Pan Classics

8CD box set containing three of Monteverdi's enduring works. This box-set from Pan Classics presents recordings of Monteverdi 's L'Orfeo, L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. At the end of the 1990s, the recordings of Gabriel Garrido represented an important landmark in the interpretation of Monteverdian opera. What attracted one's attention straightaway in his versions were the brilliance and the hedonism of the actual recording itself. Following the precepts noted by the theorist Agostino Agazzari (a contemporary of Monteverdi) concerning continuo realization, Garrido involved not only the typical instruments which can play contrapuntally (keyboard, organ, archlute, harp, etc) but those with melodic capabilities as well. The resulting sound was opulent but never ornamental; and from it the dramatic rhythm flowed in a series of subtle ways. It was precisely with the voices where Garrido set himself apart from his predecessors. By deciding to surround himself with Latin voices (Italian, French, Spanish, Argentinian.) he endowed his Monteverdi with warm, rounded and sensual vocal colours. Any number of the individual vocal performances recorded here continue to represent interpretative touchstones: the Messaggera and Penelope of Gloria Banditelli, the Proserpina of Roberta Invernizzi, the Telemaco of Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, the Caronte of Antonio Abete, the Ulisse of Furio Zanasi and the Melanto of Guillemette Laurens stand out among many. Interpretatively distant not just from the contrasting theatricality offered by Harnoncourt and Jacobs but also the restrained seriousness of the British ensembles, the Monteverdian readings of Garrido are possessed of a sound which manages to be spectacular and yet private, considered yet visceral. Gabriel Garrido was born 1950 in Buenos Aires, and studied music at University of La Plata, in Zurich, and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, specialising in the lute, baroque guitar and reed instruments of the Renaissance. He became a member of the Ensemble Ricercare and Jordi Savall's Hesperion XX, with whom he made several recordings. From 1977 he was a teacher at the Centre de Musique Ancienne at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, where in 1981 he founded Ensemble Elyma a performance and research ensemble. He has a long working relationship with the Studio di Musica Antica Antonio Il Verso of Palermo. Garrido is also known for his work on Italian music, in particular his cycle of Monteverdi's operas, ballets and vespers and Vespro per lo Stellario della Beata Vergine of Bonaventura Rubino. From 1990, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo has called on Garrido annually to make an opera creation. In 2000 the Fondazione Cini, Venice, awarded him a special prize in recognition of his artistic activities on behalf of Italian music in the preceding ten years. Garrido has conducted operas at the Festival d'Ambronay and Festival de Beaune. He has brought baroque opera home to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with performances including Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (June 2001) and Rameau's Les Indes Galantes, (October 2002). PC10442 • Released 2022

NEW RELEASE! Farinelli's Violin, the new CD by baroque violinist Jorge Jiménez , is dedicated to the music written for the great Farinelli, the most famous castrato of all time - the Freddy Mercury, the Lady Gaga of the 18th century...! With this programme, Jorge Jiménez creates a sound fiction in which Farinelli's most famous arias are freed from their words and brought back to their essence: the music. Even though the arias have been 'stripped' of their text (using the historical techniques of transcription, of course, which were very fashionable at the time), they showcase Farinelli's artistry and evoke the noble sound and his open-throated messa di voce that inspired composers such as his brother Riccardo Broschi to write such charming arias as Ombra fedele or Son qual nave. And the arias that Hasse and Porpora wrote for Farinelli also bring us very close to his seductive supernaturalism. PC10458 • Released 2024

The Orange Tree Courtyard Renaissance Music in and around the Cathedral of Seville •• THE ORANGE TREE COURTYARD WAS OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR MAY 2023 •• Click here to read our blog about this release! An array of international musicians perform repertoire from the golden age of polyphony on an impressive collection of renaissance recorders: together they are The Royal Wind Music . The group was founded in 1997 by Paul Leenhouts and has captivated a steadily-growing worldwide audience ever since with its performances of instrumental music from the period 1520-1640. Playing entirely from memory and without a conductor, The Royal Wind Music is also known for its engaging performances and ability to communicate with the audience. The Cathedral of Seville is a gigantic building even by today's standards - in 1401, the city's ecclesiastical superiors decided to build a huge church in place of the former mosque, which future generations would still marvel at, and is one of the largest churches in the world. From the former mosque, the magnificent tower "La Giralda" remains, as well as the courtyard planted with orange trees, which also gives the name to the new CD by The Royal Wind Music. The flute consort, consisting of 11 recorders of all sizes, takes the listener on a walk around and into the cathedral and lets Renaissance works created for this place sound at each station. The walk begins in the famous orange tree courtyard, goes to the magnificent altar of the Virgin Mary, looks out over the city from the tower, visits the tombs of the musicians Francisco Guerrero and Francisco Peraza as well as Christopher Columbus' son, the scholar Hernando Colon, until the path ends again in the courtyard. The music gathers the who's who of the Spanish Renaissance: Pedro de Escobar , Francisco Guerrero , Cristobal de Morales , Miguel de Fuenllana , to name but a few. PC10448 • Released 2023

Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck: The Orpheus of Amsterdam •• 'THE ORPHEUS OF AMSTERDAM' WAS OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR NOVEMBER 2024 •• Click here to read our blog about this release! If there is one name in the history of music in the northern Netherlands that is etched in the collective memory, it is undoubtedly that of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck - a composer of impressive vocal and instrumental works of exceptionally high quality. He is celebrated as the "Orpheus of Amsterdam", as he was organist of the Oude Kerk between 1577 and 1621, and the Amsterdam city council knew how to patronise the popular musician in their city and help him to prosper. Sweelinck's vocal works were widely distributed thanks to the flourishing publishing industry, but his organ works also had a great influence on the North German organ school, right up to Johann Sebastian Bach. The Royal Wind Music is a consort of Renaissance recorders of all pitches, from soprano down to sub-contrabass. The ensemble is often compared to a "walking organ" because of its even and polyphonic sound possibilities. In their choice of four programme sections, the musicians contrast a vocal work and an organ work by Sweelinck with variation pieces by Sweelinck himself or two new compositions written especially for this programme and the ensemble. Orpheus' voice thus resounds in a wonderfully cohesive sound, sometimes interrupted by the echo of new soundscapes. PC10462 • Released 2024