After two initial chamber music albums recorded with Helen Huang, violinist Paul Huang, recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2015, confirms in the concerto repertoire his strong affinity for the lyrical qualities of his instrument. He chose to record the concertos by Barber and Korngold for their broad, expressive melodies, their sumptuous harmonic language, and their climaxes of great emotional transparency, which echo the spirit of late Romanticism associated with Brahms, Tchaikovsky, or Bruch. Korngold himself said that he had composed his concerto "for a Caruso of the violin rather than for a Paganini." This is sure to appeal to the thirty-something violinist, who was drawn to his instrument at a very young age "because of it's singing tone, a sound that resembles the human voice." These two American concertos, dating from the mid-twentieth century, offer him the stimulating challenge of painting worlds that are both luxuriant and intimate, using the refined palette of a chamber musician. To meet this challenge, he is joined by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Jun Markl, a conductor with whom he frequently collaborates in concert. Korngold, an Austrian composer who fled to America in 1936 under pressure from the rise of Nazism and whom Mahler described as a "musical genius," composed extensively for Hollywood. Here, he notably draws his thematic material from several of his earlier film scores. The American composer Barber, for his part, captures the atmosphere of the United States in the 1930s, while also evoking the vast American landscapes and the industrial dynamism of New York. "A profound vulnerability also emerges from these two works, particularly in their sublime slow movements," the violinist notes. The slow movement of Barber's concerto expresses a deep sense of dismay, uncertainty, and despair characteristic of the Great Depression. The luxuriant Romantic language of old Europe, transformed through Korngold's experience in cinema, and Barber's lyrical voice - marked by great emotional sincerity and deeply rooted in the American soil - represent for Paul Huang two complementary visions of American musical identity. They take on particular meaning for him, a Taiwanese-born musician

Innovative and enthralling mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter already has a successful discography, including her critically acclaimed album with Brad Mehldau Love Songs, and her Grammy award-winning Douce France. For this release, Anne has joined with Brooklyn Rider, a trailblazing and frequently favorited string quartet. The project which ensued presents music from iconic artists in both the classical and pop music worlds. Brooklyn Rider is violinists Colin Jacobsen and Johnny Gandelsman, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Eric Jacobsen. Based in New York City, the ensemble is known for playing contemporary and unusual repertoire. The group founded the Stillwater Music Festival in 2006. New works written just for Anne Sofie and Brooklyn Rider come from composers Nico Muhly, Brooklyn Rider’s own Colin Jacobsen, and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw. Works from Brooklyn Rider’s ‘Almanac’ project are also included, which The Boston Globe called “an all-over-the-map stylistic tour and a treatise on present-day quartet writing.”

-----

REVIEW:

What is so remarkable about Anne Sofie von Otter is her ability to assimilate so many different styles and make them her own. Nowhere on this album is there a sense of a classically schooled singer who tries to incorporate music from another world in her traditional way of singing. She adjusts her way of singing to the material in question—and it sounds natural.

– MusicWeb International

A luminous, easily recognizable instrument, and a symbol of Italy's learned and popular musical tradition, the mandolin has been the subject of several major compositions throughout the history of music. First of all, the famous concertos by Vivaldi: two of them appear here on this intensely romantic album (‘Come une volta’) that Julien Martineau - one of today’s greatest figureheads of the instrument - has recorded for Naïve. We also finally get to hear, thanks to the world premiere recording by Julien Martineau, the legendary, virtuosic and poetic second concerto (of which the manuscript was lost) by Raffaele Calace (1863-1934), who was often described as "the Paganini of the mandolin". The instrument is in fact so close, in many ways, to the violin. The Caudioso concerto completes an album which, steeped in authenticity and musical excellence, honors and lends prestige not only to the art of mandolin, but also to Italian and musical culture as a whole.

SR9 Trio promotes a creative vision of current Western percussion. Attached to the classical musical heritage, they are actively involved with careful rereading and transcriptions for 3 marimbas of emblematic scores. Since its creation in 2010 at the CNSMD of Lyon, the SR9 Trio performs in France and worldwide, notably in the United States, Canada, Germay, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Paul Changarnier, Nicolas Cousin, and Alexandre Esperet are three young and curious musicians and they definitely express themselves in a wide range of performances. They like to collaborate with various artists to explore other artistic fields, including dance and theater, and create new projects where all disciplines merge into one creative expression. This programme follows their previous release “Bach at the Marimba,” and is conceived upon the theme of dance throughout music history, from Rameau to De Falla.

FRANCK Violin Sonata. DEBUSSY Cello Sonata. POULENC Cello Sonata • Anne Gastinel (vc); Claire Désert (pn) • NAÏVE V5259 (61: 20)


This is an excellent version of Poulenc’s Cello Sonata. It has a persuasive sense of direction and a well-judged series of tempo decisions. It’s also warmly played, and ensemble between Anne Gastinel and Claire Désert is watertight. If your classic recording of choice is that of Pierre Fournier with Jacques Février—and I suppose that 1971 LP disc looms large in the discography—then you should know that the newcomers have their own views about things, and they ensure a convincing milieu for the work. Maybe the older pair breathed more naturally at certain points in the first movement—one feels their paragraphal phrasing is the more natural—but that doesn’t limit admiration for Gastinel and Désert, who take a more incisive tempo for the slow movement and sustain it well. It’s a passionate point of view, but then it is a passionate movement and one of the most outspoken in all of Poulenc’s music. Witty badinage restores things in the Ballabile third movement, and while Fournier emphasizes some of the more spectral moments in the finale with greater impact and immediacy, the more up-to-date and natural dynamic range of this Naïve recording proves laudable. This then is a compelling and first-class account of the sonata.


The Debussy sonata reprises the virtues of the Poulenc, though it does so in a way that signals the players’ freedom from convention. They don’t play in as arresting a manner as those pioneering French musicians Maurice Maréchal and Robert Casadesus, who, in their 1930 recording, performed with unselfconscious directness. But they do abjure some of the more outré gestures that have accreted to, say, the Sérénade’s pizzicatos, which is well and good in my book. They play with assurance throughout, though my own preferences lie with the classic older statement and also with the more phrasally suggestive playing of Tortelier and Gerald Moore in their 1948 disc, now in a huge Paul Tortelier EMI retrospective box.


The last work is the transcription of the Franck Violin Sonata made by Jules Delsart, with the approval of the composer, in 1888. This has been an increasingly popular option for cellists, and Gastinel and Désert play with a canny appreciation of when to press on and when to fine-down tone. Gastinel’s vibrato speed is well judged, and the pianist, who shoulders most of the truly taxing demands, acquits herself estimably.


This fine recital has been warmly recorded, is well balanced and reflects well on all concerned.


FANFARE: Jonathan Woolf

‘Rencontre' is the first recital album of soprano Raquel Camarinha and pianist Yoan Héreau, new signings on Naïve. It crystallizes several years of passionate live music-making for the duo. From Debussy to Poulenc, via Ravel and the all-too rare Delage, we are invited on a journey akin to a game of mirrors between composers, music, poems, characters and performers, that is in turn amorous, dreamlike, mysterious and wonderfully evocative. The Portuguese soprano Raquel Camarinha was born in Braga in 1986. She began her vocal studies in 2000, completed the Secondary Singing Course in 2004, and in 2009 the Undergraduate Course in Music, at the University of Aveiro. In 2011 she took her master’s degree at the Paris Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et Danse, in the class of Chantal Mathias. Winner of several national and international awards, in 2011 she won first prize at the Luísa Todi National Singing Competition in Portugal, as well as the Best Female Performer Award at the Armel Opera Competition in Hungary.

Recorded live in concert, Paavo Järvi created and conducted this thrilling programme of orchestral arrangements of chamber music works. The result is a world-class encounter between some of the most important names in music history. Works by Brahms, Shoenberg, Bach, and Webern are included. Currently in his third season as Music Director of Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi and the orchestra have just returned from a very successful tour to China and. Previous tours have taken them to major European Festivals, including the BBC Proms, the Rheingau Musik Festival in Germany and the Robeco Summer series in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Click here to view the Vinyl version.

 

Susheela Raman's voice, whether solo or in unearthly harmonies, performs it's unique magic drawing the musical world together. With it's bold meddling with tune and tempo, this fresh set of songs threatens not to work but achieves a compelling integrity. Susheela Raman's Ghost Gamelan is a rich new landscape unlike any of her previous work and quite unlike anything else. Born in London to South Indian parents, singer Susheela Raman, alongside producer/guitarist Sam Mills, has released a chain of adventurous albums and is known as an intense, captivating live performer. Spirited encounters with musicians from a wide range of backgrounds has been a hallmark of her work. Now a new ambitious collaboration with Indonesian musicians is bearing fruit. Raman has delivered this extraordinary album, the body of which was recorded in Solo, Indonesia in 2016. The album is a collaboration with Javanese contemporary gamelan composer Gondrong Guanarto and his team of virtuoso gamelan players. Gamelan, for non-initiates, is the music of Bali and Java, played mostly on tuned gongs, which has long inspired smart western music makers from Debussy, Messaien, Philip Glass and Steve Reich to Sonic Youth. Traces of it's shimmering, loopy DNA are over everything from modal jazz to electronic dance music.

This album marks the return of a Master. Salif Keita is devoted to the cause of Albinos in Africa but after 5 years, he is back with his enchanting voice and his unique sense of groove, surrounded by an outstanding band (Alune Wade, Paco Sery, Hervé Samb...) and first-class featured guests: Angélique Kidjo, MHD, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Yemi Alade). This is a major musical and cultural event! Salif Keita is an afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is notable not only due to his reputation as the "Golden Voice of Africa," but also for his albinism. He was born a traditional prince in the village of Djoliba. He moved to Paris in 1984, where his music reached a world-wide audience.

2009 two CD release from the French singer/songwriter, often compared to Serge Gainsbourg. Including guest appearances from Jeanne Cherhal and Valeri Donzelli. Naive.

A posthumous record? "Nothing to declare!" as Rachid would have said, leaning on the bar counter, with messy hair, bright eyes, and a raspy voice. He's there, you can't miss him. He may be laid to rest in Algeria, but he hasn't left us. He knew that those who are allegedly missing are well and alive: "Do you really know the others?" the master of rock-Chaâbi once asked, quoting the greats Johnny Cash, Oum Kalthoum, and Andy Warhol in a prophetic song titled Andy Walhoo. He wrote this arabic-punk-electro piece with guitars, balafon, and mouth harp before succumbing to a heart attack on September 12, 2018. With boundless energy, Taha wrote eleven songs together with Toma Feterman for his eleventh solo album, diving deep into his roots as usual. First, Algerian Chaâbi, so subtle, yet so complex. Then rock, which took the world by storm during the postwar period, and punk, it's offshoot, in the style of The Clash. Finally, electronica, the musical revolution of the late twentieth century, as hypnotic as the Gnawas guembris or Sufi trance sounds.

Born in Bordeaux in 1945, Christian Morin’s varied career and talents have taken him down the paths of illustrator, poster artist, cartoonist, renowned TV presenter and most importantly here, a leading clarinet player. He’s played with great French and American musicians including Henri Salvador, Buddy Tate, Milt Buckner, Jo Jones, Buck Clayton, T. Bone Walker, among others. His newest album, Blue Indigo, finds him in the company of French compatriots for an album full of fine American standards.

Harrison Kennedy's voice, banjo, spoons and guitar, Jean-Jacques Milteau's imaginative harmonica and Vincent Segal's lyrical cello converse and play as the members of this inspired trio pay homage to their roots without sacrificing to nostalgia, inventing no less than the future of the blue note in the process. Kennedy owes forbearers who traveled the Underground Railroad all the way to Ontario, fleeing the Southern plantations where they were enslaved. Harrison has kept from this aching heritage a deep respect for the Mississippi and Tennessee roots he nurtures to this day in a truly original and personal fashion. The proud holder of a 2016 Juno Award and recipient of the 2015 Blues Prize granted by Académie, Charles Cros got his start at the height of the soul era. After making a noted debut on the prestigious Motown imprint joined the stellar group Chairmen of the Board, traveling across the world and sharing the stage with the likes of Stevie Wonder, George Harrison, and Tom Jones, among others. Eclecticism remains to this day the dominant trait of an artist who has always combined tradition and innovation. Jean-Jacques Milteau needs no introduction. This French harmonica wizard is a respected specialist of the blue note whose fruitful work with Eric Bibb around the repertoire of old-time songster Lead Belly has recently been acclaimed. Milteau, the winner of two Victoires de la Musique has worked, in the studio and on stage, with the likes of B.B. King, Little Milton, Mighty Mo Rodgers and Sam McClain. As for Vincent Segal, winner of an impressive number of Victoires de la Musique and with twenty years on the road with Cyril Atef and the duo Bumcello under his belt, his cello has graced an impressive number of projects in a wide variety of musical styles.

Dimitry Sinkovsky is a dazzlingly multi-talented artist -a brilliant violinist, countertenor, conductor, and founder in 2011 of the ensemble La Voce Strumentale. In Virtuosissimo, his fifth venture with Naïve, he has teamed up again with the ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro, his partners in numerous recordings and concerts, to cast more light on Pisendel, a celebrated violinist and composer who led the prestigious Dresden Court Orchestra, and a Vivaldi devotee who copied out several of the Venetian master's concertos for performance in Dresden. Virtuosissimois a photography of an influential moment in music history. With this new album, Dmitry Sinkovsky goes beyond Vivaldi and his influences: as well as Pisendel, he plays works by Locatelli, Tartini, Leclair and Telemann, all of whom enriched the early 18th-century violin repertoire with opulent, highly personal works focusing on soloistic bravura. A century later, Paganini was to draw on this baroque heritage. All the concertos here have inspired high-wire performances to Dmitry Sinkovsky: fiery exchanges with the orchestra, cunningly crafted cadences, vertiginous harmonics, startlingly unexpected bowing, sharp-edged attacks, daunting double-stopping... Sinkovsky seems to completely embody these five concertos, as if propelled by an inextinguishable flame: the electrifying result is truly 'virtuosissimo'.

Bach: Praeludien & Fugen

Following a breathtaking Vivaldi album, Russian violinist and countertenor Dmitry Sinkovsky is turning to Bach music. Once again, he combines his unrivalled virtuosity in both arts to create an outstanding recording in which 3 famous violin concertos are paired with vocal hits by Bach: "Erbarme Dich", "Es ist vollbracht" and "Agnus Dei" from B minor mass. Russian virtuoso violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky has been a prizewinner in multiple international competitions, including the Bach Competition, Musica Antiqua Competition, and Romanus Weichlein. In 2011 he founded the La Voca Strumentale ensemble in Moscow, and was a conductor of Il Complesso Barocco from 2012 to 2014. He currently serves as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory where he teaches both violin and viola.

Handel, Scarlatti, Corelli, Stradella, Muffat ... From 1650 to the beginning of the eighteenth century, Rome exercised an immense power in attracting composers from all over Europe and experienced an intense moment of musical activity, because of - or in spite of - the papal administration. It was a prosperous period with a melting pot of influences. The programme devised here by the Roman conductor, Rinaldo Alessandrini, offers a complete and personal vision of the time, passionate and secular, lyrical (made sublime by Sandrine Piau) and orchestral, romantic in every way. Rinaldo Alessandrini is one of the leading figures in the international early music scene. His predilection for the Italian repertory and his constant preoccupation with the expressive characteristics specific to the Italian style of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are the decisive factors that orientate his musical approach and interpretative options, both as the head of Concerto Italiano, of which he is the founder and director, and as a soloist and guest conductor.

For several decades, as solo harpsichordist and director of his ensemble Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini has been exploring not just the Italian repertoire that he is so passionate about, but also the works of Bach –as in his benchmark recording of the Brandenburg Concertos in 2005. In this new recording, Ales-sandrini has mounted a challenge to all currently available recordings of those four Orchestral Suites that Bach called ‘Overtures’, after their imposing opening movements. We don’t know when these dance suites were composed, nor where they were first performed, but they were certainly played in Leipzig at the time Bach was directing its celebrated Collegium Musicum. Here Alessandrini has once again sifted all available sources, putting the composer’s entire output under the microscope to identify the most authentic details of style and orchestration. The result is a subtle balance between Bach’s intricate contrapuntal writing and the spontaneity of his dances, with their French and Italian influences. Together with these majestic, festive, radiant works by J.S. Bach, Concerto Italiano presents two Overtures in the same instrumental mold by Johann Bernhard and Johann Ludwig Bach –two composer cousins with whom Johann Sebastian enjoyed lifelong ties of mutual friendship and esteem. During his Leipzig years he had their Overtures copied out, so he could perform them with the Collegium Musicum. Here then is a welcome opportunity to hear these two superb orchestral pieces in the contemporary context of Bach’s own music.

-----

REVIEW:

Fans of these players won’t need much encouragement to purchase this, indeed, it should act as a reminder that Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini haven’t gained their reputation without good reason.

The sound quality is very immediate, especially for the winds, but not tiring. The notes, which run to nine pages on the music, are erudite, tracing in detail the history of the JSB works and their connection to the Leipzig Collegium Musicum. – MusicWeb International

Naïve is particularly proud to release the first recording from the orchestra recently founded by conductor Mathieu Herzog: Ensemble Appassionato. A favorite composer for the orchestra, who other than Mozart to bear witness to the recording debut from this ensemble? An ensemble born under the most auspicious circumstances, full of members from France’s major string quartets. The last three symphonies, a triptych as monumental as it is mysterious - we know almost nothing about the circumstances surrounding their composition - are probably the works that best symbolize the projects thus far of Mathieu Herzog and the Ensemble Appassionato. Their fresh vision, modern and chamber-like, plus a multitude of eclectic repertoire. A vision galvanized by the desire to share music with everyone. Listening to this recording nourished with as much passion and ambition as respect and humility, a more human and personified Mozart appears before us, more luminous than ever. Clear timbres, instrumental cohesion, balance, well-rounded characters, full-bodied tempi ... Mathieu Herzog demonstrates here a vision and an inherent know-how, placing him immediately in the pantheon of great conductors.

-----

REVIEW:

At root, these are modern-instrument performances that digest the historical discoveries of our time and offer a full-bodied chamber presentation. These three performances are, in their own ways, individual, minutely considered and thus, perhaps inevitably, not to every taste. The ensemble sound, however, is one of the glories of this set. As chamber players and therefore soloists in their own rights, the contribution of each player is palpable.

– Gramophone

Vita

14.4415

Armenian piano virtuoso Tigran Hamasyan returns with Manifeste, out February 6, 2025-a powerful fusion of jazz, progressive rock, and Armenian folk. Recorded across five countries, the album blends rhythmic complexity, cinematic depth, and spiritual intensity, featuring longtime collaborators and the Yerevan State Chamber Choir. Manifeste is a bold declaration where the human, digital, and sacred unite in sound. Following The Bird of a Thousand Voices, Hamasyan continues his artistic exploration with Manifeste (2025)-a bold, multi-dimensional statement recorded between 2023 and 2025 across studios in Yerevan, Athens, Moscow, Los Angeles, and beyond. Entirely composed and produced by Hamasyan, Manifeste fuses his signature rhythmic complexity and spiritual depth with a more cinematic soundscape, where Armenian folk roots, progressive rock intensity, and choral mysticism intertwine. The album unfolds like a ritual sequence-from the meditative "Prelude for All Seekers" to the powerful "National Repentance Anthem. " Collaborators include longtime partners Marc Karapetian (bass) and drummers Arthur Hnatek, Arman Mnatsakanyan, Matt Garstka, and Nate Wood, alongside contributions from cellist Artyom Manukyan, trumpeter Daniel Melkonyan, guitarist Nick Llerandi, and the Yerevan State Chamber Choir conducted by Kristina Voskanyan. Each piece radiates Hamasyan's fascination with transcendence and transformation, whether through the fiery rhythmic drive of "Dardahan" and "Ultradance, " the haunting choral layers of "One Body, One Blood, " or the intimate dedications "Years Passing (For Akram)" and "A Window from One Heart to Another (For Rumi). " In Manifeste, Hamasyan brings together the human, digital, and sacred-a declaration of unity through sound, where modern technology meets ancient resonance. In addition to awards and critical acclaim, Hamasyan has built a dedicated following worldwide, as well as praise from Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, and the late Chick Corea. "With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk, and songwriterly elements. Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies. You'll hear nothing else like this. " (NPR)

Armenian piano virtuoso Tigran Hamasyan returns with Manifeste, out February 6, 2026-a powerful fusion of jazz, progressive rock, and Armenian folk. Recorded across five countries, the album blends rhythmic complexity, cinematic depth, and spiritual intensity, featuring longtime collaborators and the Yerevan State Chamber Choir. Manifeste is a bold declaration where the human, digital, and sacred unite in sound. Following The Bird of a Thousand Voices, Hamasyan continues his artistic exploration with Manifeste (2025)-a bold, multi-dimensional statement recorded between 2023 and 2025 across studios in Yerevan, Athens, Moscow, Los Angeles, and beyond. Entirely composed and produced by Hamasyan, Manifeste fuses his signature rhythmic complexity and spiritual depth with a more cinematic soundscape, where Armenian folk roots, progressive rock intensity, and choral mysticism intertwine. The album unfolds like a ritual sequence-from the meditative "Prelude for All Seekers" to the powerful "National Repentance Anthem. " Collaborators include longtime partners Marc Karapetian (bass) and drummers Arthur Hnatek, Arman Mnatsakanyan, Matt Garstka, and Nate Wood, alongside contributions from cellist Artyom Manukyan, trumpeter Daniel Melkonyan, guitarist Nick Llerandi, and the Yerevan State Chamber Choir conducted by Kristina Voskanyan. Each piece radiates Hamasyan's fascination with transcendence and transformation, whether through the fiery rhythmic drive of "Dardahan" and "Ultradance, " the haunting choral layers of "One Body, One Blood, " or the intimate dedications "Years Passing (For Akram)" and "A Window from One Heart to Another (For Rumi). " In Manifeste, Hamasyan brings together the human, digital, and sacred-a declaration of unity through sound, where modern technology meets ancient resonance. In addition to awards and critical acclaim, Hamasyan has built a dedicated following worldwide, as well as praise from Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, and the late Chick Corea. "With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements. Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies. You'll hear nothing else like this. " (NPR)

Following a large number of multi-award-winning jazz albums, in solo, trio and quintet, Baptiste Trotignon now turns to songs in two ways: either by taking over some French classic songs, mostly in solo (Brel, Barbara, Gainsbourg...) or by composing and interpreting them with guest artists. Song Song Song is Trotignon's vision of the universal art of song and features guests artists from several universes, influences and cultures: Melody Gardot (performing, in French, Mon fantome), Monica Passos, Jeanne Added, Christophe Miossec...

Badakhchan Concert