Even by the supremely high production standards of Alpha recordings, this issue is especially splendid. Entitled Versailles, L'ile enchantée, it fully lives up to its name. As directed by Skip Sempé, the widely varied program features music written for Louis XIV's pleasure palace, performed by the Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra with mezzo soprano Guillemette Laurens and bass violist Jay Bernfeld. Each work is superbly selected, and every performance is absolutely idiomatic and wonderfully alive. There is wit and tenderness and elegance and, yes, nobility to their performances, which taken together form as much a portrait of the Sun King as the palace of Versailles itself. As organized into eight Divertissements, Sempé's choices range from the grand Ouverture de Psyché by Lully to the intimate Mes Yeux by Campra, from the soulful Les Voix Humaines by Marais to the massive Passacaille in C by Louis Couperin. As captured in the evocative photographs by Jean-Baptiste Leroux and reproduced in Alpha's superlative program book, Versailles looks every bit as beautiful as this disc sounds. Anyone who loves Baroque music, particularly French Baroque music, will love this disc.© TiVo

Originally published in 1991, this slightly different recital by pianist Brigitte Engerer provides a beautiful look into the Beethovenian piano catalogue with some large and small works. As Jean-Yves Bras explains in the original record sleeve, “it illustrates, in fact, the daily work and versatile temperament of a Beethoven who sometimes opened up to the seduction of the frivolous viennese public, and was sometimes conscious of his artistic direction, imposing expression, style and thought”. What’s more, Brigitte Engerer starts with the two Rondos Op. 51s published by Artaria in Vienna in 1802, but whose composition dates back to 1797, two brilliant works which exude an improvisational character. The pianist adds to the programme the formidable song (formidable because of its fame and repetitive melody) Für Elise (in English, For Elise). Written in one day on the 27th of April 1810, this score made up of 300 bars is, in reality, a work of maturity for the composer - one can sometimes forget - and contemporary of Sonata No. 26 “The Farewells”. The sonata acts as the perfect prelude to the magnificent Andante favori which Beethoven had initially intended to be the slow movement in the Waldsten Sonata (1803-1804), but was then already overly long. The most substantial work on the bill, the Sonata in A flat Major Op. 110, is perhaps the most spellbinding of the final three sonatas. Relatively brief, it basks in an unforgettable light and its final fugue includes reminders of the gloomy preceding Adagio with a dazzling sense of balance. Brigitte Engerer has had the good idea of including the Variations on an original theme in D Major Op. 76 in which the theme is The Ruins of Athens, composed in 1809 and rarely braved by pianists. © Théodore Grantet/Qobuz

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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At the court of Versailles, the daughters of Louis XV (referred to as 'Mesdames'), and in particular Adélaïde, devoted themselves to a regular practice of music and, apparently, demonstrated talent. Numerous composers (Simon, Rameau, Balbastre, Cardonne, Guignon) played for them, worked with them, and dedicated several works to them. 'À Madame', Divertissement pour Adélaïde, is an anthology, subjectively put together, of compositions that resounded in their drawing room. All the works on this programme are world premieres. These lovely, rare nuggets are mixed with a few unusual sonorities of marvellous carillons of the Marc-Antoine Le Nepveu clock (currently in the Cabinet de la Méridienne, located at the heart of the palace, on the first floor). The recording, made in the Grand Cabinet de Madame Victoire at Versailles and featuring two precious historical instruments from the palace's collections, faithfully reproduces the forgotten beauties of the Age of Enlightenment. An original invitation to travel back in time, as testimony to a musical afternoon at Versailles in the company of Mesdames.

Colin Davis, currently the grand old man of Berlioz conductors, has recorded the French romantic's L'Enfance du Christ an amazing three times: first on L'oiseau-Lyre LPs (not issued on CD), then on Philips (frequently issued on LP and CD), and now on LSO Live (issued on CD with super audio surround sound capabilities). While not perhaps the most emotional Berlioz conducer in history, Davis' more measured approach suits the more meditative L'Enfance. All three of his recordings are quite fine, but the sound quality gets slightly better with each newer edition. Those equipped for SACD multichannel replay will find the LSO Live SACD provides a significant plus in atmosphere, putting the listener into the hall with the orchestra, chorus, and soloists. There are, however, other L'Enfance du Christs as good or better than Davis': Charles Münch's energetic and enjoyable recording on RCA and Andre Cluytens' elegant and opulent recording on EMI. Since the latter has perhaps the finest set of soloists in Victoria de los Angeles, Nicolai Gedda, Ernest Blanc, and Roger Soyer and comes coupled with Giulini's outstanding Chicago Symphony performance of the symphonic sections of Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, it may be many listeners' first choice. Plus, there is an interesting DVD of Münch leading a live performance from the same time as his RCA recording taped in good black and white with decent sound quality. For anyone who finds added value in straight concert videos, this one is well-worth seeing. In sum, then, Cluytens', Münch's, and any or all of Davis' L'Enfance du Christ would make a great addition to any Berlioz library. © TiVo

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