The unique radiance of traditional English choral singing that made Agnus Dei such a phenomenon is displayed in this set of international Christmas music by Higginbottom & The Choir of New College, Oxford. Mixing familiar tunes with less frequently heard gems, the carol texts take the listener from Annunciation through Epiphany with music from around the world - including the eloquent Poulenc Christmas Motets and Herbert Howell's haunting carol-anthems.
'Heritage', presented by the Fondation Gautier Capucon, is part of the Foundation's annual recording initiative, which spotlights it's laureates and reinforces it's long-term commitment to developing emerging classical talent. This edition features Mirabelle Kajenjeri (violin) and Elias Moncado (piano), offering them a high-visibility platform as rising artists within a structured mentorship and career development ecosystem. The program combines cornerstone repertoire (sonatas by Maurice Ravel and Johannes Brahms) with shorter works by Claude Debussy and Lili Boulanger.
Further to his two recitals (Italian Opera Arias and Gounod / Massenet Arias), Rolando Villazon's releases his 3rd recital on Virgin Classics, featuring opera arias in 4 languages: French, Italian, English & Russian. And sees Rolando Villazon's second collaboration with Michael Plasson, after their recording of Berlioz' choral works on EMI. Rolando Villazon in undoubtedly the revelation of the years 2004-2005, and has won wide acknowledgement world-wide, not to mention the 2005 Gramophone Award he has received this September for his Gounod / Massenet recital. Virgin Classic. 2006.
Capriccio - Mendelssohn, Schubert, Debussy, Etc / Renaud Capucon, Jerome Ducros, Composer: Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert (Dresden), Franz Schubert, Sir Edward Elgar, Performer: Jerome Ducros, Renaud Capuçon. The notes to Renaud Capuçon and Jérôme Ducros's recital of miniatures focus on the emergence of this pair of French musicians a decade ago and the affinity they display with this repertoire. And affinity there surely seems to be. The arrangers of these pieces, Wilhelmj, Heifetz, Kreisler, Dushkin, and Píhoda themselves championed works of this kind and surely knew how to put them across. It's gratifying to add Capuçon to the list. On Wings of Song, like Schubert's Ave Maria, may be a Heifetz specialty, but Capuçon and Ducros strongly personalize them, with the violinist even providing his own arrangement of the latter. So, like La capricieuse, they display a range of persuasive dynamics and a willingness to employ a subtle palette of expressive portamentos and nuanced changes in tempo harking back to another era to make their various rhetorical points. Dynamic range seems to be one of the keys to their success: the middle section of Humoreske and the lurches of Prokofiev's "Masks" rise to an intensity to which few listeners may be accustomed, especially in an era of somewhat dutiful performances of such pieces. If a majority of them suggest triste rather than capriccio, and evoke polite rather than rowdy gatherings, the exceptions, like Dinicu's Hora staccato, provide thumping good entertainment of a more visceral kind. In fact, while Heifetz's performance may dazzle listeners with down-bow flying staccato of a brilliance never before (and never since) encountered, Capuçon's communicates hotter gypsy passion, while remaining exciting on a purely instrumental level. Still, the pervasive melancholy (for example, Capuçon has included Kreisler's Liebesleid rather than his Liebesfreud or even Caprice viennois)-exhibiting a narrower range than do similar collections by others, like Francescatti, Milstein, Heifetz, or Oistrakh, to name a few who compiled effective collections-may nudge it, despite the devotion of both performers to the kind of pieces they've chosen (including a few less familiar ones, like Strauss's "Einsamer Quelle" and the two Schumann songs), into a category that overlaps what some call "crossover." And insofar as that nudge increases it's appeal for some audiences, it's sure to decrease it for others. Still, for those who like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing they'll like. Strongly recommended to them, but nearly as strongly recommended to others as well.
Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro / Barenboim, Tomlinson, Rodgers, Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Performer: John Tomlinson, Phyllis Pancella, Joan Rodgers, Richard Brünner, Conductor: Daniel Barenboim, Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus, "Barenboim continues to favors a forceful, big-scale reading with often deliberate speeds for the slower numbers, a musically accomplished, thought-through account of the crucial finales to Acts 2 and 4, lively treatment of the recitative, finely-honed playing of the wind, alert rhythms and an avoidance for the most part of appoggiaturas... John Tomlinson is much better suited by Figaro than he was by Alfonso, but still wants in tonal focus... but he does at all times create a lively personality, a force to be reckoned with... Sir Geraint Evans is even more individual in his characterization - listen to the recitative before his Act 4 aria - and has the more agile voice, helped by the fact that it tends more towards the baritonal." - Gramophone
Rossi, Lotti: Madrigals Alan Curtis, Number of Discs: 1 Alan Curtis's recording of Rossi's Madrigals and Lotti's Madrigals is the newest addition to the Veritas x2 series. Veritas x2 is a series from Virgin Classics devoted to landmark recordings of early Baroque music. Although Rossi was famed as an outstanding violinist and keyboard artist, his reputation also rests on his audacious madrigals, which was inspired by Carlo Gesualdo. Lotti's madrigals are considered a bridge between the established Baroque and emerging Classical styles. Alan Curtis leads the Il Complesso Barocco in this recording.
Bel Canto Arias - Donizetti, Rossini / Vivica Genaux, John Nelson, Composer: Gaetano Donizetti, Gioachino Rossini, Performer: Vivica Genaux, Conductor: John Nelson, Orchestra/Ensemble: Paris Orchestral Ensemble. Vivica has all the right stuff to sing this wonderful embellished type of music. She is in the big leagues. She has a big voice filled with agility and vocal pyro-techniques.
To celebrate the centenary of the composer's death, this compilation offers a journey through Erik Satie's unusual and distinctive piano works, by three of his greatest performers: Anne Queffelec, Bertrand Chamayou and Aldo Ciccolini. Bonus: his third Gnossienne orchestrated by Francis Poulenc, under the baton of Michel Plasson.
Initiated by the visionary musicologist and organist Olivier Alain - brother of Marie-Claire Alain - this monumental "Encyclopedie de l'orgue" series presents an unparalleled panorama of organ repertoire. It offers a detailed exploration across diverse regions, historical periods (from the 16th century to the contemporary) and stylistic approaches. Recorded between 1958 and 1975, this comprehensive collection features several first-time releases on CD, providing a vibrant testament to the art and spirit of the organ. Major composers are represented by their complete works, while lesser-known figures are highlighted through a carefully curated selection of significant pieces. Each recording was meticulously made on an instrument truly representative of it's repertoire - one whose construction and tonal character authentically correspond to the original aesthetic of the work. The interpretations consistently pursue musical, historical, and stylistic authenticity, entrusted to some of the most distinguished organists of their era.
Schubert: Piano Trios marks the first official album of Trio Moreau, uniting Edgar, David, and Jeremie Moreau in their personal statement of identity as an ensemble. The program combines Schubert's Piano Trios No. 1 & 2 with Lieder arrangements for piano, cello and violin. The two Schubert Piano Trios stand as cornerstones of the chamber music repertoire, as they reveal an extraordinary sense of space, emotional depth and melodic richness from a composer celebrated above all as a master of song. To frame these trios, the Moreau brothers have created their own arrangements of some of Schubert's most beloved Lieder (Du bist die Ruh, and the celebrated Hirt auf dem Felsen). In these versions, violin, cello and piano share the melodic line, each taking turns to "sing" in a dialogue of lyricism and color.
A cinema project for the Insula orchestra conducted by Laurence Equilbey, 'Musiques de Cinema' showcases classical music masterpieces by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Purcell, Handel, and others. These iconic pieces have been featured in films such as Stanley Kubrick's 'Barry Lyndon' and 'A Clockwork Orange', Wes Anderson's 'Moonrise Kingdom', David Fincher's 'The Social Network' and 'Seven', and Martin Scorsese's 'The Wolf of Wall Street...'
A brilliant line-up for this new recording by Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, made during lockdown. The album stars Michael Spyres, Sabine Devieilhe, and Elsa Dreisig. It also features Julie Fuchs, Paul-Antoine Benos-Djian, Cyrille Dubois, and Adriana Bignani Lesca. This is the first recording of this opera of Mozart on the Warner Classics & Erato labels.
This richly varied collection of meditative sacred music takes it's name, Agnus Dei, from the opening item, a setting for voices of Samuel Barber's celebrated and deeply expressive Adagio for Strings. The hauntingly melodic choral masterpieces that fill these two vinyls span five centuries and are the work of such composers as Bach, Mozart, Allegri, Albinoni, Faure, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Elgar and, from nearer our own time, John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki. They are performed by the choir of New College Oxford, an exemplar of Britain's great choral tradition.
David Fray adds a landmark of the solo keyboard repertoire to his Bach discography: the Goldberg Variations. "The Goldberg Variations are a real test," he says. "They are the work of a lifetime, perhaps a work about life itself... a kind of rite of passage, a journey. Every element of human life is in them... When you play the theme again after the 30 variations, in it's original purity, it is as if you're at the end of your life, looking back over everything that has happened in the last hour-and-a-half. Few works give such a sense of eternity".
Christina Pluhar, L'Arpeggiata and eight guest singers explore the musical highways and byways of Naples, the most intoxicating and idiosyncratic of Italy's large cities. Alla Napoletana, a double album, expresses the city's mercurial personality in music from the 17th to the 20th centuries, embracing the operatic style of the so-called Neapolitan School, which rose to prominence in the late 1700s, and popular songs and dances. Among them are several examples of the tarantella, the lively, sometimes frenzied dance that epitomizes southern Italy.
Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann, reigning stars of opera, are also consummate interpreters of song. In early 2018, with master pianist Helmut Deutsch, they performed Hugo Wolf's multi-faceted Italienisches Liederbuch in 12 cities around Europe. "One couldn't ask for more," wrote the Telegraph after their London concert, which took place two days before this live recording was made in the German city of Essen. - Acclaimed as the "leading coloratura soprano in the world" (New York Sun), Diana Damrau continues to amaze audiences with her unique voice and arresting stage presence. A regular guest at the most renowned opera companies and concert halls, she was awarded the titleBayerische Kammersangerinin 2007 and named "Best Female Singer" at the 2014International Opera Awards.
2018 release. Recorded live at London's celebrated Wigmore Hall, this captivating recital by Joyce DiDonato and the Brentano Quartet was conceived around Jake Heggie's song cycle Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, a work written for DiDonato - she describes it as "one of most moving projects I've ever been part of". Songs by Debussy and Strauss and a quartet movement by Guillaume Lekeu complete the program, which prompted the Financial Times to write that "the beauty and range" of DiDonato's singing "are surely now at their impressive peak."
