Box set containing 33 CDs and 19 DVDs. Natalie Dessay is a dazzling opera singer. She is also an actress of intensity and magnetism, whether in tragedy or comedy. Her charisma, captured on the stages of the world's great opera houses and in the recording studio, illuminates the complete operas and recitals of arias and scenes in this collection. From Mozart's furious Queen of the Night to Debussy's enigmatic M�lisande... Offenbach's robotic Olympia to Strauss's flirtatious Zerbinetta and Delibes' devoted Lakm�... Handel's mercurial Cleopatra to Donizetti's boisterous Marie and desperate Lucia... Thomas's fragile Oph�lie to Massenet's capricious Manon and Verdi's passionate, tragic Violetta... Natalie Dessay proves irresistible in repertoire that spans four centuries and a wealth of musical and dramatic possibilities.

A transformative force in historically informed performance, Ton Koopman is renowned as a conductor, harpsichordist and organist. In 1979, aged 35, he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in the city where he had studied with the great Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. Drawing on an international pool of players, the ensemble soon gained a reputation for flexibility, colour and expressivity as it explored the music of such composers as the Bach family, Handel, Telemann and Buxtehude.

This album from Laurence Equilbey and the Insula Orchestra features a clever and popular Mozart program, including hit tracks from Magic Flute, Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Entf�hrhrung aus dem Serail. It also features French singers, excellent Mozart interpreters: Sandrine Piau, Jodie Devos, Lea Desandre, Lo�c F�lix, Florian Sempey, Stanislas de Barbeyrac.

This album brings together world premiere recordings of three aesthetically diverse piano concertos that were written for Alexandre Tharaud. They are Left, alone by the Dane Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952), Future is a faded song by the Frenchman G�rard Pesson (b.1958) and Kuleshov by the Argentian-born Frenchman Oscar Strasnoy (b.1970). Strasnoy has said that his concerto was "inspired by Alexandre Tharaud's unique and inimitable phrasing and clarity of playing." No doubt those words could apply to all three works on the album.

The young French cellist Edgar Moreau, an established Erato artist, is joined by his siblings - the violinists Rapha�lle and David and the pianist J�r�mie - for Dvor�k's five Bagatelles op 47 and Korngold's Suite op 23. As David points out, works for the combination of two violins, cello and piano are unusual: "These are wonderful pieces that are rarely played, so this is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on them." When it comes to playing as a family, Edgar feels that "There's something that works almost instinctively," while Rapha�lle explains that "We don't need to look at each other, and we breathe together in a certain way. There's something very strong about it." Completing the programme are transcriptions of much-loved operatic arias from Dvor�k's Rusalka and Korngold's Die tote Stadt, performed by Edgar and J�r�mie

An album of opera arias and symphonies by Francesco Cavalli, the prolific 17th century Venetian composer with 41 operas to his name, who was Handel's predecessor in Hannover.

Nigel Rogers began singing at an early age as a boy treble and later became a choral scholar at King's College, Cambridge. After graduating he went first to Italy and then to Germany, where he studied at Munich's Hochschule f�r Musik. During the early 1960s he toured all over the world before returning to England, where he began to take a greater interest in Baroque music. He is accompanied here by first-class musicians: lutenists Anthony Bailes and Paul O'Dette, gambist Jordi Savall.

2020 release. "An outstanding album", was Gramophone magazine's verdict on the Arod Quartet's last release, a programme of Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Webern. Remaining in Vienna, the young French quartet goes back to the time of Schubert. "We wanted to explore several stylistic phases in Schubert's life," they explain. The centrepiece is his gripping Quartet No 14 ('Der Tod und das M�dchen'/'Death and the Maiden'), written in the final years of his short life and complemented here by the Quartets No 4 and No 12 ('Quartettsatz').

Beauty's final aria (sung by Natalie Dessay) is unconventionally slow and intensely moving, accompanied by obbligato violin possibly intended for Corelli who may have led the first performance. Ha�m is generally more elegant, though no less exciting, while the... sound is excellent. Technically superb, reassuringly stylish, this is an outstanding performance of Handel at the height of his powers. - BBC Music Magazine

Philippe Jaroussky, one of the foremost countertenor opera singers today, has a passion for enlightening neglected composers. This is masterfully exemplified by his first recital, 'Un concert pour Mazarin', and the best-seller album 'Caldara Arias' gathered here.

Limited 27 CD box set. Luminosity, clarity and depth of colour characterise the playing of �ric Heidsieck, born in Reims in 1936. A student of French masters Marcel Ciampi and Alfred Cortot, he went to Wilhelm Kempff to further his exploration of Beethoven. Heidsieck's career, encompassing more than 2000 concerts around the world and duo partnerships with his pianist wife Tania and cellist Paul Tortelier, has brought him particular fame in Japan. His distinguished interpretations of Beethoven's complete piano sonatas, recorded in the years around 1970, are complemented here by a previously unreleased 1958 version of the 'Hammerklavier' Sonata. A substantial proportion of the box (eight of the 27 CDs) comprises CD premieres - performances of Beethoven, Handel, Hindemith, Couperin, Debussy, Roussel and Ravel.

Limited box containing 54 CDs plus DVD. Samson Fran�ois was a true poet of the piano. A brilliant, inspired pianist especially identified with the music of Chopin, Debussy and Ravel, he played with both the proverbial clarity of the French school and a visceral immediacy and spontaneity. Charismatic, sometimes provocative, and numbering jazz among his passions, he achieved celebrity status - notably in France and Japan. The works of Chopin are prominent in this collection - melodic contours were always a priority for Fran�ois - but the complete list of composers is richly diverse. Three major new bonuses are the long-awaited world premiere release of Fran�ois' penultimate live recital, recorded at the Nohant Festival in France in June 1970, just four months before his death at the age of 46; a recital recorded in Tokyo in 1969, and a DVD documentary, written by his son, Maximilien Fran�ois. This new edition places all recordings in the context of their original couplings and the CD wallets carry the original artwork.

Elgar's violin concerto - distinctively passionate and nostalgic - is one of the great late-Romantic concertos. "It is a huge piece," says Renaud Capu�on "both in terms of it's length and it's romantic and noble nature." This is Capu�on's first recording with Sir Simon Rattle, here conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. When Rattle chose Elgar's Enigma Variations for his inaugural concert as the LSO's music director in 2017, he was celebrating the close historic links between the composer and the orchestra. Not only did the LSO accompany Fritz Kreisler in the premiere of the violin concerto in 1910, Elgar became it's Principal Conductor the following year. Paired with the concerto on this album is his violin sonata, first performed in 1919. Renaud Capu�on, who calls the sonata "a work of nobility and tenderness", is joined by one of the leading British pianists of today, Stephen Hough.

World famous mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and conductor-pianist Yannick N�zet-S�guin join forces to take on one of the most brilliant song cycles ever written: Schubert's Winterreise (Winter Journey). DiDonato, however, casts a different light on this beloved cycle of 24 songs in telling their story from the perspective of the woman, the lost love. Nancy Plum, Town Topics writes: "The question of what happened to the woman who sent the narrator on a tortuous journey was not answered in the Wilhelm M�ller poetry from which Schubert drew the text, but DiDonato created a scenario onstage of being that woman, reading from the narrator's journal and responding to the inherent despair." "What stood out was the heavy emotion that came through in her singing, as she lingered on a syllable here, pressed her tone there. She created vivid feelings with her contrasts" wrote New York Classical Review about Joyce Didonato's interpretation.

Conductor Laurence Equilbey is fascinated and inspired by the unconventional, hybrid character of Beethoven's 'Choral Fantasy' and 'Triple Concerto'. She sees it as 'the root of their originality, which gives them a special place in Beethoven's output and in the history of music as a whole'.

Limited 14CD set. Best known as the duo partner of violinist Christian Ferras, Pierre Barbizet was notable for bringing integrity, vitality and generosity to all his music-making. Born in Chile in 1922, he trained at the Marseille Conservatory and later returned to the institution as it's director. Among his students was H�l�ne Grimaud, who has said: "He only had to sit at the piano and play for a few minutes to widen your horizons." In addition to Ferras, Barbizet's colleagues in this collection include his good friend Samson Fran�ois, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Andr� Cluytens (conducting the Piano Concerto No 1 by Serge Nigg, a pupil of Messiaen and Leibowitz), and members of the Quatuor Parrenin, who join him in Schumann's Piano Quartet, an interpretation making it's first appearance on CD. Another CD premiere is Barbizet's 1979 reading of Beethoven's 'Appassionata' Sonata, while, in the words of Gramophone magazine, his 1982 recording of Chabrier's piano works is "graced with playing that combines vivacious characterization with great interpretative subtlety".

In themselves, Beethoven's quartets represent an odyssey, a round-the-world voyage," says Quatuor �b�ne. The French ensemble is marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth with a global tour of 21 countries. In the course of their Beethoven Around the World tour, the �b�ne will make live recordings in seven different cities: Vienna, Philadelphia, Tokyo, S�o Paulo, Melbourne, Nairobi and Paris. This first release, recorded at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, comprises the first two 'Razumovsky' Quartets, op 59 No 1 and op 59 No 2.

2021 marks 100 years since the death of Camille Saint-Sa�ns, one of the acknowledged masters of French music. Pianist Bertrand Chamayou, violinist Renaud Capu�on and cellist Edgar Moreau salute him with this album of three of his finest chamber works: the Violin Sonata No 1, Cello Sonata No 1 and Piano Trio No 2. "These are splendid works," says Bertrand Chamayou, "but only relatively rarely performed and recorded. This is essential French Romantic chamber music and French performers of our generation have a duty to share it with audiences."

In Summer 2020 the Salzburg Festival celebrated it's 100th anniversary with Mozart's Cos� fan tutte in a production entirely conceived under pandemic conditions. Created in a matter of weeks by a team led by award-winning stage director Christoph Loy and conductor Joana Malwitz, it was hailed by the German newspaper Die Welt as "The best Mozart at Salzburg for decades." The three female singers in the cast are all closely linked with the Erato label - soprano Elsa Dreisig and mezzo-sopranos Marianne Crebassa and Lea Desandre. They are joined by tenor Bogdan Volkov and baritones Andr� Schuen and Johannes Martin Kr�nzle in an ensemble that was praised for it's balance, harmony and dramatic credibility. "We are delighted," says the Salzburg Festival's artistic director Markus Hinterh�user, "that this production - which allows audiences to hear and experience the miracle of Mozart in all it's delicacy and grace, and realised with the greatest theatrical and musical intelligence

Classical Music

2019 release. "The most dramatic piece that Berlioz ever wrote," is how conductor John Nelson describes La Damnation de Faust. The composer designated this thrilling hybrid of oratorio and opera a 'l�gende dramatique'. Following in the triumphant footsteps of Les Troyens, also recorded at the Auditorium Erasme in Strasbourg, this performance reunites Nelson and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg with singers Michael Spyres, Joyce DiDonato and Nicolas Courjal. This recording was made in the Auditorium Erasme in Strasbourg in April 2019, two years after Nelson, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and a superb cast including Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres and Nicolas Courjal brought Berlioz's Les Troyens to life in the same venue. The associated Erato recording of the huge two-part opera has gone on to win unalloyed praise and multiple major prizes. As the New York Times wrote: "Berlioz's epic opera has rarely been given such luxury treatment as in this magnificent live recording from France."

Natalie Dessay is a dazzling opera singer. Her charisma, captured on the stages of the world's great opera houses and in the recording studio, illuminates the opera arias and scenes in this collection. From Mozart's furious Queen of the Night or Offenbach's robotic Olympia to Strauss's flirtatious Zerbinetta and Delibes' devoted Lakm�... Handel's mercurial Cleopatra to Donizetti's desperate Lucia... Thomas's fragile Oph�lie to Massenet's capricious Manon and Verdi's passionate, tragic Violetta... Natalie Dessay proves irresistible in repertoire that spans three centuries and a wealth of musical and dramatic possibilities.

Soprano Diana Damrau assumes the crowns of three different Tudor queens, the central characters in operas by Donizetti: Anne Boleyn (Anna Bolena), Mary, Queen of Scots (Maria Stuarda), and Elizabeth I (Roberto Devereux). With Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra and Chorus of Rome's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, she performs the substantial and climactic final scene of each work. When Damrau sang Maria Stuarda at the Zurich Opera, the Neue Z�rcher Zeitung wrote: "She commands a voice that seems to have no limits. Her coloratura is stunning, her vocal range impressive, and her dynamic shadings are breath-taking. Damrau is in a class of her own."

Soprano Sumi Jo adds to an already impressive discography for Erato with this exciting set of arias by the great French Romantic composers, including the meltingly sensuous "Depuis le jour" from Charpentier's Louise and the rarely heard "La valse d'Edwige" from Offenbach's Robinson Crusoe. The beautifully selected repertoire, which takes in the masterworks of Thomas, Bizet, Gounod, Meyerbeer and Massenet as well, calls to mind the long reign of the great French coloratura Lily Pons.

Symphonie Espagnole / Poeme for Violin & Orchestra, Edouard Lalo (Performer), Ernest Chausson (Performer), Maurice Ravel (Performer), Kent Nagano (Performer), Vadim Repin (Performer), London Symphony Orchstra (Performer) Siberia, usually associated with ice and prison camps, has recently taken up a new export: violin prodigies. One of these is Vadim Repin, now 27 years old, and he is certainly fabulous. His technical virtuosity is stunning and effortless, his facility unlimited; this tempts him to favor extremely fast tempi that sometimes become hectic, but the runs are always crystal-clear. Equally striking is his tone: radiant, warm, and ravishingly beautiful; it is pure in every register, on every string, under all circumstances, and capable of a great variety of nuance and inflection. All this formidable instrumental equipment serves the expressive demands of the music. Creating and changing moods with natural poise, he gives every movement of the Lalo it's own character, playing with charm, mischievousness, humor, wistful nostalgia, somber inwardness, intensity, fire. The Chausson projects a fine blend of impressionistic languor and passionate abandon; the Ravel is a brilliant romp with idiomatic gypsy flair. The orchestra supplies bursts of color and supports him well, but the tutti passages are often so loud that it is wise to keep a finger on the volume button. -Edith Eisler