ, harpsichord and percussion.

In April 2015, after L’Arpeggiata performed L’Amore innamorato at Carnegie Hall, The New York Times wrote:

“In some ways, L’Arpeggiata represents the state of the art in early-music practice … The most compelling performers today have come to realize how much was left unsaid by composers in scores prepared on the run for use by performing colleagues who were, if not immediately at hand, at least immersed in the style of the period and locale. These performers see conjecture not as a worrisome chore but as an opportunity; improvisation as a matter of course; invention as a necessity.

L’Arpeggiata showed those traits in abundance in a delightful program on Tuesday, L’Amore innamorato: Arias by Francesco Cavalli … Núria Rial, a splendid Spanish soprano, sang numbers from operas including Calisto, Didone and Ormindo beautifully, and the ensemble filled out the 75-minute program with instrumental ditties by Cavalli and others.

The selections tended toward works with variations above repeating bass figures, which come as catnip to these players, inviting, as they do, the extemporization of new variations. Such forms are widespread in the Italian Baroque literature.

Cavalli’s operas have been gaining fitful exposure in recent years … Still, his music is not well known, and it was good to hear these delicious samples in something like their original form. Christina Pluhar, L’Arpeggiata’s artistic director, played theorbo throughout, giving a wonderful, firm basis to the sound.” (Presto Classical)

Nuria Rial / Margot Oitzinger HAYDN Arie per un'Amante

The title of this album comes from the fact that Haydn wrote most of these insertion arias (arias written to show off the special talents of a singer in a particular production, and substituted for the arias by the opera's composer) for his lover, Italian soprano Luigia Polzelli. Thank goodness these delightful arias have survived, although the operas into which they were originally inserted, by composers like Pasquale Anfossi, Alessandro Guglielmi, and Francesco Bianchi, are forgotten. Haydn's inventiveness and benevolence overflow in this charming music. If there is any criticism of this assortment of arias, it's that they are all relentlessly cheerful and sprightly, and all in major keys, even those with texts like, "Unhappy and unfortunate I am…." While not all these arias reveal Haydn at his most dramatically astute, they find him at his most genial. One of the arias, La moglie quando è buona, is in fact laugh-out-loud funny. Spanish soprano Núria Rial and Austrian mezzo-soprano Margot Oitzinger divide the arias. Their voices are well matched: exceptionally pure, supple, and focused, with an unmannered, effortless sounding delivery and immaculate technique. In only one aria, Infelice sventurata, in an unmercifully low passage, does Rial show any strain. Michi Gaigg leads L'Orfeo Barockorchester in a sparkling, beautifully blended accompaniment. The sound is warm and spacious, but always clear and clean. (Stephen Eddins)

Nuria Rial / La Floridiana MARIANNA MARTINES Il Primo Amore

Nuria Rial & La Floridiana present world premiere recordings by Marianna Martines - a famous female composer in the time of Mozart and Haydn.

Marianna Martines was one of the most accomplished and highly honoured female musicians of the eighteenth century. She studied with the young Joseph Haydn and was known in Vienna to be a gifted singer and keyboard player, who performed duets with Mozart himself. Despite the fact that many of her compositions appeared in print during her own lifetime many of her works are still missing, among them a total of probably 28 sonatas and eight concertos for harpsichord. The album includes four world premiere recordings, and is released to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Marianna Martines who died on March 11th 1812. The 28 page booklet is complete with elaborate liner notes and full libretti in German, English and French.

Spanish Catalan soprano Nuria Rial is famous for her shining, cristal clear and beautiful voice and is one of the most fitting voices for baroque arias. She was described as "a silvery sounding voice, as clear as a bell." (Opernglas)

Nicoleta Paraschivescu is a dedicated harpsichord player and musical director of "La Floridiana". Concerts have taken her across Europe and to major festivals such as the Davos Festival, Bach Dies Cremona, the Rheinland-Pfalz Organ Festival, Culturescapes Basel and the L'Aquila Festival in Rome. La Floridiana is a Swiss based, period instrument ensemble that performs unknown works in the main that have been unearthed in libraries and private collections with the aim of expanding the current repertoire of the Early Music scene.

Nuria Rial / Lawrence Zazzo G.F. HÄNDEL Duetti Amorosi

Spanish soprano Núria Rial and American counter tenor Lawrence Zazzo join forces in an outstanding selection of duets and scenes from Handel operas. For most of the operas, they have included recitatives, arias, and even overtures and instrumental interludes to provide the context for the duets. The result is wonderfully effective in giving the listener a deeper understanding of the drama and the characters, as well as marvelous additional music. Rial's and Zazzo's voices are ideally matched -- absolutely secure, natural, and unforced and tonally pure with flawless intonation and brilliant coloratura. Their voices are also powerful; there's no sweet sentimentality here, but genuine passion. With conductor Lawrence Cummings, they emphasize the varieties of emotions expressed in the duets, from the flashing anger of a lovers' quarrel in the scene from Serse to the melting tenderness of "Io t'abbracio," from Rodelinda, and, especially, "Addio! Mio caro bene" from Teseo. They are fully persuasive in conveying the varieties of passion the characters are experiencing, and the Kammerorchester Basel provides a nuanced accompaniment that matches the singers' expressiveness. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's sound is vibrant, clean, and intimate. Strongly recommended for fans of Baroque opera, or any fans of opera who are susceptible to the beauty of the commingled sound of soprano and counter tenor. (Stephen Eddins)

'Duetti amorosi' is an imaginative and thoughtfully chosen programme of operatic duets (although the singers also get two arias each).

Nothing predictable is included here, except perhaps the two items from Rodelinda, but the lovely performance of 'Ritorna, o cara' and the pathos-laden 'Io t'abbraccio' more than justify their presence. Picking a diverse selection of repertoire that skilfully conveys the expressive and stylistic breath of Handel's writing is certainly one of the often-ignored secrets of planning a successful Handel recital programme, and the performers' enthusiasm for reviving numbers from Arminio (including its fine overture), Teseo, Muzio Scevola, Poro (the gorgeous 'Caro amico amplesso') and Admeto deserves high praise.

Rial and Zazzo sing well, both individually and together: in the duets they are obviously listening sympathetically to each other; they seem to know when to emphasise vocal contrasts or blend closely. Laurence Cummings provides expert musical direction from the harpsichord, ensuring that everything is paced to perfection, and that the musico-dramatic characteristics presented in each piece speak with transparency to the listener; none of these performances would feel out of place in context of their parent works. (The Gramophone Classical Music Guide / 2010)