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.

Christina Pluhar states: "Monteverdi's most admirable trait is the enormous diversity of compositional techniques that he masters and interweaves with supreme skill. Our aim in this recording is to bring out the variet� of his secular compositions. The modernity that runs like a constant thread through his pieces and makes his music seem timeless even in the twenty-first century is selfevident if one considers, for example, his use of ostinato basses. Jazz musicians are supposed to have 'invented' the walking bass in the 1940s, but already in Monteverdi we find ostinato basses which diverge from the standard ostinatos of the seventeenth century, that are unique of their kind and sound extremely modern." The BBC Magazine reviews the performance as "technical perfection". The easy informality with each other and the music, with which these pieces are performed, makes for a captivating listen. One of the most exciting Baroque performances to hit the record shelves this year. A Must Listen."

Conducted by Philippe Jordan, this recording of Ravel's complete score for Daphnis et Chlo� followed performances of the ballet at Op�ra Bastille in Paris. The staging evoked the heady days of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes as it brought together Jordan, the choreographer Benjamin Millepied and the designer Daniel Buren. Jordan had never conducted a ballet production before: "When I work on a symphony, it's different," he said, "Here, the sense of phrasing, the physicality that dancers bring, make it something else. "Completing the CD is another work by Ravel that was originally conceived for Diaghilev's Ballets Russe, the intoxicating and haunting La Valse. Famously, Diaghilev rejected the score after it was first played to him in a two-piano reduction; the performers were Ravel himself and the legendary Marcelle Meyer.

A new production by Opera de Lille

A new production by Opera de Lille

Gautier Capu�on's new album Sensations is a mix of popular music, classical (Smetana's Moldau), film (John Williams's Schindler's List), and well-known French songs ("La Vie en Rose", Jacques Brel's "Quand on n'a que l'amour").

3 LP clamshell. Mythologies is Thomas Bangalter's first composition for orchestra, conceived upon request of choreographer Angelin Preljocaj for the ballet of the same name. Performed by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the direction of Romain Dumas, it is a large and lyrical work in which Bangalter, co-founder of Daft Punk, reinvents his relationship to composition.

LES PECHEURS DE PERLES

Further to his two recitals (Italian Opera Arias and Gounod / Massenet Arias), Rolando Villazon's releases his 3rd recital on Virgin Classics, featuring opera arias in 4 languages: French, Italian, English & Russian. And sees Rolando Villazon's second collaboration with Michael Plasson, after their recording of Berlioz' choral works on EMI. Rolando Villazon in undoubtedly the revelation of the years 2004-2005, and has won wide acknowledgement world-wide, not to mention the 2005 Gramophone Award he has received this September for his Gounod / Massenet recital. Virgin Classic. 2006.

RECITAL

The innovative Baroque style that served as the primary livelihood in establishing Les Arts Florissants' impeccable reputation is portrayed again in this release of Handel's Acis and Galatea. Conducted by the ensemble's founder, William Christie, Gramophone notes that his new version is "a polished and strongly characterized performance, finely recorded", being the first recording anyone should try.

The other thing that listening to all these performances has reinforced for me is how endlessly inventive, how eloquent and how moving is the music of Bach. I suspect that Fritz Werner would regard that as the best possible testament to his work (MusicWeb, 2005).