Of Michelangelo Buonarroti's 300 or so sonnets, Benjamin Britten chose seven and Dmitri Shostakovich eleven to set to music in works for male voice and piano. Each of these combinations of music and poetry represents a high point in the song literature of the 20th century. Beyond the boundaries of time, the two modern composers enter into a dialog with a Renaissance genius from earlier centuries, the important painter, sculptor and architect Michelangelo (1475-1564). As a poet, too, he processed all the turbulence, restlessness and personal and professional anger of his life in his writing and preferred an energetic, passionate and stormy language that was closer to Dante's vocabulary than Petrarch's; he got to know both in the circle of humanists at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici.

The juxtaposition of Britten's and Shostakovich's views on Michelangelo in this recording is a successful decision: it allows us to compare the composers, to distinguish them from each other, to appreciate their idiosyncrasies and to understand the deep reasons for their passion for these poems.

Michelangelo often wrote about love, and Benjamin Britten devoted himself to this theme in his Seven Sonnets, which he wrote in the United States at the beginning of the Second World War, after he had decided to leave England. He only returned to his homeland in 1942, shortly before the premiere of this work on September 23 at London's Wigmore Hall. The dedication underlines the private significance of the work: "For Peter". Peter Pears was the composer's favorite tenor to interpret his music and the man with whom he had an enduring love affair. Britten sets Michelangelo's original Italian version in a unique choice for his oeuvre.

Shostakovich's initial inspiration for his Suite on Verses by Michelangelo came from hearing Britten's Seven Sonnets sung by Peter Pears in Moscow in 1966. Shostakovich, who dedicated his work to his wife Irina Antonovna, was so impressed by Britten's settings that he immediately sought Michelangelo's verses in Russian translation (by Avram Efros). He selected eleven sonnets, gave each one its own title and arranged them in a personal order. The premiere took place on January 23, 1975, seven months before the composer's death. The eleven sonnets contain various personal and political allusions to Michelangelo's life, and in the musical settings there is a reference to Shostakovich's own situation as an artist in conflict with authority.

Further information:
- The English-language booklet contains liner notes by Sandro Cappelletto and profiles of the artists.
- Italian liner notes are available on brilliantclassics. com.

- Two 20th century composers enter into a dialog beyond the boundaries of time with a genius who lived centuries before. Michelangelo (1475-1564), a great painter, sculptor and architect, wrote poems that expressed turmoil, restlessness, personal and professional anger in an energetic and passionate language. Both Dimitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten were inspired by his texts and express their own feelings in a highly personal and characteristic way in their settings.

- This new recording presents the "7 Sonnets op. 22" by Benjamin Britten and the Michelangelo Suite op. 145 by Dimitri Shostakovich, both expressive and dramatic, each in their own unique musical language.

- Sung by Mark Milhofer (tenor) and Mirco Palazzi (bass), their piano partner is Marco Scolastra. Mark Milhofer's recording of Britten's Folk Songs for Brilliant Classics has received many excellent reviews, including a "Recommended Recording of the Month" on Musicweb.