An album dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach piano solo, follows Alexandre Tharaud's very original Four Hands project. The protean French pianist brings a programme concentrating on Bach on the piano - in this instance mostly in his own transcriptions such as the Lute Suite BWV 996, the Johannes-Passion BWV 245 and many others. The album also features a few Bach HITS: Sicilienne BWV 1031, the famous Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and the Adagio from the Keyboard Concerto BWV 974, after Alessandro Marcello Adagio.

New collaboration between Jakub J�zef Orlinski and Il Pomo d'Oro. Jakub's sixth project features music by early baroque composers, including Monteverdi, Caccini, Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Saracini, Netti, and Jarzebski. Musicologist Yannis Fran�ois researched the program and uncovered some extraordinary repertoire, now recorded for the first time (10 world premiere recordings). "With that album and this very specifically selected program I want to focus on the general meaning of word "beyond". Mostly to show people that this music is beyond it's times. It is still relevant, it is still alive, vibrant, touching, engaging and entertaining." - Jakub J�zef Orlinski.

Who but Alexandre Tharaud would follow an album devoted to Beethovens formidable final three piano sonatas with a recital of compact pieces by Lully, Rameau, Franois Couperin and other composers associated with the French court in the 17th and 18th centuries I've always been attracted by French music of this period, explains Tharaud, whose wide-ranging Erato catalogue embraces Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Satie, the music of Jazz Age Paris and the work of French singer-songwriter Barbara. I see this album as a bouquet of short pieces by different composers of that time. It is a tribute to the composers of Versailles. They were active during the reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI and the youngest of them, Claude Balbastre, died in 1799, 10 years after the outbreak of the French Revolution. A number of the pieces have not, to the best of Tharauds knowledge, previously been recorded on the modern piano he mentions the music of Balbastre, Jacques Duphly and Pancrace Royer. As he explains, Lully did not write for solo keyboard, but his orchestral Marche pour la crmonie des Turcs from Le bourgeois gentilhomme has been transcribed for piano a number of times. For this album Tharaud has made his own arrangement of the piece, aiming to capture the full richness of it's sonorities and to emphasise it's dancing nature. Some of the pieces Tharaud considered for inclusion felt immediately comfortable on the piano keyboard; others sounded cumbersome and thus unsuitable for the album. For instance, the highly ornamented writing of Jean-Henry dAnglebert (1629-1691) can be tricky on the modern instrument, which has a heavier action and sonority than a 17th century harpsichord

2018 release. For his third Erato album of harpsichord music, Jean Rondeau turns to Domenico Scarlatti and some 20 of the often-dazzling sonatas that the Neapolitan composer wrote during his years at the royal court in Madrid. Imbued with the spirit of the dance, they are works that Rondeau uses "to tell a story for the people who will listen to an album from beginning to end... An artist must consider how he tells his story, how he can stimulate the public's curiosity."

What makes Hector Berlioz such a great composer?, asks conductor John Nelson. "In one word, originality... He broke all existing traditions of orchestration, structure, harmonic language and storytelling. Even today, his music is fresh, surprising us at every turn with inexpressible beauty." Nelson now adds two more astonishingly original works by Berlioz - the 'dramatic symphony' Rom�o et Juliette and the 'lyric scene' La Mort de Cl�op�tre to his Erato discography. He continues the fruitful relationship with the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, his choice for the recordings of Les Troyens, La Damnation de Faust, Harold en Italie and Nuits d'�t�. Joyce DiDonato, his unforgettable Didon and Marguerite, returns as the suicidal Cl�op�tre and she is joined in Rom�o et Juliette by tenor Cyrille Dubois (who was Iopas in Les Troyens), baritone Christopher Maltman, and the choruses of the Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Foundation and Strasbourg's Op�ra du Rhin.

Starring Anne-Catherine Gillet, Ja�l Azzaretti, St�phane Degout.

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Soprano Sabine Devieilhe's signature operatic role, Lakm�, forms the starting point for her enticing albumMirages. A collection of opera and song in French, it's theme is the exotic allure of faraway - and imagined - places and people. In addition to three numbers from Delibes' opera, it features music by Berlioz, Debussy and Stravinsky and some rarer names: Thomas, Messager, Koechlin and Delage. Devieilhe is joined by mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa, pianist Alexandre Tharaud and the period-instrument orchestra Les Si�cles under it's founder, Fran�ois-Xavier Roth.

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Classical Music

Handel: Arcadian Duets / Lamenti (2CD) Emmanuelle Ha�m During the first half of the 17th century the Lamenti became a rite of passage for all self-respecting composers of vocal music, challenging them to develop new ways of depicting extreme emotions and move their listeners to tears - as Monteverdi, Cavalli, Strozzi, Landi, Carissimi & Cesti had done. Hundred years later, Handel rely on the same kind of expressive interplay between voices to convey pain to his introspective Arcadian Duets. Units Per Set: 2

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This release is a survey of Ravel's solo piano music, a bold statement from the French rising star of the piano. It includes not only the oft-performed works such as Le tombeau de Couperin, and the Pavane pour une infante defunte but also lesser-known gems such as the pieces written in the styles of Borodin and Chabrier respectively, and the early Serenade grotesque. The album is a tour de force and promises to be a major landmark in his discography. Bertrand Chamayou, hometown: Paris, was born in Toulouse in 1981. Despite his youth, Chamayou is firmly established as a highly-respected artist and is much in demand. He is the only artist to win France's prestigious Victories de la Musique on three occasions. At 20, he was a prize-winner at the international Long-Thibuad Competition, returning there in 2012 as a member of the jury. He has serious approach and has achieved success with his solo albums as well as his recent recital album with cellist Sol Gabetaa.

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