Cecilia Bartoli: St Petersburg

 
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ARAIA / CIMAROSA / MANFREDINI / RAUPACH
Cecilia Bartoli: St Petersburg
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo-soprano) / I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis

[ Decca Classics / CD ]

Release Date: Friday 10 October 2014

"There is rich music here, and dramatic too...Bartoli, as ever, is in complete technical command of this music, which in places is as challenging as you'll find at this period...The playing of I Barocchisti...is brilliant, surging, ardent." Gramophone

Cecilia Bartoli returns with a majestic new album of world premiere recordings, hidden treasures of the Mariinsky.

For the very first time Bartoli explores the Baroque musical treasures of Tsarist Russia with music from the court of three 18th century Tsaristas: Anna, Elizabeth and Catherine the Great.

Music written by Italian and German composers working for the Russian court, this album sheds new light on an incredible and momentous time for Russia, shaping its politics and culture towards the enlightened West.

Mostly sung in Italian, the album also offers the first opportunity to hear Bartoli sing in Russian.

The music has been intricately researched by Bartoli herself, unlocking the archives of St Petersburg's Mariinsky Library to uncover music lost for over 200 years.

Reunites Bartoli with Baroque specialists Diego Fasolis & I Barocchisti.

St Petersburg lives up to all the expectations one might have for a new Cecilia Bartoli solo album.

It is a perfect showcase for the countless qualities of this fantastic and unique artist, and a world of hidden baroque discoveries from the Mariinsky Archive in St Petersburg, each track a world premiere recording.

"The music includes some cherishable finds and I Barocchisti under Diego Fasolis make ebullient companions. Bartoli herself is starting to sound stretched (the high register is almost semi-detached these days), but she remains agile, passionate, 100% committed." Financial Times, 11th October 2014 ****

"Bartoli hurls herself into these lost artefacts of the Russian baroque with every drop of her usual flair and a little more vibrato than before. There's nothing pale-faced either about the musicians of Diego Fasolis's group I Barocchisti; when her coloratura flights fuse with their racing strings it's as if you're spinning helplessly into a vortex." The Times, 9th October 2014 ****

"Anyone expecting...a diet of thin, phoned-in Neapolitan fare will be in for a surprise. There is rich music here, and dramatic too...Bartoli, as ever, is in complete technical command of this music, which in places is as challenging as you'll find at this period...The playing of I Barocchisti...is brilliant, surging, ardent." Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice, November 2014

Tracks:

De' miei figli: Prologue to La clemenza di tito (Hasse)
Domenico Dall'Oglio (1699-1764), Luigi Madonis (1690-1767)

Araia:
Pastore che a notte ombrosa (from Seleuco)
Vado a morir (from La forza del amore e dell' odio)

Cimarosa:
Agitata in tante pene (from La vergine del sole)

Manfredini, V:
Fra lacci tu mi credi (from Carlo Magno)
Non turbar que' vaghi rai (from Carlo Magno)
A noi vivi, donna eccelsa (from Carlo Magno)

Raupach:
Razverzi pyos gortani, laja (from Altsesta)
Idu na smert (from Altsesta)
O placido il mare (from Siroe re di Persia)
Marcia (from Altsesta)