"must have" recordings

**mnashelsky** · Mar-12-2006, 11:00am

I'm having a lot of fun with Bach and Vivaldi - challenging, satisfying, beautiful music. I'd like to begin collecting a few CDs of great mandolin recordings of these composers and their peers in the Baroque and classical styles.

I have the John McGann CD featuring work of Bach, Debussy and Rodrigo. What else should I get?

Thanks much, Marcus

**Plamen Ivanov** · Mar-12-2006, 11:15am

Hello Marcus,

Vivaldi mandolin concertos have been recorded more than hundred times by almost all of the great and not so great mandolin performers. I`d recommend "The Magic of the Mandolin" CD. Getting this CD you will be able to enjoy also the concertos by Giovanni Paisiello and Domenico Caudioso.

I don`t know what do you mean exactly with "their peers", but I think you will be satisfied with Scarlatti`s Sonatas for mandolin and guitar. The CD is "Duo Capriccioso" Vol. 4

The "Early Mandolin" CDs (Vol. 1 and 2.) are also a "must have".

"Baroque music for mandolin and lute" - Caterina Lichtenberg and Mirko Schrader.

These are just few to start with. The other fellows will sure recommend a lot of other great recordings.

Good luck!
Plamen

**billkilpatrick** · Mar-12-2006, 1:15pm

"vivaldi - music for lute and mandolin" by paul o'dette and the parley of instruments on the hyperion label is a real treat.

- bill

**Martin Jonas** · Mar-12-2006, 1:33pm

I will leave it to others to point you to the various commercial CDs of baroque mandolin music out there. However, you shouldn't miss some wonderful recordings of baroque music that are available for free from the site of Ralf Leenen and the Royal Estudiantina Antwerp here and here. In addition to some later music, there's loads of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell and Pachebel. Two CDs worth of great music.

Martin

**mando Nick** · Mar-12-2006, 6:49pm

For something different, I recommend the cd, "Impressions," by the Kansas group, the Uptown Mandolin Quartet. They play music by Faure,Dubussy. and Ravel; and I think that French music seems to lend itself to a mandolin quartet. Beautiful pieces which sound really nice to my ear.
Nick Royal

**Jim Garber** · Mar-12-2006, 7:07pm

mnashelsky, let us know whether you want the thread to stay more narrowly focused or not. You mentioned only Baroque.

Jim

**mnashelsky** · Mar-12-2006, 7:24pm

These recommendations give me a great start - thanks to all. Please keep them coming, and definitely not limited to baroque. From this lengthening thread (I hope), other newer classical mandolinists may also want to generate a personal wish list of recordings for our classical genre.

This is exciting for me since I haven't known where to start my search for a few great CDs.

Thanks to all, Marcus

**Eugene** · Mar-12-2006, 8:24pm

Here's a little list I posted some place else. #To it, I would add the following (which I did not originally include on this list because it uses a modern mandolin and I was listing a few recordings of early instruments...and the "Magic" one that Plamen offered is another good one in similar vein):

Orlandi, Ugo w/ I Solisti Aquilani. 1994. Italian Mandolin Concertos. Koch/Schwann, 3-1117-1.

Originally Posted by

Aonzo, Carlo. 1997. Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840): Complete Works for Mandolin and French Guitar. Arion, ARN 68420.
# # #The only recording I know of to feature a period mandolino Genovese (6 wire courses, octave-guitar tuning e to e").

The Broadside Band. 1980/1983/1992. Airs Populaires Anglais du XVIIe Siecle. Harmonia Mundi, HMA 1901039.
# # #Lots of 4-course mandore (I know, not quite mandolin) and one tune with mandolino for good measure...and piles of good, olde-fashioned Elizabethan fun.

Duetto Giocondo. 2000. Baroque Music for Mandolin and Lute. Koch/Schwann, 3-6594-2.
# # #Caterina can really play. #Here on a modern German barockmandoline, which isn't quite like anyhting ever built in the baroque era, but it does ape the 6-course baroque tuning.

Duo Caprciccioso. 1997. Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757): Sei Sonate per Mandolino e Chitarra.
# # #Of course, Scarlatti only offered an unspecified basso
continuo, but 5-course guitar works just fine in the accompaniment. Gertrud plays a modern German barockmandoline.

Ensemble Baschenis. 1998. The Early Mandolin. Ducale, CDL 025.
Ensemble Baschenis. 2004. The Early Mandolin, vol. 2. Ducale, CDL 036.
# # #These are some of my favorites. #Capucci and Frati serve up a tasty offering on 6-course mandolini, 4-string mandolino Cremonese, and early mandolino Napoletano (nomenclature may vary without warning).

Europa Galante. 2002. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741): Concerti per Mandolini/Concerti con Molti Strumenti. Virgin/Veritas, 7243 5 45527 2 4.
# # #6-course mandolini played nicely by Giovanni Scaramuzzino and Sonia Maurer. #The non-mandolin concerti come off best here. #I love the playing all 'round, but director Biondi seems to me to have trouble balancing the abrupt sound of plucked gut with the bowed ensemble. #A few fewer players might have served him better.

Frati, Dorina. 1997. Giuseppe Gaetano Boni (ca. 1650-1732): Opera II-Divertimenti per Camera. Tactus, TC 650201.
# # #A fun set of sonatas originally published for a great many potential alternative soloists, of which "mandola" was one suggestion (orignally an interchangeable term with "mandolino" back when such things were tuned in fourths). #Frati plays them all with verve, using a 6-course mandolino on some and a 4-string mandolino Cremonese on others (she uses more modern terms for these instruments in the liner notes).

Galfetti, Duilio. 2000. Mandolin & Fortepiano. Arts Music, 47610-2.
# # #Beethoven on early Napoletano, Hummel on Cremonese, and Hoffman on 6-course mandolino. #Definitely worth a listen. #Hoffman is one of those mandolin specialist composers of whom only mandolinists have heard: too bad.

Il Giardino Armonico. 1993. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741): Concerti per Liuto e Mandolino. Teldec, 4509-91182-2.
# # #This is still my favorite recording of these tired old
warhorses. #Duilio Galfetti is the principal mandolinist here, playing a delicious 6-course instrument by Gabrielli. #I even forgive him for using a quill on it.

The King's Consort. 1998. Antonio Vivaldi ((1678-1741): Juditha Triumphans. Hyperion, CDA6781/2.
# # #Vivaldi's only oratorio, and it included an aria with 6-course mandolino obligato. #In general, a very fine recording, but the aria in question, "Transit aetas", is taken far too slowly for my taste here; it almost comes off as lethargic.

Lichtenberg, Caterina. 1997. Musikinstrumente des Ferdinandeums 4. Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum Innsbruck.
# # #Caterina can still really play. #Here she plays on an original 1775 Napoletano type by German luthier Psenner. #Oddly, she strung it in gut for this disc.

McFarlane, Ronn. 1990. The Scottish Lute. Dorian, DOR-90129.
# # #Alright, there's no mandolin here at all, but there's a heap of 4-course mandore to play the music of the ca. 1615 tablature book of John Skene. #Close enough, eh?

Musica Alta Ripa. 2000. Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783): Cantatas and Chamber Music. MDG, 309 0944-2.
# # #Only the one concerto, but played fingerstyle on 6-course mandolino by Ulrich Wedemeier: a very cool little window into the way it used to be done.

O'Dette, Paul w/ The Parley of Instruments. 1985. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741): Music for Lute and Mandolin. Hyperion, CDA66160.
# # #An odd effort in that O'Dette opts to take the chamber works for "leuto" to mean a 6-course mandolino played fingerstyle, and the works for "mandolino" to actually mean mandolino played with a quill. #He now plays the works for "leuto" on archlute.

Orlandi, Ugo. 2002. Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757): Sonate per Cembalo e Mandolino. Bongiovanni, GB 5122/23-2.
# # #An odd recording of mostly harpsichord sonatas played by Sergio Vartolo. #I find it odd because Orlandi uses 5- and 6-course mandolini on a couple sonatas, and more modern Roman and Neapolitan types on a few others.

Schneider, Christian. 2000. Mandoline Galante. Calliope, CAL 9274.
# # #A groovy recording of some fine sonatas for mandolino
Napoletano with harpsichord accompaniment played on an original 1766 Vinaccia. #One of my old favorites.

Tragicomedia. 2001. Capritio. Harmonia Mundi, HMU 907294.
# # #Only two works for 6-course mandolino (sonatas by Scarlatti and Arrigoni), but marvelously delivered by Paul O'Dette. #Arrigoni's sonata in e minor may be my favorite baroque work for mandolin kin, and O'Dette even plays the Arrigoni with his fingers.

Walz, Richard. 1998. Mandolin and Fortepiano. Globe, GLO 5187.
# # #The only recording I'm aware to string a mandolino Napoletano as prescribed by some of the early methods with the g course in octaves (g'-g) and a gut e". #One of my favorite recordings of the Beethoven and Hummel and the only recording of an excellent sonata by Neuling.

**Jim Garber** · Mar-12-2006, 10:23pm

Thank you Eugene,for re-posting your list. It makes me realize how much I need to supplement my CD collection and I do value your astute opinion and taste in music.

I would want to add some our own contributors and folks we know and like.

I have enjoyed much by Ali Stephens; Alex Timmerman's Het Consort; other works by Richard Walz; and other CDs by Carlo Aonzo.

Neil Gladd also has some works but I think some are only available on LP.

I am sure that I am leaving some others out and hope that others here will fill in for me.

Jim

**mando Nick** · Mar-13-2006, 9:33am

More on Alison Stephens - On the Chandos label is her recording of the Hummel Mandolin Concerto. I think the orchestra playing with her sounds really good.
And, there is a very nice trumpet concert on the cd as well.

**Pedal Steel Mike** · Mar-14-2006, 5:59am

I suggest the first CD by the Modern mandolin quartet. Music of Bach, deFalla, Hindemith, stravinsky, Bartok, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Beethoven and others.

I also suggest the CD by the Austrailian guitar Mandolin duet, "Nougat" featureing Ruth Roshan on mandolin. Their version of a piece called 'El Cumbanchero" can be found on the MP3 page.

**mnashelsky** · Mar-14-2006, 9:28am

Thanks to all who have replied. I'm off to a great start in purchasing a few CDs (and downloading Ralf Leenen).

Marcus

**Jim Garber** · Apr-06-2006, 9:33am

I found this CD page on the Italian mandolin society's site. It lists some recordings I am familiar with (Aonzo and some Orlandi) but quite a few I never heard of. Any recommendations from this list?

Jim