19th-century Italian opera inspired any number of adaptations, arrangements and other kinds of 'paraphrase' (to use the contemporary term), whose raison d'être was the public's pressing desire to have available at home what it had so enjoyed on stage. At a time when the gramophone was not yet in existence, it was thanks to the piano and/or such instruments as violin, trumpet or clarinet that the ordinary music lover could relive the intensity of the great scenes of Cavalleria Rusticana, Tosca and Rigoletto. So Alessandro Carbonare has made a point of paying the most respectful of tributes to such forgotten craftsmen as Bassi, G. Salieri and Carlo della Giacoma: it is to them that the clarinet owes the finest works in this genre, as this CD of rarities will demonstrate.

This title was released for the first time in 2001.