THE NUTCRACKER SESSIONS

Mostly known as a piano jazz player, Thierry Mail-lard comes back this time again with a brilliant new album featuring a jazz trio, a symphonic orchestra and very talented jazz guests as N'Guyen L�, Didier Malherbe e.a. Between soundtrack music & Jazz, his amazing music is very powerful and suggests lots of very pleasant climates which can appeal a wide audience. "My biggest musical dream has always been to hear one day my music written for a jazz trio and a symphonic orchestra. Since I discovered orchestration during my classical studies, I've been writing for an orchestra, influenced by my masters such as Bartok, Stravinsky and Webern, but I never had before the opportunity to make this project real. Some scores were already writ-ten, some others were added to them, always in the same purpose I'm cherishing: gathering Jazz, classic music and world music in the same music. A jazz trio, a symphonic orchestra along with instruments and players from the world, sharing the same music. With this album, this dream is becoming true. It is and will re-main a moving and important event in my musical life, a real personal accomplishment."

GOSPEL: 36 GRANDS CLASSIQUES

COSA NATURAL

OUEST USA: VOYAGE

SYMPHONY NO.5

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 / Piano Quintet, Op. 16

Piano Music - Beethoven, L. Van / Mendessohn, Felix / Schuma

Amour et Mascarade

Provenzale, F.: Pange Lingua / Dialogo Della Passione / Care

ESPRIT IBERIQUE

ESPRIT ROMANTIQUE

This recording devoted to Dowland seems to open a door onto a secret garden, one tended and cultivated by two artists already well known for opera and song recitals that distill the chamber music principle into it's most intimate essence of expressive sound: soprano Mariana Flores, and lutenist Hopkinson Smith. Here they give us a Dowland programme straight from the heart, drawing on five of the composer's volumes of 'Songs or Ayres' printed in London between 1597 and 1612, laying bare Dowland's ecstatic and tortured soul as it oscillates between all the different states of melancholy love.

With this program spanning nearly a century, from Komitas' Dances written in the mid-1900s to pieces by my father, Gérard Gasparian, composed in the late 1980s, I aimed to highlight both the remarkable diversity of this repertoire and its profound unity. From the minimalist draft of Yerangi to the polyphonic virtuosity of the Capriccio, from the boundless lyricism of Spartacus to the percussive savagery of the Toccata, from the melodious simplicity of the Elegy to the tense chromaticism of the Sonata, one couldn't dream of more contrasting registers. The works on this program, however, all have one thing in common that expresses the true essence of Armenian music: They’re rooted in popular tradition. The very identity of this music – and the reason I feel such a deep, emotional connection to it – lies in the fact that it draws its inspiration from the folk heritage of the Armenian people: its songs, melodies, rhythms, and dances.

Senegal's greatest living artist is back with a major album that subtly alternates between tradition and modernity. A marvel of balance between modern sounds and his African roots, History is an album with variety and eclecticism. Tracks include a tribute to his late bassist, Habib Faye, the beautifully written song "Confession," a great remix of the song "Birima" with Seinabo Sey, "Hello," a duet with Mohombi, along with many other treasures. Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. From April 2012 to September 2013, he was Senegal's Minister of Tourism.