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Chausson : Concert Op.21, Chanson perpétuelle Op.37, Quatuor Op.35
Ernest Chausson
Classical - Released October 21, 2010 | Saphir Productions
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Chausson le littéraire
Ensemble Musica Nigella
Classical - Released April 24, 2020 | Klarthe Records
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Chausson: Concert in D Major & Chanson perpétuelle
Simón Gollo
Chamber Music - Released June 19, 2020 | IBS Classical
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The Chopin Project
Ólafur Arnalds
Classical - Released March 16, 2015 | Mercury KX
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This week's entry in the very-much-like-nothing-you've-ever-heard-before sweepstakes comes from Icelandic electronic musician and composer Ólafur Arnalds and German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott, whose recording of Chopin waltzes inspired the project. What you get are recordings of Chopin piano compositions, plus original compositions by Arnalds based on motifs from Chopin. In one case, "Eyes Shut/Nocturne in C minor" (track six), the two are combined. Arnalds' pieces employ his own electronic keyboard textures, plus a live string quintet. On top of this, the pianos are vintage instruments hunted down in Reykjavik, and the ambience, if you will, was manipulated by recording in various venues and with various microphones there. And, on top of all this, Arnalds adds ambient soundscapes (noise, sounds of conversation, whispers, etc.) to the music. The ideas seem packed in a bit thick. The string quintet, for example, was a sound unused by Chopin, and it introduces an element that seems discordant with the source material. But there is a major X factor working in favor of this release: nobody has ever tried anything much like this, either with Chopin or with any other composer, and it just might be the beginning of something new and important. Check it out and decide for yourself!© James Manheim /TiVo
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Reflet
Sandrine Piau
Classical - Released January 12, 2024 | Alpha Classics
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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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Par un matin (Caplet, Kaspar, Chausson, Marçot, Poulenc)
Ensemble Esquisses
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released September 15, 2023 | Evidence (LTR)
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Qobuzissime
Founded in 2017 by young choral and orchestral conductor Guillemette Daboval, the Ensemble Esquisses is an all-female choir with an ever-changing line-up made up of singers who have only recently graduated from their studies. With one shared desire, the ensemble are drawn to repertoire for equal voices and unison, which the young choristers explore throughout Par un Matin, the group’s debut album released on the Evidence label. The sophisticated programme offers a selective view of the 20th and 21st centuries, with André Caplet’s “Messe à 3 Voix”, Chausson's elegiac “Chant Funèbre Op.28” and Poulenc's “Litanies à la Vierge Noire” as well as a world premiere of Olivier Kaspar's “Chansons Erotiques” (inspired by bawdy texts from the 16th century) and the “Agnus” from composer Caroline Marçot. The task of singing with equal voices is an extremely difficult one since it requires an extremely heightened ability to listen to each other’s voices, as well as a great deal of self-sacrifice in search of a collective timbre. This state of mind often requires years of work and, more specifically, maturity. We’re not sure what type of magic is at work here, but the combined effort of Guillemette Daboval and her singers has produced something of striking purity. There are real layers at play here: the textures, the melodic accents and inflections, the roundness of the melismas. The precision of movement becomes all the more impressive in this kaleidoscopic choice of repertoires, which is also highly erudite. Daboval and the Esquisses members have succeeded in creating their own signature sound with their very first performance, and all with breathtaking ease, something that other renowned choirs can take years to perfect. Just as we have in the past spoken about the ‘Voces8 timbre’, the ‘Tenebrae timbre’ and the ‘Deller Consort timbre’, here we are witnessing the birth of the ‘Esquisses timbre’. Qobuzissime! © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz
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Vaughan Williams, Elgar: The Lark Ascending...
Pinchas Zukerman
Classical - Released February 26, 2016 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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4 étoiles Classica
Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending is so familiar these days, especially in Britain, that it's easy to forget how recent its popularity really is. Pinchas Zukerman, when he recorded the work at the urging of Daniel Barenboim in 1973 (if one is to believe the entertaining booklet notes), had to ask, "What's a lark?" (Barenboim's response: "It's a bird.") That 1973 recording helped launch the bird onto the high trajectory it has followed ever since, and Zukerman is still hard to beat even with all the other recordings on the market. He has a relaxed, pastoral, flowing conception of the work, and he executes it with entrancing beauty. On top of this you will find other attractions in this 2016 Decca release. There's the presence of Zukerman as conductor in addition to his violin and viola roles, and The Lark Ascending, especially, has an organic sweep that's very rare. He elicits rich string sound from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Elgar Serenade for strings, Op. 20, and Introduction and Allegro for string quartet and string orchestra, Op. 47, and both these works get expansive, generously melodic performances. The sound, from London's Cadogan Hall, is excellent. And Zukerman emphasizes his direct connection with the music by including several of Elgar's short tunes, one of which, the arrangement of In Moonlight for viola and orchestra by Julian Milone, has never been recorded before. The sum total is a superb collection of English standards by a great musician who hasn't lost a step.© TiVo
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A Night in London
Ophélie Gaillard
Classical - Released March 4, 2022 | Aparté
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In the 1730s, many composers tried their luck in London, where many other treasures were in preparation: Geminiani revolutionized instrumental writing with his famous treatise on interpretation and presented an amazing version of La Folia; his pupil Avison orchestrated concertos by Scarlatti, and Porpora ventured away from opera to rediscover the vocality of the cello with one of the most beautiful concertos of that period. Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella treat us to a frenzied and poetic night in London. They meet Vivaldi, Hasse, Scottish composer James Oswald and virtuoso cellist Giovanni Battista Cirri. Guest artists Sandrine Piau and Lucile Richardot take on magnificent vocal pieces by Geminiani and Handel – Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni would have been seriously envious, that’s for sure! © Aparté
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The Complete Warner Recordings 1972 -1980
Itzhak Perlman
Classical - Released September 25, 2015 | Warner Classics
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Sviatoslav Richter plays Alexander Scriabin
Sviatoslav Richter
Classical - Released January 1, 2017 | Praga Digitals
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Scriabin: 150th Anniversary – Piano Works
Vladimir Sofronitsky
Classical - Released April 1, 2022 | Profil
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Bacchanale: Saint-Saëns et la Méditerranée
Orchestre Divertimento
Classical - Released March 24, 2023 | harmonia mundi
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The Orchestre Divertimento and its conductor, Zahia Ziouani, often juxtapose European repertory with music from other parts of the world. Ziouani, who is of Algerian background, has a particular interest in the music of that country. She could not have found a composer whose works were more congenial to such a project than Camille Saint-Saëns, who visited Algeria no fewer than 18 times and composed a Suite algérienne, Op. 60, that is heard here, broken up and interspersed with Arabic music. What makes Ziouani's project unique is that there are not two types of music here but three. Many of the Saint-Saëns works are preceded by improvisations in the classical Arabic idiom, on oud, qanun, a traditional viol, derbouka, and the riqq drum. These are quite a musical distance from Saint-Saëns, but Ziouani introduces contemporary Arabic songs, of a semi-popular nature, as an intermediate step. The sets are mostly in related tonalities. This is an ingenious idea that sheds light on both Saint-Saëns, on what he heard when he heard Algerian music, and on the nature of contemporary popular traditions that are rooted in the classical music of the world. The Saint-Saëns performances themselves are entirely creditable, and the album is well recorded at a couple of different locations. A unique release that makes one want to hear more from this distinctive ensemble.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Entrez dans la danse... (Hahn, Ravel, Poulenc, Schmitt...)
Anne Queffélec
Solo Piano - Released January 13, 2017 | Mirare
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5 de Diapason
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Nuits
Véronique Gens
Classical - Released April 3, 2020 | Alpha Classics
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As the symbiosis between the art of the poet and that of the composer, the French mélodie became the jewel of the salons of the ‘Belle Époque’. By placing a string quartet and a piano around the singer, Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, Lekeu’s Nocturne and Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson oscillate between chamber musical intimacy and orchestral ambition. Alongside these famous pioneering pieces, this programme devised by the Palazzetto Bru Zane champions a return to the art of transcription, so popular in the nineteenth century, with the aim of expanding the repertory for voice, strings and piano in order to unearth some forgotten treasures. Hence Hahn, Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, La Tombelle, Ropartz, Louiguy and Messager all appear in a programme whose guiding thread is the emotions of nocturnal abandonment: the charms of twilight, the trajectory of dreams, the terror of nightmare or the exhilaration of festive occasions. Alexandre Dratwicki has made these arrangements in the style of the nineteenth century. Appropriately enough, the programme ends with La Vie en rose, for this music offers a kaleidoscope of all the colours of human feeling. The texture of solo strings and piano sets Véronique Gens’s incomparable storytelling artistry in a new ligh. © Alpha Classics
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American and English Orchestral Music
Joshua Weilerstein
Classical - Released January 24, 2024 | Claves Records
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Saint-Saëns - Chausson - Ysaÿe
Tedi Papavrami
Classical - Released April 22, 2010 | Aeon
The elevation of the violin to celebrity status in the music of 19th century France and Belgium owes its thanks to the unique inspiration generated between composers and performing virtuosos. This aeon disc shows one such connection with the Introduction & Rondo capriccioso and Third Violin Concerto of Saint-Saëns who wrote for the great Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate as well as the "Poème" of Ernest Chausson. Chausson dedicated his work to the legendary artist Eugène Ysaÿe, whose Poème élégiaque is also on the program. Characterized by equal parts fiery virtuosity and sensual lyricism, all of the works on this program tend to be crowd favorites and an ideal way for a violinist to showcase both his/her technical and musical skills. Violinist Tedi Papavrami does just that. Accompanied by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège Wallonie Bruxelles under François-Xavier Roth, Papavrami strikes an ideal balance between seduction and precision, never sappy, never rigid. His tone is warm and enveloping from the open G string to the heights of the E string. Vibrato is intense but not overdone, as is rubato. Papavrami technical skills are also more than ample to dazzle his audiences. The orchestra, whose parts in all of these works is almost entirely accompanimental, provides a sensitive, well-balanced backdrop for Papavrami.© TiVo
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Frédéric Chopin : Préludes
Grigory Sokolov
Classical - Released January 1, 1990 | naïve classique
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Choc du Monde de la Musique -
4F de Télérama -
RTL d'Or
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Impressions d'enfance
Sarah Nemtanu
Classical - Released March 3, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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Tchaikovsky : The Complete Solo Piano Works
Valentina Lisitsa
Classical - Released March 15, 2019 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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5 de Diapason
Whatever one thinks of her playing, it's clear pianist Valentina Lisitsa deserves everyone's thanks for showing that there is nothing wrong with the state of classical music, only with the way it is presented: views of her YouTube performance videos number in the tens of millions. Lisitsa has been able to parlay that popularity into a more conventional career, but for a pianist who has built her reputation on internet moments to essay something like the complete solo piano works of Tchaikovsky, covering ten CDs (about 11 hours of music in total) is unorthodox, or gutsy perhaps. As it happens, Lisitsa will probably find buyers. She records every scrap of music Tchaikovsky ever wrote for the piano, including an unfinished student work, a set of 50 folk song arrangements for piano four hands (recorded with Lisitsa's personal and artistic partner Alexei Kuznetsoff), an operatic potpourri, juvenilia, and a huge assortment of occasional short pieces. These are, as annotator Philip Ross Bullock concedes, of varying quality, but there is something catchy about them more often than not. Sample, for instance, the Volunteer Fleet March, from the "Works Without Opus Numbers" disc (the album is organized thematically rather than chronologically, which makes sense). Lisitsa in the main keeps to the rather restrained style she cultivated on YouTube. You might find that a Pletnev would offer more flair and oomph in the Grand Sonata, Op. 37, and her tempi in a piece like the "June: Barcarole" can be uncomfortably slow. However, one must note that Lisitsa has learned a great deal of music, recorded almost all of it at least intelligently, and cast a valuable light on a neglected segment of Tchaikovsky's output.© TiVo
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Paradise Lost
Anna Prohaska
Classical - Released April 10, 2020 | Alpha Classics
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The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré’s Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell’s Sleep, Adam, sleep with its references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms’s Salamander, Wolf’s Die Bekehrte or Ravel’s Air du Feu. In Das Paradies und die Peri, Schumann conjures up the image of Syria’s rose-covered plains. Bernstein also transports us to the desert with Silhouette.. John Milton’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Paradise Lost was the inspiration for Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, also featured in this very rich programme that constitutes an invitation to travel and reflection. © Alpha Classics
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