After recording some of Bach's major works, Claire- Marie Le Guay continues her exploration of the boundless territories of the composer by taking a more intimate approach. The doors to these masterpieces are left ajar, and the pianist is modestly sketching the personal history of her relationship with Bach's music. She offers us the keys to a universe rich in colors and contrasts: a diversity that rhymes with eternity.
The dramatic tones of Celine Scheen's voice combine with the music of Philippe Pierlot's ensemble to reveal clearly in song the sentiments accompanying the life of the Virgin. A poignant musical portrait, constantly moving, is created through the medium of these baroque vocal and instrumental pieces. Tenderness, unease, joy and pain are all sublimated in this most beautifully textured sound, the unique, secret gift of the musicians of the Ricercar Consort.
The Quatuor Ellipsos tells us a family story through four iconic works firmly ingrained in the collective unconscious: Carmen, Casse-Noisette, West Side Story and Rhapsody in Blue. Like a small-scale symphonic orchestra, in a spirit bordering on that of chamber music, they invite three great pianists, Marie-Josephe Jude, Charles Heisser and Jean-Frederic Neuburger. With the coruscating arrangements we are immersed into the innumerable timbres of their saxophones in association with the piano.
A sound alchemist, Maurice Ravel recreated his own works for piano in orchestral versions that soon brought them universal acclaim. Jean-Francois Heisser, a disciple of Vlado Perlemuter, is now part of a Ravelian genealogy imbued with elegance and emotion. Conducted from the piano, in collusion with the musicians of the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine (OCNA), the Piano Concerto in G major revives the Mozartean tradition so dear to the composer.
This album reveals the multiple facets of love according to Liszt - carnal, spiritual and divine all at once - from the prophetic masterpieces of his youth to the vast canvases of maturity. Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude and the Sonata in B minor mark his crowning achievement, anticipating the piano music of the modern era. Tanguy de Williencourt displays all the ardour and faith these remarkable works call for.
During his travels, Mozart often needed new pieces. In Mannheim, for example, he composed the Sonata in C major for the thirteen-year-old Rosa Cannabich, and later, in Linz, the Sonata in B flat, presumably as a concert piece for himself. These two brilliant sonatas are played here by Jerome Hantai on an original fortepiano of the late eighteenth century, similar to those by Stein that Mozart loved so much, and accompanied by the three wonderful rondos for piano of 1786/87. "Clarity, tranquillity, grace: the hallmark of the works of art of Antiquity is also that of the Mozartian school", wrote Schumann.
Between 1876 and 1878, two masterpieces were created in the midst of a wave of nationalism sweeping Europe. Distressed by tragic events, Grieg and Smetana turned to the string quartet, a form hitherto rare in their output, as a means of expressing their turbulent emotions. Through the communion of sixteen strings, the composers retrace the story of their lives, producing two quartets with an infinitely personal dimension and unprecedented emotional power.
What is so astonishing in Scarlatti is how external elements gradually permeate his language, make it develop, affect the very structure of the discourse, and give birth to a new way of thinking and seeing. For over 20 years, Pierre Hantai has selected and recorded 100 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, published on 6 albums between 2002 and 2019. This box set brings them together for the greatest pleasure of harpsichord lovers.
Violonist MI-Sa Yang and pianist Adam Laloum present a program that mirrors four composers of different sensitivities who, in their confrontation with the second Vienna School's radical theories, have each sought in a genuine, personal way, to provide an alternative solution to the problems raised by the evolution of the musical language.
From the mid-seventeenth century to the first two decades of the eighteenth century, Rome experienced one of the most brilliant musical periods in it's history. In this recording, the Ensemble Jacques Moderne performs works composed for a Vespers service, one of the principal moments of the Liturgy of the Hours, which consisted of a sequence of psalms and antiphons concluding with a Magnificat.
Inspired by the great Romantic works of the piano trio repertoire, Trio Nebelmeer - named after the emblematic painting by Caspar David Friedrich - embark on a joint exploration of a turmoiled romanticism. Composed ten years apart by two composers with a 20 year age difference, the trios for piano, violin and cello featuring in this album epitomize the quintessence of French Romantic music of the late 19th century.
Four years after the superb 'Membra Jesu Nostri', the Ricercar Consort once again turns to Buxtehude. The majority of the cantatas in this recording are centred on Christ's Passion and Resurrection. With the both dramatic and comforting sounds of his cantatas, Buxtehude succeeded in shifting the focus from human suffering to divine help, thus giving people a foretaste of heavenly harmony and perfection.
How is viola da gamba literature hidden in keyboard music during the reign of Louis XIV in France? Recit, Salome Gasselin's first album, explores this forgotten practice at a time when the viola da gamba was just becoming a solo instrument in France.
Three years after a superb 'Dumky' acclaimed by the critics, the Trio Karenine revisits Dvorak. His epic Trio No.3, combining Brahmsian inspiration with strains of Mitteleuropa, is heard here alongside two 'little' works by Suk: the early Trio Op.2, polished under the guidance of Dvorak himself, and a poignant elegy in memory of the great Czech man of letters Zeyer. This is the very heart of Bohemia.
The first half of the twentieth century marks the birth of three masterpieces for violin and piano, each bearing the traits of it's author and echoing the thriving creativity of the time. Aylen Pritchin and Lukas Geniusas lead us through this mesmerizing exploration that extends from Debussy's evocative power to Stravinsky's modernism, without neglecting the nostalgic gaze of Hahn. Behold a sublime panorama of the rich and turbulent years of a musical France.
Geister Duo take their name from Robert Schumann's last piano work, the Geistervariationen, whose theme Brahms, a close friend of the Schumanns, used to compose his own Variations Op.23 for piano four hands. This recording proposes a bridge between these two composers. The record is rounded out with Dvorak's Bohemian Forests (Aus Dem Bohmerwalde). A relatively unknown work, it is for the duo, a masterpieces full of folk inspiration and rich in a variety of colors of the twilight of the 19th century.
As a young chorister, the fourteen-year-old Franz Schubert penned his first string quartets, a genre that he would continue to explore until the last years of his life. Fifteen quartets, of remarkable originality and bewitching lyricism, entered into history, bearing at once the legacy of the Classical Era and a vision of the future. These works are marked by the tides of life - disillusion, illness, but also the flourishing of a magisterial mind. "The communion with a confidential soul, the discovery of indescribable colors, the admiration of a remarkable message whose ideas never cease to evolve and inspire... This is part of a distinctive journey that will leave an everlasting mark upon us. The recording of the Octet two years ago was just the initial building block of a project dear to us, one that we now see fulfilled through this immersion dedicated to Schubert."
A New York Times Top 25 Classical Track Choice for 2020
A European bestseller in their time, Händel’s 1720 suites are far from having regained, in concert and on disc, the eminent place they once held. Does the fault lie with the anathema pronounced by the ‘pope’ Gustav Leonhardt, who always openly shunned Händel? With the man himself, a startling virtuoso, but keener to compose for the opera? With recordings that are often pleasant but rarely showcase the strongest personalities of their generation?
Three decades after the exceptional Scott Ross, Pierre Hantaï in his turn is determined to rehabilitate Händel the harpsichord composer.
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REVIEW:
Handel’s eight suites for harpsichord have sometimes been viewed more or less as training exercises. Pierre Hantaï, known for his vivid Scarlatti, dispels the slightly derogatory preconceptions with suave danciness and lucid touch.
Schubert's Octet for strings and winds bears witness to a new creative force during a dark chapter of the composer's life, when he was haunted by illness. Powerfully imaginative, interweaving joy and apprehension, the work pays homage to Beethoven's septet while revealing a poetic and lyrical language in which the dawn of Romanticism emerges. For this recording, the Modigliani Quartet is joined by soloists Sabine Meyer, Bruno Schneider, Dag Jensen and Knut Erik Sundquist.
Around the Tombeau Les Regrets by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, Mirare has collected here several of the finest pieces by the 'Orpheus of our time,' along with transcriptions for three viols modeled on the concerts he gave with his daughters. Performers include Philippe Pierlot, Lucila Boulanger and Myriam Rignol on viols and Rolf Lislevand accompanying on theorbo.
