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Véronique Gens. "Tragédiennes"
Véronique Gens
Classical - Released May 1, 2006 | Warner Classics
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Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse
Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released September 23, 2022 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
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In 1743, two years before Rameau’s Platée, Boismortier created an extraordinarily modern and madcap "comic ballet", Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse. As the exuberant plotunfurls, Cervantes’ hero encounters monsters, enchanters, princesses and people from Japan, making for plenty of offbeat and audacious dances and choruses. Musical beautyrubs shoulders with satirical and irreverent comedy. A choice work for Hervé Niquet, who leads his Concert Spirituel with unparalleled energy! © Château de Versailles Spectacles
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Rameau : Castor et Pollux
Raphaël Pichon
Full Operas - Released April 27, 2015 | harmonia mundi
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L'univers de l'orgue (Volume 1)
Henri-Charles Caget
Classical - Released April 13, 2010 | Alpha Classics
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Ugab, the name of a series of organ recordings on the Alpha label, is a Hebrew word from the Psalms thought to mean an instrument that was a forerunner of the organ. The aim of the series is to highlight a variety of the great organs of the world in repertoire for which they are especially well suited with an emphasis on their physical setting and to offer copious photographs of the organ and its setting to provide a visual as well as aural experience. This first installment features the organ of the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cintegabelle, in southern France. Judging from the recording, it's a magnificent instrument, with vast timbral variety, housed in a space with a clean but nicely reverberant acoustic. Yves Rechsteiner plays an eccentric but thoroughly engaging program: transcriptions he has made of music from the operas of Rameau, some including percussion and some requiring a third hand. The operas are appropriate material because they date from around the time the organ was built and consecrated in the mid-18th century. The brief pieces are mostly arrangements of dances from the operas, but also include airs, a chorus, and an overture. The music is largely sprightly, light-hearted, and elegant, and some of it, like the selections from the comedy Platée, is gleefully silly, but there are several contemplative airs that use the most delicate registrations. These selections don't represent the Baroque at its most profound, but they are unfailingly delightful, played with exceptional grace and style. Rechsteiner's arrangements (the theory and execution of which are discussed in great depth in the program notes) make inventive use of the array of the instrument's sonorous possibilities, and the album is notable for the colorful range of the registrations. Percussionist Henri-Charles Caget and "third hand" Vincent Bernhardt provide capable support on several tracks. The sound of Alpha's SACD, which can be played on conventional systems but was designed for optimal effect to be played in surround sound, is clear and spacious.© TiVo
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Italian Violin Sonatas
Europa Galante/Fabio Biondi/Maurizio Naddeo/Giangiacomo Pinardi/Sergio Ciomei
Classical - Released January 1, 2002 | Warner Classics
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Lully: Thésée
Les Talens Lyriques
Opera - Released October 13, 2023 | Aparté
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Christophe Rousset and his Les Talens Lyriques continue their exploration of the operas of Jean-Baptiste Lully for the Aparte label with 1675's Thésée ("Theseus"), the composer's third "tragédie en musique" with librettist by Philippe Quinault. Commissioned by King Louis XIV, the libretto recounts some early-life exploits of the titular character from Ovid's Metamorphoses. It was immensely popular for more than a century before finding itself in less demand than later, more compact versions of Quinault's text, which were set by composers such as Handel (Teseo, 1712). What is there for a king and his court not to like when the Prologue declares the king a god and sings the praises of king and kingdom? Rousset has his Les Talens Lyriques in fine form, and the ensemble plays crisply and concisely throughout. Rousset, conducting from the harpsichord, keeps the action moving in this colossal and dramatic work. The soloists, especially mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes as Médée ("Medea") and tenor Mathias Vidal as the titular Thésée, display clear expertise in the realm of early French opera. This work is a major vehicle for mezzos in the role of the jealous sorceress Médée, and Deshayes is splendid. The Prologue has some awkward, almost hesitant singing from the chorus, but as the work progresses, the Chœur de chambre de Namur becomes stronger and, in the end, proves to be an asset to the whole (consider their turn as the inhabitants of the underworld with Deshayes on "Sortez, ombres, sortez de la nuit éternelle" from Act Two). This is a worthy addition of a lesser-known opera to the growing Lully collection from Les Talens Lyriques.© Keith Finke /TiVo
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Visages baroques
Raphaël Feuillâtre
Classical - Released March 31, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Bach will always be Bach, and baroque music will always be baroque music, right? Well, not if you believe in the words of Raphaël Feuillâtre, rising star of classical music. "Baroque has so many faces," says the budding guitarist, born in Djibouti and raised in France. At just 26, he’s already a seasoned musician. He was propelled on to the international stage in 2018 when he won the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America competition in Louisville, and is now making his Deutsche Grammophon debut with Visages baroques. He’s currently the only guitarist signed to the prestigious classical music label. Like many other artists, Feuillâtre hasn’t hesitated to arrange and reinterpret great baroque works to tailor them to his instrument.Through the sounds of his guitar, Feuillâtre uses this carefully composed programme to demonstrate, as the name suggests, the different faces of baroque music. And he does it all on an instrument that the period’s repertoire wasn’t always tailored to. According to Feuillâtre, the guitar has always been somewhat neglected, which is not to downplay the great musical depth of the instrument. In collaboration with his teachers and friends, Feuillâtre has arranged selected pieces by Bach, Royer, Rameau, Forqueray and Duphly, and gives these baroque artists a new shine. The plucked variation of "Prelude in C major" from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is a gentle and clear introduction, closely followed by the great composer’s Partita and Concerto. We also find a refreshing harpsichord-esque interpretation of Duphly's La Médée. The stunning technical abilities of the young guitarist are beautifully highlighted in Rameau's Les Cyclopes. Baroque certainly has many faces! © Lena Germann/Qobuz
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Passage secret
Arthur Ancelle
Classical - Released February 9, 2024 | Alpha Classics
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Écho & Narcisse
Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released August 25, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
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Enfers
Raphaël Pichon
Opera Extracts - Released February 23, 2018 | harmonia mundi
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Gramophone Editor's Choice -
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Choc de Classica -
5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
With his ensemble Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon has written the listing for this album in the form of a "pastiche" of a Mass for the Dead, a Requiem both sacred and profane. While it is a long way from having all the defining traits, it does possess all the outlines: Introit, Kyrie, Gradual, Sequence, Offertory, In Paradisum... The idea came about after a recent discovery, in the Bibliothèque Nationale of an anonymous requiem mass from the 18th century, in which the writer constructed a "parody" based on musical extracts from Castor and Pollux and the Fêtes de Paphos by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Note that the term "parody" doesn't necessarily imply satire or mockery: it refers to the practice of taking up older music and setting new words to it. This fusion of sacred music (the mass) and profane music (lyrical tragedy), a common practice during the Enlightenment, was a procedure that Pichon wanted to take up. In French society at the time, when Catholicism was the norm, where the political system was monarchical rule by divine right, the representation of ancient pagan Hell on theatrical stages seemed to betray a fascination in the beliefs of the ancients. And so this programme melds together pagan fable with a Christian imaginary, where Hell takes on different faces. It is the place of unjust and eternal torment, a place of privation where a couple is separated, one half kept in Hades. But, in the lyrical tragedy, Hell is also a place of perdition: obscure forces unleashed in Sabbath rites, a Satanic vision which unearths the darkest depths of the human soul... Stéphane Degout is the author of this tragedy, bringing together such varied characters as Phaedra, Pluto, and the Parcae. The composers whose music is put to use are Rameau and Gluck, with a single borrowing from Rebel: it would have been a shame not to mention his singular Chaos (taken from Éléments), which starts with a dissonant chord containing the seven notes of the scale of D minor. © SM/Qobuz
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Rameau : Zaïs
Christophe Rousset
Full Operas - Released September 3, 2015 | Aparté
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In 1745, the King of France granted Jean-Philippe Rameau the title of ‘Composer to the Court’, coupled with a healthy pension. This new period produced pieces of a much lighter character, with Rameau working alongside the librettist Louis de Cahusac, and the resulting collaborations are now counted amongst the Burgundian musician’s greatest masterpieces. Zaïs was presented on the stage of the Royal Academy of Music in 1748. This heroic ballet offers French music some of its most beautiful movements, both vocally and instrumentally. The entire work is a meditation on its famous opening chaos, and succeeds, surprisingly, through its theatrical stamp and in the audacity of the writing. The plot is, perhaps, tenuous – a lover (Zaïs) is in the throes of affection for his beloved (Zélidie), determining to cherish her – which serves as the pretext for endless entertainment, dancing, and the work’s magical character. Today, it remains surprising that a work as sumptuous as Rameau’s Zaïs is neglected in favour of the Indes Galantes or Hippolyte et Aricie. It is paradoxical, then, that in 1970 Gustav would combine the small amount of French music he truly appreciated with a reassessment of the beauties of this work. Gustav created a fascinating recording with La Petite Bande Sigiswald Kuijken (STIL), which has now become a true rarity, despite its questionable vocalists. Happily for us, Christophe Rousset, who cherishes Rameaus’s older work, has dedicated himself to it, and offers us this gorgeously captured rendition, with French singers working under the direction of his sharp and witty leadership. The opening of the Les Talens Lyriques recital is far more vivid than anything that has been achieved in over twenty years for L’Oiseau-Lyre, in which the Ouverture immediately sets the tone. Rousset completely captures the brilliance of the score, and his imagination – which here seems insatiable – liberates his singers, who are boundlessly invested in this work; complicit in a musical resurrection. An enchantment of sorts? No. A whirlwind, rather. © Qobuz
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Messiaen : L'œuvre pour orgue, Vol. 2
Louis Thiry
Classical - Released March 1, 1972 | La Dolce Volta
Booklet
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4F de Télérama -
Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros -
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Lully: Armide
Les Talens Lyriques
Classical - Released March 24, 2017 | Aparté
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4F de Télérama -
Gramophone Editor's Choice
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Visages baroques
Raphaël Feuillâtre
Classical - Released March 31, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Booklet
Bach will always be Bach, and baroque music will always be baroque music, right? Well, not if you believe in the words of Raphaël Feuillâtre, rising star of classical music. "Baroque has so many faces," says the budding guitarist, born in Djibouti and raised in France. At just 26, he’s already a seasoned musician. He was propelled on to the international stage in 2018 when he won the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America competition in Louisville, and is now making his Deutsche Grammophon debut with Visages baroques. He’s currently the only guitarist signed to the prestigious classical music label. Like many other artists, Feuillâtre hasn’t hesitated to arrange and reinterpret great baroque works to tailor them to his instrument.Through the sounds of his guitar, Feuillâtre uses this carefully composed programme to demonstrate, as the name suggests, the different faces of baroque music. And he does it all on an instrument that the period’s repertoire wasn’t always tailored to. According to Feuillâtre, the guitar has always been somewhat neglected, which is not to downplay the great musical depth of the instrument. In collaboration with his teachers and friends, Feuillâtre has arranged selected pieces by Bach, Royer, Rameau, Forqueray and Duphly, and gives these baroque artists a new shine. The plucked variation of "Prelude in C major" from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is a gentle and clear introduction, closely followed by the great composer’s Partita and Concerto. We also find a refreshing harpsichord-esque interpretation of Duphly's La Médée. The stunning technical abilities of the young guitarist are beautifully highlighted in Rameau's Les Cyclopes. Baroque certainly has many faces! © Lena Germann/Qobuz
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Bach: Ouvertures for Orchestra
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Symphonic Music - Released November 8, 2019 | naïve classique
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Johann Sebastian Bach’s four Overtures (or Orchestral Suites) remain somewhat of a mystery as the exact date and circumstances of their composition is still unknown. Just like his Brandenburg Concertos, they are intended for a variable number of musicians and all four of them consist of a dance suite preceded by a three-part opening movement, in the middle of which is a brilliantly fast and skilful fugal section. The music in this double-disc album by Rinaldo Alessandrini is twice as exciting as it also explores the Overtures composed by two cousins of Johann Sebastian, namely Johann Bernhard (1676-1749) and Johann Ludwig (1677-1731). He held their music in such high esteem that he even played it during the Leipzig Collegia Musica’s concert in Gottfried Zimmermann’s café, where a weekly concert took place with either himself or Telemann conducting, although it was later destroyed during air-raids. Indeed, their music was remarkable and it certainly shouldn’t be overshadowed in light of the success of their younger cousin. When JS Bach composed these Overtures, it would seem that he was influenced by French music given that a didactic work entitled Musical Composition according to the French method was published in Germany in 1682 outlining an overture that precedes a series of dance suites. This particular style of composition would later become symbolic of the “alla francese” style that was soon adopted by musicians all across Europe. A most welcome album where music and didactics go hand-in-hand. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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...Les sons et les parfums - Debussy meets Chopin
Javier Perianes
Classical - Released November 4, 2013 | harmonia mundi
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Jacques Offenbach : La Vie parisienne (5 septembre 1954)
Jules Gresssier
Classical - Released April 15, 2014 | Ina, musique(s)
![Hervé Niquet André Cardinal Destouches : Callirhoe [Opera]](https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/25/61/8424562016125_100.jpg)
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André Cardinal Destouches : Callirhoe [Opera]
Hervé Niquet
Full Operas - Released January 1, 2006 | Glossa
André Cardinal Destouches (1672-1749) is virtually unknown today, but he was the preeminent composer of French opera in the half century between the end of Lully's career and the beginning of Rameau's. On the basis of this fine recording of Callirhoé, considered one of his most important operas, the neglect is difficult to understand. Its strength lies not so much in its originality -- it basically develops the conventions established by Lully -- but in the music's ability to illuminate the drama. Destouches was clearly a master of music for the theater; his scenes build with power and inexorability, and his dramatic confrontations, in particular, are vividly expressed. The conclusion of the second act, for example, depicting the priests of Bacchus going on a rampage, has a wildness and energy one usually associates not so much with the Baroque as with the heat of the Romantic era. The starkness of the opera's finale, which abruptly ends with a character's suicide, is brilliant theater, but entirely out of character with the conventions of the time, which would have required a tidy denouement, and most likely, the intervention of a deity. The first, 1712 version of Callirhoé, in fact, had just such an ending, but the composer revised the opera extensively for revivals in 1731 and 1743, and wisely rethought the finale, hugely increasing its effectiveness. Destouches' vocal writing is expressive and gratifyingly lyrical, and even his recitatives have emotional power. His orchestration is notably varied and colorful.
The recording is the result of the commitment and passion of Hervé Niquet, director of Le Concert Spirituel, which he leads in this outstanding performance. The orchestra and chorus perform with energy and finesse, and the climaxes are thrillingly urgent. The soloists, none of whom are international stars, sound like they ought to be, singing with unfailing purity, idiomatic security, and dramatic intensity. Glossa's exemplary sound is full, warm, and spacious, with excellent balance. Callirhoé should be of strong interest to any fan of Baroque opera, and a reminder of the wealth of strong repertoire that has yet to achieve broad exposure.
© TiVo
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Iphigénie en Tauride, Wq. 46
Boston Baroque
Classical - Released August 22, 2000 | Telarc
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Lully: Atys
Les Arts Florissants
Opera - Released February 28, 1987 | harmonia mundi
Booklet
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