The charismatic, cosmopolitan cellist Giovanni Sollima joins the instrumentalists of Il Pomo d’Oro for Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto.

For this recording of Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, Joyce DiDonato is joined by the original instrument ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and Maxim Emelyanychev. "Bring that innocent, childlike sense of wonder to your craft, and do whatever you need to find that truth again. It will continually teach you how to be present, how to be alive, and how to let go. Therein lies not only your artistic freedom, but your personal freedom as well!"

Handel’s sparkling opera Partenope reunites countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and soprano Karina Gauvin, who both made such an impact in the recording of Steffani’s rediscovered Niobe – released by Erato in early 2015 and welcomed by Gramophone as “a landmark event”. Every moment of Partenope’s comedy, romance and drama is captured by the dynamic conductor Riccardo Minasi and his ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro.

The programme presented by Ann Hallenberg for DHM is a homage to the historical roman figure of Agrippina, one of the earliest historical women to inspire the fantasy of librettists and composers. Ann Hallenberg and a team of musicologists researched the musical archives to unearth all surviving operatic manuscripts containing the figure of Agrippina. Twelve of the arias are WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS. Apart from Handel’s famous opera ‘Agrippina’ and Telemann’s ‘Germanicus’, all music on this album has been recorded for the first time.

Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d’Oro continue their uncommon Mozart symphony cycle. The idea is the following: put together great symphonies of the late Mozart and youth pieces. Maxim Emelyanychev, who has already gathered the first and the last symphonies – the beginning and the end –, has chosen to record the symphony no. 29 and the legendary no. 40 in the present volume. The ensemble makes us follow Mozart, from Salzburg to Vienna, in the yearning for liberty his life was. Perfectly suited to this repertoire, Maxim Emelyanychev uses the exceptional and period-instrumented sonority of Il Pomo d’Oro to deliver a dramatic and powerful Symphony no. 40, while rendering all the lyricism and contrasts of the no. 29. The Oboe concerto, interpreted by the soloist Ivan Podyomov, first oboe at the Royal Concertbouw Orchestra, adds a concertante supplement to this programme.

New collaboration between Jakub Józef Orliński and Il Pomo d'Oro​ Jakub’s sixth project features music by early baroque composers, including Monteverdi, Caccini, Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Saracini, Netti, and Jarzębski​ Musicologist Yannis François researched the program and uncovered some extraordinary repertoire, now recorded for the first time (10 world premiere recordings)​ “With that album and this very specifically selected program I want to focus on the general meaning of word "beyond". Mostly to show people that this music is beyond its times. It is still relevant, it is still alive, vibrant, touching, engaging and entertaining.” – Jakub Józef Orliński

Il Pomo d'Oro and Zefira Valova focus here on the little-known violin concertos of the second half of the eighteenth century. Bringing together the works of Franz Benda and Johann Gottlieb Graun (in a world premiere recording), pillars of the orchestra at the court of Frederick II of Prussia, as well as those of the Venetian virtuoso Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen and the iconoclastic Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges (also in a world premiere recording), this album offers a bright panorama of the evolution of the genre, culminating in Mozart's achievements in the last quarter of the century, of which Il Pomo d'Oro and Zefira Valova offer us a glimpse with the famous Rondo in C K. 373.

Voglio cantar – ‘I want to sing’ – is Emőke Baráth’s first solo album for Erato. The young Hungarian soprano has built a special reputation in Baroque music and the prime focus here is on Barbara Strozzi, who made her name as a composer in 17th century Venice. “She must have been quite a revolutionary personality,” says Emőke Baráth. “Her music is improvisational, intuitive, even rhapsodic … She was clearly a passionate woman with a strong dramatic sense.” Baráth is joined by Il Pomo d’Oro, conducted by Francesco Corti.

The Carnival of Venice in 1729 was quite unlike any other. Over a period of two months, opera houses went into a frenzy of competition to show off the most famous singers of the day, including the legendary castrato Farinelli who made his astonishing Venetian debut. Several of the most fashionable composers rose to the occasion, writing ravishing music for spectacular productions which often pitted the singers against each other in breathtaking displays of virtuosity. The results were sensational; one tour de force followed another in an atmosphere of fevered excitement and the adoring public lapped it up.

This is the 51st title in the Vivaldi Edition and the 6th volume, out of approximately 12, of the series dedicated to the violin concertos whose manuscripts are held in the National Library of Turin. Following two successful volumes of concertos for solo violin and orchestra recorded separately in the Vivaldi Edition, virtuosos Riccardo Minasi and Dmitry Sinkovsky now join forces to record pyrotechnic concertos for two violins and orchestra.

With Contra-Tenor, Michael Spyres challenges perceptions of the tenor in the Baroque era, often seen as the age of the castrato. In the company of Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Francesco Corti, he explores the period from the late 17th century to the 1770s, tracing the course of opera in both the French and Italian styles. The 15 arias range from Lully to early Mozart by way of Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Gluck and composers such as Hasse, Galuppi and Latilla (represented by world premiere recordings), and Mazzoni and Sarro (represented by first studio recordings). Spyres’ exceptional credentials for this virtuoso repertoire have been summed up by Gramophone magazine: a “superb artist whose voice [is] perfectly equalised over more than two-and-a-half octaves,” notable for “exceptional artistry, formidable technique and seemingly limitless understanding of style.”

The year 1603 marked a turning point for Carlo Gesualdo: at the age of thirty-seven, the Prince of Venosa, having made a name for himself with his first four books of madrigals, turned to sacred compositions with two substantial collections of Sacræ Cantiones, published that year in Naples by Costantino Vitale. The first volume (presented here) consists of nineteen five-part motets, while the second one, which has not survived in its entirety, contains the same number of six- part motets and a motet for seven voices.

The Argentine countertenor Franco Fagioli, with his mighty voice, has always been easy to imagine as one of the castrati with whom Handel contended at the height of his operatic career. He brings both power and flair to fast passagework, and that doesn't change here in such arias as Venti, turbine, prestate, from Rinaldo, HWV 7a. What's different this time is the expertise Fagioli brings to the slow numbers. For the most part, Fagioli does not essay unusual repertory here, except in the final Ch'io parta?, from Partenope, HWV 27, which elegantly ends the program on a question and frames the whole thing nicely with the opening aria from Oreste, HWV A11. For the most part, though, Fagioli sticks to familiar territory, and he lays claim to it. Sample the intense but understated performance of Ombra mai fu, from Act One of Serse, HWV 40, which seems to allude to its suppressed emotion rather than laying it on the line.

This recording of Handel "Theodora features a truly star-studded cast, with Lisette Oropesa in the title role. Joyce DiDonato as Irene, Michael Spyres as Septimius, John Chest as Valens and Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian as Didymus. Following great critical acclaim for recent performances in Europe and DiDonato's performance at the Royal Opera House earlier this year, this new version of the dramatic oratorio is accompanied by Il Pomo d'Oro orchestra and choir, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.

"EDEN is an invitation to return to our roots. It is an overture to engage with the sheer perfection of the world around us, to consider if we are connecting as profoundly as we can to the pure essence of our being. It is a clarion call to contemplate if our collective suffering isn't perhaps linked to the aching separation from something primal within and around us. This is a vivid musical exploration through the centuries to remember and to create a new EDEN from within." - Joyce DiDonato