JOACHIM RAFF (1822-1882): Benedetto Marcello, WoO 46.

Description: Kunst und Liebe [Art and Love], as this, Raff’s fifth opera (1878), was initially titled, is a work on a modest scale, its drama domestic rather than epic, concerning itself with relationships, love and loss, its main characters the composers Marcello and Johann Adolf Hasse. With colorful but transparent orchestration, dynamic variety and awash with lightly-applied local color and dance rhythms, it captures a baroque sensibility without aping baroque musical styles. 2 CDs. German-English libretto. Detlef Roth (baritone), Johannes Kalpers (tenor), Melba Ramos (soprano), Margarete Joswig (mezzo), Men’s Choir of the Amanduskirche Bad Urach, Kaiserslautern Radio Orchestra; Grzegorz Nowak.