Il Tedesco della Tiorba
Paul O’Dette
Harmonia Mundi France

The Manifesto of the baroque: brilliant, amazing, complex. The Tedesco della Tiorba has an overwhelming Italian passion combined with the ability of the greatest to know how to make music with sometimes almost scant material. I am thinking of the Toccata Arpeggiata but also of the Aria di Fiorenza and the Colascione: the three faces of Paul O’Dette, the intelligence, the gentleness and the Californian rock.

The Police

Syncronicity
A&M

For the rhythm, for the instinct barely veiled by the professionalism, for the colour of the graphic layout of the CD, for recalling the videoclip in black and white (or black and red or black and green), where Sting sings “Every breath you take” with his veiled voice that seems to be directed solely at you.

Bach

St Matthew Passion
Orchestra of the 18th century, Frans Brüggen
Philips

During an unforgettable rehearsal session our host did not let an evening go by without making us listen to the aria “Mache dich, mein Herze rein...” For me there is no more human Bach than this, monumental as always, but actually filtered through the passion and also the suffering, without the dizziness that seizes those who study it and listen to it and, instead, finally come close to it.

La belle homicide

Rolf Lislevand
Astrée

Actually, I had thought to put his Gaspar Sanz recording in my suitcase, but, having listened to this most recent CD, I had no further doubts. Sanz reminds me of the music of my land, and is therefore always a part of me, but the music of the French lutenists interpreted by Lislevand takes one forward through the meanderings of the spirit to evoke feelings and dreamlike visions of infinite beauty. Like letting the billows transport you when the levanter blows strongly.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Callas, Alva, Gobbi, Zaccaria-Chorus&Philharmonia Orchestra, Alceo Galliera
EMI