César Franck worked on Les Béatitudes for ten years but never heard it performed in full and would certainly have been dismayed at its general neglect. The work even shifts in style a bit from the Fifth Beatitude onward, becoming more Wagnerian as Franck discovered Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and the exultant finale ("Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs") packs quite a punch. The texts blend the biblical Beatitudes with tropes from a French children's book author, and they are generally thought to be a weak point of the work. However, the piece is worth experiencing, especially in this reading by the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and conductor Geregly Madaras, with the Hungarian National Choir and eight generally strong soloists. The choir is also divided into "terrestrial" and "celestial" units. The work is hard to classify; it is often called an oratorio, but there is not really any dramatic action despite the various personae the eight soloists adopt (celestial voices, Christ, Satan, Pharisees, and more). Nevertheless, Madaras manages to keep things moving and, more importantly, to keep things clear, with vivid contrasts among the various forces and warmth that capture the flavor of the biblical texts. The Fuga Libera label delivers idiomatic sound from the Salle philharmonique in Liège, and the work, though it may be tough going in spots, is characteristic of Franck and of the French musical scene of its time in a compelling way.© James Manheim /TiVo

On his third album as Christine and the Queens—but also using the new moniker Redcar—the artist now known simply as Chris isn't pushing boundaries so much as flying over them. "My journey with gender has always been tumultuous. It's raging right now, as I'm just exploring what is beyond this," he said in a May 2022 interview, around the time he announced his adoption of masculine pronouns. "A way to express it could be switching between they and she. I kind of want to tear down that system that made us label genders in such a strict way … I think the answer is to be flickery, fluid, escaping." That's also a pretty good description of his music, which is equally, and charmingly, hard to pin down. Opener "Ma bien aimée bye bye" finds Chris, as Redcar, adopting a chanteur's pose against the late-night cabaret sounds of slinky guitars and shimmering high-hat. Sung in a seamless mélange of French and English, it's a seductive goodbye but still, it's "my life till I die." (It completely fits Chris's estimation of the Redcar personality, which he has also called a "poetic and philosophical construction"—a very Bowie thing to say—as "suave and sophisticated.") While the last Christine and the Queens album leaned heavily into hard-edged '90s funk, here there are more references to the crisp-heavy bottom beats of Shannon-style '80s dance pop, especially on "la chanson du chevalier"—remarkable for its ethereally circling round-robin vocals, ranging from high and sweet ("the man I love") to a richer lead and sharp back-up—and Grace Jones-esque industrial rhythms. "Tu sais ce qu'il me faut" adopts Jones' unique binary of wild and controlled, while "Les âmes amantes" sounds like it's from another planet: liquid and layered. There's also dancefloor euphoria ("Looking for love"), powerful synth-heavy moments ("Les étoiles," aka the stars), airy sweetness ("rien dire") and an Annie Lennox cool breeze ("la clairefontaine"). A groovy eight-and-a-half-minute epic, "Combien de temps" samples electropop pioneer Gina X. "Je te vois enfin" sets up an intriguing mystery: "Oh-oh, my father I believe they have sinned," the lyrics translate to English. "It's impossible in your books not to sin." But Chris—Redcar—is perhaps most revealing on "Mémoire des ailes." The song is so clean and hymn-like, it sounds sacred, with vocals that completely envelop even as the music edgily stutters and shudders. "I'll teach you a game, I'll teach ya," he sings, at once a promise and a tease. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Since its creation in Venice in 2009, the Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre for French Romantic Music has played a pivotal role in discovering a repertoire that’s been previously ignored and held in contempt. In this regard, the institution could be compared to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which shed new light on an entire era of art that was often disregarded and considered completely outdated.Multiple musical discoveries have been made thanks to the publication of scores, phonographic recordings and numerous productions or co-productions across the globe. This present album is an excellent example of this vital behind-the-scenes work, disclosing the discovery of a valuable collection of melodies with orchestra by Jules Massenet: over a thousand titles, all of which had remained virtually unknown and unpublished for years.This first selection of twenty-five pages, sung by the best contemporary French vocalists (Nicole Car, Jodie Devos, Cyrille Dubois, Étienne Dupuis, Véronique Gens, Chantal Santon Jeffery), have been gathered together under the virtuoso baton of conductor Hervé Niquet, opening the door to a world of great refinement and immense variety. In addition to Massenet’s curvaceous and voluptuous melodies, there’s also fantastic orchestration that’s simply brimming with originality. A splendid discovery. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Nine extraordinary meditations by one of the twentieth century’s musical titans, performed on the magnificent King’s College Chapel organ by former organ scholar Richard Gowers. Written in 1935, La Nativité du Seigneur is one of Messiaen’s most popular organ works, and a piece that helped to establish the then 27 year-old as an important figure in contemporary music. Premiered in February 1936 at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris, where Messiaen was organist for more than sixty years, the debut performance was shared between three of his close friends; with Daniel-Lesur, Jean Langlais and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald each tackling three movements. A testament to Messiaen’s devout Catholicism, each movement follows a portion of the Christmas story, from the Virgin Birth to Epiphany, with the number of movements symbolic of the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy. Significantly, the work contains early examples of Messiaen’s signature compositional elements, such as birdsong, rhythmic inspiration from Hindustani and Carnatic musical traditions, and the ‘modes of limited transportation’, which he would later publish in "La technique de mon langage musical". Born in 1994, Richard Gowers is a British organist, pianist and conductor. After becoming a prize-winning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 17, he won first prize at the 2013 Northern Ireland International Organ Competition and studied at the Mendelssohn Conservatoire in Leipzig. From 2014 to 2017 he held the distinguished position of organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge and in September 2017 he became Chapel Choir Organist at the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban. His career as a concert organist has seen him perform in prestigious venues around the world, including Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral. © King's College

Eclipse is the experimental new album by Amadou & Mariam, the power couple of West African music. This album comprises a series of concerts, launched ten years ago and recorded in total darkness. This wasn’t done to save electricity but rather to share the performers’ experience of blindness. The spectators no longer focused on what they saw on the stage, just on what they could hear and feel; their ears wide open, sensitive to the atmosphere and the nuance of the music and the stories it tells. This very personal project is also conceived as an autobiographical tale, with a narrator who introduces the songs by recounting the important stages of Amadou & Mariam’s story.They met in 1975, at the Institute for Young Blind People in Bamako. They soon released their first songs in Mali but would eventually reach international fame and begin collaborating with rock stars. French rapper Oxmo Puccino has the honour of recounting Amadou & Mariam’s story in a sonic atmosphere which encapsulates the streets of Bamako. The songs performed by Amadou & Mariam follow the same chronology: from the acoustic modesty of the early days to their more recent danceable hits. The show itself featured admirable performances from producers, musicians and technicians who were obviously not accustomed to working in the dark. For the audience, both of that time and today, it’s a whole new sensory experience, immersed in the love and passions of Amadou & Mariam. Definitely worth listening to this one with your eyes closed, too. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

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In 2000, the European label DC Recordings reissued on CD the soundtrack from the cult sci-fi animated film La Planète Sauvage (released in English as The Fantastic Planet). The René Laloux film, which won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, was supported by a soundtrack by Alain Goraguer, mostly known for his work as Serge Gainsbourg's arranger. Goraguer's music consists of 25 short vignettes. Each is a contextualized adaptation of one of three main musical themes. The main theme is very reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother Suite" (same half-time tempo, mellotron, harpsichord, and wah-wah guitar), and the other two are a ballad and a circus-like waltz. The music is very '70s-clichéd and will appeal to fans of French and Italian '70s soundtrack stylings. Although repetitive, the album itself creates an interesting marijuana-induced sci-fi floating mood, blending psychedelia, jazz, and funk (the album has been sampled by a few hip-hop artists). The 16-page booklet includes stills from the film, a description of the plot, and biographical notes on the composer, the director, and the illustrator, all in English -- but, alas, no musicians' credits. DC Recordings reissued the album on both CD and LP, the latter version also including a poster.© François Couture /TiVo