Virtuoso repertoire, brilliantly arranged. Dominik Wagner presents here the solo Double Bass Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor as well as two duets with Benjamin Schmid on violin and Jeremias Fliedl on cello. Additionally some bonustracks featuring soprano and piano have been recorded. The musicians will be accompanied by the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under Emmanuel Tjeknavorian a great wish of Dominik Wagner, who played the first concert together with Tjeknavorian ten years ago and has been close friends with him ever since. The Romantic composer Giovanni Bottesini – whose bicentenary we celebrate this year – is considered the Paganini of the double bass, an innovator who shaped and revolutionized the double bass repertoire. Having learnt the violin and viola, Bottesini discovered that no scholarships were on offer for either instrument, so he began studying the double bass instead – and soon showed exceptional talent. For Dominik Wagner, Bottesini’s compositions were the reason he began playing the double bass. "If you are looking for exceptional concertos for double bass, that inevitably leads you to the works of Bottesini. There was nothing anywhere near this sort of double-bass technique before", he says of the available repertoire, "it is just incredibly good music. Brilliantly orchestrated. The sections in this fantastic piece never drown each other out, it really is a model soloist’s concerto!". It’s true that the works are played relatively seldom, but this will be due to their very high technical hurdles. The alternation between harmonics and low register takes place in an instant, sometimes the bass plays higher than the violins – and the music still has to sound light and airy. It’s a challenge. That said, Bottesini exploits to the full the instrument’s sonic potential, which comes over particularly well in partnership with the violin and the cello. Accordingly, Dominik Wagner looked for his perfect partners: "I played with Benjamin Schmid in November 2020, we recorded the "Trout" Quintet together. He has been one of my greatest role models ever since I was a boy. I took the opportunity to ask him if he’d play on the recording. Jeremias Fliedl is an absolutely outstanding cellist, on a musical and technical level that practically no-one else commands. For such a demanding and rarely played piece as the Bottesini Duo, he was the ideal choice". Dominik Wagner was concerned to show off Bottesini’s versatility. This programme is not limited to works with orchestra; there are bonus titles on the album as well. Une bouche aimée, Tutto che il mondo serra, Allegretto capriccio and Rêverie with soprano Ursula Langmayr and Can Çakmur at the piano shape the repertoire into a veritable Bottesini kaleidoscope: a round tour through the works of a composer who was regarded as one of the most important musical personalities of his day. Bottesini is an unknown quantity to many music-lovers, to whom "Revolution of Bass" will come as a rewarding expansion of their horizons. Dominik Wagner comments: "People have this chance to hear new music that will appeal to them at once. If you don’t know what to expect, your enthusiasm will be all the greater in the end!" © Berlin Classics

Jean-Baptiste Lully's Cadmus & Hermione of 1673 was arguably the first true French opera, telling a tragic story (Lully and his librettist Philippe Quinault called it a tragédie en lyrique), employing Italian-style recitatives, and collecting the varied music and dance forms of Louis XIV's opulent court into a coherent narrative that at once celebrated Louis (he is conflated with Cadmus of Thebes) and moved beyond the ceremonial nature of earlier French dramatic music. It's a sprawling work, with five acts, an overture, and a sizable Prologue with its own overture; highlights include a dragon that eats Africans, a monster snake, and a full complement of Greek gods and goddesses. Realization of the work has, until now, been beyond the means of early music performance groups, and this is the world premiere recording of the opera, made in 2019 and based on a 2008 performance at Versailles Palace by some of the same performers. The leader is Vincent Dumestre, conducting the Le Poème Harmonique orchestra and the vocal ensembles Aedes. The forces are large enough to capture the splendor of the music (thankfully, no one-voice-per-part techniques here), and Dumestre is alert to the huge variety of musical devices Lully brings to bear on his story; there are dances, big choruses, bagpipes, and much more. Cadmus & Hermione may be a difficult work to bring to life for modern audiences, but Dumestre keeps things moving along and probably comes as close as anyone could. Of course, anyone interested in the life of the French court in the 17th century will find this an essential acquisition that will keep giving and giving. © TiVo

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Carried off by an intestinal perforation at the age of 33 in Puteaux, at the gates of Paris, this son of Catania is still greatly appreciated in his native city, where this new studio recording of Il pirata, Vincenzo Bellini's first major opera, first performed at La Scala in Milan in 1827, was made. With this work, the young Sicilian author distanced himself from the Rossinian style then in vogue by giving free rein to his incomparable melodic verve.Chopin's unbounded admiration for Bellini is well known, and the melodic contours of his music ripple through the works of the Polish composer, who was not an admirer of too many other people. The Pirate is full of superb melodies, such as Imogene's aria 'Lo sognai ferito' in the first act, Gualtiero's cantilena 'Pietosa al padre' and the last scene of the work, whose instrumental introduction presages Norma's famous 'Casta diva'.Recorded in the summer of 2020 at the Teatro Sangiorgi in Catania, a recently restored old Liberty style theatre, this new version, vigorously conducted by Fabrizio Maria Carminati at the head of the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, is distinguished by its absolute completeness, with all the repeats, original cadenzas and variations written by the singers, and with its rarely performed Finale.Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka reigns supreme over this recording released by Prima Classic, her own label. Alongside this immense bel canto, Javier Camarena was needed to overcome the extraordinary difficulties of a score that is not sparing of those vocal effects and top notes that can enchant an entire hall. A bel canto specialising in the works of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, the Mexican tenor triumphs on the great stages of the world, especially at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he is one of the very few singers to be recalled to the stage. © François Hudry/Qobuz

André Messager's deliciously French art offers the perfect combination of refined music and frivolous – but never facile – operetta. This recording was a product of the constraints of the 2020 pandemic. Musicians and producers were forced to downgrade many projects in order to comply with the health guidance which was then in force. With its modest instrumental requirements, its smattering of soloists and its lack of a choir, the operetta Passionnément, which enjoyed a triumphal opening in a cheery inter-war Paris in 1926, was perfect for these challenging conditions.In France, operetta has often suffered from mediocre vocal talent. All the more reason, then, to enjoy this high-quality production, with excellent vocalists, starting with Australian soprano Nicole Car as Julia, a crafty chambermaid who is dreaming of a bourgeois life with an American millionaire, and who ends up hitting the bottle at the height of Prohibition. The libretto by Hervé Hennequin and Albert Willemetz is full of salacious allusions only scantily concealed by candid lyrics.This is the first time ever that Passionnément has been committed to disc. This release was a co-production between the Munich Radio and Palazzetto Bru Zane. This full, uncut version was directed by Stefan Blunier, who offers a wonderful rendering of André Messager's melodic talents, bringing a sense of joy and subtlety to every moment. The flawless cast brings together Véronique Gens as Ketty, the wife abandoned by her wealthy American husband, played by Eric Huchet. Etienne Dupuis, Chantal Santon Jeffery and Armando Noguera round out an excellently-put-together cast, which does full justice to this piece of classic workmanship. A superb document of the atmosphere of the 1920s. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Backed by the Sun King despite a lukewarm audience reception at first, Lully's Atys (1676) went on to become one of the composer's most successful operas, with revivals at French court theaters as late as 1753. In modern times, however, it is a considerably rarer item due to the massive forces and time required. Christophe Rousset was in the pit as harpsichordist when conductor William Christie gave the first modern revival of the work in the late '80s. That experience marks this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller lists at the beginning of that year. That is not common for a hefty five-act Baroque opera, but even a bit of sampling will confirm why it happened: Rousset, from the keyboard, brings tremendous energy to the opera. He pushes the tempo in the numerous dances and entrance numbers, and the musicians of Les Talens Lyriques and the singers of the Choeur du Chambre de Namur, all of whom have worked closely with Rousset in the past, keep right up. The singers in the solo roles are all fine; haut-contre Reinoud Van Mechelen in the title role and Ambroisine Bré as the goddess Cybèle, who sets the tragic plot in motion, are standouts. The sound from the increasingly engineering-expert Château de Versailles label is exceptionally clear in complex textures, and the sensuous cover art (representing, it is true, not the Roman mythological figure of Atys but Hippomène and Atalante) is a bonus. In the end, this is Rousset's Atys, and that is a very good thing.© James Manheim /TiVo

Without any hesitation, we had to award a Qobuzissime to L'Heure bleue, the second album by Quatuor Zahir.  Because in the classical world, the saxophone quartet is still too rare a format on both record and on stage.  Because the impressionist works of Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, and Boulanger dazzle us, as do the creations of Fabien Waksman and Graciane Finzi. Because of the refinement and sophistication of these arrangements. Because of the impeccable sound recording—always a highlight of the Aparté label.  Because of the beauty of the title, "L'Heure Bleue," which sums up the driving idea behind this powerful record. “This ephemeral moment at the crossroads of day and night—such could be the dream setting for this new opus. An invitation to a dreamlike journey," explain the members of the quartet—Guillaume Berceau, Etienne Boussard, Florent Louman, and Joakim Cielsa. Five years after their debut, the quartet took the time to construct this recital piece by piece, with the patience of goldsmiths or those who have a taste for beauty and precision of gesture. Like a landscape with changing colors and moods—from the lively (Debussy's "Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin") and languorous (Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante défunte"), to the playfulness of the last of Boulanger's Trois Pièces—in L'Heure bleue we find the gentle reminiscence of a forgotten or fantasized era. Whether the works interpreted here are in their original form or arranged, it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between the two categories, as each track is so immediately appealing. The Zahirs interweave their sublime timbres with consummate artistry, with all the interpretations becoming essentials. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz

The classical best-seller charts are unfamiliar environs for the Palazzetto Bru Zane label, which specializes in forgotten 19th century opera. However, this release achieved best-seller status in early 2024, and this is absolutely no surprise, for Louise Bertin's Fausto is a remarkable work. One wonders how long it will take programmers to present it in a cycle with Berlioz's and Gounod's versions of the Faust tale (and perhaps Arrigo Boito's); the work is colorful in the extreme and is sure to be a crowd-pleaser even though it closed after three performances in 1831 and was shelved for the next 190 years. Perhaps the opera mixed so many influences that audiences just did not know what to make of it. Bertin, who was 25 when the work had its premiere in Paris, wrote the libretto herself in Italian. It has all the trappings of Rossinian opera -- fortepiano-accompanied recitative, aria, scena, preghiera, cavatina, big multi-part finales ending with a fast stretta -- but the effect of the music is completely different, and the settings stand up to the weighty aspect of the material. It is as if Weber had written a Faust opera, sometimes even as if Beethoven had written one. The role of Faust is sung by a mezzo-soprano, which is how Bertin wrote it, although a tenor version also exists. This results in intriguing equal-status duets between Karine Deshayes as Fausto and Karina Gauvin as Margarita. Conductor Christophe Rousset catches the ambition and the drama; his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques uses historical instruments but wisely bulks up to an adequate size for the work. Palazzetto Bru Zane, as usual, does the opera justice sonically with a studio recording. This is a remarkable release, not only for lovers of 19th century opera or those interested in music by women, but for anyone.© James Manheim /TiVo

The Alpha label's Haydn 2032 series, produced in collaboration with the Joseph Haydn Stiftung (or Foundation), may be optimistically conceived. It's hard to say in what form Haydn will be absorbed in 2032; a guess could be something like Neal Stephenson's Metaverse. Be that as it may, the series apparently will have a pair of organizing principles. The first is that individual programs will be loosely thematic rather than simply running in numerical sequence. Here, that idea doesn't work out so well. The title "Il Filosofo" or "Der Philosoph" for Haydn's Symphony No. 22 in E flat major, Hob. 1/22, seems not to have been Haydn's own and to have been derived later on from a superficially dialogue-like passage near the beginning. And it's hard to see how the other two Haydn symphonies on the album fit into the plan. But the news is better with the second principle, under which each album will combine several Haydn symphonies with one by another composer. Nobody has done this, and it works brilliantly here: the booklet expands on the notion of "originality," but the listener may well have already deduced that novelty is the reason for the rarely heard Symphony in F major for strings and continuo of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, composed in Dresden the 1730s or 1740s. It's an earlier work, but in its spiky melodic lines and experimental treatment of register it's easy to imagine that the young Haydn might have heard it. More broadly, the concept reflects how music might have been heard by audiences in the 18th century, when it wasn't yet clear that Haydn would emerge as the great. One looks forward to the pairings in future releases in the series. The rather old-fashioned silvery sound of the historical-instrument Il Giardino Armonio under Giovanni Antonini is clear and accurate, and generally this promises to be a Haydn series with fresh ideas.© TiVo