Francois-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles offer us a double-sided portrait of Saint-Saens here. On one side, some of the most fascinating symphonic poems of French Romanticism are revealed in all the shimmering timbres of the period. On the other, we rediscover a composer who enjoyed a good laugh (The Carnival of the Animals also returns to it's original colors), when he was not involved in the early days of the cinema, with the very first music ever composed for a film.
Lionel Tertis (1876-1975), a great genius of the viola, is little known to today's public. Timothy Ridout pays tribute to this key figure in his instrument's history with a flamboyant program featuring music by Tertis's friends, teachers and students alongside some of his own original works and transcriptions. A marvelous musical journey, rich in discoveries.
Marais: Tombeau Pour Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe / La Rêveuse
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$22.00$22.01Save 0%Aug 30, 2024
On this new album, Florence Bolton and Benjamin Perrot revisit the composer who gave their ensemble it's delightful name, La Rêveuse. Drawing on his heritage (Sainte-Colombe), his friendships (Robert de Visée) and his own visionary genius, Marin Marais blazed new trails for his instrument in his second book of viol pieces (1701). Alongside the customary dances and sets of variations, he invented the 'character pieces' that were to become so popular in the eighteenth century.
Campra: Messe da Requiem / Daucé, Ensemble Correspondances
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$22.00$22.01Save 0%Sep 27, 2024
Campra's famous Requiem emerged from a tradition that is still unjustly neglected. Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances offer us an opportunity to discover these maîtres de musique of Notre-Dame who, though now overshadowed by their brilliant colleague, made no less of a contribution to the development of the 'French style' emblematic of the reign of Louis XIV.
A few years after a complete recording of Mozart’s solo piano works that has gradually come to be regarded as a benchmark, Kristian Bezuidenhout has taken all the time he needed to tackle Haydn, the other towering figure of the Viennese Classical keyboard repertory: “Preparing for this recording has been a vivid reminder that it is remarkably difficult to play Haydn’s music well, but that with enough care, and attention to detail, his music has the potential to come jumping from the page. It would be hubris to suggest that I am even close to unlocking any of its secrets, but I am so humbled by the sheer beauty, humanity, wit and delightful irony of this music, that the desire to continue is irresistible.”
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REVIEW:
The listener is drawn in by the myriad subtleties of Bezuidenhout’s playing and by the glorious sounds he draws from his instrument. Soon you’re hanging on every note of this sequence that seems to travel from darkness to darkness. Most important, though, is Bezuidenhout’s playing itself. Technique is obviously not an issue. Decoration, too, is sparing rather than trowelled on. This is the very opposite of ‘look-at me’ pianism.
Rachmaninoff's output of chamber music is small but all the more precious for that. Two absolute gems bear witness to the fact: these ‘elegiac trios’, which were produced by a young composer still indisputably under the influence of Tchaikovsky. However, Rachmaninoff’s personality is already fully present, reaching heights of emotion and expressiveness.
The pieces by Suk and Grieg add a further touch of character to the picture, which is painted with an exceptionally rich palette: the artistry of the phenomenal Trio Wanderer.
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REVIEWS:
The Rachmaninov Trios share not only a sombre soundworld but a clarity of line that’s captured engagingly in these lyrical yet unsentimental performances by the Trio Wanderer. The Wanderers’ performance, a notch faster than many, has an urgency that is highly persuasive. Grieg’s dark and impassioned Andante con moto fits right in after all this, and the disc is rounded off with a sweetly understated Elegie by Suk. – BBC Music Magazine
The Trio Wanderer’s new disc, centred around Rachmaninov’s youthful trios, has all the finesse and subtlety that we’ve long associated with this French ensemble. From the start, though, one thing struck me – how curiously un-Russian these pieces sound in their hands. It’s partly due to their emphasis on clarity of texture, together with a certain Classical restraint.
Antoine Tamestit and Masato Suzuki, Principal Conductor of the famous Bach Collegium Japan, immersed themselves in Bach's three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord in order to present this sublime interpretation using a modern viola. The change in instrumentation allows the artists total freedom to rediscover the exquisite qualities of these all too rarely played masterpieces. HARMONIA MUNDI
Continuing an old tradition of outdoor music, Mozart raised the serenade genre to an outstanding level of accomplishment. Harmonia mundi's first collaboration with Enrico Onofri and the Münchener Kammerorchester couples Mozart's most famous contributions to the form: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the "Posthorn" Serenade (with it's picturesque solo for the eponymous instrument) and the majestic "Haffner" Serenade, with Isabelle Faust as guest star.
Harmonia mundi is proud to welcome the exceptional countertenor Carlo Vistoli as a new exclusive artist. Here he joins the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin to explore some of Vivaldi's finest sacred music. Alongside the famous Nisi Dominus and Stabat Mater, the quasi-operatic motet, In furore, shows the extravert, theatrical side of Vivaldi's genius, for the purposes of edification, to be sure, but also for our greater delight.
For this new instalment of their series devoted to British music of the eighteenth century, the musicians of La Rêveuse take us to London in the 1740s. The leading Italian and German virtuosos Handel invited to play in his orchestra brought a powerful wind of change to English musical life, while the Scot James Oswald achieved the tour de force of making the music of his country fashionable in the drawing rooms of London.
Always curious about unjustly neglected repertoire, Louis-Noel Bestion de Camboulas introduces us here to a Mozart we have not met. Above and beyond his church sonatas, works written on commission, pieces meant to showcase a vocalist or an instrument (such as the rarely heard glass harmonica) or as a mark of friendship with another musician, this is a veritable treasure chest of musical gems that reflect the incredible versatility of the Salzburg genius.
One morning in 1822, Schubert wrote down an enigmatic text in which all his ghosts seem to take shape: wandering, solitude, consolation, disappointed love. Inspired by this dreamlike narrative, Raphael Pichon, Pygmalion and Stephane Degout have devised a vast Romantic fresco, combining resurrection of unknown treasures with rediscovery of established masterpieces.
Utilising to the full the unique timbres of their period instruments alongside a superb Pleyel piano of 1892, Francois-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles explore some of Ravel's major works. With Cedric Tiberghien and Stephane Degout, two of the finest specialists in this repertory, this recording provides an opportunity to hear many aspects of his colorful, kaleidoscopic world, from the youthful Pavane to the testamentary cycle Don Quichotte a Dulcinee.
His debut recording devoted to Schumann offered a brilliant opportunity to discover the name of Samuel Hasselhorn, a young baritone deeply invested in the art of lieder. With his collaborator Joseph Middleton, he now turns to Schubert, in an insightful program evoking some of the themes dear to the Viennese master of song: nature, night-time, parting, absence, and death. Both essential and less familiar songs are featured side by side in this poignant depiction of profound self-reflection that can rank among the most moving examples of what the Romantic temperament has ever produced.
Tallis: Spem in Alium - MacMillan: Vidi Aquam / Digby, Ora Singers
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$19.69Aug 21, 2020
A musical banquet from the Golden Age. This programme brings together a true choral landmark from the sixteenth century, with its present-day reflection, a commission by Sir James MacMillan. These two monumental, large-scale pieces bookend a ‘tasting menu’ of Renaissance works by Byrd, Tallis and many other composers. Common to them all is a link to Nonsuch Palace, arguably the location of the first performance of Spem in alium, and the centre of a rich vein of Tudor musical patronage.
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REVIEW:
Standing at either end of this programme are the forty-part motets. Spem in alium is very familiar and is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of Tudor polyphony. Suzi Digby directs a performance that is simply magnificent. She had at her disposal a group of expert singers who were positioned in a circle with the conductor at the apex. The combined skills of the musician and the engineers means that, even in “vanilla” stereo the listener gets a very clear sense of the eight separate choirs – goodness knows what the performance would sound like in surround sound! There’s a truly thrilling sound at the points where the full ensemble sings flat-out, but just as impressive are the more subdued passages, which are delivered with admirable subtlety.
It can’t be an easy task to compose a homage to Spem but few composers are better equipped than Sir James MacMillan who has shown a deep understanding of and respect for the music of the Renaissance – notably that of Robert Carver – in some of his previous scores. In the booklet he comments that he “used the Tallis original as an inspiration in the way I utilised the eight five-voiced choirs, and how I moved the music from choir to choir, gradually building the sound up from one to forty voices.” He doesn’t quote from Spem in his score but he has used the structure of Tallis’s masterpiece as an inspiration. For his text, MacMillan used the text ‘Vidi aquam’ from the prophecy of Ezekiel.
As a homage to the great Tudor masterpiece, I’d say that Vidi aquam is an unqualified success. More than that, though, I’d say the work is a masterpiece in its own right. It is a wonderful response to the chosen text. In addition, it challenges both performers and listeners, yet it never leaves the listener behind because it exercises a huge sensory appeal.
The camera work and sound on the DVD is excellent. As for the CD, producer Nick Parker and engineer Mike Hatch have made a fantastic job of the recording. All the smaller pieces benefit from clarity and intimacy of sound. The two big pieces have been captured with great success. You can hear an abundance of detail and when the full ensemble sings out at full volume, the sound is magnificent. John Milsom’s notes are first-rate.
This is a simply terrific disc. I’ve admired all of the previous ORA Singers releases but, considering both the expert performances of the smaller works and the thrilling forty-part performances, I’m inclined to think this is their finest achievement to date.
Kristian Bezuidenhout and the Freiburger Barockorchester pursue their lively exploration of Mozart's concertos. From the early impulses of the Concerto No.5 K.175 to the incandescent drama of the Concerto No.20 K.466, via the daring formal novelties of the Concerto No.14 K.449, these works reveal a myriad facets of Mozart's genius, always wondrously inventive, theatrical and profoundly modern.
These recordings, originally released in the early 1980s, are foundation stones for the rediscovery of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's sacred works that was set in motion by William Christie et Les Arts Florissants. For the most part devoted to Christmas music, these pieces radiate all Charpentier's fervor, freshness and elegance, showing him to be truly French, yet nurtured by the sunlight of Italy.
Emilie Mayer's works bear witness to an indomitable personality, despite having languished for so long in the shadow of her male peers. The musicians of the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin have resolved to do her justice with this revelatory symphonic triptych of recordings. They begin with two of her most remarkable works played on period instruments, including a wondrous Bluthner piano handpicked by the soloist here, Alexander Melnikov.
Combining the vigorous forces of the Insula Orchestra and Insula camerata, Laurence Equilbey revives a historic tradition: that of the double orchestra. Beethoven, who was familiar with this principle, composed with the great festivals in mind at which orchestras could muster large numbers, often exceeding a hundred players. A unique musical experience.
