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Le Bal des animaux

Sophie Karthäuser

Mélodies - Released November 9, 2018 | harmonia mundi

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With the exception of one sole Rossini piece – and even then, the text isn't very Italian as it's the Cats' Duet whose only lyric is "miaow" – this whole programme is dedicated to French works, mostly vocal, with a couple for solo piano. Sophie Karthäuser and Eugene Asti have set off on a wild goose, pig, dromedary, cricket, crow, and fox hunt, keeping an eye out for many other furry, feathered and scaly beasts along the way, with Ravel, Chabrier, Offenbach, Hahn, Bizet, and Poulenc for company – all of whom have written music for creatures great and small, real and fantastical. Alright, on occasion these animals might not be animals, strictly speaking, like Satie's Statue de bronze (although the statue in question is of a frog), or The Little Shepherd from Children’s Corner by Debussy. Another rarity: there are three melodies from Poulenc's Bestiaire which have been left out of most recent editions: La Colombe, La Puce and Le Serpent. © SM/Qobuz

Enfant du vent

Cécile Corbel

Children - Released March 29, 2019 | Universal Music Division Decca Records France

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Rétrospective

Les Karrik

Pop - Released January 1, 1993 | Disques Mérite

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Mélodies Françaises (Oeuvres de Debussy, Duparc, Saint-Saëns, Chabrier, Hahn, Ravel)

Stéphane Degout

Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released January 17, 2011 | naïve classique

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Souvenirs d'enfance, Musique Russe

Brigitte Engerer

Chamber Music - Released January 1, 2007 | Mirare

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Airs populaires harmonisés, de Chopin à Canteloube

François Lazarevitch

Classical - Released January 21, 2010 | Alpha Classics

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Au chant de l'alouette

Quatalogne

Pop - Released June 14, 2019 | Indépendant

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Ravel : Complete Works for Solo Piano

Bertrand Chamayou

Classical - Released January 15, 2016 | Erato - Warner Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason - Gramophone Editor's Choice - 4 étoiles Classica - 5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
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Reflet

Sandrine Piau

Classical - Released January 12, 2024 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
In a world of "singles," pursued even by classical music labels nowadays, here is a whole album that makes up a single, sublime musical utterance. Reflet is a follow-up, similarly concerned with light effects, to soprano Sandrine Piau's German-language Clair-Obscur of a few years back. The German songs might have been a bigger stretch for Piau than the French material here, but Reflet has possibly an even more sublime coherence. One feels that every note is almost foreordained as the program opens with classic orchestral songs from Berlioz, Henri Duparc, and the less common Charles Koechlin, proceeding into darker, more mysterious realms with Ravel's Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, and ending with the youthful ebullience of Britten's Quatre chansons françaises. An illustration of how carefully calibrated everything is here comes with two Debussy pieces, Clair de lune and "Pour remercier la pluie" (from the Six Épigraphes Antiques), arranged for orchestra from other media. These serve as entr'actes between the sections of Piau's program, and they should by all rights have been annoying: aren't there enough genuine orchestral pieces that could have filled the bill? But just listen. These fit into the patterns that run through the whole album, and they make perfect sense, just like everything else. Piau's voice is delicate, soaring, and richly beautiful; one of the miracles of the current scene is its durability and versatility. Her support from conductor Jean-François Verdier, leading the Victor Hugo Orchestra, is confidently smooth, never intruding on the spell Piau weaves. A magnificent orchestral song recital that made classical best-seller lists in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Les choses de la vie

Renaud Capuçon

Classical - Released January 5, 2024 | Warner Classics

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In the notes to his 2018 release Cinema, violinist Renaud Capuçon spoke of "reservations" about recording film music as a classical musician. This time around, there are no such reservations, perhaps because the previous release was quite successful. There are several differences between the two albums that may work to the advantage of this 2024 release; at the very least, Capuçon is not repeating himself. One is that the violinist focuses exclusively on French music this time around; even the several extracts from various English-language films included, such as Love Story and Lawrence of Arabia, have French composers, and the album reflects on the strength of the French strain in Anglo-American film music. Another departure is that Capuçon has replaced the Brussels Philharmonic from the 2018 album with the smaller historical-instrument group Les Siècles. They don't seem to be using anything other than modern instruments, but the performances of the arrangements by Cyrille Lehn are able to sharpen the contrast between the "voices" of Capuçon and the orchestra under the baton of Duncan Ward. Beyond these differences, the album, like its predecessor, will expose non-French audiences to some excellent film tunes that they may not have known. Consider the somber Concerto de l'Adieu from the epic film Dien Bien Phu, a sort of docudrama about the 1954 battle that drove the French out of Vietnam. The Decca label contributes fine studio sound from the ONDIF studio in Alfortville to this strong crossover release from the increasingly popular Capuçon.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Ravel: Concertos pour piano - Mélodies

Cédric Tiberghien

Concertos - Released May 20, 2022 | harmonia mundi

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Utilising to the full the unique timbres of their period instruments alongside a superb Pleyel piano of 1892, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles explore some of Ravel’s major works. With Cédric Tiberghien and Stéphane Degout, two of the finest specialists in this repertory, this recording provides an opportunity to hear many aspects of his colourful, kaleidoscopic world, from the youthful Pavane to the testamentary cycle Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. © harmonia mundi
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Folk Songs

Magdalena Kožená

Mélodies - Released October 13, 2023 | PentaTone

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Magdalena Kožená has recorded folk songs before, but this 2023 release, which landed on classical best-seller charts in the autumn of that year, is perhaps her definitive statement on the subject. She is teamed with her husband, Simon Rattle, as conductor, leading the nonpareil Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. However, what is most impressive is the program and the way it shows Kožená to be capable of handling a large variety of material. Kožená completely avoids folk songs of her native Czech culture. Instead, she offers folk-influenced material by Bartók, Berio, Ravel, and Xavier Montsalvatge, exploring the various meanings folk songs might have in the non-nationalist musical culture of the 20th century. The results are fascinating, and Kožená succeeds in shifting numerous gears over the course of the album. Sample her belted Berio song "a la femminisca," or, for that matter, her expert retroflex r's in "Black is the colour of my true love's hair," or "I wonder as I wander." Berio's populist take on folk music is one approach Kožená adopts; Ravel's, using Greek vernacular music as just a moderate flavoring of his own style in the Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, is another. Sample her absolutely luminous Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques from that set. Kožená ranges from fully competent to absolutely entrancing in this set of folkish songs, which are both fresh in conception and beautifully executed. An unusually satisfying release.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux, I/42

Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Classical - Released March 2, 2018 | PentaTone

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason - Gramophone Editor's Choice
Can the title of a work influence the way that performers approach it? At any rate, Messiaen's two great piano masterpieces have titles which suggest very different musical experiences. Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (1944) is steeped in religious fervour and contemplation, while Catalogue d’oiseaux (1956–1958) is a work with rather more of an ornithological bent. Indeed, the composer himself said to Claude Samuel: "I tried to render exactly the song of a bird typical of a given region, surrounded by its neighbours in that habitat, as well as expressions of its song at different times of day and night." But then he goes on to describe a more expressive and poetic side of the work. Birdsong, effectively, "bears in its harmonic and rhythmic material the scents and colours of the country in which the bird lives", and it is hardly possible to "exactly" transcribe the improbable rapidity of birdsong for any human instrument. One might have thought that "sonic reproduction" was the key idea behind the Catalogue d'oiseaux, but in the finished work, what we are listening to is a great composer, a master of innovative structures, finding a stunning range of piano sounds. In other words, in spite of its name, the Catalogue d’oiseaux is not a musical documentary, but rather a series of musical poems exploring birds and other wonders of nature – in France, as that is where all these delightful flying things happened to be found. Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives a reading of the (diabolical) score which is both super-precise and rigorous, and yet so poetic and inspired that one has the impression that he is taking dictation directly from the birds themselves. © SM/Qobuz
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Ces gens-là

Jacques Brel

French Music - Released January 1, 1964 | Universal Music Division Barclay

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60 Comptines pour Enfants et Bébés

La Reine des chansons pour enfants et bébés

Children - Released February 21, 2018 | La Reine des chansons pour enfants et bébés

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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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Traîtrise

La Zarra

French Music - Released December 3, 2021 | Universal Music Division Capitol Music France

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Néère (Hahn, Duparc, Chausson)

Véronique Gens

Mélodies (French) - Released October 16, 2015 | Alpha Classics

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The soprano Véronique Gens might be thought a natural for the French art song repertoire. But Néère, taking its title from the opening song by Reynaldo Hahn (the reference is to the Greek nymph known in English as Neaera, "white as a fine marble statue, with her rosy cheeks"), is one of just a few albums in the genre she has released. Get hold of it without delay: it's gorgeous. The French mélodie is not a high-register genre, and for a singer like Gens these songs reside in the lower part of her range, where she now brings just a bit of sultriness and smoke with devastating effect. The program includes three composers of the late 19th century who are closely related but contrasting in their individual styles: in the words of annotator Nicolas Southon "the melancholic Henri Duparc, the elegiac Ernest Chausson, the charmer Reynaldo Hahn." You could really dip in anywhere, but sample track 15, Hahn's A Chloris, for a taste of what Gens can do. The playing of accompanist Susan Manoff seems welded to Gens' vocal line, which even with all the voluptuous, erotic beauty has a kind of steely concentration that grows stronger and more impressive as the album proceeds. An absolute gem.© TiVo

De l'autre côté de mon rêve

Véronique Sanson

French Music - Released December 8, 2022 | Parlophone (France)

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