In the last fifty years, the recording world has seen many radical changes: from vinyl records, to CDs, to digital releases. I can well say that I have experienced all these changes. My first recording was in fact a vinyl record on the Antegnati organ of San Maurizio with a program dedicated to the music of the 500 and 600 Milanese. Of this record, produced by Casa musicale ECO of Milan in 1987, I still remember the editing with hand-cut tapes, reassembled with adhesive tape… pure archeology.
In 1989 the advent of the CD gave way to new record companies: among these the Italian NUOVA ERA knew how to create a space and a catalog with Italian artists. For NUOVA ERA I recorded the Toccatas from Frescobaldi’s second book, music for organ and harpsichord by Pasquini and above all the first two CDs with the ensemble I had just founded with Giovanni Antonini and Paolo Beschi: “Il Giardino Armonico”.
The NUOVA ERA records with «il Giardino Armonico» served us as a business card to get to the big record companies. In fact, we the following year we recorded the complete Vivaldi chamber concertos for TELDEC. In the meantime, as an organist, I started recording for HARMONIA MUNDI DEUTSCHE (2 CDs in a collective Bach Omnia Opera with other organists and 2 CDs with Frescobaldi’s «Fiori musicali»).
Since 1996 I started working with the German label ARS MUSICI, recording some very successful CDs: the Bach-Vivaldi concertos for organ, the Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and the Lieder by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach with soprano Ursula Fiedler; for these last two CDs I used the Silbermann fortepiano, which I had commissioned from harpsichord maker Andrea Restelli in 1996. Some of these CDs are still on sale, although the label has changed ownership and some titles are no longer available.
In 2001 I started collaborating with the WINTER & WINTER label, and since 2007, after the creation of the group “La Divina Armonia”, my reference has become the Belgian record company PASSACAILLE. The CDs of these two record companies are available in the catalog attached here, with a link to the record company. Most of the titles can also be found on Spotify and Amazon.
Over the years I have also had occasional collaborations with other record companies: STRADIVARIUS, LA BOTTEGA DISCANTICA, THE EVIL PENGUIN.
Several times I have been awarded the Diapason d’or and other record awards. The CD Handel Organ Concerto vol 2 won in particular the “Diapason d’or de l’année 2013” for the Baroque music section.
Recording for me has always been a moment of deep study, often coming after years of working on the repertoire. I have always thought of the record as the illusory attempt to catch something fugacious and sublime that seems to escape any cage: the interpretation of music.