Album Notes

Virtuosi Tasmania in Concert with Annalisa Kerrigan

Virtuosi Tasmania is Tasmania’s premier chamber music ensemble. Drawing players from the internationally acclaimed Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Virtuosi Tasmania presents over twenty concerts each year in idyllic Tasmanian settings, the grand private houses, heritage buildings, beautiful vineyards and fine resorts that abound in this picturesque island.

The very beautiful Australian Soprano Annalisa Kerrigan, who regularly thrills audiences around the World, captured the hearts of Tasmanian audiences during two separate highly successful tours with Virtuosi Tasmania in February 2007 and again in February 2008. These included performances at Virtuosi’s inaugural ‘Coal Valley Chamber Music Festival’, a biennial event and at two of Virtuosi’s favourtite venues, ‘Home Hill Winery’ and ‘Meadowbank Estate’. This CD is a distillation of those two programs and is presented here in typical Virtuosi Tasmania concert style.

Corelli Concerto Grosso Opus 6 No2 in F Major Tracks 1-4
Recognised as the inventor of the Concerto Grosso, Corelli’s Twelve Concerto Grossi Opus 6 published in 1718, had an enormous influence on the writing of instrumental music of the Baroque era. Handel was one of those Baroque composers influenced by Corelli. Three of his compositions are included on this recording:
Handel: ‘Rejoice Greatly’ Track 5
One of the great soprano arias from The Messiah perhaps Handel’s best known work.
Handel: ‘Lascia che pianga’ Track 8
This beautiful aria is from Rinaldo, the first opera Handel produced and the first Italian opera composed specifically for the London stage. It was first performed in Her Majesty's Theatre in Haymarket in 1711.
Handel: Concerto Grosso Op 6 No 5 Tracks 7 and 16
These two movements are from one of the concertos of his famous collection.
Two Mozart pieces are featured in this program, one vocal and the other instrumental.
Paisiello: ‘Il mio ben quando verra’ Track 9
Largely unknown to modern audiences, Paisiello (1740-1816) was a very successful composer holding many important musical posts in Naples, Russia and Paris. At one time he was Napleon’s favorite composer. He wrote over 80 operas. This beautiful aria is from his opera, Nina pazza per amor.
Mozart: Allelujah (from the Exsultate Jubilate) Track 6
The Exsultate Jubilate is the most famous of Mozart's sacred settings for soprano - except that it wasn't written for a woman but for Venanzio Rauzzini, the distinguished castrato and Mozart's leading man in his opera Lucio Silla. Mozart was so impressed by Rauzzini that he set out to make use of his renowned coloratura, range and vocal colour. The closing Allelujah sees the sun come out again: the rhythms dance, the voice shines and rejoices and soars into the final high C. Amazingly, when Mozart wrote the Exsultate, he was still only eighteen.
Mozart: Divertimento K 137 Tracks 10-12
Mozart's 1772 Divertimento in B-flat Major (K. 137) provided him with the only opportunity to write string chamber music in Salzburg. His father Leopold unsuccessfully tried to get the three works published as quartets. This divertimento begins leisurely. Yet beneath its graceful measures, tension builds for the exuberant second movement, with its wealth of thematic development. The final movement generously provides us with a genial dance-like theme.
Puccini: 'O mio babbino caro' Track 13
His one act opera Gianni Schicchi is best known for the soprano aria, "O mio babbino caro" (Oh, my dear papa).
Purcell: 'When I am Laid in Earth' one of his most famous Soprano arias from his opera ‘Dido and Aeneas’ Track 14.
Purcell: 'Music for a While' a beautiful aria from his incidental music to John Dryden's and Nathaniel Lee's play Oedipus. Track 15

Players
Violins: Lucy Carrig-Jones, Anthea Hetherington, Yue Hong Cha, Miranda Carson
Viola: Jo St Leon
Cello: Brett Rutherford
Double Bass: Stephen Martin
Harp: Genevieve Lang

Executive Producers: Annalisa Kerrigan and Stephen Martin
Sound Producer: Peter Taplin Sound Engineer: George Goerss,
Editing and Mastering: Alex Stinson


Recorded August 2008 in the Ballroom of Government House, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

For more information and news of Virtuosi Tasmania’s concerts www.virtuositas.org.au
Virtuosi Tasmania Records 001
(p) 2009Virtuosi Tasmania Records. Reproduction Prohibited
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