This CD is a tribute to the legendary Russian pianist and his magic touch and contain invaluable first issues that stand in witness of Sofrinitzskij?s talent, only aknowledged after his death (Moscow, 1961). We are confronted to an artist who makes us still appreciate his peculiar way of playng the piano, making it almost sing, and his quick-phrased style, especially detectable in the pieces where he plays his favourite Chopin and Skriabin, who was his father-in-law. Top-quality remastering makes it possible to enjoy such unforgettable recordings dating back to 1959 in Moscow.

The songs on this record cover an entire century of Neapolitan melodies and two important historical periods in its evolution. The first, in the nineteenth century, saw the coming together of the folk tradition and the tipically melodramatic style of singing. This is the period in which composers such as Mercadante, Donizetti and Rossini all make use of Neapolitan style and forms. Another section of the Cd is dedicated to the repertoire drawn from the period between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. This was a golden age in the production of Neapolitan music. These are the years of Salvatore Di Giacomo and Francesco Paolo Tosti, two great scholars and interpreters of Neapolitan culture.

Boccherini's correspondance qith his publisher, Pleyel in Paris, bears witness to the fact that the Six Piano Quintet op. 56, like the similar series op.57, belong to his period of intense creativity in Madrid. The fact that the score was sent to Paris, also shows that the composer was intent on establishing his reputation there, given that the piano was very much in vogue in the city at the time. We also know, however, that the same Quintest had already been performed in Madrid, in the palace of the Mrquis Benavente, in the version for strings and guitar. This version was something of a private affair and was undoubtedly due to the Marquis' predilection perhaps even his gift for the guitarl. The piano version has the merit of giving us an insights into works which would otherwise have been lost forever. The performance does not trumpet the differences, but rather, as Boccherini hoped, exalts the evrchanging nature of light and shade and of stasis and motion.

This is both the first CD issued by Musikstrasse and the first recording experience of the Polimnia Ensemble, a group of Italian artists including conservatory teachers and leading musicians from Italy's main orchestras. This collection contains Rossini chamber works, ranging from brief, simple compositions, both vocal and instrumental, to brilliant, virtuoso excerpts, characterized by the rich timbre of the orchestra ensemble. Among the pieces played here are few famous ones - i.e. Une Larme for cello and piano - along with rarities such as Toast pour le nouvel an, for four voices.

Luca Salvadori performs some organ works composed by Respghi, Martucci, Busoni, Alfano and others.

In the panorama of the late nineteenth century piano music, Gabriel Fauré's work is particularly rich in distinctive detail and innovation. Just as Proust tempted his readers to the pleasure of literature with digressions and deliberately "irritating" descriptions, Fauré's compositions for pianoforte are a quest for harmonic and tonal suggestionwithin a structure that never disturbs the pleasure of listening or performance. Unfortunately his scores are not often played in the concert hall, perhaps because of the commitment and attitude they demand of both the performer and the listener. The Barcarolles, like Fauré's Nocturnes, seem to have run parallel to the life of the composer and in these genres it is easy to find two moods and two manners of expression blended together. Massimiliano Damerini. Graduated in piano studies and composition under Alfredo They and Martha Del Vecchio in his hometown of Genova. Regarded as one of the most representative musicians of his generation, he has played in many of the major international theatres and concert Halls.

This is a didactic cd including some compositions of Luigi Boccherini as instrumental bases that on one hand can contribute to the formation or extension of a chamber music repertoire and on the other hand create a stimulus to play real ensemble music. The pieces were recorded without the guitar. This was added later in order to show that gratifying results can be obtained by playing over a pre-recorded base. This CD is very easy to use: you need to tune your guitar to an A at 440 hz using a diapason.

This is both the first CD issued by Musikstrasse and the first recording experience of the Polimnia Ensemble, a group of Italian artists including conservatory teachers and leading musicians from Italy's main orchestras. This collection contains Rossini chamber works, ranging from brief, simple compositions, both vocal and instrumental, to brilliant, virtuoso excerpts, characterized by the rich timbre of the orchestra ensemble. Among the pieces played here are few famous ones - i.e. Une Larme for cello and piano - along with rarities such as Toast pour le nouvel an, for four voices.

One of the most prestigious Musikstrasse productions is the CD recorded by Maestro Michele Campanella, that features Rossini's "Album pour les enfants adolescents", an excerpt from the wider collection of Péchés de vieillesse, seldom recorded. Owing to the Neapolitan Maestro's outstanding skills, the CD constitutes an absolute musical and documentary rarity.

This is a didactic cd including some compositions of Luigi Boccherini as instrumental bases that on one hand can contribute to the formation or extension of a chamber music repertoire and on the other hand create a stimulus to play real ensemble music. The pieces were recorded without the guitar. This was added later in order to show that gratifying results can be obtained by playing over a pre-recorded base. This CD is very easy to use: you need to tune your guitar to an A at 440 hz using a diapason.

collection of George Gershwin's piano works. Helped by his sense of rhythm and his virtuoso hand, Maestro Massimiliano Damerini follows the american musicianÕs complex and ever-changing path, performing pages in a perfect balance between jazz, popular music and serious music: a witness of a versatile talent.

Italian baritone Leo Nucci performs arias from operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Gioachino Rossini, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Vincenzo Bellini.

Another outstanding Italian pianist, Antonio Bacchelli prematurely died in 1986; in this double CD, he faces Igor Stravinsky's piano complete work. Musikstrasse reissues this beautiful collection, recorded by Maestro Bacchelli back in 1980 at the Auditorium of Radio Montebeni, that has been universally praised since then.

collection of George Gershwin's piano works. Helped by his sense of rhythm and his virtuoso hand, Maestro Massimiliano Damerini follows the american musicianÕs complex and ever-changing path, performing pages in a perfect balance between jazz, popular music and serious music: a witness of a versatile talent.

This cd includes four hands piano works by Gaetano Donizetti. The composers' piano music show evidence of a dovetailing of musical entertainment with piano virtuosity.

Rarely performed and unjustly, almost forgotten, Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco (1895-1968) was first and foremost an Italian composer, despite taking American citizenship in 1939 after anti-semitic persecution in his birth-country. His music clearly belongs with the mainstream of Italian compositions, written between the two Wolrd Wars, the school of what we moght define the moderate modernists. Despite having much in common with these composers , Castelnuovo Tedesco's music follows its own original road , an expression of the composer's delicate and refined personality and an approach to music which is consistently elegant, never descending into vulgarity or discordancy for fashion's sake. Arturo Tallini performed in Italy and in all European countries , both as a soloist and also appearing with Chamber groups and orchestra .He was a guest in many important international events . In 2006 he wrote and directed for Radio Vaticana a programme about guitar called "Guitar, an instrument of human feeling".