A new edition of the 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.

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 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.

Even if Mercadante is mostly known as operas composer, the music of this collections witness not only the peculiar creative potential of the author but also his natural attitude to the instrumental genre. Infact we can place the "Variazioni in fa maggiore" (Variations in Fmajor) and the "Quartetto in mi bemolle maggiore" (quartet in E durmajor) in the composer's youth, whereas the two "Decimini" are part of his late production. As to the latter - along with their uniqueness asa form in instrumental music - the "Decimino con pianoforte" (the cd'sopening track) is a real rare issue. This cd is part of a Polimnia Ensemble trilogy dedicated to chamber music of great opera composers, along with compositions by Rossini and Donizetti already released with Musikstrasse.

The typology of the 1800's study was fixed once and for all by Cramer, in Study for the piano (1804-1810). According to Cramer, the study is a quite short piece, founded on a single instrumental scheme, whose prevailing technical aim cannot leave a valid musical content apart (unlike the exercise, that is the mere repetition of a mechanical formula). In the cramerian study the unit in the instrumental scheme (that will be an essential feature of the XIX century study) comes from Bach's model, whereas Domenico Scarlatti was set the example for the virtuous writing. The studies op.740 conform this typology in a strictest way than Cramer's ones. Every study is marked by a title that shows the pedagogical virtue: Clearness in agility (n. 3), Sweet skip and separate (op. 9), Agility in fingers alternation (op. 11) and so on. Czerny made use in order to codify the styles and the existing piano structures, of his ability in writing and his imitation capability. To a core of clementinian studies (like numbers 1, 5, 27, 28, 32, 34, 50), characterized by the powerful sonorousness and by the wide dimensions, were added studies in the more concise Cramer's style (for example nn. 8, 37, 41), whereas Hummel's influence seems to appear in studies like numbers 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 18, 29 and 30, marked by an elegant and aerial writing. But the studies op. 740 also offer an example of music languages that are out from the didactic kind: echoes from the Magic flute are, for example, in the study n. 11 and numbers 18 and 45 are influenced by a sweetness that is typical in Mendelssohn. Czerny's historical function didn't limit itself to the arrangement of the classical piano building: studies like numbers 2, 31, 36 and 50 already use two or more simultaneous registers for the right hand: a technique that has nothing to do with Clementi's conception or with Beethoven's one (except form some examples), and that will become a feature of Czerny's most famous pupil, Franz Liszt.

Spirituality and faith in great musicians work. Music by Donizetti, Mahler, Debussy, Respighi and many more. Second volume in the series distributed by "L'unità"

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.

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.

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.

Even if Mercadante is mostly known as operas composer, the music of this collections witness not only the peculiar creative potential of the author but also his natural attitude to the instrumental genre. Infact we can place the "Variazioni in fa maggiore" (Variations in Fmajor) and the "Quartetto in mi bemolle maggiore" (quartet in E durmajor) in the composer's youth, whereas the two "Decimini" are part of his late production. As to the latter - along with their uniqueness asa form in instrumental music - the "Decimino con pianoforte" (the cd'sopening track) is a real rare issue. This cd is part of a Polimnia Ensemble trilogy dedicated to chamber music of great opera composers, along with compositions by Rossini and Donizetti already released with Musikstrasse.

This CD is a tribute to the unforgettable italian songs composed by Cesare Andrea Bixio, performed by one of the most famous italian opera singer: the baritone Leo Nucci. The music is arranged for the chamber group"Salotto Ottocento Ensemble" by M° Paolo Marcarini, pianistand conductor of the Ensemble. "Il Tango delle capinere", "Violino Tzigano", "La mia canzone al vento", "Torna piccina", "La Strada nel bosco" and many other melodies including the most famous, Mamma, and the most widely hummed, "Parlami d'Amore Mariù" that entitled this cd.

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

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.

In the bicentenary of Donizetti's birth, Musikstrasse pays homage to the musician from Bergamo with a CD including the instrumental compositions by the author, whose faim is mainly due to operas. Thanks to the delicate, elegant performance of the chamber group Polimnia Ensemble, the recording allows to enjoy chamber pieces ranging from the Clarinet Study to the Oboe and Piano Sonata and the first issue of the Wind Quartet XVII°, that stands in witness of the so-called "Ottocento strumentale italiano" (the Italian Instrumental Tradition of the nineteenth century ), that is to say, of the existence of a musical tradition generally overshadowed by the fame of operas and that is finally being given adequate importance.

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.

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.