With Forgotten arias countertenor Phillippe Jaroussky pays tribute to composers of the late Baroque era and to the great librettist of the age, Pietro Metastasio. All ten arias on the album, written between 1748 and 1770 by nine composers, are heard in world premiere recordings. Metastasio's librettos were set by multiple composers - Vivaldi, Handel, Gluck and Mozart among them - resulting in hundreds of operas. The more familiar names on the multi-faceted programme of Forgotten Arias are Gluck, Johann Christian Bach, Jommelli, Hasse and Piccinni. Less well-known are Bernasconi, Ferrandini, Traetta and Valentini. Jaroussky's partners on the album are the conductor Julien Chauvin and his orchestra Le Concert de la Loge. All in all, Forgotten Arias looks set to be highly memorable.

Buxtehude’s anthology and some of the most beautiful pages of North German repertory.

For close to 300 years Bach’s Goldberg Variations have awed performers as well as listeners, through an unparalleled combination of a dazzling variety of expression and breath-taking virtuosity with stupendous polyphonic mastery. No wonder then that other musicians than harpsichordists have wanted to make it their own – pianists, first and foremost, but also accordion players and guitarists, flautists and harpists.

The Enea Baroque Orchestra, founded by the mezzo-soprano Francesca Ascioti in 2018, is currently regarded as the best Roman Baroque authority because of the high quality of its musicians. On this album the ensemble turns to Johann Adolf Hasses masterpiece, the Neapolitan Baroque opera Enea in Caonia (Aeneas in Chaonia), a genuine gem within the genre of the serenata. The libretto was inspired by Book III of Vergils Aeneid, the most famous epic poem in Latin literature. It was very fortunate that Hasse and Aeneas crossed paths in Italy, for both of them a new adoptive home, and breathed new life into this work.

Corelli's Op. 6 contains two types of concerto, one termed da chiesa, the other da camera. The first eight concertos of the set belong to the former category, while the remaining four, of a less ostensibly serious character, belong to the second. Sometimes the differences are little more than terminological since there are, for instance, several clearly dance-orientated movements among the da chiesa concertos. The Brandenburg Consort give an affectionate and stylish account of these works…The playing is full of vitality and also responsive to the satisfying sounds inherent in Corelli's rich ripieno textures. The concertino group of two violins and cello also comes over effectively, providing that balanced contrast between small and larger units of sound.

The King's Noyse are a terrific ensemble who have made a lot of very good discs indeed over the years. This is among them. It is billed as a disc from 1995 of dance music and song from Italy between about 1580 and 1650, which though strictly accurate, may be a little misleading. Lively dance rhythms are certainly there, but a good deal of the disc is contemplative and sometimes rather melancholy in feel. There are single works by both Monteverdi and Gesualdo but the other works are largely by much more obscure composers, and although I know a little of some like Rovetta and Castello, most were completely new to me. I always like to be introduced to new composers, and the music is very fine throughout the disc.

If only for his melodic genius, Handel would have been forever acknowledged as one of history's greatest composers. These delightful sonatas for recorder provide abundant evidence to support that claim, and Marion Verbruggen's warm, resonant recorder and brilliant flute prove the perfect partners for bringing these rarely heard pieces to life.

Viennese church music of the generations before Haydn and Mozart is regrettably unfamiliar, and this attractive CD fills in something of the background and helps tell us where Haydn and Mozart were coming from. Antonio Caldara, Venetian by birth, spent several years in Rome, moved to Vienna in 1716 (he was in his mid-forties) as vice-Kapellmeister to Fux and (with regular trips to Salzburg to write operas) stayed 20 years, until his death. He wrote a large quantity of church music, including some 30 festal masses from his Viennese years, of which the main work here seems to me an excellent example. Caldara's rich textures and often very expressive and chromatic harmony, his fluent Italian melodic writing and his resourceful counterpoint, suffuse a work with many striking qualities.

A brand-new label from one of the world's finest early music ensembles makes an auspicious debut with this stunning new recording of Handel's oratorio Belshazzar. Les Arts Florissants, led by the great William Christie, have launched their new label with the goal of expanding the ensemble's connection to the listening public on a scale far beyond the concert hall. Belshazzar was first performed in 1745, and was frequently revised. Christie has chosen what he considers to be the most successful of the various versions of Belshazzar, resulting in the restoration of the piece in all its splendor. The libretto's subject, which focuses on the decline of a once glorious society and the ephemeral nature of Empire, is especially relevant today. This deluxe set also includes a bonus essay by Jean Echenoz entitled In Babylon, printed separately on special paper and included alongside the regular booklet. This specially commissioned work draws the reader deep into the ancient, majestic city, the seat of power of Belshazzar the King.

The prizewinning Boston Early Music Festival, joined by the choicest soloists, once again presents a spectacular Baroque opera discovery with Christoph Graupner’s Antiochus and Stratonica. Graupner composed the musical play L’Amore Ammalato, Die kranckende Liebe, oder: Antiochus und Stratonica during his time as the harpsichordist at the Gänsemarkt Opera in Hamburg. The core subject of the opera is the love of the Seleucid prince Antiochus for his stepmother Stratonica. This match brings with it highly dramatic moments as well as deeply sad ones inasmuch as Antiochus is supposed to have an incurable illness – but then at the end three old and new romantic couples appear on the stage and everything comes to a happy ending.

The second instalment of the complete keyboard works by Johann Wilhelm Hässler. Johann Wilhem Hässler lived from 1742 to 1822, the transition of the Baroque to the Classical era. His style embraces the Empfindsamkeit initiated by W.F. Bach and C.Ph.E. Bach and the heritage of J.S.Bach. These different idioms perfectly coexist to create his complex language, however, Hässler progressively abandoned the baroque heritage to develop a more modern style embracing a more classical aesthetic. The works on these 4 CD`s clearly mark the stylistic development of Hässler, from Baroque polyphony and counterpoint to the graceful classical language in Haydn style.

La Tempestad se ha presentado al público en Festivales como los de Aranjuez, Cádiz, Sevilla, Marbella, Murcia, Santillana del Mar, Valladolid, Almería, Daroca, Zaragoza, etc. Sus miembros, formados en importantes conservatorios europeos (Toulouse, Viena, Amsterdam, La Haya), han formado parte de Al Ayre Español, La Real Cámara, El Concierto Español, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the XVIII Century, European Union Baroque Orchestra, La Stravaganza, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, etc., con quienes han actuado por España, Europa, Israel y China.