A household word when speaking of repertoire, legendary flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal devoted just as much effort to establishing the masterpieces in their rightful place as to unearthing countless works from the baroque, classical and romantic eras. As far as concertos are concerned, cornerstones by Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi thus gained worldwide fame, and it went the same way for Ibert, Jolivet and Nielsen. Unfailing lyric sense, purity of style, magnificent tone, grace of phrasing, fabulous virtuosity, tremendous commitment... Critics, colleagues and the public were all running out of superlatives. Immediately valued as references, his recordings still fascinate and often leave the listener exhilarated. This 12 CD set tries the challenge of surrounding these marvels with some of the most dazzling rediscoveries, offering famous and less famous music, but equally glorious interpretations.

Arthur Honegger's song output falls into two distinct periods. The first spans his apprentice years from 1914 - the date of the first of the 4 Poemes H.7 - to 1924. He returned to art song on the eve of the Second World War, and Eleni-Lydia Stamellou sings two further sets of songs originally conceived as film accompaniments. In the 4 Poems there is a Debussyan turn to the harmony which mirrors the symbolist flavour of the text. More distinct from the model of Debussy is the album's title track, 'Petite Chapelle', with it's avowedly spiritual character. Honegger conceived his 3 Poemes de Paul Fort in the autumn of 1916. Here the relationship between music and text is more directly illustrative, as in the distant hunting horns to accompany the hunter lost in the forest. From February 1917, Nature morte stands alone as a musical still-life, a brief sketch of a bowl of peaches and white grapes. No less epigrammatic, but more musically adventurous as befitting the text, are Honegger's settings of the 6 Poemes d'Apollinaire which he composed between August 1915 and March 1917. But, for all Apollinaire's influence over the composers of 'Les Six' - Honegger included - Jean Cocteau was far more instrumental in determining their aesthetic aims. And though it was Apollinaire who had coined sur-realisme in response to seeing the premiere of Satie's ballet Parade in 1917, this new, mischievous spirit courses through Honegger's deft settings of Cocteau. Honegger makes a sincere tribute to one of France's most celebrated Renaissance-era poets in the Chanson de Ronsard from February 1924. From 1926, the 3 Chansons de La Petite Sirene feature whole-tone rising harmonies in the opening song, and the even briefer companions uphold a Satie-like inscrutability. At this point, Honegger continued in vocal music (operas, operettas and oratorio) but left song alone. However, in 1937, his soundtrack to Jean Choux 'talkie' remake of Louis Mercanton's 1920 silent film Miarka, la fille � l'ourse afforded an opportunity to write two brief songs. Eleni Lydia Stamellou's recital closes with another pair of songs written for the cinema, the Romances sentimentales for Un seul amour, a story by Balzac very loosely adapted for the screen by Pierre Blanchar. In a genre all their own are the settings of 3 Psaumes, which Honegger composed in occupied Paris over the winter of 1940/1. The sound of the organ underpins the Bachian flow accompanying Psalm 34 and the misty F minor chords beneath Psalm 140, even if the vocal line itself harks back to Honegger's song-writing of the 1920s. Other information: - Recorded April-December 2024 in St Petersburg, Russia - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Peter Quantrill and profiles of the musicians - Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) was a Swiss composer associated with the French musical movement Les Six. Known for his eclectic style, he blended elements of French impressionism, German romanticism, and modernist techniques. While Honegger is best known for his orchestral works, such as Pacific 231 and Jeanne d'Arc au b�cher, his vocal compositions show a more intimate and lyrical side of his artistry. - Honegger's songs reflect his deep sensitivity to poetry and text, setting works by prominent French poets like Paul Fort and Jean Cocteau. His melodies for voice and piano exhibit rich harmonic textures and expressive phrasing, demonstrating both refinement and emotional depth. Unlike his orchestral pieces, which can be complex and rhythmically driven, his songs favor clarity and directness, allowing the poetry to shine through. - Greek soprano Eleni Lydia Stamellou was Prize Winner at the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition in Austria, with Dame Joan Sutherland as the president of the jury. She subsequently attended masterclasses given by Teresa Berganza, Edda Moser and Christa Ludwig. She sang in opera productions with MusicAeterna conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Her specialization is Renaissance/Baroque and Contemporary Music. She sang in productions of Berio and Hersant.

Gripping, highly emotional interpretations of the symphonies of one of the most famous and important composers of the 20th century.

QUATRE POEMES, H.7 TRIOIS POE

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Arthur Honegger’s seven-part La Danse des Morts, the music of which he composed to words by the French dramatist and poet Paul Claudel who he’d previously collaborated with for the oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, forms a sort of huge “ascension”: the first four parts provide the human basis, God replies in Part Five, followed by Faith in the Cross and the Lord’s promise to the children of Israel (Affirmation). Two earlier orchestral works, the Pastorale d’eté (1920) and the Nocturne (1936), complete the disc. Henri Vachey conducts Le jeune orchestre symphonique de Douai.

Trotschel / Fischer / Ludwig / Schneider / Fricsay / RIAS Symphonie Orchester.

Classical Music

St�phane Den�ve, Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) leads his orchestra on this recording in interpretations of the music of French composer Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), works that count among Honegger's best known, including his Second and Third (the 'Liturgique') Symphonies, Rugby and Pacific 231, the latter two works brief bursts of considerable energy and impact. Honegger's mingling at the outer edges of the "Les Six" group of composers and his admiration, in this sense contradictory, of German music, including Wagner, gives his works peculiar piquancy.

Classical Music

"This is the fourth production on the Sinfonieorchester Basel's in-house label, established in 2012. Renowned American conductor and pianist Dennis Russell Davies has been the orchestra's principal conductor since 2009. Honegger's Second Symphony (‘Symphonie liturgique’), completed in 1941 and premiered by Paul Sacher in 1942, follows the dramatic and emotional symphonic tradition of Beethoven, but in its form and spirit, hues towards the style of Haydn or Mozart."

LE ROI DAVID

The Basel Symphony Orchestra numbers among Switzerland's leading musical ensembles with some 100 highly qualified and highly motivated musicians. For decades it has produced a wide array of highlights under the batons of such conductors as Felix Weingartner, Hans Munch, Moshe Atzmon, Matthias Bamert, Gary Bertini, Pierre Boulez, Armin Jordan, Nello Santi, Mario Venzago and Walter Weller. It's CD recordings of the music of Robert Schumann, Maurice Ravel, Klaus Huber, Luigi Nono and Othmar Schoeck have received great international acclaim and many awards including Germany's Golden Tuning Fork.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This new release, the 14th volume in the esteemed Thomas Jensen series, includes previously unpublished broadcasts of 20th-century music, not only by figures closely associated with Thomas Jensen such as Carl Nielsen and Niels Viggo Bentzon, but also Ole Schmidt and Gunnar Berg, who wrote outside the Danish mainstream. Jensen's catholic taste and sympathy with diverse strands in European modernism is attested by his careful shaping of masterpiece by Henze, Honegger and Prokofiev.

Honegger by Honegger: historic recordings from 1929 to 1947. In the third leg of our pilgrimage in search of long lost sound, we brought down the from the shelves of the abundant archives of the Discothèque Centrale de Radio France, a series of recordings related to the composer, director and pianist Arthur Honegger. The was engravings of the 'Rugby' or 'Pacific. 2.3.1' symphonic movements are famous (or at least known...) but music and record lovers will notice in this new volume in the collection «Pêcheurs de perles» this rare Decca version of Symphony No.3 «Liturgique? under the direction of the author. Also to be discovered are fifteen rare melodies, presented and sung her by voices chosen by Honegger, all the more interesting since the composer himself sat at the piano. These are tones from the past in moving and ideal live interpretations. A priceless witness of Arthur Honegger's way of thinking about music.

Also available on CD

Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher, written by the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger in 1938, is a fascinating oratorio. The text by Paul Claudel is constructed like a flashback, in which Joan looks back over her life just before she dies.

Marion Cotillard plays Joan with an intensity and sincerity that leap from the screen. The last moments of the martyr’s life, illustrated by the evocative and innovative music of Honegger, resound like a heartrending cry. With an exceptional cast of performers, this live recording offers a gripping new version of one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century music.

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REVIEWS:

Cotillard movingly captures Jeanne's wildly contrasting moods while Xavier Gallas is consoling yet determined in supporting her. Most impressive of all, though, are the searing choral contributions that are convincing in their heartfelt gallic fervor, from an oppressed people, via baying crowd to angelic host.

– BBC Music Magazine

Cotillard marvelously captures Jeanne's innocence, toughness and terrifying doubts; Gallais is compassionate, tender, and at times tellingly fierce. The impact is immeasurably heightened on DVD by our being able to see both the sorrowing beauty of Gallais's face and the extraordinary way Cotillard's eyes let us know exactly what is going on in Jeanne's mind and soul.

– Gramophone

Also available on DVD

Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher, written by the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger in 1938, is a fascinating oratorio. The text by Paul Claudel is constructed like a flashback, in which Joan looks back over her life just before she dies.

Marion Cotillard plays Joan with intensity and sincerity. The last moments of the martyr’s life, illustrated by the evocative and innovative music of Honegger, resound like a heartrending cry. With an exceptional cast of performers, this live recording offers a gripping new version of one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century music.

-----

REVIEWS:

Cotillard movingly captures Jeanne's wildly contrasting moods while Xavier Gallas is consoling yet determined in supporting her. Most impressive of all, though, are the searing choral contributions that are convincing in their heartfelt gallic fervor, from an oppressed people, via baying crowd to angelic host.

– BBC Music Magazine

Cotillard marvelously captures Jeanne's innocence, toughness and terrifying doubts; Gallais is compassionate, tender, and at times tellingly fierce. The impact is immeasurably heightened on DVD by our being able to see both the sorrowing beauty of Gallais's face and the extraordinary way Cotillard's eyes let us know exactly what is going on in Jeanne's mind and soul.

– Gramophone

The Prospero Trio – Jana Vander Schaaf Ross (violin), Nick Ross (piano), Wesley Baldwin (cello) – are heard to play on this Centaur disc four works of chamber music, three duos and a trio, by one the very best of 20th c. French composers, Arthur Honegger (1982-1955), from recordings made in 2009, 2012 & 2013. The duos each feature a different combination of performers: violin and piano, cello and piano, and violin and cello. All three performers maintain private or university teaching positions, placements in ensembles or orchestras and active performance agendas in the Tennessee-Ohio region of the US.

Now in his nineties, Herbert Blomstedt, former conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, is still a powerful interpreter of the symphonic repertoire. His program with the Wiener Philharmoniker is straightforward: it begins with Honegger’s brilliant Third Symphony and ends with Brahms’ Fourth. The eminent maestro, one of the orchestra’s favorites since his debut at the 2011 Salzburg Mozart Week, continues to enchant audiences with his enormous presence, verve and artistic drive. “A stirring, long-lasting listening experience. At the end, standing ovations and boundless cheers.” (br-klassik.de) / “Fortunately, they still exist, the magical moments when time stands still, when music reaches and touches people.” (Die Presse)

The present release is a highly original piano recital with widely unknown works by Swiss composers, such as Arthur Honegger or Frank Martin. Born in 1994, Jérémie Conus had his first piano lessons at the age of 6 with Christian Thomann at the music school Solothurnisches Leimental. At the age of 13, he switched to Alicja Masan at the Music Conservatory in Basel. Since September 2013, Jérémie is studying at the Zurich University of the Arts in the Piano Class of Konstantin Scherbakov. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 2016 and the Master of Arts degree in Music Pedagogy in 2018 with distinction, he is currently studying in the Master of Arts in Music Performance.