The pianist Élodie Vignon discovered and explored this perilous repertory of Debussy when she was still very young… She captured its poetic power, and she has never confused it with the vague and the approximate. She understood very early on that, for a pianist, Debussy’s last great cycle presented an inexhaustible reservoir of passion and rigour, of fire and precision, of work and relaxation. Her committed, precise interpretation, that keeps her ever in movement, ever in investigation, shows this, and she does not hide it, declaring that the "Études" never tire her and that, wherever she may be in the world, she feels at home when she plays them. The second part of the album counts twelve poems by the Belgian poet Lucien Noullez written for Élodie Vignon and her vision of the Études. Clara Inglese tell them above the echo of Élodie's music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The series 'L'Oreille de...' from Cypres and the Huelgas Ensemble, that began with "L'Oreille de Zurbar�n" and "L'h�ritage de Petrus Alamire," juxtaposes the music of a particular period and the creative world of a contemporaneous painter, scribe or explorer. What might he have listened to if he had had a transistor radio, a hifi system or the possibility of streaming on a computer? In conjunction with the exhibition: "Theodoor van Loon, a caravaggist between Rome and Brussels" in BOZAR Brussel, this album introduces the first Southern Netherlands Caravaggist between Rome and Brussels through the music of the seventeenth century. Paul Van Nevel has selected some emblematic pieces played in Italy, where van Loon used to live between 1602 and 1608, and in the musical chapel of Albert and Isabelle.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The miniatures of Komitas have the merit of being able to condense in a few minutes all aspects of Armenian musical culture. Each of them is an invitation to travel, allowing us to discover the soul of a country through its music, both joyful and nostalgic. Thanks to his arrangements for string quartet, Serguey Aslamazyan gives these miniatures their nobility and amplifies their emotional impact without distorting the message they convey. This message of peace and hope is also the one that Eugénie Alécian wishes to transmit to us with Un quatuor arménien, a powerful work narrating a country that never stops dancing and singing despite the intense pain.

The musical collective Anavantou! was formed in 2013 on the initiative of Belgian music producer Damien Chemin and Brazilian musician Dudu Prudente. Seeking a way to bring their cultures closer together through music, they proposed the meeting between the percussive group Membrana and the singer Nino Karvan both from the State of Sergipe in Brazil, and the Belgian instrumental group Turdus Philomelos. Anavantou's music is inspired both by Brazilian Northeast forro rhythms and Belgian surrealism, and turns out to be a surprising explosive and festive transatlantic cultural dialogue. The name Anavantou comes from a creole transformation of the French ''En avant toute'' inherited from the French colonization in the Northeast of Brazil. It is used to direct dances during traditional forro balls. It expresses the hybrid identity of the band which proposes an unconventional encounter between zabumba, triangle, saxophone, diatonic accordion, harmonica, violin, organ and bass to form the ensemble's own sonority. Brincantes presents mainly original compositions by the band and a few pieces of the folk repertoire. The group's playful and festive approach unfolds freely thanks to the energy and original arrangements of the musicians in collaboration with musical director David Bovee. The album also features singer dona Nadir, one of the greatest voices of the traditional music of the Sergipe region, as well as the astonishing pifano flutes group Os Vitos.

“A perfect alchemical fusion of poetry and music.” (Guido Morini) Cypres has grouped within its collection Cypressentiel three indispensable albums of Italian vocal music from the Renaissance to the early eighteenth century, three compilations out of stock since their appearance in 2005, 2006, and 2007: Frottole, Recitar cantando, and Il settecento Napolitano. More than ten years later, far from having gained a single wrinkle, they are regularly in demand, iconic examples of the highly demanding work of Accordone, founded by Marco Beasley and Guido Morini in 1984, both fascinated by the musicological approach to performance at this period. This is a collection of musical miniatures that sing of human passion.

This second recording of our anniversary season lifts the veil on a Belgian composer who is far too little known: D�sir� P�que. A precursor of Arnold Sch�nberg, his musical style is characterized by the use of an almost atonal polytonality, without being locked into one or another musical system. In terms of form, he is the inventor of a constructional procedure which he himself called 'constant addition' and which consists of a permanent thematic increase, in other words the constant addition of new musical ideas, which are not subject to development, transformation or return. But the most important thing to remember about D�sir� P�que's music is his passionate temperament, which is constantly expressed. He was first and foremost a romantic composer.

Uniquely, this recording was made on a Russian piano dating from Mussorgsky’s own time. Claire Chevallier’s research into Russian piano manufacturers led her to conclude that the piano the composer knew best and played most frequently was produced by the St Petersburg manufacturer J. D. Becker. She acquired an 1875 Becker piano, restored it, familiarised herself with its sonorities and plays it on this recording of Pictures at an Exhibition. Its combination of a mechanism à la française, a construction in the German style and an extremely heavy metal frame produces an instrument capable of both elegant, refined sonorities and sheer brute force. As Chevallier says: “The first time I played Pictures at an Exhibition on this restored piano I was taken on a voyage of discovery, as the instrument metamorphosed according to the dynamic”. This recording is faithful to the ‘Russian soul’ that was so important to Mussorgsky; indeed, he was obsessed with the idea of giving direct expression in his works to the Russian soul in its purest form. He did not write notes that were supposed to charm the player, but to communicate a strong, focused idea to the listener. Pictures at an Exhibition was written in memory of the architect and painter Viktor Hartmann, a close friend of the composer. Mussorgsky wrote: “Sounds and ideas hang in the air, I am gulping them down, guzzling them up, and barely have the time to scribble them down on paper. I am writing Number Four; the transitions are good (in the form of a ‘promenade’). I want to get it all done as quickly as possible with a steady hand. I can be spotted, in person, in the interludes”.

What can sound better than a cello? Eight cellos! This instrument, the closest to the human voice, is one of the few which carries being multiplied. When played together with others, the beauties of this instrument add up, giving birth to a unique, full and exceptional sound. Eight solo cellists, all chamber musicians and concert artists, combine their energies and dreams in order to create an audacious and astonishing program, full of warmth and sensuality in the southern sun. Each arrangement is for them a challenge and a pleasure. Flamenco spirit, impressionist poetry or epicurean appetite, gentle grace and sentimental melody, melancholic tango or festive mambo… this album is a burning invitation to travel.

Soundfulness, the new collection of the Cypres label, is an invitation to plenitude through sounds, frequencies, vibrations and breath. Soundfulness creates a space for dialogue between musical cultures, at the crossroads of traditional, sacred and meditative music. Immediately accessible and sensitive, this music is like an inner journey: it opens our horizon, inspires us and connects us to our deepest roots. To listen to Soundfulness is to offer oneself a time filled with healing sounds, to salute the spirit and the force of nature and to open up to the meditative powers of sounds. Trust in the integrity of the musicians chosen to bring you into new sound rituals. Music plays a fundamental role in shamanic rituals: it is the mediator between the shaman and the spirits. Our ancestors used music and songs to unite the Land of Men with that of the Gods. The most ancient rituals salute the spirit and the strength of Nature before which we are so fragile, to implore her protection or to thank her for her generosity. Four musicians of Musiques Nouvelles, experienced practitioners of traditional and classical western instruments, bring these ancient and beneficial rituals to life.

LI R'vindje di l'�be is a choral and symphonic work inspired by the Walloon poems of Henri Simon (1856-1939), LI Mw�rt di l'�be (1909) and it's sequel LI R'vindje di l'�be (1926). The first poem describes the majesty of an ancient oak tree, king of the landscape and refuge for birds and men, but the tree is felled for it's commercial value, and it's collapse leaves 'a hole in the sky'. The second poem picks up the story where it left off: the woodcutters cut up the wood, which gradually leaves it's homeland. The poem, both serious and caustic, highlights the cyclical nature of life and the inevitability of death, whether for trees or humans. Both texts are composed of 75 unrhymed alexandrines, carried by a subtle internal rhythm. Patrick Leterme's musical setting unfolds these two poems over a period of approximately 90 minutes, featuring a mixed choir of 20 singers and an orchestra, it pays tribute to the Walloon region and it's figures (trees, birds, farmers, craftsmen). The composition incorporates wood sounds (branches, saws, logs) and percussion, which take turns as orchestral sections and stage protagonists through performative "Wood Interludes", the project is accompanied by ethnomusicological and linguistic research on popular heritage, aiming to connect the spirit of the poems with contemporary orchestration. This book and CD set is an elegant edition featuring the original poems, their translations, illustrations, and reflective texts by various authors on the genesis of the project, the Walloon language, and the environmental dimension of Henri Simon's work.

Kiki of Montparnasse immortalised by Man Ray: the suggestive curves of a woman, her back with the two sound holes of a violin painted on the body itself, thus turning this feminine body into the most irresistible of musical instruments. Daughter of nothing who wants everything, a free woman unencumbered with conventions, Kiki is the epitome of feminine emancipation and is the inspiration for this discographic programme that illustrates the passage of song to chanson in the course of the twentieth century. The multiple facets of femininity, the audacity, the sensuality embodied by this natural, airy singing within this improbable trio should not deceive us. It is truly a genuine declaration of love that is sung on this recording.