Your basket is empty

Categories:
Narrow my search:

Results 1 to 20 out of a total of 5338
From
HI-RES$24.70
CD$19.76

Psyché

Christophe Rousset

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

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$24.70
CD$19.76

Écho & Narcisse

Hervé Niquet

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

Hi-Res Booklet
From
CD$9.88

Le lac des cygnes

Natalie Dessay

Stories and Nursery Rhymes - Released October 18, 2017 | Didier Jeunesse

Booklet
From
CD$5.99

Rameau: Castor & Pollux (Choruses & Dances)

Les Arts Florissants

Classical - Released March 8, 1993 | harmonia mundi

From
HI-RES$24.71
CD$19.77

Lully: Acis et Galatée, LWV 73

Jean-François Lombard

Opera - Released October 13, 2023 | Naxos

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$24.70
CD$19.76

Atys

Christophe Rousset

Opera - Released January 5, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

Hi-Res Booklet
Backed by the Sun King despite a lukewarm audience reception at first, Lully's Atys (1676) went on to become one of the composer's most successful operas, with revivals at French court theaters as late as 1753. In modern times, however, it is a considerably rarer item due to the massive forces and time required. Christophe Rousset was in the pit as harpsichordist when conductor William Christie gave the first modern revival of the work in the late '80s. That experience marks this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller lists at the beginning of that year. That is not common for a hefty five-act Baroque opera, but even a bit of sampling will confirm why it happened: Rousset, from the keyboard, brings tremendous energy to the opera. He pushes the tempo in the numerous dances and entrance numbers, and the musicians of Les Talens Lyriques and the singers of the Choeur du Chambre de Namur, all of whom have worked closely with Rousset in the past, keep right up. The singers in the solo roles are all fine; haut-contre Reinoud Van Mechelen in the title role and Ambroisine Bré as the goddess Cybèle, who sets the tragic plot in motion, are standouts. The sound from the increasingly engineering-expert Château de Versailles label is exceptionally clear in complex textures, and the sensuous cover art (representing, it is true, not the Roman mythological figure of Atys but Hippomène and Atalante) is a bonus. In the end, this is Rousset's Atys, and that is a very good thing.© James Manheim /TiVo
From
HI-RES$15.79
CD$13.59

Ravel : Boléro, Rapsodie espagnole, Ma mère l'Oye

Pierre Boulez

Classical - Released October 14, 2016 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$24.71
CD$19.77

Debussy : Complete Works for Piano

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

Classical - Released October 1, 2012 | Chandos

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
Praised for his meticulous fidelity to the composer's intentions, as well as for his rich tonal palette and the warmth of his expressions, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has won many admirers for his five albums of the complete solo piano music of Claude Debussy. These recordings were produced by Chandos between 2007 and 2009, and they have now been gathered into a handsome box set; each disc is presented with its own cardboard sleeve and the original liner notes that accompanied each release. The roster of artists who have recorded Debussy's keyboard music is a long and distinguished one, though Bavouzet is easily ranked in the upper echelons, equal in stature among such luminaries as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Krystian Zimerman, Maurizio Pollini, Angela Hewitt, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Pascal Rogé. Experienced listeners will already have favorite recordings of the Préludes, Images, Estampes, and Études, as well as the perennially popular Suite bergamasque, Children's Corner, and other picturesque pieces. However, many will be won over by the consistency of Bavouzet's playing, and newcomers will find that his disciplined yet gorgeous readings are a great way to begin appreciating these charming classics. Chandos provides excellent sound that gives the piano a clear presence yet takes nothing away from Bavouzet's atmospheric colors or the radiant acoustics. Highly recommended.© TiVo
From
HI-RES$31.79
CD$24.59

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
From
HI-RES$14.49
CD$10.49

Fauré: Requiem - Poulenc: Figure Humaine - Debussy: 3 Chansons

Mathieu Romano

Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released March 1, 2019 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama
Fauré's Requiem, “funeral lullaby” written for enjoyment as the composer put it, has a unique place in history. It's soft, simple and modest poetry conveys moments of gentle contemplation and moving expressiveness which are entrusted to both the choir and the two soloists. With his Ensemble Aedes and the orchestra Les Siècles, Mathieu Romano is committed to render a Requiem faithful to its first performance. We hear thus the score in its original 1893 orchestration, where the organ plays a great role, and where Latin is pronounced in the French way as it used to be. The clearest articulation of the Ensemble Aedes then perfectly fits Éluard’s Figure humaine set to music by Francis Poulenc. We have never heard these sublime poems sung with such intelligibility before! Finally, the three Songs by Debussy elegantly close the album. Here again, the quality and clarity of the voices are stunning. Artistic director and founder of Ensemble Aedes has established himself as a magician of voices in a cappella scores. And voices ideally melt with the strings of Les Siècles under his baton. A 100% French cast in a 100% French music disc for a triple rediscovery. Essential! © Aparté
From
HI-RES$16.49
CD$10.99

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
From
HI-RES$15.56
CD$12.45

Gloire Immortelle !

Hervé Niquet

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

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99

Debussy: La Damoiselle élue, Le martyre de Saint Sébastien & Nocturnes

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Classical - Released April 1, 2022 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck continue their collaboration with Alpha Classics and here invite the Maîtrise and Chœur de Radio France to join them in a Debussy programme. This recording couples La Damoiselle élue, a work described by the composer as a "little oratorio in a mystical and somewhat pagan vein", the Nocturnes for orchestra, composed between 1897 and 1899, and the Symphonic Fragments from Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien fashioned by André Caplet less than a year after the work’s first performance, and which ensured it would not be forgotten by posterity. © Alpha Classics
From
HI-RES$11.54$16.49(30%)
CD$7.69$10.99(30%)

Debussy : Préludes du 1er Livre - Estampes

Javier Perianes

Solo Piano - Released November 30, 2018 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
On the dawn of his fortieth birthday, the Spanish pianist Javier Perianes should be more than proud of his dazzling career. Among the places that regularly welcome him we find Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Philharmonie de Paris, Gewandhaus in Leipzig and La Roque d'Anthéron. Barenboim and Larrocha were his masters. He is particularly fond of the great French repertoire of Debussy and Ravel, though he never focuses solely on them - his previous recordings have taken him to Beethoven, Mompou, Schubert or Granados. Here, he remains in the French world with Debussy's Book I from Preludes and his three Estampes, the composer’s piano masterpiece, which Perianes distils with immense instrumental colour, breathing, contrasts and a magnificent violence that counterbalances a crystal clearness at every moment, as requested by the score. © SM/Qobuz
From
CD$7.90

Tchaikovsky: Eugène Onéguine (Diapason n°598)

Galina Vichnievskaia

Full Operas - Released September 25, 2010 | Les Indispensables de Diapason

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
From
HI-RES$24.71
CD$19.77

Bizet: Carmen, WD 31 (Live)

Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

Opera - Released October 12, 2018 | Orfeo

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$27.98
CD$22.58

Satie et les Gymnopédistes

François Mardirossian

Solo Piano - Released September 15, 2023 | Ad Vitam records

Hi-Res Booklet
From
HI-RES$21.99
CD$16.99

Paradise Lost

Anna Prohaska

Classical - Released April 10, 2020 | Alpha Classics

Hi-Res Booklet
The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré’s Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell’s Sleep, Adam, sleep with its references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms’s Salamander, Wolf’s Die Bekehrte or Ravel’s Air du Feu. In Das Paradies und die Peri, Schumann conjures up the image of Syria’s rose-covered plains. Bernstein also transports us to the desert with Silhouette.. John Milton’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Paradise Lost was the inspiration for Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, also featured in this very rich programme that constitutes an invitation to travel and reflection. © Alpha Classics
From
HI-RES$19.89
CD$17.19

Voyage

Lavinia Meijer

Chamber Music - Released March 20, 2015 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet
It's been a while since someone has issued harp recitals that have consistently captured the public imagination, but harpist Lavinia Meijer has shown strong programming instincts in albums that have done just that. Voyage (the title referent is pretty general) is an excellent example. After recording several albums for Channel Classics, Meijer was signed to Sony and released an album of works by Ludovico Einaudi to popular acclaim but mixed critical reception. Here she has threaded classical and crossover styles together very nicely, mixing standard-fare harp arrangements of the likes of Clair de lune and Satie with selections from the Amélie soundtrack of French composer Yann Tiersen. From Satie to Tiersen, Meijer says, is a "short step." Maybe, but many listeners will experience the Tiersen pieces as moments of relaxation, of clarification of the denser textures and significations of the French repertory pieces. There is no doubt that Tiersen is an evocative melodist, and Meijer brings out the film's slightly nostalgic flavor of romantic comedy. Recording the harp is engineering's black belt, and those worried that Sony would not be able to match the legendary sonics of Channel Classics can set their minds at ease: Meijer's harp has a startling presence, and the balances in the pieces with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta are excellent. The booklet, featuring artwork by Jeroen Krabbé, is another plus. Strongly recommended.© TiVo