Your basket is empty

Categories:
Results 1 to 20 out of a total of 26
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99

Poulenc: La voix humaine

Véronique Gens

Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica
Francis Poulenc's La Voix Humaine ("The Human Voice") is a one-woman opera, less than an hour long, about a woman on the phone with her boyfriend as they break up. Set to a text by Jean Cocteau, it puts the woman through strong mood swings. (Country music fans may wish to compare it to As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone, although there, the boyfriend is present to deliver the final blow.) Soprano Véronique Gens is best known for music from the 17th century up to Mozart, but it is easy to believe the claim in the publicity materials for this release that she had always wanted to record this work; its direct, conversational quality, interspersed with occasional freakouts, fits her manner beautifully. It might seem that those freakouts require a bit more intensity than Gens gives them here, but that is not really in the Cocteau spirit and certainly not in the Poulenc spirit. Gens receives sensitive support from the Orchestre National de Lille under Alexandre Bloch, who also ring down the curtain with a lithe performance of the joyous Sinfonietta. There are other strong performances of Poulenc's little opera, which ought to be much more frequently heard and would be ideal for university voice programs, but this one is instantly appealing and quite memorable, and it is no surprise that it made classical best-seller charts in early 2023. © James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$17.49
CD$13.99

Poulenc: La Voix humaine, Fiançailles pour rire

Julie Cherrier-Hoffmann

Opera - Released September 22, 2023 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet
Francis Poulenc's late opera La voix humaine (1958) seems ideally suited to the age of cellular telephony, and indeed, it is showing signs of revival with several new productions. This 2023 recording by soprano Julie Cherrier-Hoffmann and the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia should contribute to the trend. La voix humaine is an operatic monodrama, but of a modern kind; the single character is a woman, simply named Elle (She), talking on the phone, being dumped by her boyfriend, and hinting at suicide. The text was written by Jean Cocteau in 1930, when dropped phone calls were no doubt common, but it works perfectly in a contemporary setting; the phone conversation is interrupted by panicky "Allô allô" interjections. Poulenc's musical language for dealing with this text is remarkable, and it is not like that in any of his other compositions. The singer is unaccompanied when she is directly addressing her hearer, while the passages in which she narrates events are accompanied by the orchestra. This creates an uncanny impression of an actual phone conversation. Poulenc's harmonic language here is quite modern in comparison to his other works, not quite atonal but shorn of the popular tinge present in so much of his work. Cherrier-Hoffmann's performance is appropriately stressed out, and she is shown in the graphics with her hands splayed across a window as if trapped. Conductor Frédéric Chaslin emphasizes the orchestra's big, operatic sound, and this works; the engineering makes no attempt to disguise the opera house acoustic. Chaslin also contributes orchestrations of smaller Poulenc voice-and-piano works; these frame the opera and return the listener to the usual Poulenc world. This is an unusually satisfying Poulenc release and a fine performance of a work whose reputation is on the way up.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
CD$5.09

ROOM 96

Tayc

R&B - Released February 14, 2023 | Play Two

From
HI-RES$10.99
CD$9.09

Je me souviens... Le concert

Yves Jamait

French Music - Released January 13, 2017 | Wagram Music

Hi-Res
From
CD$9.09

Je me souviens

Yves Jamait

French Music - Released October 16, 2015 | Wagram Music

Booklet

Intime

Michel Sardou

French Music - Released September 22, 2023 | Universal Music Division Mercury Records

Download not available
From
CD$9.19

Souviens-moi

Romain Didier

French Music - Released September 24, 2021 | Epm

Mélancolie

De Palmas

French Music - Released December 1, 2023 | UME - Global Clearing House

Download not available
From
CD$7.49

Francis Poulenc: La voix humaine

Felicity Lott

Classical - Released June 12, 2012 | harmonia mundi

From
HI-RES$14.39
CD$10.79

Crimson King

Chasseur

Pop/Rock - Released October 23, 2020 | REPTILE

Hi-Res
From
CD$12.09

Je me souviens de tout

Juliette Gréco

French Music - Released January 1, 2009 | Universal Music Division Decca Records France

Booklet

Je me souviens de tout (feat. Annalisa)

Sara'h

French Music - Released April 20, 2018 | Warner (France)

Download not available
From
CD$0.95

Je me souviens de tout

Kévin Bloquet

Alternative & Indie - Released May 10, 2023 | 2144789 Records DK

From
HI-RES$10.99
CD$9.49

Crèvecœur (2019 remastered)

Daniel Darc

French Music - Released March 8, 2004 | Water Music

Hi-Res
From
HI-RES$18.09
CD$15.69

Metamorphoses

Jean Michel Jarre

Techno - Released February 1, 2000 | Sony Music Catalog

Hi-Res
The title gave us fair warning, but the world wasn't ready. In the year 2000, three years after he gave us a follow-up to his masterpiece Oxygène, Jean-Michel Jarre, now basking in the glory of a gigantic concert in Moscow's Red Square, brought out Métamorphose, which stunned fans because it contained vocals! The record opens with a collaboration with American singer Laurie Anderson, Je me souviens, over an Eighties electro instrumental, before Natacha Atlas comes in for the next piece. On C’est la vie, the diva of Transglobal Underground does what she does best, with her Near-Eastern vocal sallies, which producer Joachim Garraud, matches with percussion from the same climes, and trancey beats and keyboards with a slightly kitsch effect. Next up, Rendez-vous à Paris, in the hypnotic voice of Jarre himself, filtered through a vocoder against a glitchy, aquatic background, and accompanied by the Irish violinist Sharon Corr of the Corrs; Bells, one of the only completely instrumental tracks, while Tout est bleu and its techno beat marks a little departure from good taste. Despite a fine cast list, the record, which would not win the expected commercial success, was simply not understood by Jean-Michel Jarre's hardcore fans. Twenty years on, perhaps they'll give it another chance. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz 

Accidentally Yours

Lady Sir

French Music - Released January 20, 2017 | Universal Music Division Barclay

Booklet
Download not available
From
CD$0.89

Tout ce dont je me souviens

Elsa Kopf

Folk/Americana - Released April 27, 2023 | Elsa Kopf

TRAP$TAR 3

Leto

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released October 20, 2023 | Rec.118 - Winterfell

Download not available
From
CD$22.59

Paradisiaque

MC Solaar

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released December 3, 2021 | Universal Music Distribution Deal

From
CD$15.69

Mireille Mathieu Ennio Morricone

Mireille Mathieu

French Music - Released April 29, 2016 | Sony Music Catalog

Booklet