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Mirages: The Art of French Song

Roderick Williams

Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released January 21, 2022 | Champs Hill Records

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This is one of the most delightful programmes by the baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Roger Vignoles. Wanting to go beyond presenting only the most famous French works, their new album begins with Gabriel Fauré’s Mirages, Op. 113, and continues with much lesser-known pieces by André Caplet and the often-overlooked Arthur Honegger.With so much excellent music from Caplet just waiting to be discovered, these two British musicians have exhumed the Cinq ballades françaises, which were composed in 1919 and based on poems by Paul Fort. André Caplet worked on these compositions as if they were paintings. He carefully created their landscapes, flourishing each with his own understanding of light and movement. His interpretation is impressively refined, perfectly French, and colourful and vibrant in its essence.Arthur Honegger’s Petits cours de morale is an affectionate tribute to his old friend Francis Poulenc, who wrote these five songs with the singer Pierre Bernac during the Occupation in 1942. The five pretty girls described by Jean Giraudoux in his Alexandrine verse mischievously interfere with two performers who are not really into women... however the highly structured villanelles that form Saluste du Bartas, which was recorded the same year by Noémie Perugia (voice) and Irène Aïtoff (piano), instead tell the tale of an ambassador to the court of Henri IV. Honegger seems to delight in these perfect miniatures sprinkled with bold modulations.This beautiful album also features Les Ténèbres de l’amour, a cycle written in French and composed in 1994 by Roderick Williams. It features Poulenc, Ravel and Debussy, and the wonderfully rich programme is rounded off with Beau Soir, his very first melody featuring that fearsomely high F sharp. His sophisticated interpretation can only be admired. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Ibert: Orchestral Works

Neeme Järvi

Symphonies - Released April 1, 2016 | Chandos

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Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released September 23, 2022 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica - Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik
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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L'art raffiné de l'ecchymose

Lucio Bukowski

Alternative & Indie - Released May 15, 2022 | L'Animalerie

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Ravel: Mélodies

Teresa Berganza

Classical - Released January 1, 1984 | Warner Classics

Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse

Stephan Van Dyck

Classical - Released December 17, 1996 | Naxos

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L'Ile Enchantée

Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra

Classical - Released July 20, 2004 | Alpha Classics

Even by the supremely high production standards of Alpha recordings, this issue is especially splendid. Entitled Versailles, L'ile enchantée, it fully lives up to its name. As directed by Skip Sempé, the widely varied program features music written for Louis XIV's pleasure palace, performed by the Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra with mezzo soprano Guillemette Laurens and bass violist Jay Bernfeld. Each work is superbly selected, and every performance is absolutely idiomatic and wonderfully alive. There is wit and tenderness and elegance and, yes, nobility to their performances, which taken together form as much a portrait of the Sun King as the palace of Versailles itself. As organized into eight Divertissements, Sempé's choices range from the grand Ouverture de Psyché by Lully to the intimate Mes Yeux by Campra, from the soulful Les Voix Humaines by Marais to the massive Passacaille in C by Louis Couperin. As captured in the evocative photographs by Jean-Baptiste Leroux and reproduced in Alpha's superlative program book, Versailles looks every bit as beautiful as this disc sounds. Anyone who loves Baroque music, particularly French Baroque music, will love this disc.© TiVo
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Utrique Fidelis - Vendée traditionnelle et baroque

Laurent Tixier

Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | EnPhases

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Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works

Krystian Zimerman

Classical - Released September 30, 2022 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - Choc de Classica
Recordings by Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman are a rare event, and eagerly awaited by his many fans. They surely won’t be disappointed with this new opus that brings together Szymanowski, Zimerman and legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein.Returning to his roots, Krystian Zimerman pays tribute to his compatriot Karol Szymanowski on the 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth. This selection of little-known works testifies to the importance of Szymanowski within the piano repertoire. A long twenty-eight years separate Zimerman's recording of Masques, Op. 34 (made in 1994 in Copenhagen) from the rest of the programme, which was recorded in 2022 in the exceptional acoustics of the Fukuyama Concert Hall near Hiroshima.Nevertheless, the considerable lapse of time between these recordings doesn’t detract from the album's coherence. This is thanks to Zimerman's fluid, clear and readable sound, which—as we know—leaves nothing to chance. This fascinating recording reveals various facets of Szymanowski's compositional genius and features both his mature and early works, all of which were influenced by the great Chopin.Composed during the First World War whilst staying at the family estate in Ukraine, the three parts of Masques evoke Debussy, Scriabin and Stravinsky. However, each movement is overlaid with the orientalist perspective so typical of the Polish composer. A few carefully chosen Préludes and Mazurkas stand alongside the splendid Variations on a Polish Folk Theme for piano, Op. 10, composed by a young Szymanowski still in the process of mastering his mother tongue. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Messiaen : L'œuvre pour orgue, Vol. 2

Louis Thiry

Classical - Released March 1, 1972 | La Dolce Volta

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - 4F de Télérama - Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros - Choc de Classica
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Piazzolla: Para el Ángel

Jeroen Van Veen

Classical - Released May 28, 2021 | Brilliant Classics

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Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works

Krystian Zimerman

Classical - Released September 30, 2022 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Recordings by Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman are a rare event, and eagerly awaited by his many fans. They surely won’t be disappointed with this new opus that brings together Szymanowski, Zimerman and legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein.Returning to his roots, Krystian Zimerman pays tribute to his compatriot Karol Szymanowski on the 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth. This selection of little-known works testifies to the importance of Szymanowski within the piano repertoire. A long twenty-eight years separate Zimerman's recording of Masques, Op. 34 (made in 1994 in Copenhagen) from the rest of the programme, which was recorded in 2022 in the exceptional acoustics of the Fukuyama Concert Hall near Hiroshima.Nevertheless, the considerable lapse of time between these recordings doesn’t detract from the album's coherence. This is thanks to Zimerman's fluid, clear and readable sound, which—as we know—leaves nothing to chance. This fascinating recording reveals various facets of Szymanowski's compositional genius and features both his mature and early works, all of which were influenced by the great Chopin.Composed during the First World War whilst staying at the family estate in Ukraine, the three parts of Masques evoke Debussy, Scriabin and Stravinsky. However, each movement is overlaid with the orientalist perspective so typical of the Polish composer. A few carefully chosen Préludes and Mazurkas stand alongside the splendid Variations on a Polish Folk Theme for piano, Op. 10, composed by a young Szymanowski still in the process of mastering his mother tongue. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Massenet: Don César de Bazan (1888 Version)

Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes

Opera - Released June 12, 2020 | Naxos

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Written in six weeks on a tatty little book and based on Victor Hugo’s Ruy Blas, Don César de Bazan is one of Jules Massenet’s first works. A comic-opera in the form of an espagnolade, a genre which was then highly fashionable and culminated three years later with Bizet’s Carmen. Don César is a youthful work not lacking in charm and a young Massenet adorns it with boléros, lullabies, love songs, drinking songs and choirs that highlight the comic aspect of an opera Saint-Saëns described as “light and elegant”.The instrumental parts and the orchestral section of the original version were burnt during the fire of the Opéra Comique in 1887. As a result, Massenet wrote a new version based on edited piano-vocal scores. Lighter and more stout in its orchestration, it debuted at Geneva’s Grand Théâtre under the direction of the composer in 1888, before some limited showings in Anvers, La Haye, Lyon, Nice, Brussels and Paris before disappearing from memory. The oeuvre was brought back in 2016 in several French towns thanks to the Frivolités Parisiennes initiative who recorded it in 2019 in an entirely revised layout in co-production with the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne.Laurent Naouri plays the part of Don César, the great Spaniard who becomes governor of Grenada after his many adventures and sweet romance with Maritana, an ex-busker appointed Countess of Bazan played beautifully by Elsa Dreising. Founded in 2012, the Frivolités Parisiennes company sets itself the task of bringing back, in addition to its entire repertoire, the type of orchestra seen at the Opéra Comique which disappeared in the 60s. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Bryn Terfel: The Verbier Recital

Bryn Terfel

Classical - Released May 27, 2022 | Verbier Festival Gold

Over the years, the Verbier Festival has earned a global reputation for bringin together the world’s biggest stars and promising young artists. Recently, the Swiss festival joined forces with Deutsche Grammophon and announced the launch of the Verbier Festival Gold label, which intends to publish the festivals vast archives at a rate of one publication per month. After Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and an album dedicated to pianist Yuja Wang, here we have Bryn Terfel’s recital which he performed in the Alps with pianist Llyr in 2011.In the nineteenth century, the beautiful Swiss mountains inspired the imaginations of numerous writers, painters and musicians. A regular at this festival, Bryn Terfel focused his recital programme on a small number of Schubert Lieder, including the sumptuous Liebesbotschaft (“Love message”), as well as Schumann’s great Liederkreis, Op. 39. It was fitting that he performed this with the Swiss Alps as a backdrop.The Welsh baritone had already recorded the vast Schumann cycle for DG with Malcom Martineau in 1999, and his vocals are equally breath-taking in this Verbier recording. His sensational diction and phrasing are coupled with beautiful expression. Something that really stands out on this recording is the increased power in his vocals, likely a result of the audience’s support and his recent involvement with Wagnerian operas that no doubt helped expand and strengthen his bass tone. Somewhat curiously, this high-level recital continued with Jacques Ibert’s Chansons de Don Quichotte and the Five Shakespeare Songs by British composer Roger Quilter. Bryn Terfel and his pianist generously provided numerous encore performances, appeasing the insatiable audience that kept asking for more. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Ravel: L'heure espagnole, M. 52 & Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, M. 84

Orchestre National De Lyon

Opera - Released February 5, 2016 | Naxos

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Leonard Slatkin is an exceptionally versatile conductor, but it is perhaps in French repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries that he feels most comfortable. The singers in Ravel's exquisitely formed little comic opera L'Heure espagnole, complete with cheating lovers hidden inside grandfather's clocks carried up and down stairs, are all entirely appropriate and admirably clear, but it is really Slatkin who's the star here, right from the "Introduction" that's so artfully linked to what follows. Ravel here cultivates a kind of updated accompanied recitative, well matched to his stated goal of reviving the old tradition of Italian opera buffa. The dialogue seems straightforward, but it is subtly and considerably heightened by the music in ways that may be clear to the listener only in retrospect. Sample the sly "Salut à la belle Horlogère!" (track eight) for a taste of how Slatkin holds the entire scene, orchestra and singing of mezzo-soprano Isabelle Druet, in the palm of his hand, and of the light sexiness in the opera embodied in the afternoon-delight-seeking Concepción. A bonus is the set of three Don Quichotte à Dulcinée songs, the last work Ravel completed. Highly recommended and absolutely delightful. © TiVo
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Don Quichotte chez la duchesse, op. 97 : Acte I, Scène 4 : Marche et choeur des pâtres (chœur)

Ensemble Caprice

Classical - Released January 5, 2024 | Les Disques ATMA Inc.

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Gérard Philipe raconte Don Quichotte de la Manche

Gérard Philipe

Children - Released November 3, 2017 | Le Chant du Monde

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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Céphale et Procris

Reinoud Van Mechelen

Classical - Released February 9, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Psyché

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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