DOLCE CONCENTO LES ITALIENS A PARIS SOUS LOUIS XIV
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$22.49Jun 27, 2025
In it's fascination with Italy, nurtured by all that was best in Florence, Rome and Venice, 17th-century France saw the blossoming of a new national art. Though Lully in his pomp might seem to have subdued the musical world of his time, the ensemble La Palatine has helped us to restore it in a quite different constellation - one that is far more diverse, overflowing with imaginative riches.
30 years ago, a young German countertenor recorded his first disc for harmonia mundi. Since then, Andreas Scholl has been unfailingly successful. To celebrate this outstanding artist, a box set combining six of his iconic recitals retraces the main points of his career to date. From Dowland to Handel, here is the glorious testimony of a singer at the summit of his art.
This fourth and last volume devoted to Mozart's Violin and Piano Sonatas is a virtual journey of initiation, from his light-filled Palatine Sonatas to the later, more intense and complex Viennese masterworks, with Mozart completely revitalizing the genre and opening up new aesthetic horizons.
Following on from their recording of the sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord, Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout are now joined by Kristin von der Goltz for an exploration of the wonderful pieces Bach composed for violin and basso continuo. They reveal the full the elegance and poetry of these rarely recorded works.
To inaugurate their collaboration with harmonia mundi, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have recorded a program as subtle as it is unexpected, with two seldom-heard masterpieces of 1913. From the bitingly ironical Shakespearian portrait of an ageing knight (Falstaff), to an existential meditation inspired by Poe (The Bells), both these 'literary' scores dramatically prolong the enchantments of a dying romanticism.
From the youthful sonic ecstasy of George Enescu's Octet to the touching late composition Lachrymae by Benjamin Britten, Ensemble Resonanz and Tabea Zimmermann invite us to rediscover two profound, world-embracing works - full of inner motion, poised between reflection, melancholy, and transcendence.
John Rutter is one of the most iconic figures of English choral music today, a symbol of it's vitality and high standards. Graham Ross brings together the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge (the celebrated choral institution that the composer himself directed in the mid-1970s) and The Dmitri Ensemble to pay homage to this great gentleman of modern musical history with a wide range of his works, some of them recorded here for the very first time.
To celebrate their 20th anniversary in style, Les Siecles and Francois-Xavier Roth have chosen to dazzle us with the distinctive colors of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Paris. This concert, recorded in the legendary surroundings of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, explores shimmering orchestral works by Debussy, Lalo, Dukas and Roussel.
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.
Charpentier: The Imaginary Illness / Christie, Les Arts Florissants
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$21.99Oct 29, 2021
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.
Bach: Complete Cello Suites (The 2023 Sessions) / Queyras
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$25.61Oct 18, 2024
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.
From Berlin to Hamburg - C.P.E. Bach: Symphonies / Hirasaki, Kallweit, AAM Berlin
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$22.00$22.01Save 0%Mar 22, 2024
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.
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.
