The music of Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) lacks the representation in the catalog it deserves. The Italian composer, who is probably best known as the father of Domenico Scarlatti, composed over 50 works for the stage (predominately operas) and over 700 chamber cantatas, two of the most...

A recent release in Supraphon’s Music from eighteenth-century Prague series, this CD is subtitled Bohemian Disciples of Johann Joseph Fux. The music of Fux (1660-1741) does not appear on the disc at all. What these pieces have in common is that each of the three composers, František...

The concert going public of 19th-century France was consumed by opera. While composers kept opera stages humming, it wasn’t quite enough and a new genre evolved, one which allowed audiences to get an operatic shot in the concert hall. The scene lyrique, in its ultimate form, was a series...

Imagine listening to some amazing music, written by a contemporary of Mozart who is not even listed in Grove’s or Baker’s. That is the case with this wonderful CD of the fortepiano works of Felipe Rodriguez. There are very few existing works from this priest who became an organist....

Not so well known to the average classical music lover but a momentous figure to classical guitarists and aficionados of guitar music is the Aragonese composer Gaspar Sanz (c.1640-c.1710) (Aragon is an autonomous district within Spain). This recent release on the Cantus label titled...

At a time when instrumental music in Europe was dominated by Italians, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer rose to become the most important Austrian composer of instrumental music of his day. This recent release on the Zig-Zag label (the one with the Zebra for its logo) contains seven sonatas from...