French music specialist Jean-Luc Tingaud conducts the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in this album of favourites and rarities by Faure. Includes the first movement of the unfinished Violin Concerto, the prelude to the opera Penelope, Henri Rabaud's orchestration of the popular Dolly suite, and more.

The Requiem "composed for no particular purpose...", as Gabriel Faure wrote, was performed for the first time in the Madeleine Church in Paris on 16 January 1888, "for the funeral of some parishioner"! It is this original performance version, without the Offertory and the Libera me, with accompaniment provided only by a string ensemble (violas, cellos and double bass), organ and harp, that is presented here in a world premiere recording. The Messe des p�cheurs de Villerville (1881), composed in Normandy in collaboration with Andre Messager, is far removed from the solemnities of the great Parisian church; it's original version was written for women's voices with harmonium and violin accompaniment. The Choeur de Chambre de Namur invites us to return to these origins as we mark the centenary of Gabriel Faure's death in 1924.

Stravinsky, Poulenc, Satie & Septets: 3x7

Giuseppe Verdi wanted his seventh opera to be passionate, fiery and action-packed, and he wanted a real prima donna to take centre stage. He found the ideal subject in one of the most famous female figures in world history: Joan of Arc. Verdi was highly satisfied with Temistocle Solera's libretto. It was, he wrote in August 1844, 'almost of an unusual beauty'. In fact, the title role brings a special radiance to the opera, which is not necessarily one of the composer's most prominent roles on the repertoire today. However, it was celebrated by the premiere audience, and the day after the premiere Verdi wrote to his friend Francesco Maria Piave: 'Without exception and without doubt, it is the best of my operas'. A few successful performances followed, but then the work faded into the shadows of Verdi's later, even more famous operas. It is high time to bring it back to light!

Teatro La Fenice has a tradition of opera production that goes back to 1792. This collection brings all of the live atmosphere and drama of six operatic masterpieces from a theatre that has seen more than it's fair share of historic premieres. This set includes the 19th-century romance of Bizet's Les pecheurs de perles, the intense drama of Verdi's Luisa Miller, Britten's hauntingly understated Death In Venice, Massenet's tragic tale of love and redemption in Tha�s, Wagner's final opera Parsifal and Korngold's Die tote Stadt, one of the great operatic successes of the 1920s. An entire century's worth of opera can be seen and heard in these acclaimed productions from Venice's legendary venue.

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce a revelatory new perspective on Georges Bizet's much-loved L'Arlesienne with the re-issue of his complete stage music for Alphonse Daudet's play and a new dramatization of Daudet's original short story by Jon Tolansky. First staged in 1872, L'Arlesienne is, as Tolansky remarks in his illuminating notes, an "evocative and poignant tale about broken love set in a small Proven�al community". One that inspired Bizet "to compose some of the most heartrendingly poignant tones he ever created". More familiar in the two Suites extracted from the theatrical score, L'Arlesienne is heard here in it's original, complete version, reconstructed by Dominique Riffaud in a rare, 1985 recording by Orfeon Donostiarra and Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Michel Plasson. A bonus track features a new adaptation of Daudet's short story, dramatized and narrated by Tolansky, and illustrated by musical excerpts from Bizet's incidental music. The Minuetto from L'Arlesienne was featured on SOMM's Favourite Orchestral Classics by the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Iain Sutherland (ARIADNE 5012), hailed "an exquisite collection" by Classical Music Daily, while two pieces from Carmen were given a mischievous jazz treatment on the Art Deco Trio's Classical Changes (SOMMCD 0663), declared by Gramophone as "exemplary". A noted, widely published and broadcast music commentator and documentary maker, Jon Tolansky's previous SOMM collaborations include Mahler Pioneers (SOMM Ariadne 5022-2), hailed as "a major addition to the catalogue" by OperaWire, and the International Classical Music Award-nominated Serge Koussevitzky Conducts the London Philharmonic - Live (SOMM Ariadne 5017-2). More recently his exclusive interview with Ian Partridge was featured in the Gramophone Editor's Choice release of the tenor's Schubert songs accompanied by his sister, Jennifer Partridge, Stimme Der Liebe (SOMMCD 0670).

Romain Descharmes is one of the foremost French pianists of his generation. This album of concertante works includes Poulenc's alluring and seductive Piano Concerto and Faure's Ballade in F sharp minor. Descharmes is also the soloist in the complete Saint-Saens Piano Concertos on 8.573476-78.

Eloise Bella Kohn is a rare artist: eclectic pianist, record producer, festival founder, committed to intercultural dialogue, her passion for music, dance and literature drives a creativity that nourishes her universe from baroque music to contemporary repertoire. Eloise Bella Kohn is one of the most promising artists on today's classical music scene, and performs all over the world in prestigious concert halls and festivals.

Karl Bohm and the Staatskapelle of Dresden Historical Recordings 1937, 1939, 1942 "I headed the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden for nine years - the most wonderful and meaningful time of my life", wrote Karl Bohm in 1973 for the 425th anniversary of the orchestra. He was forty years of age in 1934, when he moved up the Elbe from Hamburg to assume direction of the Dresden State Orchestra and Opera. There, his sensitive yet dramatic style of conducting, his vigour and intellectual resilience, his feel for classical form and unerring sense of tempo (not to mention his strict discipline and utterly infallible hearing) very soon won the respect and trust of the musicians and singers in his charge; they did after all represent one of the best orchestras and most capable opera ensembles in Europe. Every season, Bohm conducted nearly all the Staatskapelle concerts and about 70 opera performances, setting new standards above all in the Mozart, Wagner and Strauss repertoire (including the world premieres of Die Schweigsame Frau and Daphne, the latter work being dedicated to him). In this extraordinarily extensive activity, he set his stamp on the ensemble, whose guest performances confirmed it's international ranking. Even in his first year in Dresden, he made recordings in the Semperoper, which always had to be especially prepared for the purpose. They included numerous individual symphonic works and items from opera, as well as lavish projects that were technically difficult to record at the time.

Mandy Fredrich's album brings together a series of art songs that create coherent arcs and longer storylines like a kind of mini-opera. The composers' songs were used to put together four stories about lovers, all of which revolve around the theme of dream happiness in all it's different facets! After her breakthrough in the role of the Queen of the Night at the Salzburg Festival under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, engagements followed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the New National Theatre in Tokyo, the Zurich Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the State Operas in Munich and Hamburg and at the Bregenz Festival. Matthias Samuil has been Mandy Fredrich's accompanist for many years.

Tenor Charles Castronovo celebrates his first Delos solo album with an all Verdi programme which showcases the composer's spellbinding use of theatrical devices. Noble Renegades offers a collection of complete scenes from operas such as Don Carlos, Luisa Miller and I Lombardi which encompass the emotional arc the protagonists experience as the story unfolds, very much epitomizing Verdi's vision of opera as a true "operatic theater". This album shows Verdi's profound influence on Charles's career, featuring roles he has performed all over the world. He is accompanied by "the singer's dream collaborator" Constantine Orbelian and his Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. Distinguished singers Kristin Sampson, Tomas Pavilionis and Tadas Girininkas, as well as the Kaunas State Choir join in.

While Faure's Requiem is a monument of French sacred music, Gounod's Messe de Clovis is much less well known. It was composed from 1891 onwards as a tribute to Clovis who, like Joan of Arc, had become an iconic figure after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. The two works share a reflective and intimate character that gives the impression of a return to the purity of Gregorian chant, although this does not detract from the jubilant character of Faure's Requiem: "this warm, luxuriant sound leads to an elevation of the spirit", says Herve Niquet. The work is recorded here in it's 1893 version, in an orchestration that uses neither violins nor woodwind; a later version with full orchestra was published in July 1900. O salutaris by Louis Aubert (1877-1968) for soprano, violin, harp, organ and choir and L'Adagio for violin and organ by Andre Caplet (1878-1925) complete this programme, a co-production with the Palazzetto Bru Zane and performed with fervour by the Concert Spirituel.

Cellist Robin Michael and pianist Daniel Tong present a captivating new recording of the complete works for cello and piano of Gabriel Faure, here presented for the first time on period instruments. Faure's compositions, from salon miniatures such as his elegie and Sicillienne, to his profound Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2, defy conventional categorisation. His harmonic sorcery, stretching beyond his contemporaries, unveils a language both contemporary and timeless. In these late masterpieces, themes from his opera Penelope intertwine with his personal journey, from childhood improvisations to his search for tranquility amid the horrors of war.

Armand Silvestre had actually wanted to pursue a military career, but then worked in a senior position in the French Ministry of Finance. He increasingly devoted himself to his real passion: literature. Numerous composers felt inspired by Silvestre's poetry, above all Gabriel Faure. Faure even set Mystere to music before the official publication of the poem in the volume "Le pays des roses" (The Land of Roses, 1882). He gave his "Melodie" the different title "Le secret": mysterious and melancholy, accompanied by simple yet harmonically rich piano sounds.

Love and duty collide and nations clash in Verdi's political drama, starring Elena Stikhina. In this new production, director Robert Carsen situates Verdi's large-scale drama within a contemporary world, framing it's power struggles and toxic jealousies in the apparatus of a modern, totalitarian state. Antonio Pappano conducts Verdi's glorious, monumental score.

Research, experimentation, discovery and rediscovery of new forms and ways of expression are the basis of a musician's work and, in the realisation of this project, they represent the cornerstones of an artistic partnership intended to give value to an important part of the saxophone repertoire, namely that related to transcriptions with piano accompaniment. Though the saxophone is a relatively recent instrument, it became a leading protagonist on the musical scene of the 20th century. While it was not immediately given consideration by the great composers who were contemporary to the instrument's birth and initial diffusion, it does possess the versatility and timbral and expressive characteristics to allow it to draw on repertoire intended for other instruments. In doing so, it gives these works a new look and an innovative as well as valid interpretation. This album brings together three works that - considering the varied stylistic characteristics and expressive intentions of the three composers - represent a clear example of how the saxophone can faithfully return the founding idea of each piece to the listener, radically modifying it without altering it's nature. The Fantasie Op.79 by Gabriel Faur� (1898), originally for flute and piano, was written in response to a commission for an examination piece: 'it must be short, 5 or 6 minutes at the most [.] and include the means needed to test the examinees on matters of phrasing, expression, control of tone and virtuosity'. A short time after Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone, Edvard Grieg wrote his First Violin Sonata (1865). The author himself described it as 'still a little naive but rich in melodic ideas'. In three movements and characterised by an almost spring-like atmosphere, it is adorned with references to Norwegian folk music which lend a rather grave and turbulent tone to some sections of the work. More 'recent' (by then the saxophone was heading towards the popularity it deserved) is Sergei Prokofiev's Sonata in D Op.94, originally written for flute and piano in 1943. It immediately drew the attention of the great violinist David Oistrakh, who proposed a violin version of the work to the composer which later became known as Op.94bis. A fundamental work of both the flute and violin literatures, here it is presented in it's adaptation for soprano saxophone and piano, and the work continues to embody inventive freshness and lively elegance of writing.

No fewer than four major composers - Faure, Debussy, Schoenberg and Sibelius - were inspired by Maurice Maeterlink's play Pelleas et Melisande (1892). Given that we celebrate anniversaries of Faure and Schoenberg in 2024, Paavo Jarvi here offers his reading of their settings of Pelleas et Melisande with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, whose Music Director he was for almost ten years. Debussy was so much involved with his own operatic setting of Pelleas et Melisande that the famous English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell turned to Gabriel Faure to write incidental music for the play; this music then became an orchestral suite in four movements that is considered to be Faure's symphonic masterpiece. Schoenberg followed advice given by his much-admired role model Richard Strauss in 1902 and composed his own symphonic poem based on Pelleas et Melisande. It's complex combinations of musical motifs and the rich fabric of the large-scale orchestra not only captivate us but also reveal his own vision of this archaic and yet universal story.

Love and duty collide and nations clash in Verdi's political drama, starring Elena Stikhina. In this new production, director Robert Carsen situates Verdi's large-scale drama within a contemporary world, framing it's power struggles and toxic jealousies in the apparatus of a modern, totalitarian state. Antonio Pappano conducts Verdi's glorious, monumental score.

From the Second Empire to the Roaring Twenties, Alexandra Soumm, the Orchestre de chambre Pelleas and Benjamin Levy paint a ruffled, nostalgic and swaying portrait of the City of Light, spanning seventy years of music. This recording, a testament to the musical and human affinities forged over many years between these performers, is also a return to the sources of creative fount, with the first recording of Tzigane in the new �Ravel Edition� and the first recording of the orchestration of Emmanuel Chabrier's Bourree fantasque according to the sketches left unfinished by the composer. From the crinolines of Georges Bizet's adolescence to the wisps of cigar smoke in the dreamy Brazil of Le Boeuf sur le toit, let's immerse ourselves in an era when Paris set the tempo for cosmopolitan, carefree celebrations.

Marc Soustrot conducts Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in orchestral works by Ravel. This is Soutrot's second release on Danacord after the acclaimed Bizet album.

Armide was Lully and Quinault's last tragedie lyrique: undoubtedly Quinault's finest dramatic achievement, and the culmination of the tragedie en musique conceived by Lully, who died the year after it's creation. Never has language appeared so beautiful and tragic in Lully's music, and the drama of this Christian knight falling in love with the sorceress who refuses to kill him was so deeply felt that it remained on stage for a century! Here, Vincent Dumestre passionately conducts Lully's last masterpiece, whose eponymous character, played by the immense Stephanie D'Oustrac, never ceases to bewitch us.

On this new recording, the Klenke Quartett enter a unique and fascinating musical field of contrasts between compositional avant-gardism and a return to folk melodies and native roots with string quartets by Maurice Ravel, Erwin Schulhoff and Ulvi Cemal Erkin. All three composers were very aware of their musical origins and incorporated them into their works in their own unique way. All three combine sounds and dances from very different countries and cultures in a marvelous way and draw listeners and players alike into a whirlwind of musical rhythms and melodies. In Erwin Schulhoff's "5 Pieces for String Quartet", you can hear echoes of waltzes, as well as tangos, and tarantellas. In his string quartet, Ulvi Cemal Erkin creates a cosmos of Turkish tradition paired with cosmopolitanism and combines the rhythmic-melodic elements of Turkish folk music with classical Western European compositional art, as he had studied it in Paris. With his string quartet, Maurice Ravel creates an innovative work within traditional forms that is unparalleled in it's richness of detail, luminosity, and variety. A program of the heart for the musicians of the Klenke Quartet, for whom the music of the early 20th century has always exerted a great attraction and which they regularly present in their concerts. "It is the personal, sensitive, intimate level of the compositions that inspires us and infuses our very own approach to this music," says Annegret Klenke. A passion that shines through in every note of this recording.

Massenet's Werther is one of those masterpieces that were rejected or shunned at the time of their creation. Sketched in the 1880s, the score was turned down by the director of the Opera-Comique and had to make do with a premiere in German, far from Paris, before finally being heard in Paris in 1893. It gradually established itself as one of the composer's most personal works, in which he showed himself to be as fine a colourist as he was a master of the art of the 'motif de rappel'. In adapting Goethe's novel, Massenet and his librettists gave greater prominence to the character of Charlotte, thus placing the struggle between duty and passion at the centre of the narrative. The role of Werther, originally assigned to a tenor, was also sung by the baritone Mattia Battistini with the composer's approval. Provided the singer makes skilful use of voix mixte, this version gives the work a melancholy colouring ideal for portraying it's hero's suicidal temperament. Tassis Christoyannis follows this approach in exemplary fashion, opposite the reserved yet moving Charlotte of Veronique Gens. Both singers give the text the preponderant role allotted to it by French operatic tradition.

Ravel was very happy with his second Violin Sonata, written between 1923 and 1927, whose second movement adopts the Afro-American blues. This wonderful sonata is characterized throughout by the contrast between the consistently fairly dry piano part and the smooth, melodic violin.

The Sonata for Violin and Cello, written between 1920 and 1922, is dedicated to Debussy, who had died in 1918, and the work could be thought of as an elegy for the composer. There are references to Debussy’s final chamber works.

A complex and emotional work, the magnificent Piano Trio of 1914 contains four movements all full of exoticism and color.

Poulenc the miniaturist par excellence burst into public view, fully-formed in his late teens, emerging flamboyantly into the artistic swirl of 1920s Paris. His fabulously inventive, quirky and colourful approach to writing for chamber ensemble and voice comes vividly to life in this set of early works which capture all of his youthful elegance, wit, and occasionally sardonic humour. Many of these early masterpieces are now well-known in their incarnations for piano; but his sheer inventiveness and joyful revelry in a kaleidoscopic riot of instrumental colour is celebrated here in the earliest versions of such classics as Le Bestiaire and Cocardes, alongside masterpieces more cruelly treated by his contemporaries, the Quatre Poemes de Max Jacob and Le Gendarme Incompris.