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Un jardin à l'italienne (Aria, Cantatas & Madrigals)

William Christie

Classical - Released September 8, 2017 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4 étoiles Classica
The six young singers of the Academy of Le Jardin des Voix, selected from several hundred candidates, offer us a musical journey through some of the finest pieces in the Italian repertory, from a Banchieri madrigal to Haydn’s Orlando paladino. Thanks to an outstanding training programme and the musical values transmitted by William Christie and Paul Agnew, here is a chance to discover both some splendid vocal gems and a group of new performers who honour them with talent, grace and humour. Sheer delight! © harmonia mundi

À la belle de mai

Renaud

French Music - Released November 18, 1994 | Parlophone (France)

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20 printemps

Le Vent du Nord

World - Released January 28, 2022 | La Compagnie Du Nord

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L'Equilibre Instable

Stanislas

Pop - Released January 1, 2007 | Universal Music Division Label Panthéon

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Barbara Hendricks chante Walt Disney

Barbara Hendricks

Classical - Released November 1, 1996 | Warner Classics

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Chansons de poètes

Catherine Sauvage

French Music - Released June 28, 2019 | EPM Musique

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La belle de mai

Koulchibatell

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released July 29, 2022 | TOUS-ILLICITES DIGITAL

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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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Après un rêve (Belle Époque: Nights at the Piano)

Emmanuel Despax

Classical - Released June 16, 2023 | Signum Records

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It is hard to figure out what pianist Emmanuel Despax had in mind for the concept of this album. Its various titles offer three ideas: Après un rêve comes from the title of a Fauré song Despax transcribes for his program opener, plus there is "Belle Époque: Nights at the Piano." None of these is of much use; few pieces other than the Fauré are particularly dreamy, and the largest piece, Poulenc's Soirées de Nazelles, is from the nervous 1930s and nowhere near the Belle Époque in time or mood. As for "Nights at the Piano," that fits the Poulenc nicely but not the concluding Gaspard de la Nuit of Ravel, which is an imposing virtuoso concert work carrying none of the connotations of "Nights at the Piano." Really, Despax excels in none of these three ways but rather in a fourth: he hits on an intriguing mix of familiar standards and unusual works. Among the latter group are the Soirées de Nazelles, which Poulenc disclaimed and, perhaps for that reason, have been seldom heard. They are delightful pieces that bear titles describing qualities, like the numbers of a Baroque French suite, but actually seem to have been devised by Poulenc to describe members of a group of his friends, like Elgar's Enigma Variations. The result is a work that distills the hint of improvisation that pervades some of Poulenc's keyboard music and songs, and Despax gives it the right lively, spontaneous feel. The Nocturne, Op. 165, of Cécile Chaminade and the keyboard version of Henri Duparc's Aux étoiles are also nice finds. As for the more heavily trodden works, Debussy's Clair de lune is pleasantly moody, although no one would select this album for the rote Gaspard de la Nuit or the rather un-macabre Danse Macabre, Op. 40, of Saint-Saëns. For Poulenc lovers, however, this is an important find. © James Manheim /TiVo
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Passage secret

Arthur Ancelle

Classical - Released February 9, 2024 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica

Live au Cirque d'Hiver

Christophe Maé

French Music - Released March 18, 2022 | Parlophone (France)

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Duni: Le peintre amoureux de son modèle - Les deux chasseurs et la laitière

Orkester Nord

Opera - Released October 6, 2023 | Aparté

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The composer Egidio Duni is all but unknown nowadays, but he worked amidst several important currents of 18th century musical life. A Neapolitan who wrote Italian operas, he was backed by a noble patron who apparently gave him the means to move to Paris. Duni composed French operas of various types, and Denis Diderot cited him as a counterexample to Rousseau's contention that the French language was unsuited to opera. Duni would be worth hearing for his influence alone; the two short comic works recorded here were important early examples of opéra-comique, but they are also charming in their own right. In Paris, they were known not as operas but as "comédies melées d'ariettes," or comedies mixed with ariettas. Much of the dialogue is spoken, and some of that is unaccompanied, while other pieces have a light continuo-like backing. (This aspect of the notation has not survived, but the decisions made by the performers here are unobjectionable.) The texts hold up even today as pretty funny. Le peintre amoureux de son modèle ("The Painter in Love with His Model," she chooses someone her own age at the end) and Les deux chasseurs et la laitière ("The Two Hunters and the Milkmaid") have crackling sitcom dialogue. Physical album buyers will get a booklet with complete texts. The singers are not spectacular (four in one opera, three in the other), but then, they shouldn't be; what is important is that they put the text across, don't overact, and engage with the comedy. The small Orkester Nord is the right size at 23 players, and conductor Martin Wåhlberg keeps things moving along. This is a delightful release of much more than historical interest. If scores are available, collegiate groups could easily mount productions of these works.© James Manheim /TiVo

Main Blue

Marion Rampal

Jazz - Released December 9, 2016 | Les Rivières Souterraines

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Semiramis

Les Ombres

Classical - Released June 25, 2021 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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LA VIE DE TYLER

Hatik

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released March 22, 2024 | Cell Records

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Bohemian Rap Story

Dooz Kawa

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released May 20, 2016 | L.L. Narcozic Society

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Godzilla 3000

Les Vulves Assassines

Hip-Hop/Rap - Released October 25, 2019 | Atypeek Music

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C'est le Père Noël

Henri Dès

Children - Released January 1, 2001 | PRODUCTIONS MARY JOSEE

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Mes adieux provisoires

Pierre Perret

Pop - Released February 26, 2021 | Irfan, le label

Hi-Res Booklet