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Casta Diva - Operatic arias transcribed for trumpet

Matilda Lloyd

Opera - Released April 28, 2023 | Chandos

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Five years after her solo debut recording, Direct Message, which programmed 20th and 21st century works for trumpet and piano, trumpet player Matilda Lloyd departs the traditional repertoire (aside from the two Arban arrangements from the Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet). Instead of following more well-worn routes, Lloyd elects to present a program of Romantic period opera arias, mostly in arrangements for trumpet and chamber orchestra (undertaken here by the Britten Sinfonia under Rumon Gamba) by William Foster, who worked closely with Lloyd on this project. Lloyd's skill as a musician is evident throughout, though the two Arban tracks most clearly allow her abilities to shine. The arrangements throughout are good, though how much they add to the performances rather than transcriptions and transpositions is up for debate. Lloyd notes with excitement the decision to include two pieces by Pauline Viardot, and one of the highlights here is the treatment of Viardot's Havanaise. This is certainly a trumpet release aimed at a wider audience than trumpet and brass circles, and it has already found success on the retail market. Chandos delivers just the right atmosphere from the Church of St. Augustine, Kilburn, in London. The future is bright for this trumpeter, and one looks forward to where her path may take her. © Keith Finke /TiVo
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Beatrice di Tenda

Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Classical - Released January 1, 1993 | Brilliant Classics

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Psyché

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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La Flûte Enchantée

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released April 23, 2021 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Bellini: Norma

Riccardo Muti/Jane Eaglen

Classical - Released January 1, 1995 | Warner Classics

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Rossini: Adelaide di Borgogna

Virtuosi Brunensis

Opera - Released June 9, 2017 | Naxos

Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
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Grieg - Smetana

Quatuor Modigliani

Quartets - Released January 12, 2024 | Mirare

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - Choc de Classica
The string quartets of Grieg and Smetana, as annotator Melissa Khong notes, make a natural pairing. Both composers, paragons of the nationalist movements within their respective countries, mostly avoided classical forms, but both turned to the string quartet when they faced personal crises, and the tension between strong emotion and formal restrictions had compelling results. Smetana perhaps made a bit more of the situation than Grieg did, but Grieg's quartet is a bit neglected, and this pairing is not as common as it should be. On this 2024 release, the Modigliani Quartet gives these works a suitably intense, inward quality, with a strikingly rich treatment of the Smetana slow movement. The group excels in the Grieg quartet as well; their performance is highly dramatic, but the work can stand up to this. The quartet is a bit hampered by the Mirare label team's overwrought sound; the ambiance of the Schubertiade hall in Austria is fine, but the group is miked too close. Nevertheless, these are performances that penetrate to the heart of two unique works.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Atys

Christophe Rousset

Opera - Released January 5, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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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
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Louise Bertin: Fausto

Les Talens Lyriques

Classical - Released January 26, 2024 | Bru Zane

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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
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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Céphale et Procris

Reinoud Van Mechelen

Classical - Released February 9, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Écho & Narcisse

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released August 25, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Boulanger, Fauré, Hahn

William Youn

Classical - Released December 15, 2023 | Sony Classical - Sony Music

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Gloire Immortelle !

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Bizet: Carmen, WD 31

Herbert von Karajan

Classical - Released January 1, 1964 | Sony Classical

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Bellini: Norma

James Levine

Opera - Released January 1, 1980 | Sony Classical

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So Romantique !

Cyrille Dubois

Classical - Released March 10, 2023 | Alpha Classics

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Meyerbeer: Robert le Diable

Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine

Classical - Released September 23, 2022 | Bru Zane

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone: Recording of the Month
For his last season at the helm of the Opéra de Bordeaux, Marc Minkowski—always keen to conduct forgotten works which have, in some way, marked the history of music—sets his sights on Robert le Diable, Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera which was a true social phenomenon in 19th century France. The Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française has followed suit by officially publishing this concert version, which also features some excellent vocal soloists. Admired by Balzac, Sand and Dumas, this ‘grand opéra à la française’ (great French opera) faded into obscurity after the First World War. Its creator became a sort of pariah – one met with both condescension and mockery. With its ‘seductive and haunting melodies’ (Alexandre Dratwicki), it’s nevertheless a flamboyant work that greatly inspired his contemporaries, such as Verdi, who referred to it in La Traviata. The extraordinary impact of Robert le Diable was such that it was performed a great many times on every continent. A true one-man band, Marc Minkowski has invested himself entirely in this undertaking, learning this vast score practically by heart and conducting it with his usual power and conviction. The international cast is full of surprises thanks to their deep understanding of the work and the protagonists’ fantastic pronunciation. This new release, to the credit of the Bru Zane label, revitalises our knowledge of this work that’s scarcely mentioned in specialised dictionaries. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Tchaikovsky: Eugène Onéguine (Diapason n°598)

Galina Vichnievskaia

Full Operas - Released September 25, 2010 | Les Indispensables de Diapason

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Bizet: Carmen, WD 31 (Live)

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Opera - Released October 12, 2018 | Orfeo

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Korngold: String Quartets Nos. 1-3

Tippett Quartet

Chamber Music - Released March 10, 2023 | Naxos

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This is not the first recording of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's three string quartets, but they are hardly common items. This is perhaps because Korngold spent so much of his career as a film composer. The quartets are especially interesting in that two of them, at least, seem to anticipate phases of his career that were coming next. The String Quartet No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 26, is a more melodic and more positive work compared with its predecessor, surprising, given its origin in the grim year of 1933, but it seems to point to Korngold's incipient turn toward film music. Likewise, the String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 34, composed in 1945 in the U.S., suggested Korngold's return to concert music after the war. It is an intriguing work, tonally but not motivically conservative, and really unlike anything else of the period. The String Quartet No. 1, Op. 16, is given the A major key designation, but it definitely was written under the influence of Schoenberg and flirts with atonality. The Tippett Quartet deserves credit for shifting gears effectively, cultivating quite a hard edge in the String Quartet No. 1 but producing real lyricism in the underrated slow third movement of the second quartet. With excellent sound from the School Farm Studios in Essex, U.K., this is a release that will find a place in many collections of 20th century chamber music; it appeared on classical best-seller charts in early 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo