Campagnoli: 6 Duos for Flute and Violin, Op. 2 Francesco Parrino & Stefano Parrino

• Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751 - 1827): Duet I in E Major, Op. 2:
• 1Duet I in E Major, Op. 2: I. Allegro07:13
• 2Duet I in E Major, Op. 2: II. Rondò allegro03:50
• Duet II in A Major, Op. 2:
• 3Duet II in A Major, Op. 2: I. Allegro07:40
• 4Duet II in A Major, Op. 2: II. Lento Romance03:36
• 5Duet II in A Major, Op. 2: III. Rondò allegro molto02:09
• Duet III in D Major, Op. 2:
• 6Duet III in D Major, Op. 2: I. Allegro06:37
• 7Duet III in D Major, Op. 2: II. Siciliana02:36
• 8Duet III in D Major, Op. 2: III. Polonoise04:00
• Duet IV in G Major, Op. 2:
• 9Duet IV in G Major, Op. 2: I. Allegro05:36
• 10Duet IV in G Major, Op. 2: II. Romance con espressione03:23
• 11Duet IV in G Major, Op. 2: III. Rondò03:30
• Duet V in E Minor, Op. 2:
• 12Duet V in E Minor, Op. 2: I. Allegro05:55
• 13Duet V in E Minor, Op. 2: II. Minuetto un poco adagio03:26
• 14Duet V in E Minor, Op. 2: III. Rondò allegro03:07
• Duet VI in C Major, Op. 2:
• 15Duet VI in C Major, Op. 2: I. Andante con variazioni07:55
• 16Duet VI in C Major, Op. 2: II. Minuetto02:23
• 17Duet VI in C Major, Op. 2: III. Rondò03:55
• Total Runtime01:16:51

Info for Campagnoli: 6 Duos for Flute and Violin, Op. 2

Two previous albums on Brilliant Classics have introduced audiences to the music of Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751-1827), an early-Classical violinist and composer whose music had until recently been almost entirely lost to history. And yet these recordings of string quartets (BC95037) and flute quartets (BC95399) have shown how charming, unaffected, original and enjoyable is Campagnoli’s voice, at least in performances sympathetic to the performing style of his time. The quartets album was awarded five stars and nominated for Album of the Month by CdClassico.com: ‘Required listening’.

The duos on this new recording are two- or three-movement sonatas in all but name. Some of them have been recorded before, but Stefano and Francesco Parrino present here the only available complete recording. The works illustrate how Campagnoli could write of his own music as combining ‘German erudition and Italian soul’, and without false modesty. Spohr heard him play in 1804 and described his style as elegant and fluid but somewhat old-fashioned, which fits Campagnoli’s duos too. He wrote them between 1780 and 1796 while in the employ of Charles of Saxony, Duke of Courland, in Dresden, and they are expertly calibrated to appeal to aristocratic tastes for pleasant and lively music in the galant style, always falling easily upon the ear.

As well as performing and recording in duet for many years, the Parrino brothers have been members of orchestras across Italy and beyond. As one half of the Quartet DuePiùDue they recorded the Flute Quartets of Cambini for Brilliant Classics (BC95081), ‘a close-knit and well balanced ensemble,’ according to the Critica Classica website, ‘producing excellent interpretations which should delight a wider public without courting banality.’

Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751-1827) learned his trade with famous Italian musicians Tartini and Nardini. As a virtuoso on the violin he traveled Europe, where he held several important posts in Freising (Bavaria), Dresden and Stockholm, before settling as Kapellmeister of the famous Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig.

Campagnoli claimed for himself “the German learnedness with Italian soul”, and his duos for the attractive combination of flute and violin abound in lyrical melodies set into the firm musical structures of the first Viennese School.

Lovingly and brilliantly played by Francesco and Stefano Parrino, who already successfully collaborated in the recording of chamber music by Leo Ornstein, which received excellent reviews in the international press.

Stefano Parrino, flute
Francesco Parrino, piano

Stefano Parrino
was born in Bormio in Italy. He was awarded a diploma with honours at the "G. Verdi" Conservatory of Milan and continued his studies at the Conservatoire Superieure at Geneva where he studied with Maxence Larrieu and won the ‘Prix de Virtuosite’. At the Ecole National de Musique in Paris, Parrino studied with Patrick Gallois and followed the performance and virtuosity diplomas for which he gained the ‘premier prix all’ unanimite’ and "le premier prix avec excellence".

In London, he obtained the postgraduate Diploma of Advanced Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in the class of William Bennett, Sebastian Bell, Kate Hill, and Keith Brag. Then in Biella in Italy, Parrino studied with Peter-Lukas Graf at the Accademia Internazionale "L. Perosi" where he won the "Eccellenza con Menzione Speciale". In 2001 he took the Soloist diploma in the “Lugano Conservatoire”. He has also played at master classes with Jacques Zoon, Patrick Gallois, Paul Edmund Davies, Michael Cox, Andras Adorjan, Michel Debost, William Bennett, Maxence Larrieu, Susan Milan, Peter-Lukas Graf.

Francesco Parrino
began his musical activities at an early age – when the great guitarist Alirio Diaz recognised him as a “brilliant promise of the Italian art of violin playing” and encouraged him to pursue a musical career. Since then, he has enjoyed wide consensus from audiences and critics alike for his musicianship, a blend of passionate expressivity and absolute respect for the score that led Mario Messinis, a doyen of Italian music critics, to talk about “the faithful performances of the intense violinist Francesco Parrino”, and Alberto Cantù, the most influential Italian historian of violin playing, not only to underline how “the terse sound and the airy or diamond-like virtuoso passagework of Francesco’s violin … are a marvel”, but also to define his interpretive approach as “exemplary for the manner in which the musical complexities are poetically resolved with ease”.

Francesco obtained the Diploma in violin at the Milan “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatoire, the Docerend Musicus degree of the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Utrecht, the Master of Music of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and a PhD at the Royal Holloway College, University of London.

The pedagogues who exerted the greatest influence on his musical and technical personality were David Takeno and Yfrah Neaman who wrote: “I was immediately struck by his intelligence, musical maturity, deep insight into music and high quality of interpretation. He has a thorough knowledge of the principals of violin playing and is able to communicate to his listeners the character and specific style of the music. I find Francesco one of the most interesting and stimulating students I have had, and have great admiration for his qualities”.

Both as a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed in important theatres and concert halls in Austria, Chile, Colombia, England, France, Italy, Peru, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey.

His many awards include First Prize in the Concorso Internazionale “Città di Stresa” (1993) and the Concorso Internazionale “Città di Modica” (1993), the Gold Medal in the Concorso “Carlo Vidusso” (1988), as well as the Joseph Bloch Prize (RAM, 1998) and the Connell Grabowsky Scholarship (RAM, 1997).

Francesco is a founding member and the violinist of the Trio Albatros Ensemble – a chamber group that has recorded for the Stradivarius label, the most important Italian classical label, broadcast on RAI, Channel Five of the Russian TV, Radio della Svizzera Italiana, Vatican Radio and many other radio and television companies, and for whom many works have been written by such distinguished composers as Alessandro Annunziata, Bruno Bettinelli, Luciano Chailly, Gloria Coates, Giorgio Gaslini, Luca Mosca, Flavio Emilio Scogna, Alessandro Solbiati and Giorgio Colombo Taccani.

As a soloist, he collaborated with the orchestras of Aarad, Catanzaro, Kosice, the Turin Philharmonic, the Armonici and Stesichoros chamber orchestras. He premiered violin works by Marco Betta, Paolo Furlani and Ennio Morricone. Francesco is also interested in musicological research. His main areas of research are nineteenth- and twentieth-century Italian music, and the aesthetics and ideologies of musical performance. He has contributed papers (appreciated by eminent scholars such as Amanda Glauert, Erik Levi, Roger Parker e Richard Taruskin) to seminars and international conferences held by the Universities of Cambridge, London, Oxford and York as well as by the American Musicological Society, and has written articles for American, Austrian and Italian periodicals. His involvement in the rediscovery and revaluation of various twentieth-century composers such as Bruno Bettinelli, Giorgio Federico Ghedini, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Bohuslav Martinů and Nino Rota is acknowledged by the critics who emphasise how Francesco gives “a very significant contribution to a musicological area that urgently needs to be revaluated: the most recent past” (Stefano Lamon).

Future engagements include recitals and chamber music concerts in Italy, Finland, Switzerland and Britain as well as a series of recordings of nineteenth and twentieth-century violin and chamber works.

He plays on two beautiful violins: a Gaetano Gadda (circa 1950), and a Giuseppe & Antonio Gagliano (circa 1790-1805) that he has been generously lent by the heirs of the great conductor Gino Marinuzzi. He owns two precious bows: a 2008 Benoit Rolland and a 1930 Eugène Sartory he was given by an anonymous admirer.

Francesco is also a busy violin teacher who receives plaudits for his activity.

Booklet for Campagnoli: 6 Duos for Flute and Violin, Op. 2