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Cœur parapluie

Hoshi

French Music - Released September 1, 2023 | Jo&Co

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Jouissons de nos beaux ans !

Cyrille Dubois

Classical - Released September 15, 2023 | Aparté

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Those searching for singer Cyrille Dubois online will find him called variously a tenor or a countertenor. One can understand the confusion. He is actually what the French Baroque called a haut-contre, a tenor with an extended high range sung in a light falsetto-like voice. It is not a true falsetto, and really, it has to be heard to be appreciated. It is something like the Italian tenore di grazia of the early 19th century. That, in itself, is reason enough to hear this album, but wait, as the old TV pitchmen yelled, "there's more!" Dubois' program includes a good deal of Rameau, including the exuberant title track, composed when Rameau was 80, but there are also pieces by his contemporaries, mostly in a pastoral vein. Rameau was such an imposing figure that he dominated the scene, but the other composers here, like François Lupien Grenet and Bernard de Bury, are all but unknown, and many of the pieces are world premieres. They offer valuable insights into the stock characters and common ideas in the Parisian 18th century operatic scene, and they are full of opportunities for Dubois to display the striking range of colors in his voice. He is backed by the Orfeo Orchestra and Purcell Choir under the direction of György Vashegyi, who also get a group of obscure but highly listenable instrumental pieces. With fine sound from Hungary's Kodály Centre, this is a must for lovers of the French Baroque and of male voice types in general. © James Manheim /TiVo

Comment te dire adieu

Françoise Hardy

French Music - Released September 23, 2016 | Parlophone (France)

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This may not rate as highly as her best mid-'60s recordings, which are less MOR-oriented. That stated, it's about as good as late-'60s MOR Continental pop gets, with tastefully imaginative orchestration, strong melodies, and sexy vocals. It's perhaps even sadder and more sentimental than was the norm for Francoise--she perpetually seems to be singing as though she's gazing out of a deserted chateau on a rainy afternoon. She largely forsakes original material here (although a couple cuts bear her writing credit), and offers fine, haunting French interpretations of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," and Phil Ochs' "There But for Fortune," and Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town."© Richie Unterberger /TiVo
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Écho & Narcisse

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released August 25, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Coeur Encore

Clara Luciani

French Music - Released November 25, 2022 | Universal Music Division Romance Musique

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Dutronc & Dutronc

Thomas Dutronc

French Music - Released November 4, 2022 | Universal Music Division Label Panthéon

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Françoise Hardy (Tous les garçons et les filles)

Françoise Hardy

French Music - Released October 28, 2022 | Vogue

Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography

Ici & là, en concert au Dôme de Paris (Live, 2022)

Alain Souchon

French Music - Released November 11, 2022 | Parlophone (France)

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Innamoramento

Mylène Farmer

French Music - Released April 7, 1999 | Stuffed Monkey

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Avant que l'ombre...

Mylène Farmer

French Music - Released April 4, 2005 | Stuffed Monkey

Released six years after Innamoramento, Avant Que l'Ombre... is the eagerly awaited sixth studio album from Canadian-born French singer/songwriter Mylène Farmer. Adding a darker electronica edge to her trademark Euro-dance sound, the Laurent Boutonnat-produced LP tackles the subjects of sex, death, and religion in her own unique style, and includes the singles "Redonne-Moi," "L'Amour N'Est Rien," and "Peut-Etre Toi," alongside the controversial "Fuck Them All" and tributes to Serge Gainsbourg and Virginia Woolf.© Jon O'Brien /TiVo
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Lully: Acis et Galatée

Les Talens Lyriques

Opera - Released October 14, 2022 | Aparté

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Composed on 1686 as part of the festivities organised by the Duc de Vendôme in honour of the Grand Dauphin, during the latter’s visit to his estate at the Château d’Anet in September of that year, Acis et Galatée is Lully’s last complete opera. His faithful librettist Quinault having retired from writing for the stage, he collaborated this time with the poet Campistron on a work that tells the story of the love between the sea-nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis – a love threatened by the violence of the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. This opera, an undoubted dramatic success, gives the orchestra an important part, expressively evoking, for example, the giant’s cries of anger, the terror of the chorus, and the lovers’ hasty flight in Act III. It includes some magnificent pieces, including the final Passacaille, as well as inventive treasures, such as duet for hautes-contre (high tenors) “Ah! je succombe au tourment qui m'accable”, or the burlesque march that accompanies the entry of Polyphemus and his fellow cyclopes, conveying their uncouthness. But the loveliest pieces in the score are for Galatea: “Enfin, j’ai dissipé la crainte”, for instance, or “Que ne puis-je expirer après ce coup funeste?”. Lully died in March 1687, a few months after the première, leaving Achille et Polyxène unfinished. © Aparté
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Dis-moi Vénus…

Marie Perbost

Classical - Released September 22, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Vivre

Grégoire

French Music - Released January 26, 2024 | Play Two

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Sanson comme ils l'imaginent... (Live aux Francofolies 1994)

Véronique Sanson

French Music - Released December 18, 2020 | Warner (France)

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Bizet: Carmen, WD 31

Adriana Maliponte

Classical - Released April 1, 1973 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Marie

Marie Laforêt

French Music - Released March 19, 2020 | Universal Music Division Label Panthéon

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Sans attendre

Céline Dion

French Music - Released November 2, 2012 | Columbia

Hi-Res Distinctions The Qobuz Ideal Discography
For her first album in five years, Céline Dion returns to her native French, cutting a moody collection called Sans Attendre. Perhaps it is the relatively diminished commercial expectations of a French-only album but there's an appealing small-scale aspect to Sans Attendre; certainly it is melodramatic but it is not garishly bombastic. The production is relatively restrained and, in turn, it gives plenty of space for Dion to grandstand on these tales of heartbreak, aging, and death. These aren't songs of love; they're songs of loss, and while there is certainly an affectation to Dion's performance, there's also genuine pathos and the small scale of Sans Attendre makes for one of her better albums of recent memory.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

On ne change pas (Deluxe Version)

Céline Dion

French Music - Released September 30, 2005 | Epic

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No doubt a companion piece to 1999's All the Way: A Decade of Song, On Ne Change Pas is a two-disc compendium of the other, mildly overlooked phase of Celine Dion's career: her performances sung entirely in her native tongue of Québecois French. While she soared up charts all over the globe with her hits sung in English, she also amassed quite a back catalog of hits ranging from dance-pop-friendly numbers to her familiar ground of passionate, melodramatic ballads. For those unfamiliar with this portion of her career (or for those who don't speak French), getting past the roadblock of not being able to understand the subject material will lead to a greater, more holistic appreciation of the depth and prolific output of her career in such a short span. At two discs, it's also a bit much Dion for anyone to swallow in one sitting, but on the plus side there are also a few new tracks, including her duet with Il Divo, "I Believe in You."© Rob Theakston /TiVo
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Jane & Serge 1973

Jane Birkin

French Music - Released January 1, 2014 | Universal Music Division Barclay

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Poulenc: La Voix humaine, Fiançailles pour rire

Julie Cherrier-Hoffmann

Opera - Released September 22, 2023 | Aparté

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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