GIOVANNI BONONCINI (1670-1747): Polifemo.

Description: This war-time Austrian radio recording, performed in a 1938 German-language edition, is the only one ever made of Bononcini's 1702 one-act bagatelle, based on Ariosti and one of two such short pieces he had produced at the Berlin court. Sound is as clear and fresh as if you were sitting in the studio in Vienna while Europe burned and thousands were dying every day (and, yes, that is a harpsichord in continuo service, although no one will confuse this reading with historically informed practice). No libretto. Herbert Alsen (bass), Jetty Topitz-Feiler (soprano), Anton Dermota (tenor), Alfred Poell (baritone), Austrian Radio Large Orchestra; Max Schönherr (rec. 1944).