John Eliot Gardiner TITLE: Purcell: King Arthur (2CD) Label: PRX/Warner Classics/Parlophone - With it's lavish music and elaborate staging, the semi-opera King Arthur is one of the master-pieces in Purcell's works. On a text by the poet John Dryden very freely inspired from Arthurian legend and specifically devised for him, Purcell created a work of great expressive intensity which includes many of his most beautiful and well-known arias The importance of Monteverdi to John Eliot Gardiner is signalled by the fact that, when he founded a choir in 1964, it was for a performance of Monteverdi Vespers. The Monteverdi Choir went on to celebrate it's 50th anniversary in 2014 with a performance of the same work. Units Per Set: 2

ST JOHN PASSION

La Storia Di Orfeo - Philippe Jaroussky - With Philippe Jaroussky's new album, Storia di Orfeo, the French countertenor realises a long-held dream: to portray the mythic Orpheus - divine musician who ventures into the underworld to retrieve his beloved wife Eurydice from the clutches of death - in his many guises, an inspiration for the very first opera and beyond. "This project, which was inspired by three key 17th-century operas, was conceived as a kind of opera in miniature or as a cantata for two solo voices and chorus, and features just two characters: Orpheus and Eurydice," explains Jaroussky. "The three operas focus on different aspects of the story: Sartorio and Rossi depict the happiness of the young lovers and the scene in which Eurydice is bitten by the snake; Monteverdi, on the other hand, concentrates more on Orpheus' search for Eurydice in the underworld, and the highpoint of his work is an aria that has remained without parallel in the history of opera: the magical 'Possente spirto', which I have the temerity to perform here as a countertenor, for the first time on record." He is joined by sublime soprano Emoke Bar�th and period-instrument ensemble par excellence I Barocchisti with Diego Fasolis at the helm. A journey to the beginnings of opera, to the Italian Baroque, to the underworld and back.

INTUITION

MITRIDATE (THEATRE DES CHAMPS-ELYSEES)

CAGE² is the title of Bertrand Chamayou's new album - he calls it the twin brother of his most recent Letter(s) to Erik Satie - both recorded at the Miraval studios. CAGE² is also the title of a performance Bertrand Chamayou conceived with dancer and choreographer Élodie Sicard, featuring 12 pieces composed by John Cage for prepared piano, in the period between 1940 and 1945. John Cage wrote all the pieces of this album for dance solos: for the American dancer Syvilla Fort, for dancers and choreographers such as Valérie Bettis, Wilson Williams, Pearl Primus, Jean Erdman, but also for the terrific Merce Cunningham. Bertrand has also delivered brilliant booklet notes on Cage, the genesis of the prepared piano and the pieces themselves.

A String Quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band - New York Times, 2009 Milestones is the new album of Quatuor �b�ne recorded in 2023, with the line up still featuring Rafael Merlin (violoncello)(*) - next to Pierre Colombet (violin) Gabriel Le Magadure (violin), Marie Chilemme (viola). It features several standards such as Miles Davis, Milestones - Thelonious Monk, Round Midnight - Erroll Garner, Misty - Toots Thielemans, Bluesette, A nice follow up on albums such as Fiction (2010), Brazil (2014) Eternal Stories in (2017), Milestones is a stylish and original jazz album featuring their arrangements, a talent the QE have nurtured over the years Rafael Merlin (violoncello) has left the QE after 25 years of performing, touring and recording to pursue his conducting and composer activities, the new cellist of the QE is Yuya Okamoto. Booklet text from Rafael Merlin

Erik Satie and John Cage are UFOs in the world of music, because they envisioned music through a completely different prism," says pianist Bertrand Chamayou. "They are pioneers in the sense that, for many people, they changed the very idea of what music must be." With his album Letter(s) to Erik Satie Chamayou pays tribute to two idiosyncratic, innovative and influential composers, one born in Normandy in 1866, the other in Los Angeles in 1912. There is a strong connection between them: Cage considered Satie a source of inspiration. Satie takes pride of place on the album with such pieces as the three Gymnop�dies and the seven Gnossiennes, while Cage is represented by five pieces and a work attributed to him following it's rediscovery amongst the papers of his disciple James Tenney - whose musical homage to Satie also features in the programme. Chamayou recorded the album at the state-of-the-art Miraval Studios in Provence, which inspired him to take an experimental approach: "I thought we should do something a little different - and I thought of Erik Satie. This was an opportunity to get really intimate with the piano... Satie is really a special case, a strange musician unlike anyone else.

In his exploration of the vocal music of Mozart and his contemporaries, soprano Bruno de S� evokes Mille affetti - a thousand emotions - and adds six world premiere recordings to the catalogue: arias by Luigi Cherubini, Luigi Caruso, Felice Alessandrini, Franz Seydelmann, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, and Niccolo` Antonio Zingarelli. Joining him for this adventurous programme of sacred and secular repertoire are the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, organist Marcin Szelest, the NFM Choir and conductor Jaroslaw Thiel. For his debut Erato album, Roma Travestita, Bruno de S� focused on Baroque repertoire, causing BBC Music Magazine to marvel at his "immaculate legato, gift for scintillating decoration, dramatic octave drops and stratospheric ascents above the stave." Now he applies those talents to the Classical era. "This seemed like the moment to explore different musical possibilities," he says, "and also a period that really speaks to me - emotionally, musically and technically. There are some very virtuosic things here, but I've never struggled with them because they are such a joy to sing. I hope that people feel and hear that." Repertoire features: W.A. Mozart: Exsultate Jubilate, Franz Seydelmann: excerpts from Il Turco in Italia, Johann Friedrich Reichardt: excerpts from Andromeda, Niccol� Antonio Zingarelli: Salve, Regina, and more (repertoire selection by Yannis Fran�ois).

Croisette French musical arias by Patricia Petibon 2022 release.

Born in Tallinn in 1962, Paavo Järvi is renowned for his dynamic interpretations and innovative programming. He has held prominent positions with leading orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, or the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich more recently. Paavo Järvi's approach combines technical precision with expressive depth, making him a favourite among musicians and audiences alike. His numerous recordings have received prestigious awards (including a Grammy Award for the Sibelius Cantatas), solidifying his reputation as one of the foremost conductors of his generation. He has always been a passionate advocate and tireless interpreter of Nordic composers such as Sibelius, Grieg, and Arvo Pärt, bringing their evocative, atmospheric music to life.

This 31 CD box contains the complete recordings made by Paavo Järvi for Virgin Classics, EMI and Erato. A bonus CD (CD 31) includes the Symphony in D minor by César Franck - recorded in September 2023 with the Orchestre de Paris and previously unpublished - L'Apprenti sorcier (Dukas) and the 3rd Symphony by Roussel.

Gabriel Faur� (1845-1924) was a seminal composer, organist, and teacher, pivotal in bridging the Romantic and modern eras in music. Born in Pamiers, France, he studied under Camille Saint-Sa�ns at the �cole Niedermeyer. Faur�'s compositions are noted for their refined, lyrical style, including notable works such as Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, Berceuse and Apr�s un r�ve. He held significant positions, including director of the Paris Conservatoire, influencing the next generation of composers - he was Maurice Ravel's teacher, among others. Despite progressive deafness, he continued to compose prolifically. Faur�'s music is celebrated for it's elegance, innovation, and emotional depth, leaving a lasting impact on French musical history.

Philippe Jaroussky brings his musical and dramatic powers to a programme of music from Italian oratorios of the baroque era, including five arias in world premiere recordings. La vanit� del mondo, takes it's name from an oratorio by Pietro Torri and among the other composers are H�ndel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Hasse, Fago and Caldara. "I think composers of this period often give of their best when setting the great stories of the Old Testament," says Jaroussky. "And if oratorio stories are more static than opera, they allow for deeper reflection on the place of mankind in the universe. I think that resonates with particular intensity in 2020, a year of pandemic."

Classical Music

Opera star Arden Scott returns to her hometown to save the struggling company that launched her career. The opening night performance of the long-lost opera she discovered falls on the same night as the home team's first National Championship game (Go, Grizzlies!). The fate of the company hangs in the balance as Arden discovers that greatness is truly a matter of heart.

2021 release. Melancholy Grace is a poetic collection of keyboard music from the 16th and 17th centuries by composers from Italy, the Netherlands, England and Germany. The French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has conceived the album as a sombre, but eloquent dialogue between two contrasting voices: melancholy conveyed through chromaticism and melancholy conveyed through the musical expression of tears and weeping. Among the eight 'chromatic' composers are Frescobaldi, Luigi Rossi, Luzzaschi and Sweelinck, while the 'weeping' composers are Dowland, Bull, Gibbons, Valente and Scheidemann (who has an anonymous piece attributed to him). Dowland's Lachrimae Verae (True Tears) closes the program, but in some senses forms the conceptual starting point for the Melancholy Grace.

With this album of works by Sch�nberg, Zemlinsky and Webern, (key figures in Vienna's musical life in the early 20th century) the Quatuor Arod honours the woman who became Arnold Schoenberg's wife in 1901. Mathilde was Zemlinsky's sister and the dedicatee of her husband's 'String Quartet No. 2', an innovative work in both it's tonal language and it's integration of a soprano - here Elsa Dreisig. It was completed in the summer of 1908, a tumultuous period in the Sch�nbergs' marriage.'

CD + DVD. "Beyond being a masterpiece, Der Freisch�tz marks a starting point as one of the first - if not the first - great German Romantic operas," says Laurence Equilbey. She conducts highlights from Weber's exhilarating, ground-breaking work in both audio and video format, recorded live in Paris. The vivid period instruments of the Insula Orchestra are joined by the Accentus Choir and a cast led with poetry and radiance by tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac and soprano Johanni van Oostrum. The stylish, suitably magical staging is by Cl�ment Debailleul and Rapha�l Navarro of Compagnie 14:20.

The work of Louis Vierne, organist at Notre-Dame de Paris and master of the symphonic instrument, is reflected here in all it's rich variety: from the poetic 'Pi�ces en style libre' to his final masterpiece, the monumental 'Sixth Symphony', via the virtuosic and world-famous 'Pi�ces de fantaisie'. All are performed here on the little-recorded instrument of the Parisian church of Saint-Fran�ois-Xavier by it's organist Gaston Litaize, who studied with Vierne and went on to become a prolific composer himself. The recordings have been remastered in 24-bit/192kHz sound from the original tapes.

Soprano Elsa Dreisig follows her debut album Miroir(s) with a recital of songs in collaboration with pianist Jonathan Ware. Taking it's title, Morgen, from one of Richard Strauss's best-loved lieder, it interweaves his music (notably the Four Last Songs) with thematically linked works by Sergey Rachmaninov and Henri Duparc. As Elsa Dreisig says, "Morgen is an inner journey through the seasons of the soul."

Two of today's most brilliant tenors, Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee, celebrate the art of the trailblazing star singers of Rossini's time. Amici e Rivali - 'Friends and Rivals' - comprises arias, duets, and trios from seven of the composer's operas, written between 1815 and 1826: the most famous comic opera of them all, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and six serious dramatic works Otello, Armida, La donna del Lago, Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra, Le Si�ge de Corinthe, and, the rarest title here, Ricciardo e Zoraide.

This recording features two major works of the chamber repertoire - one by Anton�n Dvor�k, the other by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The two composers were contemporaries, born just a year apart: Tchaikovsky in 1840 and Dvor�k in 1841. In the 1880s (Tchaikovsky's Op.50 dates from 1881, Dvor�k's Op.65 from 1883), neither man was known for his chamber music - Tchaikovsky's reputation was based on his opera and ballet scores (works such as Eugene Onegin and Swan Lake), while Dvor�k had made his name with works influenced by Slavonic folk music (the Moravian Duets and Slavonic Dances). Each of these two piano trios therefore has it's own unique character, and both works signal new directions in the style of their respective composers.

For me, Strauss is one of the greatest composers," Diana Damrau has said. "The way he handles the soprano voice is a joy. And to be able to sing his music with my voice feels like coming home." The centrepiece of this album of Strauss songs is the sublime Vier letzte Lieder, in which Damrau - born and trained in Bavaria - joins forces with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and it's long-standing Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons. Her partner in a tempting and diverse selection of songs with piano is Helmut Deutsch. "Not only is Strauss's music gorgeous," says Damrau, "there's the way he combines words and notes - and the psychology.

In Alan Curtis's scrupulously detailed performance, Joyce DiDonato's gleaming legato and coloratura are upstaged by the elegance of Karina Gauvin's Ginevra. While diDonato offers recklessly inventive... - BBC Music Magazine.

Recording is as necessary to me as the air I breathe. One withdraws from the world for a brief while - an eternity -, examines a piece of music and is cross-examined by it in turn, then gives evidence before the microphones. It's as if I've played out my life through my recordings, each one representing a significant, if not seminal, stage in my development as an artist. Thirty years of recording. A discography built from stones of many different, and sometimes clashing, colours, but a discography with a broad and solid structure, a kind of self-portrait. If a good half of this set is taken from Alexandre Tharaud's published discography, the rest is made up by hitherto unreleased music. Some did not make it on to the album they were originally intended for, while others were recorded for fun at studio sessions over the years. When you're recording," the pianist explains, "you're always looking for the perfect take, where everything flows perfectly. But the pressure of the microphone doesn't help... So sometimes, recording a piece unplanned allows you to rediscover that spontaneity".