Mariss Jansons was one of the most important conductors of our time, celebrated worldwide and held in the highest regard – all the more so since his unexpected death on December 1, 2019. "Mariss Jansons - The Edition," comprising 70 recordings and a box set in representative LP format, documents the final phase of his life and career: his work as chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus between 2003 and 2019. Predominantly live recordings from Munich, Tokyo, Vienna, New York, Waldsassen, and the Vatican enable listeners to experience for themselves musical highlights that are as moving as they are exciting. The set contains a remarkably diverse repertoire, ranging from symphonic music and great choral works to opera, and from the First Viennese School to 20th century classical music. "Mariss Jansons - The Edition" contains works by a broad range of composers, including complete cycles of the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler respectively. It is supplemented by fascinating rehearsal recordings that bear witness to Jansons's trusting artistic collaboration with the musicians in his orchestra, together with a large-format, approximately 72-page-long booklet containing background information, essays, an interview, and a detailed track listing.
Up until around 1900 the clarinet repertoire was dominated by music from the German-speaking lands, largely due to the influence of three outstanding clarinettists. Inspired by Anton Stadler, Heinrich Bärmann and Richard Mühlfeld respectively, Mozart, Weber and Brahms composed some of the finest clarinet works ever written. But especially after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French cultural establishment became increasingly concerned with cultivating a national voice of its own, and Michael Collins’s new release is a reminder of this. The works recorded here all date from the last years of the 19th century and afterwards, and it is striking that four of them (Debussy, Widor, Messager and Rabaud) were written as competition pieces for the Paris Conservatoire – the institution which played such a decisive role in shaping French musical life. But even though they were commissioned for educational purposes there is nothing academic about them: from Debussy’s seductive Rhapsodie to Messager’s light-heartedly brilliant Solo de concours there is instead a definite French – maybe even Parisian – quality to them. This also applies to the Clarinet Sonata by Saint-Saëns, composed in the last year of his life but full of charm and courtly irony. Closing the disc are two works from either end of Francis Poulenc’s life. While the brief Sonata for two clarinets from 1918 is pure and cheeky fun, the 1962 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano is more conflicted emotionally, as indicated by the first movement’s tempo marking Allegro tristamente. Throughout the greater part of the programme, Collins is partnered by Noriko Ogawa, whose pianism has won her particular acclaim in French repertoire, with Sérgio Pires making a guest appearance in Poulenc’s clarinet duo.
Poulenc: Piano Concerto, Concerto Champetre & Other Works / Rebbington, Latham-koenig, Royal Philharmonic
Resonus Classics
CD
$18.99Apr 03, 2020
The acclaimed pianist Mark Bebbington marks his Resonus Classics debut, and the start of a new French music series, with a major new recording of works by Francis Poulenc. Joined by conductor Jan Latham-Koenig, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, this varied programme of works for piano features the Piano Concerto (the last of his five concertos) and the rarely-recorded piano version of the Concert champêtre so often performed by Poulenc himself. Bebbington is also joined by oboist John Roberts and bassoonist Jonathan Davies for the Trio for Piano, Oboe & Bassoon, and the Sonata for Oboe & Piano.
This is a beautiful program of art songs by Francis Poulenc, performed by soprano Alissa Deeter and pianist Arlene Shrut. A nationally recognized performer with firm footing in both classical and musical theatre circles, she is an active recitalist with a penchant for French mélodie as well as the treasured compositions of Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, and Weill. She was a founding member and co-director of The Miscreants Cabaret, a fringe theatre troupe in San Francisco that wrote, produced, and performed original works. Dr. Deeter is the co-author of The Mélodies of Francis Poulenc: A Study Guide (Scarecrow Press, 2014) and has several articles published in the Journal of Singing. She recently presented the lecture recital “The Gender Gap in Francis Poulenc’s Mélodies” at the College Music Society’s International Conference in Stockholm and Helsinki.
Camino is guitarist Sean Shibe’s first PENTATONE album, an introspective programme exploring French-Spanish musical borders, a pilgrimage leading from Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante défunte, Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 and Gnossiennes 1 and 3, Poulenc’s Sarabande, De Falla’s Miller’s Dance and Homaje, pour le Tombeau de Debussy and José’s Pavana triste all the way to Mompou’s Canços i dansas 6 and 10, as well as his Suite compostelana.
Shibe has deliberately granted Mompou a central role on this album, as his music demonstrates that melancholy, aimlessness, and a whole host of other feelings are not things to be avoided or fixed or solved, but experiences to be felt deeply: not with sad nostalgia, but with genuine wonder and excitement at what this means for the future. In that respect, Camino also documents Shibe’s personal quest to overcome the challenges of a time dominated by COVID-19, and to ultimately see the world anew.
Multi-award-winning guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional classical guitar, while also exploring contemporary music and repertoire for electric guitar. Camino is the first fruit of an exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE.
REVIEW:
Guitarist Sean Shibe has been known for daring programming, and an album of Spanish guitar music might seem a retreat to normalcy, but this is not the case. Shibe devises a program that brings in a wide variety of effects and moods and executes it all flawlessly. The program is both constantly shifting and entirely absorbing, and any stereotypes of Spanish music the listener may have will be gone by its end.
This program brings together première recordings of Francis Poulenc’s own piano versions of his ‘ballet of atmosphere’ Les Biches and ‘choreographic concerto’ Aubade, as well as the first digital recording of the suite from Les Animaux modèles, inspired by the fables of La Fontaine and compiled by Grant Johannesen with the composer’s agreement. ‘Piano scores’ are an essential part of rehearsing and choreographing any ballet, but the piano was also indispensable to Poulenc’s compositional process. He owed his love of classical dance to years of working closely with Dyaghilev, and his music brims with subtlety, humor, genuine emotion, piquant harmonies and rhythmic lightness.
Poulenc: Melodies 1939-1961 "Poulenc et ses Poetes" / Coladonato, Proietti
Brilliant Classics
CD
$6.99$13.99Save 50%Aug 02, 2019
Poulenc once declared that ‘the musical transposition of a poem must be an act of love, not a marriage of convenience.’ By the age of four he was already able to recite Mallarme’s Apparition by heart, and while still very young he made his first efforts at setting verses to music. He loved listening to poets read their own work, and he was a voracious reader, who saw his purpose as a composer to embellish to enrich but never to obscure the words or their meaning. Poulenc loved singers and good singing as much as poetry. All these cycles were written with particular artists in mind; several of them for his life partner, the baritone Pierre Bernac, but he also worked very closely with Clare Croiza and Denise Duval, among others. Thus his vocal lines reflect their individual personalities while being couched in his own, very singable, jazz-inflected idiom. Valentina Coladonato has chosen a path less travelled through Poulenc’s song oeuvre, avoiding the Chansons villageoises and Air chantes. Yet in La Fraîcheur et le feu, setting Poulenc’s contemporary Paul Eluard, we find an intensity and urgency of expression to rival his masterpiece, the Dialogues of the Carmelites. Motifs from the opera recur in another Eluard cycle, Le travail du peintre, which addresses seven modern painters in turn from Picasso to Villon. A bittersweet air lingers over the Dernier poeme by Desnos, Aragon’s C and the monologue La dame de Monte Carlo; but his extrovert, amusing music-hall side comes to the fore in Les chemins de l’amour, based on Jean Anouilh’s Leocadia and dedicated to Yvonne Printemps, who was a singer of light music. Even within the same cycle there are contrasting moments that eloquently illustrate Poulenc’s own artistic credo: ‘My music is my portrait’. A specialist in early and new music, the soprano Valentina Coladonato has worked with conductors including Riccardo Muti and Claudio Abbado. She and Claudio Proietti have also recorded the Shakespeare Sonnets of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco for Brilliant Classics (BC95548).
The album “Neoteric” unites two musical worlds, which seem to be not very connected externally, but still have an inner connection, which this album wants to show. The idea for this compilation came from the very personal fascination of the performer Andreas Hermanski. He has a soft spot for the Nordic-Scandinavian clarinet literature as well as for the French tradition between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century. However much may seem to separate the French and Nordic works presented on this album, the two parts of the album are linked by numerous internal references. Just as Poulenc’s sonata was written for clarinetist Benny Goodman, who was also the performer at the premiere, Rolf Martinsson worked closely with Martin Fröst in the composition of his Suite, and his newly developed playing techniques and extraordinary musical personality have a palpable and audible influence on the work. Chausson’s “Andante et Allegro” and Debussy’s “Première Rhapsodie” are, how could it be otherwise with works commissioned for a competition, written in a format typical for this: this calls for both a lyrical, singing finale and a highly virtuosic, fast finale. This structure can be found in Lindberg’s “Acequia Madre” and Martinsson’s “Suite Fantastique”. In contrast, the works of Debussy and Pärt meet in their tonally spherical language and their content that almost evaporates into the transcendent. The quasi-symmetrical internal structure of both parts, the French as well as the Nordic block, is intended to depict these analogies and inner references and make them audible.
Poulenc: The Story of Babar / Margolyes, Callaghan
Nimbus
CD
$13.99Nov 06, 2020
A delightful set of circumstances combined to produce the beloved masterpiece, Babar. The journey began in 1930 when Laurent and Mathieu, sons of French author and illustrator Jean de Brunhoff were told an enchanting bedtime story by their mother, Cécile. So moved were the young boys by the curious tale of the young elephant’s adventures, that they asked their father to create illustrations. The resulting book initiated a series that was to be the crowning achievement of Jean de Brunhoff’s short professional life, and that of his son Laurent, who added further volumes following his father’s death in 1937. The children have acknowledged that the story originated with Cécile de Brunhoff, who, feeling that her contribution was too small to be credited, requested that her name be removed from the publications. In a heart-warmingly similar situation ten years later, Poulenc was spending time with the granddaughter of one of his cousins. Noting that she became bored with the music he was playing, Poulenc put Brunhoff’s Babar on the piano and began to improvise, to the great delight of the young girl. The musical ideas born that day were to simmer away at the back of Poulenc’s mind until he completed the work in 1945. It was premiered on French radio the following year.
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REVIEW:
With a duration of 27:51 we are into ‘CD Single’ territory, but this is reflected in a lower price for the disc, which is therefore worth every penny. In lockdown or not, parents could do much worse than to buy both this and Jean de Brunhoff’s book ‘The Story of Barbar’, so that everyone can read along and enjoy the wonderful illustrations. Be aware, however, that there are some tragic moments to go along with all of the magical charm and festivities.
de Falla, Poulenc, Bacarisse: Harpsichord Concertos / Marquez
IBS Classical
CD
$17.99May 28, 2021
The composer of the Stabat Mater presented in this sound recording was musically educated in Malaga Cathedral at the end of the first third of the 19th century. The musical chapel of the citys first tempo had already suffered the onslaught of the yellow fever of 1803 and the French invasion during the Napoleonic invasion (1808\-1814), and had yet to receive the lethal blows of the successive disentailment measures of Mendizábal (1836), Espartero (1841) and Madoz (1854). However, what seemed to put an end to the stable ensemble to solemnise cathedral liturgies was paradoxically giving way to a paradigm shift. The everyday music of the cathedrals would be reduced to a minimum thanks to the resources established in the Concordat of 1851 signed between Pope Pius IX and Queen Elizabeth II. Hence, the drastic mutilation of the stable staffs in the cathedrals favoured what would quickly become a common and frequent practice, i.e. the ex profeso hiring of instrumental and vocal troops for certain solemnities and festivities, among which those related to Holy Week and its natural period of spiritual preparation, namely Lent, were particularly noteworthy.
Naxos' triumphant march through Poulenc's complete chamber music continues with this latest release containing, among a host of smaller items, a smashing performance of the magnificent Sonata for Two Pianos, one of the composer's greatest large works in any medium. Alexandre Tharaud and Francis Chaplin play beautifully; their performance is a touch less expansive than Fèvier/Tacchino on EMI, but still hypnotically seductive in the slow introduction and third movement, while the faster music has the right rhythmic skittishness and crisp articulation. The other outstanding performance here is the Sonata for horn, trumpet, and trombone. This awkward but charming piece has seldom sounded better balanced and more natural (not to mention in tune), and it's very well recorded in a warm acoustic. The other pieces are trifles, but no less enjoyable for that. Another winner. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Poulenc: Aubade - Le bal masqué - Flute Sonata - Sextet / Bebbington, McDonough, Williams, Latham-Koenig, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Resonus Classics
CD
$18.99Jun 04, 2021
In this second album in his French series, pianist Mark Bebbington is joined by baritone Roderick Williams and flautist Emer McDonough alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Jan Latham-Koening in a further program of music by Francis Poulenc. Featuring some of Poulenc’s most characteristic works, the program begins with his 1929 piano concerto Aubade originally written with a choreographed ballet element for a private fancy-dress party. The following year saw the composer set Surrealist poems by his friend Max Jacob in his work Le Bal Masqué, which Poulenc described as a ‘secular cantata’. Written in 1956 the Flute Sonata was described by the composer himself as being ‘simple but subtle’, while completing the album is the 1931 Sextet for piano and wind quintet.
Pärt, Poulenc & Stravinsky: Choral and Orchestral Works / Jansons, BRSO
BR Klassik
CD
$19.99May 06, 2022
Three great choral and orchestral works of the 20th century are gathered together in outstanding interpretations on the new album from BR-KLASSIK: Arvo Pärt's "Berlin Mass" for choir and string orchestra from 1990, Francis Poulenc's "Stabat mater" for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra from 1950, and Igor Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" for choir and orchestra from 1930. The soprano Genia Kühmeier, the incomparable Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - two undisputedly world-class ensembles! - under the direction of Mariss Jansons guarantee the highest listening pleasure.
The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, famed for his magical sounds, created his "Berlin Mass" as a commission for the 90th German Catholic Convention in Berlin. It was premiered in 1990 for four mixed solo voices and organ. In 1997, Pärt reworked his Mass, written in the so-called "Tintinnabuli" style, for choir and string orchestra. Francis Poulenc wrote his "Stabat mater" in response to the unexpected death of his friend, the artist Christian Bérard. Like other sacred works written after his visit to the Black Madonna of Rocamadour, where he found his Catholic faith, this one ranks among his most important compositions. Igor Stravinsky's well-known "Symphony of Psalms", a three-movement symphonic work for choir and orchestra, was written in 1930 as a commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The unusual orchestration – with strong woodwind and brass, percussion instruments, two pianos and only the bass strings (violoncellos, double basses without violins or violas – gives the work its distinctive sound.
REVIEWS:
Just how much we miss Mariss Jansons is manifest in this Munich concert of three sacred works. Jansons, who died in November 2019, aged 76, was not principally noted for religiosity or choral masterpieces, but his shaping of this triptych is so masterful that one can hardly imagine them presented with greater coherence or sincerity.
This is altogether an outstanding record of the conductor’s art. Jansons was one of the greats. Happily, Bavarian Radio have more of his big nights coming out of their archives.
-- Ludwig van Toronto
Approaching these works with the great seriousness they deserve, Mariss Jansons and the choir create wonderous moods and make the music float in evocative fashion.
Dazzling as the Queen of the Night, deeply moving in Lucia di Lammermoor and La Sonnambula, Natalie Dessay also made her mark on the operatic stage in the roles of Olympia, Manon, Musetta and Cleopatra. After training at the Atelier Lyrique de l'Opera National de Paris and pursuing an international operatic career, Natalie Dessay decided to devote herself to spoken theatre, chansons and the song repertory. The duo she formed in 2011 with her artistic partner Philippe Cassard has given one hundred and thirty-five performances around the world, completely reinventing the song recital as a unique moment of expression, embodiment and shared emotion. Ten years after her last appearance at the Opera Bastille in La Fille du regiment, she has chosen to give her farewell performance on the stage of the Palais Garnier on 31 March 2025. This is the last album from this legendary duo, a fitting way to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of one of the greatest sopranos of her generation.
Agua & Vinho - Sentimental moods for flute & guitar
Stradivarius
CD
$18.99May 10, 2024
The CD "Agua & Vinho Sentimentals: Moods for Flute and Guitar" offers a wide and varied anthology of pieces by different authors, from classical to contemporary, revisited by the personal sensitivity of Carolina Dello Iacono (flute) and Antonio Grande (guitar). In the intense instrumental dialogue, the publication becomes a singular musical story that explores different artistic languages, from the song by Egberto Gismonti (that gives the album’s title) to works by Ada Gentile, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Francis Poulenc, and others, between enveloping atmospheres and moments that open up unexpected sonic horizons. The protagonists of this particular listening journey, in a polyphony of ideas, voices, and creative instances, are Carolina Dello Iacono and Antonio Grande, musicians with great experience and extensive artistic activity.
Having recorded the 'great' French quartets of Debussy and Ravel (ALPHA295), the Van Kuijk Quartet now takes another path and explores treasures by Faure, Debussy, Satie, Ravel and Poulenc that were originally composed for piano or voice. The mark of the string quartet is secretly apparent in this programme, which includes Debussy's Petite Suite pour piano à quatre mains, Ravel's famous Pavane pour une infante defunte and well-known songs by Poulenc, Faure and Satie in transcriptions made especially for this recording by Emmanuel Francois, the Quartet's violist, and by Jean-Christophe Masson and Gildas Guillon. The Quartet also asked the jazz pianist and composer Baptiste Trotignon to create a work that would freely resonate alongside the styles of the composers whose works had been transcribed. An entire universe has now been re-created without any nostalgia or pastiche behind the first names of these composers, Ces Messieurs. The Van Kuijks have woven their instruments in and around these miniatures and here unfold a programme that is all lightness and delight.
For every cellist; Poulenc's Cello Sonata is demanding in terms of playing technique. Since he had a great affinity for woodwind instruments; his notation is not really written to suit the conditions of a string instrument. He himself was aware of this fact; so he sought expert advice for the composition from the famous cellist Pierre Fournier; who was also the dedicatee and soloist at the premiere in 1948. "Everything we see; hear and feel is connected with feeling." This is how Leoš Janácek defined his artistic attitude; from which grew an idiosyncratic tonal language hardly comparable with other models or traditions of his time. Pohádka means - translated from Czech - "fairy tale". It is based on a fairy tale by the Russian romanticist Wassilij Shukowskj (1783-1852) about the love of a prince for a princess. Janácek's enthusiasm for Russian culture is evident in this choice of theme. Sergei Rachmaninoff was in the limelight as a generous piano virtuoso; but as a composer he was more of a pensive self-doubter. His first symphony had failed with the public. This experience of failure led him into a depression and creative crisis lasting several years. Three years later; he was released from it through a new type of hypnotherapy; which was tantamount to an artistic rebirth. His second piano concerto arose like a phoenix from the ashes and was enthusiastically celebrated. Shortly thereafter; he created his Sonata for Piano and Violoncello opus 19; which is now considered one of his most brilliant compositions. Thematically and motivically; the four movements lead from darkness into light. It was dedicated to the cellist Anatoly Bradukov.
