From Papillon et la fleur to L’Horizon chimérique, Gabriel Fauré has created some one-hundred melodies which have transformed this French art form into the very pinnacle of musical expression. Many musicians get caught up in the technicalities of his original works, often forgetting to perform, not just recite. Written for a plethora of voices and commonly transposed for convenience, Fauré’s melodies are never recorded solo. Yet this is the gamble that was taken—and successfully at that—by tenor Cyrille Dubois and Pianist Tristan Raës (who have been playing music as a duo for around fifteen years).Several tweaks were needed to undertake such a project. In collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane (Centre de musique romantique française), the pair made a series of difficult choices with regards to transpositions. These decisions were vital in respecting the tonal sequences between the opuses and during the cycles, without betraying Fauré’s harmonic plans. It was also necessary to select the order of the opuses, whose character has developed somewhat over a period of sixty years.   The complete works offered here (which are one of the most significant events of Spring 2022), consists of three recitals, each mixing styles and periods. Cyrille Dubois who expertly blends the style of lyrical song with French chanson, whilst injecting just the right amount of old-fashioned nostalgia. He’s supported by Tristan Raës’ fluid and bright piano. The French tenor’s perfectly controlled timbre does the text real justice, rendering it effortlessly intelligible. This delightfully simple and direct approach transports Fauré’s vast body of work into the 21st century, making it perfectly relevant to the contemporary. This recording will undoubtedly hold a special place in the hearts of those who will commemorate the centenary of the great composer’s death in 2024. © François Hudry/Qobuz

The Haydn series continues with the Paris Symphony No. 87. Julien Chauvin and his orchestra keep shaking us up with historical instruments listening to Haydn’s works and several other forgotten scores from the same period. All of them were commissioned for the Concert de la Loge Olympique - ancestor and model for Julien Chauvin and his musicians – and all of them sank into oblivion during the 19th century, except for Haydn’s symphonies. The record offers an opportunity to experience some rare works of Grétry, Lemoyne and Ragué, and to revive the success that they once knew. © Aparté

The performances on this lovely album of vocal and instrumental music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier make it a recording that should delight the composer's fans and anyone who loves the music of the Baroque. Listeners should be warned that the packaging and even the composer's titles create expectations of music of a very different character from what is actually presented. The three Leçons de Ténèbres of the title, scored for bass and chamber orchestra, refer to baleful texts taken from the Lamentations of Jeremiah describing the fall and abasement of Jerusalem, and were written for services on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week, the darkest days in the Christian liturgical calendar. Rather than emphasizing the texts' dire pronouncements of God's wrath, Charpentier's music expresses a gentle compassion for Jerusalem in music that's comfortingly benevolent, full of light rather than darkness. It's a brilliantly counterintuitive but legitimate take on the meaning of the texts. Charpentier was certainly capable expressing profound grief and wrote some of the most wrenching, anguished music of his era, but here he offers a message of hope and reassurance in the darkest season of the Church year. Much of the other music included in the album, all written for liturgical use, is also essentially positive, in major keys and with perky tempos. It complements the tone of the Leçons de Ténèbres, but hardly fulfills the expectations of the album's packaging, which features Caravaggio's dark painting of an emaciated St. Jerome next to a skull. Bass Stephan Macleod is resonant, agile, and warmly expressive in the Leçons and in a very odd unaccompanied motet, Pour plusieurs martyrs, whose music is hardly as somber as its title would imply. Alexis Kossenko, best known as a transverse flute virtuoso, leads the Polish Baroque chamber orchestra Arte dei Suonatori in supple, beautifully nuanced performances. The orchestral sound is sweet and mellow, thanks in part to the prominent use of recorders and transverse flutes and the warm but focused string tone. The sound is clean and present with an expansive cathedral-like ambience, marred only by too-close miking of the winds, which makes gulping intakes of air distractingly prominent.© TiVo

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