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Stravinsky Ballets

Sir Simon Rattle

Classical - Released March 25, 2022 | LSO Live

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Denied early in his career by Philharmonia Orchestra's management, Sir Simon Rattle realized his dream of programming a concert of these three early Stravinsky ballets in a 2017 festival that launched his time as the music director of the venerable London Symphony Orchestra. It is indeed an interesting concept as the audience is given a chance to hear the harmonic and stylistic changes of Stravinsky's writing in these ballets, which were, incredibly, written within five years. All three of these works were premiered at Paris' Ballets Russes. The Firebird, which premiered in 1910, launched a productive relationship between Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev, the company's founder. The music of The Firebird stole the show, prompting the composer to craft his own suites from the score, and it remains among his most popular and enduring works. After the success of The Firebird, Stravinsky began to compose The Rite of Spring, but he set it aside to work on a konzertstück for piano and orchestra with the images of a puppet come to life in mind. This imagery put the story of Petrushka in the eye of Diaghilev. Petrushka is set at an 1830s Shrovetide Fair and follows the exploits of a puppeteer who brings three puppets (Petrushka, the Moor, and the Ballerina) to life with his flute. Stravinsky uses folk songs cleverly throughout and departs from the more Rimsky-Korsakov-influenced writing of The Firebird, including the use of bitonality, which he took even further in The Rite of Spring. The Rite depicts a paganistic sacrifice to usher in spring, and its use of pulsating rhythms and brash harmonies famously created an uproar at its debut (the level of which is still debated). Rattle and the London Symphony perform Stravinsky's later revised versions of Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, and all three powerful and highly emotional works are well executed. © TiVo
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Lully: Armide

Les Talens Lyriques

Classical - Released March 24, 2017 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Gramophone Editor's Choice
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Nimrod Borenstein: Concerto for Piano & Orchestra, Op. 91, Light and Darkness, Op. 80 & Shirim, Op. 94

Clelia Iruzun

Classical - Released January 20, 2023 | SOMM Recordings

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Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works by Manuel Rosenthal

Manuel Rosenthal

Classical - Released December 31, 2021 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Jean-Baptiste Lully : Amadis (Édition 5.1)

Christophe Rousset

Opera - Released September 22, 2014 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Diamant d'Opéra - Choc de Classica

Ravel: Piano Works

Martha Argerich

Classical - Released February 7, 2023 | UME - Global Clearing House

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N'espérez plus mes yeux... Airs sérieux et à boire, Vol. 3

William Christie

Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released April 30, 2021 | harmonia mundi

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With this third volume of "Airs sérieux et à boire", the ensemble Les Arts Florissants return to this genre whose refinement had marked the French musical landscape for over a hundred years. By turns gallant, earthy, or spiritual, these vocal miniatures, prized at the French court, ushered in a ground-breaking style which opened the door to an endless variety of interpretations. "One can hardly find enough praise for the individuality of these inspired performers, for their skill to make the music animate the words ( . . . ) as they display a joyful unity of purpose. A unique event!" (Opéra Magazine). © harmonia mundi
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Les Grands Choeurs d'Opéras, Vol. 1

L'Orchestre National du Bolchoï

Opera - Released August 7, 2002 | Via Classic

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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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French Duets - Fauré: Dolly Suite; Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc etc.

Steven Osborne

Classical - Released March 5, 2021 | Hyperion

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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Céphale et Procris

Reinoud Van Mechelen

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

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Ravel: Ma Mère l'Oye, Tombeau de Couperin, Shéhérazade

Les Siècles

Symphonic Music - Released April 13, 2018 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - 5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
Recording Ravel's music on period instruments is the kind of thing that might raise a smile... until you realise just how much the production of instruments has changed in less than a hundred years: it's the return of catgut strings, skin drum heads, the French basson (and not the German system bassoon which is used across all the world's orchestras today), shaper tips, trumpets and trombones of French manufacture. At the head of his orchestra Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth gives a new, orthodox, historically-informed version of Ma Mère l’oye (complete ballet), the Tombeau de Couperin and Shéhérazade, the long-neglected "ouverture de féérie" [Fairy Overture] which is pure Ravel. This return to the roots is clearly easier and more straightforwardly authentic for this period of music history, because, unlike earlier works, we possess recordings which date back to the 1920s, and even earlier, which can tell us about the style, the colours, the phrasing and the tempo. But it isn't enough just to have all this historical information to hand to make something interesting. What makes this record thrilling is that all the musicians in the Siècles are excellent, and François-Xavier Roth is a talented artist himself, who knows this music inside out. At which point, his complete recording of Stravinsky's Firebird has already struck us with its quality. This rediscovery of Ravel resounds with clarity and finesse; it is a feast of well-defined timbres which cuts against the "beautiful sound" which prevails in orchestras around the world today. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Rita Strohl: Musique vocale

Elsa Dreisig

Mélodies - Released October 27, 2023 | La Boîte à Pépites

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Choc de Classica
The rediscovery of music by female composers came a bit later to France than it did to Britain or the U.S., but the new label La Boîte à Pépites is changing that with a series of generous releases illustrated by nifty drawings of the composers. The label does a real service here with this double-album revival of vocal music by Rita Strohl (songs, plus a fascinating set for narrator and piano), who lived from 1865 to 1941. It is hard to understand the neglect of her music, which was praised by Henri Duparc and programmed by Pablo Casals in its own time. In these songs, it is a bit hard to hear the "compositrice de la démesure" ("composer of excess") promised by the album's subtitle; perhaps that is still to come in the label's series, but Strohl did expand upon her models -- Franck, with some Wagner and Debussy -- in striking ways. Perhaps the best-known Strohl work so far is the uniquely dramatic and programmatic cello sonata called Titus et Bérenice, presumably still to come from La Boîte à Pépites. However, the songs here are hefty in their ambition and reach, sounding in no way derivative of anybody else. Strohl offers her own set of Pierre Louÿs' lesbian Songs of Bilitis that could easily be programmed with Debussy's set of three. The second disc in the set is devoted mostly to settings of Baudelaire and other poets; the two cycles, written in 1891 and 1894, would have been received as entirely contemporary in their time. Most interesting of all is the set of narrations, titled Quand la flûte de Pan; they have Symbolist texts by the little-known Marie de Courpon, who was also a composer, and the relationship between text and music is fluid. The performances are by major artists, including the soprano Elsa Dreisig and baritone Stéphane Degout, which bodes well for the future of a series that has started promisingly indeed.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Gloire Immortelle !

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Dupont : Complete Symphonic Works

Patrick Davin

Symphonic Music - Released March 8, 2019 | Fuga Libera

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Jean-Baptiste Lully : Amadis

Christophe Rousset

Opera - Released September 22, 2014 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Diamant d'Opéra - Choc de Classica - 5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
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Impressions d'enfance

Sarah Nemtanu

Classical - Released March 3, 2023 | Alpha Classics

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Dupont: La maison dans les dunes - Debussy: Images

Severin von Eckardstein

Classical - Released September 28, 2018 | ARTALINNA

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - 4F de Télérama - Choc de Classica
Considered as one of the most inspired pianists of his generation, Severin von Eckardstein explores three major cycles of French music from the 1900s, associating Claude Debussy’s two revolutionary books Images (1904-1907) and Gabriel Dupont’s La Maison dans les dunes (1907-1909) as part of this debut album under the Artalinna label: this suite of 10 pieces with memorable atmospheres filled with luminous colours and heady melodies will stand out for many as a musical revelation! © Artalinna
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Ravel: Complete Instrumental Chamber Works

Ensemble Sésame

Chamber Music - Released November 4, 2022 | NoMadMusic

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica
Ravel is as fascinating as mysterious: as an absolute music genius and an idealist, he draws his inspiration from his origins and mixes his original accents with the dreamy and the exotic like an alchemist. By exploring all of his compositions for instrumental chamber music, this album by Ensemble Sésame aims to reflect his endless orchestral colors, nuancing sometimes lively and rhythmic flavours and sometimes sweet and spicy. © NoMadMusic
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Chaminade: Piano Music

Mark Viner

Classical - Released October 26, 2018 | Piano Classics

Booklet Distinctions Gramophone Editor's Choice