RACHMANINOV PRELUDES

LES FÊTES D'HÉBÉ

BRITTEN: OPERAS

OPERAS

LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL

R. STRAUSS: LIEDER

BRAHMS BERG: VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart; Cosi Fan Tutte / Cuberli - Bartoli - Rodgers - Streit - Furlanetto - Tomlinson - Rias Kammerchor - Daniel Barenboim Though there are plenty of great recordings of this great opera, this recording is really very, very good. Best of all is the glorious Fiordiligi of Lella Cuberli, a most beautiful soprano. Cecilia Bartoli is her perfect sister, both enjoy and makes us enjoy their work. This classic set is really worth having.

ORFEO CHAMAN - A unique retelling of the Orpheus myth drawing on Baroque music and folksongs from South America to Sicily, with a real-life Orfeo - the blind Argentinean singer-guitarist Nahuel Pennisi - in the title role. The resulting opera composed and arranged by Christina Pluhar reveals the mysterious shamanic side of the legendary musician who ventures into the underworld for love.

MUSSORGSKY: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION PROKOFIEV

With H�ndel Goes Wild Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L'Arpeggiata once again embark on some musical time travel, this time in the company of soprano Nuria Rial, countertenor Valer Sabadus and jazz clarinettist Gianluigi Trovesi. The album features sumptuously reimagined versions of some of Handel's most celebrated operatic arias. "All baroque composers used strict forms," explains Christina Pluhar, "but those forms would also allow the singers and musicians to improvise and add ornament freely." Highlighting the composer's dynamism and temperament, she says: "Handel must have been pretty wild himself." George Frideric Handel now joins Purcell, Monteverdi and Cavalli on the list of composers who have inspired an album by Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L'Arpeggiata. The title of this new album refers first and foremost to the imaginative treatment his music receives from L'Arpeggiata, but Christina Pluhar reminds us that "Handel must have been pretty wild himself," quoting this famous anecdote: "At a rehearsal for his opera Ottone, when the celebrated soprano Francesca Cuzzoni refused to sing the aria 'Falsa immagine', he became so furious that he grabbed her round the waist and threatened to throw her out of the window." Fortunately, the 'wildness' on this album is purely pleasurable. H�ndel Goes Wild is in the beguiling vein of Music For A While - Improvisations on Henry Purcell, released by L'Arpeggiata on Erato in 2014. Praising that album, BBC Music Magazine wrote: "Long experienced in fusing Baroque with jazz-inspired performance styles, L'Arpeggiata's approach breathes new life into the Restoration composer, whose ground basses are akin to riffs, his melodies folk-like in their raw simplicity... Baroque instruments and a jazz-style combo mix to intriguing effect"

Classical Music

Three CD set. Joyce DiDonato has staked a powerful claim on the multi-faceted title role of Handel's opera Agrippina. In the words of The Telegraph, she sings it with "authority, grandeur and high style". She has performed it in concert and in the opera house with Maxim Emelyanychev, Chief Conductor of Il Pomo d'Oro. Joining them on this recording is a cast of established and rising stars that includes Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Franco Fagioli, Luca Pisaroni, Elsa Benoit and Jakub J�zef Orlinski.

2019 release. Facce d'amore - Faces of Love - is the second solo album from countertenor Jakub J�zef Orlinski. It follows Anima Sacra, released in 2018. This album brings a switch from the sacred to the personal and passionate. As the Polish-born, New York-trained singer explains: "On Anima Sacra I wanted to take listeners on a spiritual journey through an entire program based on sacred music of the 18th century. The idea behind Facce d'amore is a bit different." The program - which includes an impressive eight world premiere recordings - comprises "operatic arias that tell a story, showing a musical picture of a male lover in the baroque era. They focus on totally different aspects of love - not only the positive side, like joyful or reciprocated love, but also the side where the characters are possessed by anger or even madness."

Le Concert d'Astr�e, a baroque music instrumental and vocal ensemble led by Emmanuelle Ha�m, is currently one of the finest exponents of this repertoire in the world. It was founded in 2000 by Emmanuelle Ha�m, who has surrounded herself with seasoned instrumentalists who share an outlook and artistic vision which is both expressive and authentic. Le Concert d'Astr�e has been in residence at the Op�ra de Lille since 2004 and has rapidly made a name for itself in France and internationally. In tandem with performing, the musicians are involved in educational outreach in the Hauts-de-France region via chamber music and cultural facilitation activities. The orchestra has a residency at the Coll�ge Miriam Makeba high school in Lille and tours the area meeting diverse audiences who share the rich and formative experience of interacting with the artists of Le Concert d'Astr�e.