Analekta
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HANDEL: Alcina / Agrippina (Excerpts)
Der Prinz / Montreal Guitar Trio
Infernal Violins / Angèle Dubeau, La Pietà
This package includes 1 CD and a DVD.
SONATES POUR VIOLON, OP. 20
Milot, Valerie: Revelation
MONTREAL JAZZ CLUB SESSION 1
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; Shostakovich: Preludes Op. 87 / Maute, Ensemble Caprice
John Adams - Portrait / Angele Dubeau, La Pieta
A new release from Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà is always something to look forward to – this time playing the music of John Adams. Here is an ensemble that gives listeners that rare, giddy feeling of expectation as when one realizes at the start of a good book or movie: "This is going to be good!"
Blanc / Angele Dubeau, La Pieta
After a fight against cancer, the French-Canadian violinist Angèle Dubeau has produced an album of beautiful contemporary pieces that are linked by their common evocation of light and peace - all works that she says have personally helped her through her illness.
The album consists of 14 pieces from 12 different composers including international movie maestros - Ennio Morricone, Joe Hisaishi and Ryuichi Sakamato - and such varied genres as jazz and folk, as exemplified by the music of Dave Brubeck and Cat Stevens.
Angèle Dubeau is a sensational violinist and the selection here is serene and heartfelt. She is ably accompanied by her all-female string ensemble La Pietà, who turn "Morning Has Broken" into a rolling, pastoral rhapsody.
– classicfm.com
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"Blanc like purity, serenity. Blanc for light music which, by their size and their evocative power, can bring inner peace. Of emotions on skin that reflect this strange loneliness qu'amène disease. After months of struggle against cancer, music has help me stay on track, music brought me comfort, tranquility and often Escape necessary. These songs, which are those of Brubeck, Dompierre, Golijov, Hisaishi, Morricone, Mozetich, Munsey, O'Connor, Phillips, Sakamoto, Schyman and Stevens. Musical moments without artifice, true and hopeful. This album tells a story, my story, that of a woman who, like so many others had to fight against the disease, and serenely grown spring." – Angele Dubeau
Immersion / Angèle Dubeau
“An album that features composers whose music speaks deeply to me. Music in which I have found a refuge and a wellspring of goodness. Music that is sometimes imbued with finesse, or even purity, fragility, or with meditative gentleness and that can provide an introspection into one's emotions. An IMMERSION in oneself.” (Angèle Dubeau) Angèle Dubeau has pursued a career as a classical musician for over 40 years and has played in as many countries, always with the same passion, zest and generosity. Beyond her virtuosity as a musician, this exceptional woman has other qualities that have earned her a special place in the hearts of her audiences. While her virtuosity and musicality have won over critics, audiences adore Angèle Dubeau for her captivating music, her uncommon gift as a communicator, her generosity, and her outstanding ability to connect with listeners. She has garnered many awards over the years, and she is one of the few classical violinists in the world to earn gold records. She has sold over 600,000 albums over her career, and works from her discography have been streamed over 100 million times in over 100 countries.
Saint-Saens & Tchaikovsky / Gabel, Tetreault, Quebec Symphony
When German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen—a colleague of Tchaikovsky’s at the Moscow Conservatory who took part in the premieres of three of the latter’s string quartets—received the Variations on a Rococo Theme in 1877, which he had commissioned from Tchaikovsky, he immediately took it on tour.
Quickly realizing how deeply moving audiences found the third variation, “Andante” (they frequently applauded it), Fitzenhagen decided to rework the score by moving this variation to the end and rewriting certain transitions. Tchaikovsky was unaware of this until the work was published in 1889.
Although outraged, the composer let the publication stand, and Tchaikovsky’s original version would not be heard again before 1941; indeed, most cellists did not start playing the original version until the late 1970s.
Chopin: Sonate No. 3 - Polonaise-Fantaisie - Nocturnes
Mendelssohn: String Quartet, Op. 44, Nos. 1,2
Trios for Violin, Cello & Harp / Bareil, Tetreault, Milot
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REVIEWS:
Focused primarily on French music from the first half of the 20th century, this album reveals the subtle blend of sonorities formed by the harp, cello, and violin through the trios of Jacques Ibert and Henriette Renié. The exploration of this period continues with Danse des lutins, an acrobatic work for harp by Renié. Violinist Antoine Bareil and Cellist Stéphane Tétreault then perform the dazzling Passacaglia by Handel/Halvorsen, before harpist Valérie Milot re-joins the trio for a sweet, introspective finale in the form of a Schubert lied arranged for these forces.
– WFMT 98.7FM (Chicago, IL)
The Ibert trio, beautifully crafted, entertaining, light but not superficial, is an equally apt description of the ensemble itself. Written during wartime, it features an ethereal opening Allegro, a quite beautiful Andante and rather unusually, a Scherzo(ando) to finish, which is motoric and virtuosic.
The work for trio by the little-known Henriette Renié is a most pleasant surprise; it's well sustained in its invention, with considerable passion and drama considering the lack of presence of a piano. It is undeniably French, but it has an unexpected Germanic strength to it.
– MusicWeb International
SCHUMANN, R.: Davidsbundlertanze, Op. 6 / Piano Sonata No. 1
20 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6
Bach: Complete Obbligato Harpsichord Sonatas Vol 2 / Soly
Portrait: Max Richter / Dubeau, La Pieta
Max Richter is one of the most influential composers of his generation. Inspired by Bach, punk rock and ambient electronic music, he has composed works for more than 50 films, including Waltz for Bashir, Shutter Island by Martin Scorcese and Arrival by Denis Villeneuve, as well as HBO's The Leftovers television series.
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REVIEW:
The playing and recording standards are absolutely top-notch. It’s essentially easy, pleasant – and, yes, introspective – listening that will be warmly welcomed by Dubeau’s many regular admirers.
– The Whole Note
Philip Glass - Portrait / Dubeau, La Pieta
The French-Canadian string ensemble La Pietà - all female, in case you hadn’t guessed - and their leader Angèle Dubeau present what is essentially a sampler of the accessible, more recent Glass. Does that mean it will only appeal for someone wishing to hesitantly dip their toe into the Glass pool and be of no interest to the Glass aficionado? Definitely not - the works are all complete as long as you count overtures and opening credits as individual pieces. Some lesser known pieces are included and the performances and acoustics are excellent.
The overture for the “multimedia opera project” La Belle et al Bête (Beauty and the Beast) for piano and strings is the most dramatic and up-tempo music on the disc and gets proceedings off to a fine start. You can see the whole piece performed by Dubeau and La Pietà on Youtube.
I regard the score for The Hours as one of the finest ever written, and this concerto-style arrangement by long-time Glass collaborator Michael Reisman allows a greater continuity than the original itself allows.
I hadn’t heard The Secret Agent film-score before, and based on this haunting cello-dominated extract, I went searching for the complete music, which is available on Nonesuch and I am ordering it as I write. Echorus was written for Yehudi Meuhin and the sleeve-notes describe it as akin to a Baroque chaconne, and quotes Philip Glass “it is meant to evoke feelings of serenity and peace”, which it certainly achieves.
Mishima and Company are respectively string quartets 3 and 2, presented here in their string orchestra versions. The former is more sombre, the latter dominated by the archetypal Glass motoric rhythms and the final eponymously titled movement of Mishima is quite beautiful. The disc ends as it began with piano joining the strings for the elegiac Closing, from Glassworks, and one of the first compositions intended to broaden the audience for Glass’s music.
Detractors will say that there is little variation in atmosphere through the fifteen tracks on the disc, and that is true. However, as I said at the start, you already know that with this composer. In fact, the very constancy of the music’s mood makes this a recording that works at two different levels. Listen to it intently and you are rewarded by glorious melodies and the subtle variations that are his stock-in-trade, or have it playing in the background and soothe your troubled soul.
Suffice to say in conclusion that this is one of the best CDs I have bought this year.
-- David J Barker, MusicWeb International
CZERNY: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 3 / Funeral March, Op. 146
Ovation / Dubeau, La Pieta
Recorded live in concert, this album features works by Ludovico Einaudi, Max Richter, Philip Glass, Ennio Morricone, George Enescu, Joe Hisaichi, Camille Saint-Saens and Srul Irving Glick. Angèle Dubeau writes of this release: “’Music must not be the prerogative of the elite, it belongs to everyone.’ These words by Telemann have been my motto for a very long time. I like to think that music should be shared with as many people as possible, and it was in this spirit that I developed the concert program “One Last Time”, performed 33 times in Canada in the fall of 2017 and then on tour in Latin America in the winter of 2018. This album, recorded live at Quebec City’s Palais Montcalm in November 2017, features some of the most striking works that La Pietà has performed during its 21 years of existence. I gave my first concert at the age of five, and 51 years later, I would like to say “thank you,” because after all these years, what fills me with joy is knowing that my music is there with you, both in your everyday life and in the special moments. Thank you for all of these experiences. Enjoy!”
Moods - Surrounding Yourself with Classical Music
Live: Beethoven, Enescu, Chopin / Richard-Hamelin
But the highlight for me was Enescu’s Second Suite. I have to confess this was new to be—but what a piece! Everywhere, he displays a strong sense of narrative, making him a compelling storyteller. Captured in a warmly immediate recording, Richard-Hamelin is a welcome new voice on the pianistic firmament.
– Gramophone
Pax - Gregorian Chants / Les Moines De L'abbaye De St. Benoit
Here we have a recording made originally in 1996. Interestingly, though the monastic community dates from 1912 the buildings are more recent. The church was only built a few years before this recording.
The title of the disc is Pax and peace seems to be the general theme of the texts. It open with the antiphon In viam pacis and continues with a selection of introits whose theme is peace, ranging from Give peace, o Lord, to the familiar Christmas passage about the Prince of Peace.
The disc is structured very roughly around the mass, but with individual elements multiplied up so a group of introits are followed by the Gloria; then three graduals and then three alleluias, Agnus Dei and communion; with finally a selection of hymns and responses. The CD booklet sets out a short but illuminating discussion about how the individual items fit into the theological journey which the monks have constructed. And it is in theological terms rather than purely musical ones that this disc should be seen. The chant here is not sung as a concert, but to evoke an act of worship with the music being purely a vehicle for the theological expression of the text.
Rather frustratingly the CD booklet includes little detailed information about when exactly in the church year individual items would be sung. And there are no printed texts, which makes following the theological argument difficult unless one happens to possess a missal or a gradual.
And what of the singing? Well, it is certainly characterful. The monks choir does not sound exceptionally large and the solo voices are distinctive and individually expressive. This is a sincere reflection of the music of a community, rather than new age background music.
You will find this music better sung elsewhere, but what this disc does convey is a reflection of a community who sing this music every day.
-- Robert Hugill, MusicWeb International
