Sebastien Dauce has totally rethought the score of La Calisto, with thirty-five instrumentalists instead of the original six who played at the opera's premiere in Venice in 1651. Under his lively and flexible musical direction, alert to the tiniest nuances, the Ensemble Correspondances performs absolute wonders. (Le Monde).

Camille Saint-Saëns, virtuoso pianist, organist and conductor, was also a great admirer of Liszt. His Symphony No.3, which adds both his chosen keyboard instruments to the orchestra, and his Piano Concerto No.4 utilize the codes of the old master, the better to transcend them. As partner of Les Siècles since 2017, harmonia mundi felt it was a must to reissue these fiery readings of two masterpieces in the great French Romantic tradition, for which François-Xavier Roth invited two eminent soloists.

The funeral of Louis XIV mirrored his reign: grandiose and filled with pathos. For this video, Raphaël Pichon has chosen the setting of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, built for the Sun King, to present a musical reconstruction of the event, with chiaroscuro lighting designs by Bertrand Couderc. Solemn motets like the De profundis and Dies irae of Michel-Richard de Lalande and the poignant Marche funèbre pour le Convoy d Roy by André Danican Philidor are juxtaposed with rarely heard music by Jean Colin, Louis Chein and Charles d'Helfer. This outstanding performance by Pygmalion was filmed on the occasion of the tercentenary of the event in November 2015.

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REVIEW:

The tercentenary of the Sun King's exequies was a perfect opportunity for a commemorative concert filmed at Chapelle Royale in Versailles. In numerous ways, this is not a reconstruction but instead a quasi-liturgical presentation that places two magnificent grands motets by Lalande among plenty of plainchant.

This conjectural fantasy affords creative license for Pygmalion and Raphael Pichon to create a beguilingly musical experience. The elegantly sensual orchestral playing and choral singing are sensational from start to finish. Five soloists sing with impeccable gracefulness and fluency.

– Gramophone

Victoria: Tenebrae Responsories The office of Tenebrae, from the liturgy of Holy Week, has always fascinated the public and, above all, offered a fertile terrain for composers to exercise their gifts. Such was the case with Victoria, whose exclusively sacred output was nourished by multiple influences during his years in Rome. These Responsories, performed by world-renowned vocal ensemble Stile Antico, display unparalleled expressive power and amply justify his reputation as the greatest polyphonist of the Spanish Renaissance. Stile Antico (Artist, Orchestra), Tomas Luis de Victoria (Composer), None (Conductor)

Bach’s six violin sonatas are remarkable not only because of their musical richness, but also due to their innovative scoring. Based on the Baroque trio sonata form, they transcend its conventions, representing a prototype for the violin-piano sonata form of the Classical and Romantic periods. These sonatas collectively explore the many possibilities of what was then a unique instrumental combination. They present a nuanced and vibrant dialog between the performers – attributes that are conveyed perfectly by the stellar combination of violinist Isabelle Faust and harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout.

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REVIEW:

Faust and Bezuidenhout played these sonatas a lot in concert before taking them into the studio and it shows – both in the detail and the trust that allows for real risk-taking. Can I find fault with this set? No, I cannot. It’s an eloquent and beautifully recorded homage to the composer and demands to be in the collection of all Bach lovers post-haste.

– Gramophone

Gramophone Magazine - Tharaud combines pianistic imagination and stylistic sensitivity to locate the fidgety energy of La poule, the rhythmic playfulness of Les tricotets and the grandeur and verve of the Gavotte et doubles, and his playing has clarity and brilliance. To my mind no other pianist has reproduced the spirit of this composer more enchantingly.

Berlioz: Harold en Italie Les Nuit D'ete - A new aesthetic calls for new forms: such is the challenge the composer set for himself in the two works presented here. In Les Nuits d'ete, Berlioz pioneered - well before Mahler and Ravel - the song cycle for voice and orchestra. In Harold in Italy, scored for large orchestra and solo viola, he experimented with the symphonic genre. These period-instrument performances by Francois-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles feature violist Tabea Zimmermann and vocalist Stephane Degout, heard here in the composer's own version of Les Nuits d'ete for baritone.

The two splendid works on this album were the result of Manuel de Falla's encounter with the husband-and-wife team of dramatists Martinez Sierra-Lejarraga. El amor brujo takes us to the very heart of the flamenco repertory and the brilliant pantomime, El sombrero de tres picos, whose sets and costumes were originally designed by Picasso, are magnificently actualized by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under the direction of maestro Pablo Heras-Casado. Mahler Chamber Orchestra & Pablo Heras-Casado

HARMONIA MUNDI - Stravinsky: The Soldiers Tale (English Version) - Isabelle Faust / Alexander Melnikov / Dominique Horwitz, Isabelle Faust, Lorenzo Coppola, Javier Zafra, Reinhold Friedrich, J�rgen van Rijen, Wies de Boeve, Raymond Curfs 2021 release.

This coupling is a popular one, and with good reason. The Sextet marks the beginnings of Dvorák in “Slavonic” mode, with a second movement “Dunka” and a “Furiant” for a scherzo, while the String Quintet comes from his “American” period, with all that this entails as regards melody, harmony, and rhythm. Both works are drop-dead gorgeous, and so beguiling that you’ll never notice the remarkable sophistication and craft that went into their creation.

There have been several excellent releases featuring this music, most notably the Panocha Quartet’s versions on Supraphon, now found in that label’s boxed sets of Dvorák’s complete chamber works. The Jerusalem Quartet and friends doesn’t play with the Panocha’s silky smoothness of timbre, but that’s not a criticism, merely a reflection of a different school of playing and aesthetic sensibility. Their more grainy (but never harsh) sound has its own appeal, especially in the Sextet’s exotic slow movement, its scherzo, and everywhere in those open-air, “hoedown” passages that pepper the Quintet. And in terms of intonation and ensemble balance, these players rank second to none.

Interestingly, both works include sets of variations. In the Sextet it’s the finale, and in the Quintet, the third movement Larghetto. It was Donald Francis Tovey who first pointed out Dvorák’s skill as a writer of variations, calling his movements and larger pieces in the form “perfect.” They are also highlights of these performances, in which the musicians seize with relish every opportunity to display their individual excellence. Their playing offers a very satisfying, wide range of color, combined with the necessary intelligent pacing and attention to long-range coherence. Beautifully engineered to boot, this release stands with the finest. It’s a joy.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Following a Schubertian venture that has revealed, over the past few years, his immense stature as an interpreter of the lied, Matthias Goerne has now selected twenty or so of the little gems lovingly fashioned by Schumann in the year of his marriage (1840) or in the darker Düsseldorf period (1849-52). This anthology proves to be nothing less than a mise en abyme: an entire world seems to creep in between the fragrant flowers of the bouquet of ‘Myrtles’ and the nocturnal atmosphere of the ‘Six Poems and Requiem’. Yes: a whole world!

LES ARTS FLORISSANTS / RAMEAU: PLATEE - WILLIAM CHRISTIE A marsh nymph thinks she is so irresistible that Jupiter himself will take an interest in her... Brimming with exceptional dramatic and musical verve, this strangely under-recorded 'ballet bouffon' offers us Rameau's art in a nutshell: glittering orchestration, harmonies and rhythms of unprecedented modernity. William Christie and his comrades plunge with delight into what is one of it's composer's most fascinating works. William Christie and Les Arts Florissants plunge with delight into what is one of it's composer's most fascinating works. HARMONIA MUNDI USA

With his First Concerto, the young Brahms set his own course in the wake of Beethoven and Schumann and at the same time poured forth his personal emotions in this work of impressive dimensions. Russian soloist, Alexander Melnikov, has chosen an instrument contemporary with the premiere, a magnificent Bl�thner piano from 1859, a perfect match for the Sinfonieorchester Basel under it's British conductor Ivor Bolton. In addition to Brahms's Tragic Overture, the program also includes the much rarer Overture to �liza, an opera by Cherubini, a composer whom Brahms greatly admired.

In the words of Richard Wagner, Beethoven's Seventh is a true "apotheosis of the dance". It has enjoyed perennial popularity ever since it's premiere, unlike his sole ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, of which only the overture has remained (more or less) familiar to us. The musicians of the Freiburger Barockorchester, under the direction of their Konzertmeister Gottfried von der Goltz, offer a brillant new version of this key work in Beethoven's corpus while reviving the complete version of one of his most unjustly forgotten masterpieces.

 

REVIEWS:

 

Goltz and his Freiburg players give [the Seventh] everything, and their exceptional period-instrument vividness and fierce dynamic contrasts are a tonic.

 

– Sunday Times (UK)

 

Nothing is left in the locker in these terrifically raw and punchy performances of a much-loved symphony and all-too-rarely heard ballet.

 

– BBC Music Magazine

For the past several years, Isabelle Faust has been exploring Johann Sebastian Bach's music for the violin. First came her recording of the solo Sonatas and Partitas, which earned widespread acclaim. It was followed by the sonatas for violin and harpsichord, violin concertos and transcriptions, and the Brandenburg Concertos. Each reading was marked by equal freshness, an unfailing sense of rediscovery, precision, and generosity. Isabelle Faust here regales us with a treasure that reveals a thrilling story. A bonus DVD, recorded at the Leipzig Thomaskirche, next to it's most famous Cantor's tomb, completes this monumental tribute.

Avner Dorman has fast become one of the most sought-after composers of his generation. In 2018, he received the prestigious Azrieli Prize for his Violin Concerto No.2 and his opera Wahnfried was nominated for a 2018 International Opera Award. Written in 2013 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Letters from Gettysburg, a work scored for soprano, baritone, large chorus and percussion, is the centerpiece in this all-Dorman release. It is paired with two Dorman works commissioned by Orli and Gil Shaham. After Brahms is three intermezzos pieces for solo piano that cleverly extend the harmonic language of Brahms. Nigunim draws on the musical influences of Jewish song, hailing from locations around the world - Africa, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Central Asia.

A century after his death on 25 March 1918, many harmonia mundi artists were eager to pay tribute to Claude Debussy, the magician of melody and timbre, the great 'colourist' and father of modern music. With the musicians of Les Siecles, we have the opportunity to discover on period instruments the original colors of such key works as Jeux and the Nocturnes.

Isabelle Faust and Francois-Xavier Roth explore extremely contrasting facets of Stravinsky's output for violin. From the Concerto to the Pastorale, the composer plays with codes and colors, sketching extraordinarily vivid soundscapes. Once again, the musicians of Les Siecles have succeeded in rediscovering the works' original dynamic by using period instruments - and that changes everything.

The poetics of space and the art of time, high-precision mechanism, rhythmic exhilaration; Ligeti's music defies criteria and codes. This recording provides an opportunity to assess the evolution of the musical language of one of the twentieth century's greatest composers, from the early Concert Romanesc to the later concertos for piano and violin, performed here by two fabulous virtuosi.

A dark, pessimistic work, Belshazzar casts an uncompromising gaze on the fate of empires and those who govern them. In 2013, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants recorded a noble and majestic account of this formidable oratorio. The Times proclaimed "Belshazzar is delivered with ringing zest by Allan Clayton, Rosemary Joshua and other top Brits, and an orchestra forever on the boil."

The orchestra of Le Consort, in the course of it's exploration of Vivaldi, reveals the many facets of this inexhaustible cycle. To achieve this, Theotime Langlois de Swarte has held up a subtle mirror to other works by the 'red-haired priest'. All of them perpetuate the seasons in their own way, through shared memories and impressions; in the background Lambranzi's Venetian dances complement this musical picture awash with colors.

The grandeur of simplicity Paul Hillier possesses a special rapport with the Estonian composer Arvo Part, with whom he has worked for many years, patiently exploring the different facets of his music. This boxed set assembles this major recording legacy (1996-2012) in it's entirety for the first time. It represents a significant milestone in our understanding of Part's unique musical universe, characterised by a purity and inwardness inherited from the great tradition of Gregorian chant. A pioneer of 'historically informed' performance, Philippe Herreweghe recorded a extensive selection of Bach's finest cantatas with harmonia mundi - versions now regarded as milestones in the works' discography. This boxed set provides an opportunity to rediscover that legacy in it's entirety: twenty years (1987-2007) in the service of one of the Kantor's richest and most indispensable bodies of work.

Mendelssohn's incidental music left it's mark on his contemporaries with it's virtuosity, it's subtle orchestration and it's evocative power. Here, Pablo Heras-Casado, the Freiburger Barockorchester and the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin present the music absolutely complete, flanked by Max Urlacher as a wonderfully ebullient narrator. Their historically informed interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream offers a delightful plunge into this world of dreams and enchantment.