Dutilleux: Le loup / Rophe, Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire
BIS
SACD
$21.99Mar 11, 2016
This outstanding album recorded by the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire presents some of the works of composer Henri Dutilleux, which were composed before 1954. Several of these works are recorded for the first time on this album. Featured works on this recording include the complete score of Dutilleux’s ballet Le Loup, and Trois Tableaux symphoniques, which was originally written as incidental music for a stage production of Wuthering Heights. Conducting the Ochestre National des Pays de la Loire is Pascal Rophe, and baritone Vincent Le Texier is featured on the pieces Trois Sonnets and Quatre Melodies.
Reviews:
This music might play it safe harmonically but Dutilleux splashes orchestral timbres around with the abandon of an action painter, as blood-curdling swoops from an ondes martenot add local colour. Pascal Rophé and his Orchestra National des Pays de la Loire take these scores at face value, carving through notes with flamboyant cliffhanger urgency.
– Gramophone
Dutilleux shows his attraction towards Alban Berg's orchestral colors, and the playing throughout the disc is superb, using a vast range of dynamics.
With 3600 works to his credit, Georg Philipp Telemann is rightly regarded as of one of the most prolific composers of all time. This superlative however has brought him less honor than one may have hoped, because with so many works came the suspicion that quality may have been sacrificed in the process, a view that prevailed especially throughout the 19th century. As a result, the objective study of Telemann and his protean work only began in earnest in the late 20th century, resulting in many discoveries and first performances that show the seriousness and depth of the composer's genius. The present CD features a trio of cantatas from the so-called "Engel-Jahrgang" (lit. "Angel cycle" named for the image of an angel that appears on the cover of the printed scores) dating from 1748/49. In these works, Telemann has already begun to explore the Rococo style, which had just begun to take root and demonstrates his compositional skill and originality at every turn. Three festive cantatas ring out in glorious tones: "Der Herr lebet" for the first day of Easter, "Ehr und Dank sey Dir gesungen" for the Feast of St, Michael and "Der Geist giebt Zeugnis" for the Day of Pentecost. The Bach-Chor Siegen, the Hannoversche Hofkapelle, singers Miriam Feuersinger, Franz Vitzthum and Klaus Mertens and director Ulrich Stötzel are in their element with Telemann - having previously released several Telemann albums with hänssler CLASSIC - and present another installment of enchanting and accomplished performances of rarely heard music from one of the greatest masters of the Baroque.
The Netherlands Radio Choir and Benjamin Goodson present The Voice of the Beloved, a powerful collection of 20th-century sacred choral works by Frank Martin, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, and Olivier Messiaen. At it's heart is Martin's Mass for Double Choir, a deeply personal expression of faith composed in 1922 and kept private for decades. It's austere beauty and luminous harmonies make it one of the most moving sacred works of the last century. Daniel-Lesur's Le Cantique des cantiques transforms the Song of Songs into a sensual and spiritual choral tapestry, weaving up to twelve voices into a radiant soundscape. Messiaen's O sacrum convivium, a brief but transcendent motet, completes the program with shimmering reverence. Following their acclaimed 2023 release Rheinberger & Mendelssohn: Choral Works, the choir returns with a recording that reveals the sacred not only in worship, but in the raw, expressive power of the human voice.
Le Jeune: Motets Pour le Culte Catholique / Schneebeli, Les Pages et Les Chantres of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
Alpha
CD
$11.99Jun 25, 2021
Claude Le Jeune, who moved in Protestant circles but was also in the service of the royal court, composed both Huguenot polyphonic psalms in French and Catholic liturgical pieces in Latin. The genres are juxtaposed in this recording by Olivier Schneebeli directing Les Pages et Les Chantres of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink and White collections (a total of sixty reissues) which gave a new lease of life to the pearls of the Baroque catalogues from our house labels, here are fourteen new titles which offer a chance to discover other treasures, whether Baroque or dating from an earlier or later era. Like the most recent series, this sixth instalment opens out onto the Classical repertory (Mozart by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini) and the Renaissance (Févin by Doulce Mémoire and Denis Raisin Dadre); recordings that are an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. Fourteen reissues performed by the leading musicians in the field, most of which received one or more awards on their original release. Proper booklets accompany the discs, with notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from all over the world have been selected to illustrate the covers, this time with the guiding thread of the color green, a symbol of nature, fertility... and hope!
Josquin Desprez, princeps musicorum, the prince of musicians, as his contemporaries called him, is best known today for his sacred works, the masses and motets, which have been widely performed and recorded. Surprisingly, his chansons have received little attention from performers, except for the pieces for five and six voices, printed after his death by the Antwerp publisher Tilman Susato in his seventh book of 1545. Doulce Mémoire has chosen to focus on the chansons for three and four voices, which are probably the earliest in the Hainault master’s output; with their diversity of language and themes (sometimes folk-derived), these songs constitute a varied program that is at once serious and bawdy, a testament to the unequalled art of Josquin Desprez.
Celebration of Christmas: Holy Night / BYU Choirs & Philharmonic Orchestra
BYU Records
CD
$14.99Dec 09, 2016
Each Christmas season at Brigham Young University, more than 500 vocalists and instrumentalists celebrate the season in song. Handpicked from one of the largest private student bodies in the country, these students comprise four nationally and internationally acclaimed choirs and the highly praised BYU Philharmonic Orchestra.
French Music for the Stage / Neeme Järvi, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Chandos
CD
$21.99Mar 05, 2021
For their latest album, Neeme Jaarvi and his Estonian National Symphony Orchestra present a delightful program of lesser-known stage music from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Overtures by Thomas, Auber, and Boieldieu were all composed for works staged at the Opera-Comique in Paris, and are wonderful examples of the period.
Barcarolles & Dolly Suite - Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) Celebrating his 75th birthday, piano legend Pascal Roge has recorded an album devoted to the music of Gabriel Faure. This is repertoire to which Roge brings a lifetime of experience, and in his hands the thirteen Barcarolles take on a charm of innocence which belies their fearsome technical challenges.
This album is divided into three parts, the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Feast. The program begins and ends with two songs of oral tradition played on bagpipes and with Ciaramelli, instruments which have become synonymous with Christmas. All of the pieces from this album came from books and ancient manuscripts.
Honegger: Melodies et Chansons / Falk, Schleiermacher
MDG
CD
$23.99Oct 15, 2021
As a Swiss composer, Arthur Honegger was probably the bird of paradise among the Paris composers of the "Groupe des Six". The fact that he managed to combine the simplicity and plainness demanded above all by Jean Cocteau with his fascination for Wagner and Debussy indicates a strong personality. It is also reflected in his numerous song compositions and can be experienced wonderfully in the selection that Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher have made for their latest album - including many a surprise. As with the other Five of the "Groupe des Six", Honegger preferred to set contemporary poems to music; Apollinaire and Claudel were particularly popular. But older texts also seem to fascinate him: The wonderfully purring stories by Saluste du Bartas and Pierre de Ronsard transport us into a baroque world in which biting irony and the most serious passion can hardly be distinguished. Honegger - unlike his colleagues - was also fond of the large symphonic form, including some stage successes. Some of this can be found in his songs; the early "Quatre Poèmes" surprise with harmonic opulence, far from any neo-classical attitude. Even at a ripe old age, the composer still counted these pieces among his best. The works presented here by Falk and Schleiermacher with an unerring sense for fine nuances span an entire composer's life. The consistently demanding piano part remains a constant and creates an atmosphere with sometimes almost endless, yet never obtrusive ostinati, on which Holger Falk's supple baritone can unfold most beautifully.
Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772) was a French organist, harpsichordist and composer. He was also a child prodigy. After taking some harpsichord lessons from his godmother Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, and composition lessons from Nicolas Bernier, he was capable of playing before Louis XIV at the age of six and of conducting his own Beatus vir in the Sainte-Chapelle at the age of eight. The Nouveau livre de noëls were published in November 1757 and is the fruit of many improvisations. This premiere recording marries Daquin's Twelve Noels (well-known as organ pieces) to the original late mediæval verses from which they were derived.
Simon Wright realised the score from the keyboard original and matched it to the original carol melodies before orchestrating it with remarkable imagination. Mark Darlow researched and put together the text during a period of stud leave in Paris. Through a process of consultation the verses were sifted, and a pastoral progression of solos and choruses has emerged, with the shepherds who 'tended their flocks by night' a sthe main characters. The RSAMD is Scotland's International Academy for Music and Drama, with Professor John Wallace as their Principal.
The Choir of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge with its director, Edward Wickham, present an exciting recording of extended and little-known Psalm settings by the Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer Claude Le Jeune. Selected from Le Jeune’s monumental 'Dodecacorde' collection of Psalms, and giving a fascinating insight into the exquisite French choral music of the late Renaissance, each Psalm is paired with a hymn setting of the same text by Louis Bourgeois harmonised by Claude Goudimel or Le Jeune himself. Framing the recording are hymn versions of the ‘Old Hundredth’ (Psalm 134) and the Song of Simeon. With musical activities ranging from intimate chamber/consort singing to large-scale choral consorts, from Anglican Evensong to Choral Compline, members of St Catharine’s College Choir have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of musical activities; and in its role as an ambassador for St Catharine's outside the College walls, the Choir’s concerts and recordings, educational and community work, has earned it a reputation for innovation and excellence.
The Nocturnes and Barcarolles are key works in Fauré's output for solo piano that reflect his stylistic evolution. From his early efforts, still close to Chopin and Schumann, to the final pieces with their heady yet elusive harmonies, Aline Piboule invites us to rediscover a whole world of sound on a sublime Gaveau instrument of 1929.
Mélodies d'ailleurs is the first album collaboration of Swiss soprano Viviane Hasler and her long-time friend and musical partner Maren Gamper. For this album, the two artists selected French songs from the turn of the 19th Century, known as the "fin de siècle" in France and beyond. Works by Claude Debussy, Ernest Chausson, Cécile Chaminade, and Reynaldo Hahn are being contrasted by three songs of contemporary German composer Wolfgang Rihm, creating a concept album that is much more than just an anthology of romantic piano songs. Viviane Hasler's interpretation is fresh and tangible, never overboarding or romanticizing, yet staying true and honest to the emotions of the original compositions. Pianist Maren Gamper, always searching for that perfect moment between the notes, creates an intimate yet deeply supportive soundscape for the voice. Recorded at the big hall of the orchestra house in Kriens, Switzerland, this album strives to open a little window in time, leaping into memories of a bygone past while connecting them to the living present.
What do an Opera Aria by Gounod and a short Serenade by Borodin have in common? They both served as models for two short piano pieces by Maurice Ravel: Portraits of other composers. Anne Riegler offers in her debut album a perspective on Ravel's music that is unique in its approach. All piano works in which Ravel names and refers to other composers are paired with original compositions of those portrayed composers, resulting in an exceptional journey through all periods of music history from Couperin to Ravel.
Cyrille Dubois is unstoppable: after two albums dedicated to Liszt and the Boulanger sisters, both acclaimed by the critics, and a flamboyant complete set of Faure songs, the tenor is back to his preferred repertoire, the French art-song. He reunites with his accomplice, pianist Tristan Raes, to bring the Bordeaux composer Louis Beydts (1895-1953) out of oblivion, as most of his pieces are recorded here for the first time. From these miniatures, Cyrille Dubois draws the sap of the musician's art. A pure product of French hedonism, it is refined and elegant, with a generous vocality but also daring, for Beydts forbids himself nothing. Echoes of jazz and light music, of Hahn or Faure, polymodality and polytonality, his melodies traverse everything between fantasy, humor and contemplation with supreme freedom. By transporting us into this singular universe, Cyrille Dubois establishes himself as an invaluable performer of the repertoire and a pioneer of French music, with an uncommon mastery of the combination of word and music.
Jolivet: Complete Works for Flute, Vol. 2 / Boulegue
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Mar 13, 2020
In this second volume of Andre Jolivet’s complete works for flute, Kobe International Flute Competition winner Helene Boulegue explores further examples of some of the most individual and important of all 20th-century works for the instrument. The Flute Concerto No. 1 exemplifies Jolivet’s genius for liquid melodic lines and frenetic bravura. The intricately scored Suite en concert for flute and four percussionists is one of the most fascinating in the repertoire, whilst the Sonatine is both trance-like and rhapsodic.
The two resident choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and their director Edward Wickham, join together to record this stunning and evocative selection of contemporary Christmas carols. The college can boast having the first and only college-based Oxbridge girls' choir, and its own beautiful chapel in the very heart of Cambridge, provided the venue for this debut recording of the recently founded St Catharine's Girls' Choir.
Joined by the student choir, the album features premieres from such composers as Richard Rodney Bennett, Roxanna Panufnik, Cecilia McDowall and John Tavener. It also includes works specially written for the Girls' Choir by Stevie Wishart and Christopher Fox.
Homilius, Stolzel & Rolle: Christmas Cantatas / Willens, Die Kolner Akademie
CPO
CD
$18.99Jan 20, 2017
For more than two thousand years the birth of Christ, the incarnation of God as a child in the manger at Bethlehem, has fascinated and inspired artistic production and reflection. It is precisely in the field of music that thousands of songs and multipart compositions have come down to us attesting to the richness of this body of works and documenting the diversity of artistic expression. Most of these works were composed for liturgical use in the Christian churches. It is a rewarding experience to sift through the repertoire and to edit and record previously unknown works. This year our Christmas album presents recording premieres of five cantatas: one each by Bach's contemporaries Christoph Förster (1693-1745) and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749) and three by members of the following generation, one by Gottfried August Homilius (1714-85) and two by Johann Heinrich Rolle (1716-85). All the cantatas were composed for use in Lutheran religious services and are based on a similar plan of construction: an extensive opening chorus is followed by recitatives and arias, and a chorale strophe from a church hymn concludes the work. The opening choruses are usually based on short quotations from the Bible, and the festive splendor of the trumpets and timpani forms the dominant tonal element.
