With more than 125 concertos to his credit, Telemann was one of the pioneers of this genre that had flowered in Italy. Combining daring, humor and emotion, he particularly delighted in exploring the virtuosity of the violin and it's gift for imitation and it's lyricism. Alongside other works of his where the violin also takes centre stage, Isabelle Faust and the Academie fur Alte Musik Berlin showcase several jewels from his output of unimagined opulence.

The Harmoniemesse, Haydn's last major sacred work, combines liturgical solemnity with dazzling orchestral writing empowered by his masterly use of the winds. In contrast, the intimate, luminous Missa brevis 'St John of God', reveals a more contemplative faith. Directing Les Arts Florissants, William Christie illuminates these two sides of the composer with authority and poetic sensitivity, well served by a top-flight quartet of soloists.

REQUIEM

The year 2022 marks the 400th Anniversary of the birth of one of French literature’s greatest geniuses: Molière.

His admirers thought they knew everything about his art, but they long remained deaf to an essential element in his output: the music.

In 1990, William Christie finally provided the opportunity to discover this domain, with Marc- Antoine Charpentier’s settings giving new depth to and shedding new light on the well-known text of Le Malade imaginaire.

This major recording opened up unexpected perspectives on an unjustly forgotten heritage. Experience it anew on this reissued double-album edition!

After a successful trilogy devoted to the concertos and trios of Schumann, Freiburger Barockorchester and Pablo Heras-Casado could not ignore one of Beethoven's most unusual works: the Triple Concerto. Alongside Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov, they bring this score to life as only true chamber musicians can, revealing it's subtlest colors and balances. The trio transcription of the Second Symphony, which was supervised by the composer himself, judiciously completes this exploration of lesser-known Beethoven, in which intimacy mingles with grandeur.

In this album, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles have chosen to present Mahler’s First Symphony in its second version, that of Hamburg/Weimar (1893-94) - a unique opportunity to hear the symphonic poem Titan. By allowing us to follow the genesis of this first large scale work, Titan opens the doors of Mahler’s artistic workshop at a crucial moment in the creative process: the transition from the youthful effort of 1889 to the Symphony in D major of 1896, which established Mahler as one of the foremost symphonists of the modern era.

 

REVIEW:

 

The recording sticks a feather in the cap of Les Siècles, among the most adaptable and engaging of today’s historically informed ensembles formed in the image of their director… I applaud, too, Roth’s unabashed commitment to those passages where Mahler himself later had second thoughts – deft and ingenious ones, to be sure, but thinning out its red blood cells in the process.. a required supplement to any decent-size Mahler library.

 

– Gramophone

The fruit of a long-standing collaboration between Jean-Guihen Queyras and choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (whose acclaimed production Mitten wir i'm Leben sind has had over 100 performances worldwide and was filmed in 4K for the enclosed Blu-ray disc), this new recording of Bach's Cello Suites arrives 17 years after his first reading that quickly set the standard. Profoundly influenced by his close connection to dance, the cellist has drawn fresh inspiration from the source. Today, he is ready to offer his latest look at the iconic cycle.

One must get past the cliche ('Vivaldi composed the same concerto 500 times') to understand the extent to which composer, instrument and genre form an indissoluble whole; and that is what Theotime Langlois de Swarte and the musicians of Le Consort have set out to do. From his early youth in Venice to his last days in Vienna, the 'red-haired priest' pushed back technical and academic boundaries, constantly creating new narrative forms: the journey of a lifetime.

This new album rounds off the complete recording of the symphonies of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach that the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin began over two decades ago. The final batch offers the quintessence of his art, revealing the full originality of Johann Sebastian's inspired son, whose freedom and inventiveness paved the way for Haydn and Mozart.

The sublime reflection of a human being faced with his own finitude and what comes afterwards, Mozart's Requiem reaches beyond the realm of music to attain universal resonance. Raphaël Pichon's interpretation of this testamentary work, nurtured by a seminal experience with stage director Romeo Castellucci and punctuated by earlier sacred pieces of Mozart, is overwhelmingly moving

Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge celebrate the 500th anniversary of Palestrina's birth in style, recording for the very first time an album of outstanding works by the Roman master that are still little-known. To add resonance to their program, they pair settings of the same texts by three of Palestrina's English contemporaries: William Byrd, Robert White, and William Mundy.

The sublime reflection of a human being faced with his own finitude and what comes afterwards, Mozart's Requiem reaches beyond the realm of music to attain universal resonance. Raphael Pichon's interpretation of this testamentary work, nurtured by a seminal experience with stage director Romeo Castellucci and punctuated by earlier sacred pieces of Mozart, is overwhelmingly moving.

A world removed from the grand and awesome visions of the Last Judgement that so often characterize settings of the Mass for the Dead, Brahms conceived a work of 'consolation for those who are suffering'. Having spent more than ten years absorbing this German 'humanist' requiem, this album's performers have meticulously shaped every bar of this compact work, achieving a form of polyphonic transparency that confounds the senses and transcends the universality of it's message.

Pierre Gallon's new program portrays a night of music, hovering between fantasies and poetic dreams of the English Renaissance. His keyboards - harpsichords, a virginal and a toy piano - create a mosaic of nocturnal visions, interspersed with the fantastic and unexpected. As a contemporary counterpoint, Bernard Foccroulle's Night (2023) reveals the light of a new dawn.

Gustavo Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra ascend the heights of two of Bartok's musical peaks: his dazzling Concerto for Orchestra and infamous Miraculous Mandarin, here presented in it's complete version. As a pendant, the sediments by Canadian composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel, commissioned by the Orchestra, is a fascinating meditation on nature, it's stratas, and the collective memory it holds within.

From the Fantasie Op. 17 - a pinnacle of lyricism and virtuosity - to the irresistible Carnival Scenes from Vienna, via the Humoreske that bubbles over with invention, Nikolai Lugansky explores three of Schumann's iconic masterpieces for piano: a compelling panorama of an intensely personal musical world, mingling passionate outbursts with ironic daydreams and poetic depths.

Newly arrived in Paris, where he meets again his ex-pupil Marie-Antoinette, Gluck decides to court the Parisian public by revising one of his great Viennese successes: Orfeo ed Euridice. More than a simple adaptation to the French language and taste, his Orphee et Eurydice proves to be an out-and-out aesthetic revolution. This operatic wind of change has been recaptured for us to rediscover by Paul Agnew, Les Arts Florissants and three exceptional soloists.

The Rhine hymned by women's voices A major source of inspiration for writers and painters (Hugo, Nerval, Heine, Eichendorff, Turner) and above all composers throughout Romantic Europe, the legends of the Rhine still enthral our imaginations even today. The Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphael Pichon invite us on a fantastic voyage through famous works (including Wagner) and others, much more rarely recorded, that are absolute gems of the repertory for female voices.

When Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen died in 1728, his former Kapellmeister had not forgotten the five brilliant years he had spent in the prince's service. He dedicated to his memory a mourning cantata almost entirely based on the music of two major works of the mid-1720s, the Trauer-Ode and the St Matthew Passion. Although the score is lost, the wordbook and other sources of information have now made it possible to reconstruct the work. Raphael Pichon's first recording for harmonia mundi was voted recording of the year at the 2015 Victoires de la Musique Classique awards.

In this double album, Emmanuelle Bertrand, Pascal Amoyel and the Quatuor Parisii explore the musical world of late Schubert in all it's nuanced light and shade. Here with the well-known Arpeggione Sonata, the stupendous String Quintet, and selected songs arranged for cello and piano, the album becomes a poignant journey during which we see beauty yield to the inevitability of fate.

In 1786, Haydn composed The Seven Last Words of Christ for orchestra. Ten years later he produced a stunning choral version, which Justin Doyle and the RIAS Chamber Choir and Konzerthausorchester Berlin now invite us to rediscover. Together with four exceptional soloists, they reveal all the dramatic power of the work, it's expressive intensity and liturgical fervour.

An oceanic dialogue between two composers from the first wave of the modern musical era: such is Aline Piboule's daring new solo venture. Here the epic La Mer sprays it's rainbow of colors as idiomatically as if Debussy had written it for solo piano, like D'un cahier d'esquisses and the famous Clair de lune. In echo, John Ireland's piano triptychs, Sarnia and Decorations, conjure up the Channel Islands in bewitching musical poetry.

The empathy between Robert and Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim and Johannes Brahms engendered one of Romanticism's most fruitful artistic friendships. With the aim of mining the precious jewels of that unique intimacy, three great artists have devised a program in the form of a poetic conversation; here chamber music once more becomes shared human emotion in it's purest expression.

In this third volume of the series, A Life in Music, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants take us to Cothen (1717-1723) where Bach enjoyed one of the happiest times of his life. With a group of distinguished soloists, they help us rediscover some of the outstanding works of these inspiring years, including the famous Cantata the composer dedicated to his patron and friend, Prince Leopold.

For the third volume of their Schubert 200 series, Samuel Hasselhorn and Ammiel Bushakevitz celebrate the composer's refound exuberance. After the sunlit summer of 1825, 1826 was a year of renewal for Schubert, bringing an astounding rush of artistic energy. These Lieder, pitched between nostalgia and quiet confidence, sing of a hope transcending the vagaries of life.