Jörg Widmann: Arche (Oratorio For Soloists, Choir, Organ And Orchestra) – Kent Nagano

   in Opera Now (Jan, 2015)
Cecilia does it again! This is a really fascinating and delightful disc of music culled from the Mariinsky library archives, producing 11 world premiere recordings, played with brilliance and fire by Diego Fasolis and I Barocchisti and sung with undiminished style and (mostly) beauty. It’s mainly repertoire by people you’ve never heard of (except for Cimarosa) and the style is that galanterie interregnum which provided such a strong idiom for 50 years. Some of this is undeniably dignified by its manner of performance, but there is real musical quality too: a charming piece added to a 1734 coronation performance, with strumming archlute and lyrical flute by Domenico Dall’Oglio and Luigi Madonis; …