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Aria

Luka Faulisi

Classical - Released March 3, 2023 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Il Se Fait Tard!...Adieu! FAUST

Gaston Rivero

Classical - Released March 17, 2024 | Classica & Opera

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Stravinsky: Histoire du soldat (version française), Élégie, Duo concertant

Isabelle Faust

Classical - Released August 27, 2021 | harmonia mundi

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Bizet: Carmen, WD 31 (Live)

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Opera - Released October 12, 2018 | Orfeo

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Destouches & Delalande: Les Éléments, S.153

Ensemble Les Surprises

Classical - Released April 29, 2016 | Ambronay Éditions

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Françoise Hardy (L'amitié)

Françoise Hardy

French Music - Released June 30, 1965 | Vogue

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Cadmus & Hermione

Vincent Dumestre

Classical - Released May 1, 2021 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Jean-Baptiste Lully's Cadmus & Hermione of 1673 was arguably the first true French opera, telling a tragic story (Lully and his librettist Philippe Quinault called it a tragédie en lyrique), employing Italian-style recitatives, and collecting the varied music and dance forms of Louis XIV's opulent court into a coherent narrative that at once celebrated Louis (he is conflated with Cadmus of Thebes) and moved beyond the ceremonial nature of earlier French dramatic music. It's a sprawling work, with five acts, an overture, and a sizable Prologue with its own overture; highlights include a dragon that eats Africans, a monster snake, and a full complement of Greek gods and goddesses. Realization of the work has, until now, been beyond the means of early music performance groups, and this is the world premiere recording of the opera, made in 2019 and based on a 2008 performance at Versailles Palace by some of the same performers. The leader is Vincent Dumestre, conducting the Le Poème Harmonique orchestra and the vocal ensembles Aedes. The forces are large enough to capture the splendor of the music (thankfully, no one-voice-per-part techniques here), and Dumestre is alert to the huge variety of musical devices Lully brings to bear on his story; there are dances, big choruses, bagpipes, and much more. Cadmus & Hermione may be a difficult work to bring to life for modern audiences, but Dumestre keeps things moving along and probably comes as close as anyone could. Of course, anyone interested in the life of the French court in the 17th century will find this an essential acquisition that will keep giving and giving. © TiVo
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Bizet: Carmen by André Cluytens

André Cluytens

Opera - Released August 25, 2022 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Rameau: Castor & Pollux (Choruses & Dances)

Les Arts Florissants

Classical - Released March 8, 1993 | harmonia mundi

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Les Arts Florissants: Music & Theater

Les Arts Florissants

Classical - Released April 5, 2019 | harmonia mundi

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Francis Poulenc : Dialogues des Carmélites

Jean-Pierre Marty

Classical - Released November 1, 1999 | INA Mémoire vive

Booklet Distinctions Choc du Monde de la Musique - 4F de Télérama
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Muses éternelles

Cyrielle Ndjiki Nya

Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released February 18, 2022 | Mirare

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This release by soprano Cyrielle Ndjiki appears on the Mirare label's new Futur imprint, featuring up-and-coming artists. Ndjiki, also known as Cyrielle Ndjiki Nya, is a native of Creil in northern France and a recent Conservatoire de Paris graduate. Perhaps the imprint is intended to make room for developing talents, and Ndjiki is certainly one. Her middle register is indistinct, and she has ground to cover as an interpreter; the Wesendonck Lieder of Wagner and Ravel's Chansons madécasses might as well have similar topics in her readings. However, one part of a future star's makeup is already in place: Ndjiki's top register has power and a startling edge. Consider Aoua, from the Chansons madécasses, with its small chamber ensemble accompaniment. The angry opening cries of this song ("Beware of white people!") have rarely had such penetrating intensity. That cycle forms the centerpiece of the album, and in general, Ndjiki gets its Schoenbergian, expressionist quality. The program is only lightly unified by the Muses éternelles title; this is basically a debut recital of common French, German, and Russian songs. The only slightly unusual item is Jake Heggie's "Animal Passion," which has a bit of a French accent but plenty of flair. Ndjiki has a fine developing rapport with accompanist Kaoli Ono, and overall, the album makes one want to hear more from this artist. © TiVo
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Händel, Marais, Destouches : Sémélé

Les Ombres

Classical - Released January 26, 2015 | Mirare

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Jacques Offenbach : La Vie parisienne (5 septembre 1954)

Jules Gresssier

Classical - Released April 15, 2014 | Ina, musique(s)

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Scarlatti : O penosa lontananza - Cantate da Camera

Nicolas Achten

Cantatas (secular) - Released November 2, 2018 | Ricercar

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Given that he wrote about 115 operas (of which at least 70 have survived to this day), 800 cantatas of all kinds, shedloads of symphonies and serenades, and dozens of the most varied kinds of liturgical works, Alessandro Scarlatti remains under-played today. The album concentrates on a few of these innumerable cantatas which are almost all preserved in their original manuscript form and quite a few of which belong to the Arcadian genre. This is to say that they deal with the bucolic mythology of nymphs and shepherds from Arcadia (in the Peloponnese in Greece) developed during the Renaissance. Love, betrayal and reunions are all displayed here, some in solo cantatas – soprano or baritone – and other cantatas in dialogue for two voices. Some have nothing but a continuo for an accompaniment, others have two violins with continuo. Everything seems to indicate that at the time of writing these pieces were meant to entertain nobles in their palaces, especially during the many periods of the year when the Church forbade public performances. Without a doubt these pieces were played once or twice and then forgotten... And here they are, rescued from oblivion by the soprano Deborah Cachet and the baritone Nicolas Achten, who, as well as singing, conducts his ensemble Scherzi Musicali and plays the theorbo, the triple harp and the organ. © SM/Qobuz
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Haendel, Marais & Destouches: Semele

Les Ombres

Classical - Released January 26, 2015 | Mirare

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Locatelli: il virtuoso, il poeta (Violin Concertos & Concerti Grossi)

Isabelle Faust

Concertos - Released August 25, 2023 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
Not only is Isabelle Faust one of the greatest violinists of our age (and perhaps all ages), but she  is also blessed with a powerful curiosity, seemingly always on the lookout for composers and  repertoire off the beaten track, as a glance at her discography will show. This collection of compositions by the eccentric genius Pietro Antonio Locatelli, is a splendid illustration of Faust's adventuresome repertoire. Locatelli's violin works run the gamut, from  staggering virtuosity, exemplified here by his Concerto for Violin in A, Op. 3, No. 11, where the  composer stretches the capabilities of both violin and violinist, to the achingly  beautiful and tender Concerto Grosso in E-Flat, Il pianto d'Arianna, Op. 7, No. 6. Faust is easily up to all the challenges posed: the jaw-dropping difficulties of the Concerto in A—including  finger-busting double stops and high notes (16th position!) played just a fraction of an inch  from the bridge—as well as the gorgeous lyricism of Il pianto d'Arianna. Also on this release are other works by Locatelli that are all striking in their originality and played with equal aplomb by  Faust and sensitively accompanied by Giovanni Antonini and his forces. © Anthony Fountain/Qobuz
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à 2 à 3

Vianney

French Music - Released November 10, 2023 | tôt Ou tard

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Ravel: L'Heure espagnole - Bolero

François-Xavier Roth

Opera - Released June 16, 2023 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica
The main attraction of the orchestra Les Siècles and its conductor François-Xavier Roth is its use of period instruments from around 1900, the time period in which the group specializes. One could hardly ask for a better demonstration record (as audiophiles used to call them) than this take on Maurice Ravel's L'Heure espagnole, an edgy, rather tawdry but undeniably funny little opera about the extramarital escapades of a clockmaker's wife, complete with excellent satirical characterizations of her two lovers. The opera receives a pitch-perfect performance here from a quintet of younger singers, who deliver the kind of dry, close-to-spoken singing Ravel wanted. Even better, though, is the orchestral sound, where the opera's large contingent of winds, brass, and percussion displays the sound of Les Siècles at its most vivid. The score calls for trios of oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, and these all have a tangier sound than modern instruments provide. The program ends with Boléro, and this, too, stands out from among the hundreds or thousands of other recordings on the market. Ravel had very fixed ideas about how he wanted the work to sound, and he wrangled with Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the premiere in New York, about it: it should be played absolutely straight, with no variation in tempo and little expression. Notwithstanding the connotations that became attached to the work later on, he viewed it as an abstract work, and that is exactly what it becomes in Roth's bracing reading. Listeners who have been wanting to sample Roth's work with this orchestra are enthusiastically encouraged to try this release, which made classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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L'Heure bleue (Boulanger, Debussy, Finzi, Poulenc, Ravel, Waksman)

Quatuor Zahir

Classical - Released March 29, 2024 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Qobuzissime
Without any hesitation, we had to award a Qobuzissime to L'Heure bleue, the second album by Quatuor Zahir.  Because in the classical world, the saxophone quartet is still too rare a format on both record and on stage.  Because the impressionist works of Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, and Boulanger dazzle us, as do the creations of Fabien Waksman and Graciane Finzi. Because of the refinement and sophistication of these arrangements. Because of the impeccable sound recording—always a highlight of the Aparté label.  Because of the beauty of the title, "L'Heure Bleue," which sums up the driving idea behind this powerful record. “This ephemeral moment at the crossroads of day and night—such could be the dream setting for this new opus. An invitation to a dreamlike journey," explain the members of the quartet—Guillaume Berceau, Etienne Boussard, Florent Louman, and Joakim Cielsa. Five years after their debut, the quartet took the time to construct this recital piece by piece, with the patience of goldsmiths or those who have a taste for beauty and precision of gesture. Like a landscape with changing colors and moods—from the lively (Debussy's "Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin") and languorous (Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante défunte"), to the playfulness of the last of Boulanger's Trois Pièces—in L'Heure bleue we find the gentle reminiscence of a forgotten or fantasized era. Whether the works interpreted here are in their original form or arranged, it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between the two categories, as each track is so immediately appealing. The Zahirs interweave their sublime timbres with consummate artistry, with all the interpretations becoming essentials. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz