NEW RELEASE – SUMMER 2011!
Nominated for a 2012 Wammie!

The Art of Vivaldi's Lute
Ronn McFarlane, lute
Daniel Abraham, conductor
Complete Works by Vivaldi for Lute and Ensemble
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Sinfonia in D minor RV 127 (1720/4)

Concerto in D Major for Two Violins & Lute, RV 93 (1730/2)

Trio in G minor, RV 85 (1730/2)

Motet: In Turbato mare irato, RV 627 (1730?, but before 1733)

Trio in C Major, RV 83 (1730/2)

Concerto in D minor for Viola d'amore, Lute, Strings, & Continuo, RV 540 (1740)

Sinfonia in G minor, RV 157 (1720/4)

One of the United States best period instrument ensembles teams up with one of the world's best lutenists to perform the music of one of the most beloved composers of all time for this exciting new release from Sono Luminus. The Bach Sinfonia, under the direction Daniel Abraham performs the lute works of Vivaldi with GRAMMY® Nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane delivering one of the year's most exciting concerto albums. (Dorian Sono Luminus DSL-92132)

“In "The Art of Vivaldi's Lute," famed lutenist Ronn McFarlane joins the Washington area based Bach Sinfonia under its director Daniel Abraham to forge an unbeatable combination.”

“Vivaldi certainly had an ear for the sound of stringed instruments—and so do McFarlane and the players of the Bach Sinfonia under Daniel Abraham.”

Order the recording online for $17.95 with FREE shipping and handling or by phone at 301-362-6525.

Critics’ reflect on Sinfonia’s live performances of Bach’s Motets in May 2010:

“One does not take on the Bach motets (seven of them at latest count) lightly . . . . a triumphant performance. . . . . Sinfonia's splendid gifts were best wrapped up in a dynamite reading of ‘Singet dem Herrn’ with its relentless series of fugues that rolled out magnificently and with exuberant conviction.”

“Some people make art more freely and spontaneously when they’ve considered each and every possibility of how to make the art before finally setting on their path. On the evidence of many Bach Sinfonia concerts, but particularly Saturday’s performance of the complete motets of Johann Sebastian Bach at Montgomery College’s Takoma Park/Silver Spring Performing Arts Center, the Sinfonia’s music and artistic director Daniel Abraham is one of those people. Here, careful consideration of all the questions about and facets of those works led directly to some really astonishing performances . . . . at times I lost track of the fact that the music was being performed, because the Bach Sinfonia and Voci laid it out with such effortless joy. Instead, the music seemed to be hanging in the hall for me to glide through and explore. (A rare effect for a performance to have on a critic, to be sure.)”

View Daniel Abraham’s discussions on performing early music, about recording the Bach’s motets, and see excerpts from our recording sessions in a series of recently recorded videos:

Order the recording online for $17.95 with FREE shipping and handling or by phone at 301-362-6525.

Salamone Rossi (c.1570–c.1628)

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1664–1704)

Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674)

THE BACH SINFONIA & SINFONIA VOCI
Daniel Abraham, conductor/music & artistic director

“Even without its top-drawer choral precision, seductive blend, and stylistic sensitivity, Passion and Lament, . . . would turn heads. . . . impeccably-blended vocal warmth shaped by Abraham with a supple feeling for line and gesture.”

Singers and instrumentalists join forces for this recording of the The Bach Sinfonia and Sinfonia Voci’s performance of Biber’s Stabat Mater, a work music director Daniel Abraham prepared from original manuscripts for the modern concert première in May 2008. In addition to this forgotten masterwork of the 17th century, this recording offers the rare opportunity to explore six of Rossi’s radiant polyphonic Hebrew settings from Hashirim asher lish’lomo (1623), the composer’s important offering of choral compositions for the standard Jewish liturgy. Carissimi’s beautiful oratorio Historia di Jephte, the first true masterwork in the genre, tells the Old Testament story of Jephte, the military General who must uphold his promise and sacrifice his only child, a daughter, as an offering for his victory in battle, rounds out this Dorian recording. The dramatic musical imagery of this early oratorio includes songs of triumph and victory, innocence and praise, and anguish and lament which unfold in stunning solo passages and some of the most stirring choruses in all of the Baroque era.

Order the recording online for $17.95 with FREE shipping and handling or by phone at 301-362-6525.

Released December, 2006; Dorian Records; DSL-20604

“. . . a performance that demonstrates the integrity with which the group approaches their work . . . Abraham paces his orchestra perfectly, carefully supporting the singers and chorus.”

“Abraham has memorialized an interpretation of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast that can proudly reside in the CD racks along with the bigger names of English Baroque music.”

This period instrument recording is the first CD release of either work by an American ensemble or conductor. Along with the magnificent Alexander's Feast by Handel, the two CD set also represents one of the first recordings of the aria Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn, BWV 1127 by J.S. Bach, a work which was recently discovered on May 17, 2005 in the Duchess Anna Amalia Library of Weimar, Germany by musicologist Michael Maul. The aria was the first unknown work by J.S. Bach to surface in more than seventy years.

Order the 2-CD recording online for $28.95 with FREE shipping and handling or by phone at 301-362-6525.

Read reviews of this CD (opens in new window):
Early Music America, Fall 2007
Choral Journal, September 2007