A comprehensive survey of the young Mendelssohn at his most prodigiously accomplished, in superbly cultivated performances by a classic Italian ensemble, including a recording never before issued on CD by Decca. In the 1960s and 70s, I Musici was synonymous for record collectors with Baroque music. Having been founded by graduates from Rome’s Accademia di […]
Among the final albums made by the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt was a history in sound of Viennese dance, the waltzes and polkas that made contemporary millionaires of the Strauss dynasty and have since travelled the world not least thanks to the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day concert. The leader of those concerts for 25 years, […]
In the summer of 1804, while on a summer holiday in the village of Conventello near Ravenna, Rossini then aged twelve, composed his six ‘Sonate a quattro’ for two violins, cello and double-bass. Many years later, the composer wrote on the front of the manuscript: ‘First violin, second violin, violoncello and contrabass parts for six […]
Salvatore Accardo, born in Turin in 1941, brings an Italianate warmth and intensity to the music he plays – not just to fellow countrymen such as Vivaldi, Tartini and Paganini but also to Austrian and German composers. By the age of thirteen, he had performed Paganini’s Caprices in recital and he was an international competition […]
A showcase of some of Vivaldi’s most popular concertos for wind instruments. From the many hundreds of concertos he wrote, the selection represented here, features some of his most lyrical and most energetic. Needless to say, the performances are classics of their kind. I Musici’s Vivaldi recordings over several years for Philips, from which these performances […]
A delightful collection of concertos by the man almost exclusively known by his ‘Adagio’. These pieces are very much in the style of Vivaldi and Corelli.
The essential single-CD-Mozart-companion with some of the most acclaimed performances of highlights from his masterworks, many of which were selected for inclusion in the legendary ‘Complete Mozart Edition’ on Philips Classics.
Some of the most gracious performances of Baroque blockbusters – including Albinoni’s ‘Adagio’ and Pachelbel’s ‘Canon’, of course.
Amongst the most pioneering of Baroque music ensembles, the legendary I Musici made literally hundreds of recordings of the Italian Baroque for Philips, some recorded several times in their long career. Amongst the most celebrated is their recording of ‘Vivaldi’s Op. 10 Flute Concertos’ with Severino Gazzelloni as soloist. It’s a recording that’s seldom been […]
Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ and I Musici go hand in hand, so much so, that the ensemble has recorded this collection of concertos repeatedly over the years. This is one of the very finest of their recordings and is coupled with two further violin concertos by Vivaldi, performed with the same stylish panache.
Appearing on CD for the first time, Lamberto Gardelli’s Pizzetti recording has been one of the most venerated in the Decca catalogue, not only because the music is comparatively rare but because the recording is true state-of-the-art. The music has Gallic charm and a Stravinskian sense of razor-sharp wit, not to mention a fascinating storyline […]
