Ernani is a gripping drama about love and revenge by Giuseppe Verdi. Written in his unique style it brims with poignant arias, rousing choruses and enthralling ensemble scenes. The rebel leader Ernani recognises his father's murderer in the Spanish King Carlo and seeks revenge on him. Both men love Elvira - as does old Silva whom she is to be married to... Director Lotte de Beer and her set and costume designer Christof Hetzer devote themselves to the fictional plot which bears references to the 16th century. They demonstrate their rich scenic imagination in this production, conducted by Enrique Mazzola who "provides musically magic moments at the stand of the Wiener Symphoniker" (Schwabische Zeitung). "Great singers, fiery music and an action-packed staging" (Allgauer Zeitung). "A mixture of Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' and Monty Python's 'The Knights of the Coconut'." (Deutschlandfunk)

SOMM Recordings is pleased to present Music for Two Pianos by the French virtuoso pianist and composer, Camille Saint-Saens (1835 - 1921), whose output for solo and duo pianists totals almost 200 compositions. The programme on this release comprises original works for two pianos alongside selections transcribed by Saint-Saens from his orchestral pieces. The featured pianists, Artur Pizarro and Ludovico Troncanetti, made their piano duo debut in Lisbon in 2023 with a recital featuring the repertoire on this album. The artists share a love of performing two-piano and four-hands repertoire, and they have plans to continue their collaboration with further projects on stage and in the studio. The renowned Portuguese pianist, Artur Pizarro, winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition amongst others, performs internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with the world's leading orchestras and conductors. The Italian pianist, Ludovico Troncanetti, is a graduate of the Milan Conservatory and is actively involved in reviving the works of the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. The recital opens with Saint-Saens' transcription of Le Rouet d'Omphale (Omphale's Spinning-Wheel), the most famous of his four symphonic poems inspired by Greco-Roman mythology. Both this work and the Marche heroique had their premiere in the original version for two pianos, the march seeming to presage the war that broke out between France and Prussia in July 1870. The first and most substantial of Saint-Saens' original two-piano works is a set of Variations on a Theme of Beethoven, based on the Trio section of the Minuet from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18, the Hunt. The eight variations plus a fugue, presto, and coda require considerable ensemble skill from the pianists to pull off. From 1886-the year of the Organ Symphony and The Carnival of the Animals-comes Saint-Saens' tribute to Chopin, whom he had passionately admired since he was a student. Saint-Saens vividly evokes the spirit of the Polonaise without actually quoting any of Chopin's own works inspired by the national dance of his native Poland. Saint-Saens frequently wintered in North Africa; in fact he died in Algiers in December 1921. During an 1889 trip to Las Palmas in Northern Africa, he began composing his Scherzo for two pianos. It's a work with echoes of Debussy, Ravel, and Satie, which he cautioned would be difficult to read at sight and would require much practice. Caprice arabe, along with the symphonic poem Africa and the "Egyptian" Piano Concerto, is one of a trio of piano compositions inspired by Saint-Saens' journeys to North Africa. The recital ends with another caprice, the virtuosic Caprice heroique, which leans more towards being capricious than heroic, despite it's powerful opening and fugue-like ending.

Ever since 1995 at the latest, after the Auryn Quartet and Peter Orth released their highly acclaimed recording of Gabriel Faure's piano quintets for CPO, Primarius Matthias Lingenfelder and Peter had dreamed of recording Faure's works for violin and piano. Many years passed. In 2022, the Auryn Quartet retired from concert life. Before that, I wanted one last recording with them for TACET, no matter what, as a farewell. That didn't materialise. But Matthias still had the desire and energy. And so did Peter! So what could be more obvious than finally realising their long-cherished wish? The result is a serene, mature, virtuoso, sensitive and loving performance of this unconventionally beautiful repertoire.

Ernani is a gripping drama about love and revenge by Giuseppe Verdi. Written in his unique style it brims with poignant arias, rousing choruses and enthralling ensemble scenes. The rebel leader Ernani recognises his father's murderer in the Spanish King Carlo and seeks revenge on him. Both men love Elvira - as does old Silva whom she is to be married to... Director Lotte de Beer and her set and costume designer Christof Hetzer devote themselves to the fictional plot which bears references to the 16th century. They demonstrate their rich scenic imagination in this production, conducted by Enrique Mazzola who "provides musically magic moments at the stand of the Wiener Symphoniker" (Schwabische Zeitung). "Great singers, fiery music and an action-packed staging" (Allgauer Zeitung). "A mixture of Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' and Monty Python's 'The Knights of the Coconut'." (Deutschlandfunk)

Torn between her desire of a life of splendour and riches and her devotion to her true love Des Grieux (Reece Clarke), the alluring and capricious Manon (Natalia Osipova) pays the ultimate price. MacMillan's adaptation of Abbe Prevost's novel L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut?embodies his acute insight into human psychology and his mastery of narrative choreography. This is MacMillan at his best; finding full expression in the impassioned duets of the central couple, visceral and urgent in their desire.

Re-release of a previous ORFEO bestseller, the present album contains the premiere of the new production of Don Carlo from October 1970 in Vienna. The premiere was surrounded by a great scandal, caused by the Karajan's fans, who expected their idol to conduct the new production. However, Karajan entrusted the conductor Horst Stein with the new production and though Stein had until then been the favourite of the local audience, this time he was greeted with a torrent of 'boos" which were totally unrelated to his artistic performance. The singers, by contrast, were cheered to the rafters. The house had gathered together a cast for this production that was hand-picked right down to the smallest part. The booklet offers detailed information about the scandal and indignation surrounding the premiere together with archive photographs of the stage.

Torn between her desire of a life of splendour and riches and her devotion to her true love Des Grieux (Reece Clarke), the alluring and capricious Manon (Natalia Osipova) pays the ultimate price. MacMillan's adaptation of Abbe Prevost's novel L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut?embodies his acute insight into human psychology and his mastery of narrative choreography. This is MacMillan at his best; finding full expression in the impassioned duets of the central couple, visceral and urgent in their desire.

Following the conventions of the Paris Opera, Giuseppe Verdi was also obliged to compose ballet music for the French premieres or first performances of his stage works. Between 1847 and 1894, he wrote a total of seven so-called divertissements, some extensive, for Jerusalem, Les vêpres siciliennes, Le trouvere, MacBeth, Don Carlos, Aida and Otello. With catchy melodies, lively, accentuated rhythms, descriptive sound effects and vivid gestures, but above all with incredibly colourful instrumentation, he succeeded in giving new impetus to the ballet music of his day. While the ballet music was generally omitted from productions of Verdi's operas for a long time - with the exception of Aida - it has recently been performed increasingly often and linked to the dramaturgy of the respective work. These beautiful, well-crafted pieces of music should no longer be withheld from the public. On the new double CD from BR-KLASSIK, the Munich Radio Orchestra and it's chief conductor Ivan Repusic present Verdi's complete ballet music. In 19th-century Italian operas, a ballet was not part of the composition but was performed either between the acts or after the opera performance - and was usually a work created by a ballet composer who had little or no connection to the operatic work in question. The strict convention at the Paris Opera, however, was that an extensive dance interlude had to be included as a divertissement in the third act of a grand opera. So if an Italian opera composer wanted to have his works performed in Paris (and who would not, given the international importance of that great opera house in Europe's leading musical metropolis), ballet music had to be provided as well. In the case of works originally written for the Paris Opera, the ballet was included in the French-language libretto from the outset, and ballet music also had to be newly added to all existing works as well. Italian opera composers such as Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi were hardly ever enthusiastic about this French preference for extensive dance interludes in the third act, but they had to bow to convention. Verdi's ballet music for Les vêpres siciliennes (Les quatre saisons - The Four Seasons) and Jerusalem was the most extensive he created. In the dance sequence composed for Le trouvere, which utilises musical material from the gypsy scenes, he created a close musical and dramaturgical link with the stage action. He composed extensive ballet music for MacBeth to illustrate the Hecate scenes of Shakespeare's drama. In the third act of Don Carlos, a Ballet de la Reine entitled La Peregrina is performed in Queen Elisabeth's gardens to celebrate the coronation anniversary of the Spanish King Philip the following day. And for the premiere of Aida in Cairo, there were no obligations regarding the design of the dance interludes, which is why Verdi probably came closest to his ideal of linking the dances as directly as possible to the opera's plot. His shortest ballet music, with oriental-sounding dances, was composed for Otello.

French music specialist Jean-Luc Tingaud conducts the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in this album of favourites and rarities by Faure. Includes the first movement of the unfinished Violin Concerto, the prelude to the opera Penelope, Henri Rabaud's orchestration of the popular Dolly suite, and more.

The Requiem "composed for no particular purpose...", as Gabriel Faure wrote, was performed for the first time in the Madeleine Church in Paris on 16 January 1888, "for the funeral of some parishioner"! It is this original performance version, without the Offertory and the Libera me, with accompaniment provided only by a string ensemble (violas, cellos and double bass), organ and harp, that is presented here in a world premiere recording. The Messe des pêcheurs de Villerville (1881), composed in Normandy in collaboration with Andre Messager, is far removed from the solemnities of the great Parisian church; it's original version was written for women's voices with harmonium and violin accompaniment. The Choeur de Chambre de Namur invites us to return to these origins as we mark the centenary of Gabriel Faure's death in 1924.

Giuseppe Verdi wanted his seventh opera to be passionate, fiery and action-packed, and he wanted a real prima donna to take centre stage. He found the ideal subject in one of the most famous female figures in world history: Joan of Arc. Verdi was highly satisfied with Temistocle Solera's libretto. It was, he wrote in August 1844, 'almost of an unusual beauty'. In fact, the title role brings a special radiance to the opera, which is not necessarily one of the composer's most prominent roles on the repertoire today. However, it was celebrated by the premiere audience, and the day after the premiere Verdi wrote to his friend Francesco Maria Piave: 'Without exception and without doubt, it is the best of my operas'. A few successful performances followed, but then the work faded into the shadows of Verdi's later, even more famous operas. It is high time to bring it back to light!

Teatro La Fenice has a tradition of opera production that goes back to 1792. This collection brings all of the live atmosphere and drama of six operatic masterpieces from a theatre that has seen more than it's fair share of historic premieres. This set includes the 19th-century romance of Bizet's Les pecheurs de perles, the intense drama of Verdi's Luisa Miller, Britten's hauntingly understated Death In Venice, Massenet's tragic tale of love and redemption in Thaïs, Wagner's final opera Parsifal and Korngold's Die tote Stadt, one of the great operatic successes of the 1920s. An entire century's worth of opera can be seen and heard in these acclaimed productions from Venice's legendary venue.

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce a revelatory new perspective on Georges Bizet's much-loved L'Arlesienne with the re-issue of his complete stage music for Alphonse Daudet's play and a new dramatization of Daudet's original short story by Jon Tolansky. First staged in 1872, L'Arlesienne is, as Tolansky remarks in his illuminating notes, an "evocative and poignant tale about broken love set in a small Provençal community". One that inspired Bizet "to compose some of the most heartrendingly poignant tones he ever created". More familiar in the two Suites extracted from the theatrical score, L'Arlesienne is heard here in it's original, complete version, reconstructed by Dominique Riffaud in a rare, 1985 recording by Orfeon Donostiarra and Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Michel Plasson. A bonus track features a new adaptation of Daudet's short story, dramatized and narrated by Tolansky, and illustrated by musical excerpts from Bizet's incidental music. The Minuetto from L'Arlesienne was featured on SOMM's Favourite Orchestral Classics by the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Iain Sutherland (ARIADNE 5012), hailed "an exquisite collection" by Classical Music Daily, while two pieces from Carmen were given a mischievous jazz treatment on the Art Deco Trio's Classical Changes (SOMMCD 0663), declared by Gramophone as "exemplary". A noted, widely published and broadcast music commentator and documentary maker, Jon Tolansky's previous SOMM collaborations include Mahler Pioneers (SOMM Ariadne 5022-2), hailed as "a major addition to the catalogue" by OperaWire, and the International Classical Music Award-nominated Serge Koussevitzky Conducts the London Philharmonic - Live (SOMM Ariadne 5017-2). More recently his exclusive interview with Ian Partridge was featured in the Gramophone Editor's Choice release of the tenor's Schubert songs accompanied by his sister, Jennifer Partridge, Stimme Der Liebe (SOMMCD 0670).

Romain Descharmes is one of the foremost French pianists of his generation. This album of concertante works includes Poulenc's alluring and seductive Piano Concerto and Faure's Ballade in F sharp minor. Descharmes is also the soloist in the complete Saint-Saens Piano Concertos on 8.573476-78.

Eloise Bella Kohn is a rare artist: eclectic pianist, record producer, festival founder, committed to intercultural dialogue, her passion for music, dance and literature drives a creativity that nourishes her universe from baroque music to contemporary repertoire. Eloise Bella Kohn is one of the most promising artists on today's classical music scene, and performs all over the world in prestigious concert halls and festivals.

Karl Bohm and the Staatskapelle of Dresden Historical Recordings 1937, 1939, 1942 "I headed the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden for nine years - the most wonderful and meaningful time of my life", wrote Karl Bohm in 1973 for the 425th anniversary of the orchestra. He was forty years of age in 1934, when he moved up the Elbe from Hamburg to assume direction of the Dresden State Orchestra and Opera. There, his sensitive yet dramatic style of conducting, his vigour and intellectual resilience, his feel for classical form and unerring sense of tempo (not to mention his strict discipline and utterly infallible hearing) very soon won the respect and trust of the musicians and singers in his charge; they did after all represent one of the best orchestras and most capable opera ensembles in Europe. Every season, Bohm conducted nearly all the Staatskapelle concerts and about 70 opera performances, setting new standards above all in the Mozart, Wagner and Strauss repertoire (including the world premieres of Die Schweigsame Frau and Daphne, the latter work being dedicated to him). In this extraordinarily extensive activity, he set his stamp on the ensemble, whose guest performances confirmed it's international ranking. Even in his first year in Dresden, he made recordings in the Semperoper, which always had to be especially prepared for the purpose. They included numerous individual symphonic works and items from opera, as well as lavish projects that were technically difficult to record at the time.

Mandy Fredrich's album brings together a series of art songs that create coherent arcs and longer storylines like a kind of mini-opera. The composers' songs were used to put together four stories about lovers, all of which revolve around the theme of dream happiness in all it's different facets! After her breakthrough in the role of the Queen of the Night at the Salzburg Festival under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, engagements followed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the New National Theatre in Tokyo, the Zurich Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the State Operas in Munich and Hamburg and at the Bregenz Festival. Matthias Samuil has been Mandy Fredrich's accompanist for many years.

Tenor Charles Castronovo celebrates his first Delos solo album with an all Verdi programme which showcases the composer's spellbinding use of theatrical devices. Noble Renegades offers a collection of complete scenes from operas such as Don Carlos, Luisa Miller and I Lombardi which encompass the emotional arc the protagonists experience as the story unfolds, very much epitomizing Verdi's vision of opera as a true "operatic theater". This album shows Verdi's profound influence on Charles's career, featuring roles he has performed all over the world. He is accompanied by "the singer's dream collaborator" Constantine Orbelian and his Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. Distinguished singers Kristin Sampson, Tomas Pavilionis and Tadas Girininkas, as well as the Kaunas State Choir join in.

While Faure's Requiem is a monument of French sacred music, Gounod's Messe de Clovis is much less well known. It was composed from 1891 onwards as a tribute to Clovis who, like Joan of Arc, had become an iconic figure after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. The two works share a reflective and intimate character that gives the impression of a return to the purity of Gregorian chant, although this does not detract from the jubilant character of Faure's Requiem: "this warm, luxuriant sound leads to an elevation of the spirit", says Herve Niquet. The work is recorded here in it's 1893 version, in an orchestration that uses neither violins nor woodwind; a later version with full orchestra was published in July 1900. O salutaris by Louis Aubert (1877-1968) for soprano, violin, harp, organ and choir and L'Adagio for violin and organ by Andre Caplet (1878-1925) complete this programme, a co-production with the Palazzetto Bru Zane and performed with fervour by the Concert Spirituel.