Giacomo Puccini achieved global renown as an opera composer, but the choral, vocal and orchestral works recorded here reveal little-known aspects of his output, including several rarities. Puccini’s early training was in church music, with the Messa di Gloria a clear indication of his great talent. The recently discovered Preludio a orchestra shows his wider ambitions, with the Germanic influences of the Capriccio sinfonico resulting in music destined to reappear in operas such as La Bohème. The elegiac and prescient aria Ad una morta contrasts with the celebratory Inno a Roma, a rousing occasional piece that features plenty of Puccini’s characteristic melodic flourishes.

This recording marks Puccini Year 2024, with this programme from the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra dedicated to this composer in his least known works. The album offers a rare opportunity to experience almost all of the composer’s works for (chorus and) orchestra outside the operatic repertoire, many of which are now considered rarities and have almost completely disappeared from the concert stage.

German-Italian conductor Andrea Sanguineti is music director of the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Aalto Theatre in Essen, also being in great demand as an opera conductor at major European opera houses. In addition to his success in the opera world, Sanguineti has become renowned for a series of critically acclaimed performances on the podium of the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra with masterpieces by composers such as Mahler, Bruckner, Strauss and Tchaikovsky. Reinforced with the Aalto Theatre Opera Chorus and the Essen Philharmonic Choir as well as stellar soloists Alejandro Del Angel and Massimo Cavalletti, this is not only a fascinating and desirable programme of rarely heard Puccini, but a glorious showcase for one of Western Germany’s finest sources of musical expression.