Vivantes brings together the Katok Ensemble, led by Paul Serri, and the Belgian composer Patrick Leterme for a programme conceived at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Charleroi. Spanning works by Maurice Ravel and Guillaume Lekeu, alongside a new composition for string quintet - Racines, Ailes, Brises - the music explores an organic connection to life, nourished by immersion in nature and the resonance of texts by George Sand, Romain Gary and Vinciane Despret. Leterme deploys a particularly precise style of composition, whose deliberate fragility transforms sensitivity itself into a form of resistance.

The idea for a series of recordings devoted to the music of Robert Schumann arose from Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret's work on the Sonatas for violin and piano, and from a desire to expand the project by exploring the rest of his chamber music as well as his concertos - for Schumann treats the orchestra in a very chamber-music-like manner in his concertante works. Following the complete chamber music of Johannes Brahms, recorded on the same label, Pierre and Theo decided to launch this Schumann Collection, with the support of their long-standing collaborators in the field of chamber music: the Strada Quartet, Victor Julien-Laferriere, Florent Pujuila, Philibert Perrine, Felix Roth, Caroline Sypniewski, Sarah Fouchenneret, and Hortense Cartier-Bresson. All are soloists, quartet players and chamber musicians who also perform with orchestras, driven by a shared passion for Schumann's music, which lends itself particularly well to a series of live albums: there is a warmth, an urgency and a passion in the concert experience that are essential to performing this music well. Each concert was recorded by the b. records team with a view to this ambitious complete collection that you now hold in your hands.

Les Chemins qui montent builds on Amel Brahim-Djelloul's first album dedicated to the Kabyle repertoire, giving it a new orchestral dimension. Thomas Keck has arranged songs by Idir, Djamel Allam, Djurdjura and Taos Amrouche, and set the poems of Rezki Rabia to music. Led by Benjamin Levy and the Cannes National Orchestra, the album presents these songs in a new light, enhanced by a focus on timbre, linguistic phrasing and rhythm. The ensemble reveals the timeless power of a repertoire that is perfectly at home in a symphonic concert.

Victor Julien-Laferriere and Consuelo continue their complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies with a triumphant double bill: the 'Eroica' Symphony, a grand epic that has left it's mark on the history of music, and the whirlwind Seventh, which Richard Wagner would go on to describe as 'the apotheosis of dance'.

Following Wendepunkt, Pierre Dumoussaud continues his epic through the twilight of German Romanticism: a seldom-performed three-part work by Max Reger, abundant with nocturnal hues and elfish dances, appears here alongside two of Gustav Mahler's major poetic cycles, sung by Aude Extrémo and Stéphane Degout. The Deauville Easter Festival Orchestra adopts an intimate chamber-style line-up which is characteristically Viennese, perfect for voices to murmur these tales of love and death into the listener's ear

This new b•records album sees the unclassifiable Jocelyn Mienniel (composer) and Fiona Monbet (musical director) collaborate on a resolutely hybrid reinterpretation of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, created during a residency at the Royaumont Foundation. Based on an original text by Olivier Cadiot, the creation combines a chamber orchestra, a jazz ensemble, traditional Chinese instruments, electronic music, a children's choir, and vocals, drawing on improvisation and literary cut-up techniques. This transfiguration reveals Das Lied von der Erde as a resolutely modern work, whose humanism unfolds with renewed intensity.

In this first volume of a trilogy dedicated to Beethoven, the Quatuor Dutilleux (Dutilleux Quartet) showcases works of the composer's youth, when he would "receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands," as Count Waldstein phrased it. Haydn's last quartet passes the baton to Beethoven's first quartet, with Mozart's monumental Adagio and Fugue acting as the "Statue of the Commander".

Ten years after their first album on b-records dedicated to Schubert's Winterreise, Nahuel di Pierro and Alphonse Cemin return with a more intimate programme, born from the intersection of their respective curiosities. From Debussy's Trois Ballades de François Villon to Piazzolla and Borges' Cuatro Canciones Portenas, they weave together the threads of France and Argentina's shared heritage, exploring the marginal figures of Buenos Aires who feed the imagination of tango and milonga, alongside Ravel's musical adaptation of Don Quixote. An epic journey across genres and continents, performed by two passionate interpreters of sung poetry.

Around a concert at the Singer-Polignac Foundation, the Ensemble Écoute celebrates ten years of creativity with a first monographic album devoted to the music of Alex Nante. Inaugurating a new b·records collection, this disc traces, between lyricism and spirituality, the evolution of a unique musical language carried by the long-standing complicity between the composer and the ensemble, through several chamber music formations reflecting the diversity and richness of his writing.

With this vinyl edition, the Xenakis Trio refocuses on two major pillars of it's repertoire: Iannis Xenakis and Steve Reich. Two distinct visions of contemporary percussion, brought together in a dialogue of materials, rhythms and resonances. Taken from their first album Alliages, these works take on a new dimension here: the warmth of vinyl restores all the density of the instrumental gesture, the grain of the timbre, the raw pulsation of the percussive sound. This edition is a field of resonance - a space where the tectonic forces of twentieth-century music combine with the artistic demands of a trio in search of the limits of sound.

Pierre Dumoussaud conducts a 'dream orchestra' comprised of chamber music players, regulars at Deauville's Easter Festival (Festival de Paques) in an unusual two-part work by Schonberg: the two "chamber symphonies," scores which are as teeming with detail as they are moving, attesting to the composer's soul-searching and experiences at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. In a string orchestra version, Langsamer Satz by Anton Webern, a student of Schonberg, adds all it's romantic fervour as a counterpoint.

Schubert's influence, the spirit of fantasy, and pictures from fairy tales are the common themes in this fifth volume of the Schumann Collection. For this great journey across the Schumannian realm, which starts off with one of his early works, the expansive Quartet for Piano and Strings WoO 32, and concludes with the twilight miniatures of Marchenerzahlungen (Fairytale Narrations), brothers Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret are still at the head of a fine team of chamber musicians bringing together long-time collaborators and great talents of the young generation.

Joseph Swensen offers an intimate and cosmic symphonic fresco in the form of the Saga Trilogy, captured on this b-records disc. Composed in the wake of the pandemic, this trilogy explores the composer's inner world like an ancestral legend waiting to be discovered. Performed by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the music draws on reminiscences of Messiaen and the poetic spirit of Hafiz. From the cosmic pulsation of Primordial Cosmos to the mythological clamour of the SAGA concerto and the spiritual light of Song of Infinity, allow yourself to be swept away by this vibrant and deeply rooted work, which exists on the border between the visible and the invisible.

Victor Julien-laferriere and his Consuelo Orchestra continue their complete works of Beethoven's symphonies with a second volume devoted to the famous diptych premiered on 22 December 1808: the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, so contrasting and yet so close. They have added the Eighth, premiered five years later and sometimes considered the little sister of the 'Pastoral', whose key is F major.

Suffering in an unhappy marriage, Woman yearns for a world beyond the boundaries of flesh and an existence outside of the conventions of human society. A secret young Lover's desire instigates an explosive metamorphosis, and Woman finds perfect release as a tree. Sivan Eldar composes with Like Flesh her first opera on a libretto by Cordelia Lynn, a poetic saga inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses. A new eco-feminist myth about our broken relationship with an environment in crisis, interpreted by Maxime Pascal and Le Balcon, and recorded by b records at Opera de Lille.

The Katok Ensemble was formed in 2019 by Paul Serri. For their first album "Le Temps suspendu" (Suspended Time), they have taken up the challenge of bringing together on a double CD Beethoven's String Quartet No 15 and Schubert's Quintet for Two Cellos. These two works complement each other in so many respects and heralded the Romantic Era which would follow. The recording made at the Katok Festival in Ardeche enables us to hear them from a fresh perspective.

Les Frivolites Parisiennes return to b-records with a revival of Le Dieu Bleu, a ballet by Michel Fokine which premiered in 1912, and whose music by Reynaldo Hahn had not been heard in France since then. This was an exceptional project performed with a full symphonic orchestra of more than seventy musicians. The live recording is a measure of their great attention to detail.

Leo Warynski and Les Metaboles present two little-known works on this new b-records disc that resonate across the centuries that separate them: the minimalist expressivity of Philip Glass's Another Look at Harmony - Part IV is matched by the cyclical perfection of an unpublished canon by Andrea Basily. The result of a residency at the Cite de la Voix as an associate ensemble, this program offers a resolutely modern and timeless approach to choral music.

Under the aegis of Veronique Gens and Susan Manoff, patrons of the 2024 edition of the Academie Orsay-Royaumont, four duos of young singers and pianists have put together a program whose history is woven by the interaction of pictorial and musical forms, from the Abbey to the museum. The masters of Lied and melody - Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy, Henri Duparc... - rub shoulders with lesser-known names such as Rebecca Clarke, Ivor Gurney and Isang Yun. This new b•records disc presents the fruits of their labor.

For the Fourth Volume of their Schumann Collection, Pierre and Theo Fouchenneret, along with their fellow musicians in Quatuor Strada, take us through the year 1842. It was a prolific period for the composer being the year of the three String Quartets, Opus 41, and the Quintet for Piano and Strings, Opus 44.

After her first b records album, the result of her residency at the Royaumont Foundation, Claudia Chan, ambassador of the contemporary pianistic repertoire, presents her new record dedicated to the Italian school. From the masters Salvatore Sciarrino and Sylvano Bussotti to the new generation led by Francesco Filidei, Simone Cardini and Giulia Lorusso, the performer reveals the richness of a national heritage marked by a free spirit and the sensuality of the sounds that resonate under her fingers, sometimes even before they activate the keys. A program with a high potential for discovery!

On the war cruiser Le Montesquieu, the unexpected arrival of a high commissioner accompanied by his daughter suddenly rocks the balance of the ship and the hearts of the sailors... What will happen to all this fine crew? You'll find out when you listen to Coups de roulis, a classic French musical exhumed by Les Frivolites Parisiennes with their characteristic blend of enthusiasm and high standards.

With this new b•records release, Victor Julien-laferriere and the Orchestre Consuelo lay the foundation for a titanic edifice: the complete nine symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven. Supported by the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, which lends the exceptional acoustics of it's abbey church, this four-year project marks a decisive step for the young orchestra of variable geometry. Composed mainly of chamber musicians, the ensemble forges a meticulous and passionate collective identity in this first opus dedicated to Symphonies no. 1, no. 2 and no. 4, which already bear witness to the search for comprehensibility and universality of language characteristic of Beethoven's symphonic corpus.

Magic Malik playing standards, that's surprising. But after a few bars, the quintet led by the flutist gives such a personal interpretation of these well-known themes that you get the feeling that this music has been with these five musicians for a very long time... In fact, everything Malik has played before (Fanfare XP, the legacy of Steve Coleman and M-Base, Guadeloupean ka, etc.) finds in these standards, the sublime and open foundation of Great Black Music, more than an echo: a new listening experience.

Long-time accomplices, the Messiaen and Xenakis trios join forces to perform an intimate and moving version of Dmitri Shostakovich's last symphony, and mirror the world premiere recording of Thierry Escaich's Vitrail, a spectacular fresco specially composed for the occasion.

Commissioned by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen at the suggestion of director Calixto Bieito, Les Bienveillantes is based on Jonathan Littell's novel, a harsh and monumental work in terms of it's length, subject, scope and depth - a bestseller in France, Grand Prix du roman de l'Academie francaise and Prix Goncourt, translated into over twenty languages - told in the first person by Maximilian Aue, a former SS officer. Together with Handl Klaus, who wrote the libretto, Hector Parra has achieved a musical, intellectual and human tour de force. These 3 b-records CDs, which inaugurate the new "Villa Medicis Live" collection, allow us to relive the extraordinary world premiere, bringing together a first-rate vocal team and the great conductor Peter Rundel.