Tchaikovsky: Serenades

Following the huge success of the 2017 release, "Cinema per archi", featuring the music of Rota, Morricone and Piovani, the Arcana label is back with another recording by the Archi di Santa Cecilia conducted by Luigi Piovano, the eminent cellist whose duo performances with Antonio Pappano have been met with widespread acclaim among chamber music aficionados. Composed of players from the excellent Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the ensemble here interprets two of the best-loved works of the entire string repertoire: the Serenata in C major op. 48 by Tchaikovsky, and the Serenata in E major op. 22 by Dvorák. Both of these works have been special attractions in concert programs at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and in other prominent concert venues throughout Italy. The Ensemble's enormously successful first recording of music by Schubert, including Mahler's arrangement of Death and the Maiden, was described by Ralph Moore on MusicWeb International as "mesmerizing, intense, thrilling and liberated in a way too few recordings are these days" and elicited David Vernier to declare in Classics Today that "the concluding fourth-movement Presto is an impressive display of ensemble virtuosity."