Max Emanuel Cencic - Arie Napoletane (2015) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Following the success of 2013’s solo album ROKOKO, Arie Napoletane is a brand new solo album for Decca’s prolific countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic. With repertoire not dissimilar to that on Cecilia Bartoli’s groundbreaking ‘Sacrificium’ album, Cencic sings arias by Porpora, Vinci and their contemporaries written for the superbly talented castrati of the day.

Focusing on the musically rich city of Naples during the Baroque period, this album, typical of Cencic’s highly-regarded musical curiosity, contains a majority of world premiere recordings – TEN works in total. Just as ROKOKO contained an extra addition in the form of Hasse’s Concerto for Mandolin, ARIE NAPOLETANE includes Auletta’s Concerto in D major for harpsichord, two violins and continuo played by the dynamic Maxim Emelyanychev.

A feast of baroque discoveries, riding the wave of enthusiasm for the countertenor voice, this album is a first-rate showcase for the talents of Max Emanuel Cencic, fast becoming one of the most recorded countertenors of our time – a must-buy for countertenor and baroque discovery fans alike.

“Cencic negotiates this complex emotional parabola wonderfully well. This is a great voice, dark in tone, beguiling in its liquidity and finely equalised. His coloratura flows with great ease…though it’s the slower numbers, where the long lines are effortlessly sustained and the emotions keenly felt, that make the disc so special. Il Pomo d’Oro are on fine form, too, and Emelyanychev, volatile, sensuous and keenly intense, is impressive” - Gramophone Magazine December 2015

TRACKLIST

Nicolai Porpora (1686–1768)
01. Polifemo: "Quel vasto quel fiero" 03:38
Leonardo Leo (1694–1744)
02. Demetrio: "Dal suo gentil sembiante" 08:56
Leonardo Vinci (1696–1730)
03. Eraclea: "In questa mia tempesta" 04:19
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725)
04. Il Prigioniero Fortunato: "Miei pensieri" 05:00
05. Cambise: "Tutto appoggio il mio disegno" 03:07
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736)
06. L'Olimpiade: "L’infelice in questo stato" 06:51
Leonardo Leo
07. Scipione nelle Spagne: "Non fidi al mar che freme" 04:17
08. Siface: "No, non vedete mai" 08:19
Alessandro Scarlatti
09. Il Tigrane: "Care pupille belle" 05:10
Nicolai Porpora
10. Germanico in Germania: "Qual turbine che scende" 06:56
11. Massimo Puppieno: "Vago mio sole" 03:19
Domenico Auletta (16x–1747)
Concerto in D Major for Harpsichord, Two Violins & Continuo *
12. I. Allegro con spirito 05:00
13. II. Largo ma non tanto 07:37
14. III. Allegro 02:52

PERSONNEL
Max Emanuel Cencic, Countertenor
Il Pomo d'Oro
Maxim Emelyanychev, Dirigent & Cembalo
Gianpiero Zanocco, Esther Crazzolara, Fanny Tschanz, Anna Melkonyan, violins I
Anna Fusek, Giacomo Catana, Kremena Nikolova, violins II
Enrico Parizzi, Daniela Nuzzoli, Giulio D’Alessio, violas
Federico Toffano, Massimo Raccanelli, cellos
Davide Nava double, bass
Anna Flumiani, bassoon
Emiliano Rodolfi, Prisca Comploi, oboes
Jonathan Pia, Matteo Macchia, trumpets
Dileno Baldin, Francesco Meucci, horns
Riccardo Balbinutti, timpani
Ivano Zanenghi, theorbo
Riccardo Minasi, viola d’amore (solo arias)