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Spontini: La vestale
Les Talens Lyriques
Classical - Released May 12, 2023 | Bru Zane
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Gaspare's Spontini's French-language La Vestale is probably the most often heard of his operas, but that is not saying much; the work was sung by Maria Callas in the 1950s, but performances are sparse. Here, it is revived in period style by Les Talens Lyriques and conductor Christophe Rousset, and a very good case is made for further attention. The story is action-packed; Julia, in the absence of her lover, General Licinius, becomes una Vestale, a Vestal Virgin and guards a sacred flame. When Licinius returns to town, the flame goes out, and Julia is sentenced to be buried alive. Licinius rallies his troops, vowing to kidnap Julia, and the flame is reignited later by a lightning strike. Spontini's orchestration of this tale is Beethovenian in its dimensions, and despite the difficulties of natural horns, it is exciting to hear this opera as Napoleon (thought to be the model for Licinius) and Josephine (who backed the opera) heard it. The singers are not Callas-level, but throughout, and especially in the choruses, there is a commitment to the text and its meaning that is rare in any kind of recording. Marina Rebeka, in the role of Julia, is fully involved in the character's plight, and the smoky-voiced Aude Extrémo as La Grande Vestale is worth the price of admission on her own. The singers are aided by clear, spacious studio sound engineering from the early opera specialist label Palazzetto Bru Zane, whose high standards are perhaps even exceeded here.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Jules Massenet: Ariane
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Classical - Released September 8, 2023 | Bru Zane
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For many years, it was only Manon and Werther that were heard among Massenet's operas, but his reputation appears to be on the rise, and his champion, conductor Laurent Campellone, has recorded a good number of them. Ariane, from 1906, is one of the last to receive its recorded premiere. The Palazzetto Bru Zane label, specializing in obscure French opera, does a typically fine job here; the sound is superb, and the cast of singers, led by the soprano Amina Edris in the lead role, offers several revelations. In his later operas, Massenet often attempted to put a French stamp on the newer styles of the day, and here, it is Wagner who gets this treatment; the opera is built around a set of motifs de rappel (or "reminiscence motifs"), whose parentage in Wagner's leitmotifs is clear. This structure is shoehorned into the durable machinery of French opera. There are big entrance scenes, a pantomime, and plenty of spectacular stage machinery to go with the love triangle plot involving Ariane (Ariadne), Phèdre (Phaedra), and Theseus, who gets to take on the Minotaur in a grand scene with Wagnerian bass trumpet and bass trombone. Massenet's orchestration is impressive throughout. The work does not have the inevitability of truly great art, but it is in no way dull, and anyone with any interest in French opera should hear it for the singers alone; enough of those listeners have already weighed in and put the album on classical best-seller lists in the late summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Jollage: Premier livre de Pièces de Clavecin
Fernando De Luca
Classical - Released May 29, 2023 | Brilliant Classics
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Meyerbeer: Robert le Diable
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
Classical - Released September 23, 2022 | Bru Zane
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For his last season at the helm of the Opéra de Bordeaux, Marc Minkowski—always keen to conduct forgotten works which have, in some way, marked the history of music—sets his sights on Robert le Diable, Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera which was a true social phenomenon in 19th century France. The Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française has followed suit by officially publishing this concert version, which also features some excellent vocal soloists. Admired by Balzac, Sand and Dumas, this ‘grand opéra à la française’ (great French opera) faded into obscurity after the First World War. Its creator became a sort of pariah – one met with both condescension and mockery. With its ‘seductive and haunting melodies’ (Alexandre Dratwicki), it’s nevertheless a flamboyant work that greatly inspired his contemporaries, such as Verdi, who referred to it in La Traviata. The extraordinary impact of Robert le Diable was such that it was performed a great many times on every continent. A true one-man band, Marc Minkowski has invested himself entirely in this undertaking, learning this vast score practically by heart and conducting it with his usual power and conviction. The international cast is full of surprises thanks to their deep understanding of the work and the protagonists’ fantastic pronunciation. This new release, to the credit of the Bru Zane label, revitalises our knowledge of this work that’s scarcely mentioned in specialised dictionaries. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Weill, Brecht & Hauptmann: L'opéra de quat'sous
Le Balcon
Classical - Released September 22, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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L'opéra de quat'sous ("The Four Penny Opera") is nothing more or less than Die Dreigroschenoper ("The Threepenny Opera") of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The Threepenny Opera was a hit from the beginning and was almost immediately translated into French, among other languages (even Hungarian), after its 1928 premiere, but here, it is sung in a new translation by Alexandre Pateau. To these imperfectly francophone ears, the translation seems fluent and sharp. The original opera, of course, was based on an English original and featured some adapted French poetry, so a translation into French is less of an experiment than one might think. This was a live recording from the summer of 2023, and although the production featured English and German supertitles, there are no translations in the booklet here. In other ways, too, the production might have fared better live than it does on a recording. The singers are mostly untrained stage actors who ham up the characters in a way that probably worked in person but doesn't come across in audio. (The exceptions here are Claïna Clavaron, who turns in an arresting Mack the Knife at the beginning, Véronique Vella's Celia Peachum, and Marie Oppert as Polly Peachum.) The most important thing to note for listeners who think they are getting simply a French Dreigroschenoper is that the music and text are reinterpreted and reworked. There are some cuts, some added material, spoken descriptions, and, from director Thomas Ostermeier and conductor Maxime Pascal, a percussion-heavy setting that emphasizes every bit of popular-music influence in the score. None of this is necessarily untrue to the spirit of the work, but listeners should sample well and see whether their minds fill in the various blanks here. Alpha's live recording is clear and not marred by stage and production noises.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Le Siège de Corinthe (Intégrale)
Lorenzo Regazzo
Opera - Released June 3, 2013 | Naxos
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Choc de Classica
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La Flûte Enchantée
Hervé Niquet
Classical - Released April 23, 2021 | Château de Versailles Spectacles
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Luigi Cherubini: Les Abencérages
Orfeo Orchestra
Classical - Released November 11, 2022 | Bru Zane
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Cherubini's Les Abencérages, premiered in 1813, heralds the spectacle and extravagance of Romantic grand opera. From the Alhambra gardens to the battlefield, the action skillfully intertwines political conspiracies with a love story. Underpinned by the energy and timbres of period instruments, this recording demonstrates the work's modernity and it's musical qualities. Anaïs Constans valiantly tackles the demanding role of Noraïme, while Edgaras Montvidas displays his lyric tenor voice in a series of sublime airs whose beauty was already hinted at by none other than Roberto Alagna in a recital disc released in 2003. Around this couple, a plethoric cast of soloists (Dolié, Sargsyan, Williams, Martin, Lavoie, etc.) achieves the same high standards of French diction and style. The Hungarian conductor György Vashegyi, flanked by the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, reveals here another key milestone of French Romantic opera. © Bru Zane
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Franck & Debussy: Sonates pour violon et piano - Franck: Andantino quietoso & Duo sur des motifs de Gulistan
Augustin Dumay
Chamber Music - Released December 9, 2022 | Warner Classics
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Couperin: Portrait d'Iris, Suites pour viole de gambe et pièces de clavecin
Emmanuelle Guigues
Classical - Released April 9, 2010 | Paraty Productions
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André Messager: Passionnément
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Classical - Released June 11, 2021 | Bru Zane
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André Messager's deliciously French art offers the perfect combination of refined music and frivolous – but never facile – operetta. This recording was a product of the constraints of the 2020 pandemic. Musicians and producers were forced to downgrade many projects in order to comply with the health guidance which was then in force. With its modest instrumental requirements, its smattering of soloists and its lack of a choir, the operetta Passionnément, which enjoyed a triumphal opening in a cheery inter-war Paris in 1926, was perfect for these challenging conditions.In France, operetta has often suffered from mediocre vocal talent. All the more reason, then, to enjoy this high-quality production, with excellent vocalists, starting with Australian soprano Nicole Car as Julia, a crafty chambermaid who is dreaming of a bourgeois life with an American millionaire, and who ends up hitting the bottle at the height of Prohibition. The libretto by Hervé Hennequin and Albert Willemetz is full of salacious allusions only scantily concealed by candid lyrics.This is the first time ever that Passionnément has been committed to disc. This release was a co-production between the Munich Radio and Palazzetto Bru Zane. This full, uncut version was directed by Stefan Blunier, who offers a wonderful rendering of André Messager's melodic talents, bringing a sense of joy and subtlety to every moment. The flawless cast brings together Véronique Gens as Ketty, the wife abandoned by her wealthy American husband, played by Eric Huchet. Etienne Dupuis, Chantal Santon Jeffery and Armando Noguera round out an excellently-put-together cast, which does full justice to this piece of classic workmanship. A superb document of the atmosphere of the 1920s. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Alkan: Sonate de concert et Grand duo concertant
Christoph Henkel
Classical - Released January 6, 2017 | naïve classique
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Haydn 2032, Vol. 14: L'impériale
Giovanni Antonini
Classical - Released September 1, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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The Haydn 2032 project of conductor Giovanni Antonini is an ambitious undertaking, with plans to record all of the composer's symphonies by 2032. They are divided by theme rather than being plowed through chronologically, usually with relevant works by other composers added on. Here, the "extra" composer is Haydn himself, who revised a puppet-show overture into an alternate finale for one of the present symphonies. The Symphony No. 53 in D major, Hob. 1/53, was given the nickname "L'Impériale" ("The Imperial") by someone other than Haydn, but it is accurate enough for the imposing, timpani-backed opening. In fact, all three of the works here make unusual use of the brass, and they are well suited to Antonini's high-powered, large-orchestra approach. That approach is all to the good; there is no reason to think Haydn wouldn't have wanted as large an orchestra as he could get. It may diminish some of the humor in the slow movements, but it is not that Antonini is incapable of humor; sample the finale of the Symphony No. 33 in C major, Hob. 1/33, which here is about as riotously deceptive as it has ever been. The works are recorded with all repeats, but they never grow tiring. A strong entry in Antonini's ambitious series, this made classical best-seller lists in the late summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Haydn - 48 Piano Sonatas
Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Classical - Released August 25, 2023 | Avie Records
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Haydn 2032, Vol. 9: L'Addio
Sandrine Piau
Classical - Released January 22, 2021 | Alpha Classics
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The last instalment of Giovanni Antonini's complete works of Haydn with the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico features three symphonies and La Scena di Berenice sung by Sandrine Piau. We know the story of the symphony “The Farewell", a subtle request from the composer to his prince to grant leave to exhausted musicians in his chapel. In the Finale, a moving Adagio, each musician blows the candles from his desk and leaves on tiptoe until the stage is empty. But this pleasant anecdote too often obscures any analysis of a work full of originality thanks to its rare key (F sharp minor) and the structure of its different movements. While Joseph Haydn sets out a classical framework for the symphony, he simultaneously explodes the schema by means of an architecture which is constantly renewed through a continuous motion from major to minor keys. This is the case of Symphony No. 35 in B-Flat Major which opens this album, constantly oscillating between pure entertainment and drama in a spirit which is totally peculiar to the eighteenth century. This long search for form led Haydn to take sometimes unusual paths, as in this Symphony No. 15 in D Major, which seems to synthesise his research from the late 1750s. The Minuet is for example placed in second position, before an Andante of great simplicity and a final Presto in the form of a rondo. Inspired by Metastasio's Antigone and premiered in London in 1765, la Scena di Berenice is Haydn's greatest dramatic scene outside of his operas. Abandoned by her lover, Bérénice sings her despair and rage through music full of boldness. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Poulenc: Orchestral Works
The BBC Concert Orchestra
Symphonies - Released November 4, 2022 | Chandos
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When this album was recorded, in March 2022, no-one could have imagined that it would be Bramwell Tovey’s last recording. Chandos Records would like to dedicate this recording to the memory of Bramwell Tovey, with whom the company had collaborated for over a decade; a versatile musician highly accomplished as both a composer and a conductor, immensely personable and humorous, who possessed an innate understanding of the qualities of his fellow orchestral musicians and quickly earned their respect and devotion. He shall be very sorely missed. Tovey and the BBC Concert Orchestra capture the wit and charm of Poulenc’s music perfectly. Each piece sizzles with excitement, and the well-known pieces (the Sinfonietta and ballet Les Animaux modèles) are beautifully complemented by less frequently heard miniatures: La Baigneuse de Trouville and Discours du général from Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel and Pastourelle from L’Éventail de Jeanne. © Chandos
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Childhood Tales
Isata Kanneh-Mason
Classical - Released May 26, 2023 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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One sometimes feels trepidation about the prodigious Kanneh-Mason siblings, who must be under tremendous pressure, but they've shown an admirable ability to pick projects that they connect with and are comfortable with. Childhood Tales, from pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, is a case in point. Most of the music is standard for this kind of program; Mozart's 12 Variations on "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman," K. 265, Schumann's Kinderszenen, Op. 15, and Debussy's Children's Corner have hundreds of recordings in the catalog. However, Kanneh-Mason inserts a considerably less well-known piece into the sequence: Ernst von Dohnányi's Variations on a Nursery Song, Op. 25. The theme of this set is the same as that of Mozart's, a tune better known in English as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." The Dohnányi piece is a real gem, full of wit and beginning with an imposing introduction whose function becomes clear only at the end of the work. Kanneh-Mason's reading catches the humor and really is worth the price of admission all by itself. Her readings of the standards are quite strong as well; she doesn't necessarily break new ground, but her Schumann scenes of childhood are often engrossing. Sample her deliberate approach in the well-trodden Träumerei for an idea. With Decca contributing fine sound from the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, this release marks a new step in the upward trajectory for Isata Kanneh-Mason. It is unsurprising that this release made classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Le Temps retrouvé
Elena Urioste
Classical - Released January 26, 2024 | Chandos
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The duo of violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster have often recorded eclectic fare, but here, in a more or less conventional program of late Romantic French fare, they excel with deeply affecting playing. The album made classical best-seller lists in early 2024, and one reason was certainly the presence of the little-known Violin Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 112, of Mel Bonis. This female composer, whose life is richly deserving of feature film treatment, was recognized in her own time (as the high opus number suggests) but was later forgotten, and even the recent rediscovery of music by women has only slowly revealed her talent. The work merits the enthusiasm Urioste and Poster express in their note. All of the pieces here rely on and extend the language of Franck and perhaps Fauré in one way or another, but Bonis marries rich melody to complex harmony in an especially effective way. All of the music here was composed in the 1910s and '20s. None of it, with the possible exception of Lili Boulanger's little Nocturne of 1911, which closes the program, much reflects the revolutionary development of Debussy, but all show that there was plenty left in the Romantic bag of tricks. Fauré is present as well with a typically gnarly example of his late style, to which Urioste's melodic playing is fully equal. The beautifully nostalgic Violin Sonata in C major of Reynaldo Hahn, better known for songs, is also not much played. Urioste and Poster are well established as a duo, and their sense of ensemble is strong and subtle, but the best thing about this album is that it may well rearrange the repertory a bit, with the Bonis work as a special highlight.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Haydn 2032, Vol. 11: Au goût parisien
Giovanni Antonini
Classical - Released January 28, 2022 | Alpha Classics
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The eleventh volume of the complete Haydn symphony cycle moves its focus to Paris: "Every day one perceives more clearly, and consequently admires more, the productions of this great genius, who, in every one of his works, knows so well how to draw rich and varied developments from a single subject", wrote the "Mercure de France" in April 1788, adding that Haydn was "quite different from those sterile composers who constantly move from one idea to another...". The symphonies presented here are No. 2 (the first to be published in France), No. 24 (the first to be performed there) and the so-called "Paris" Symphonies No. 87 and No. 82 "L'Ours", with its references to fairground atmosphere and its famous contredanse finale. © Alpha Classics
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Offenbach: La Princesse de Trébizonde
Paul Daniel
Opera - Released September 22, 2023 | Opera Rara
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Gramophone: Recording of the Month
The Opera Rara label and company, true to their name, resurrect forgotten operas. There is an abundance of those in the output of Jacques Offenbach, who wrote some 100 operettas and opéras bouffes, few of which are remembered today. Opera Rara made a good pick with La Princesse de Trébizonde (1869), and this release made classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2023. Offenbach is as full of good, Arthur Sullivan-like tunes as ever, and he even discarded a number of them from the operetta's original production in Baden-Baden in the process of preparing a new version for Paris. Those discarded pieces are included here, and there could hardly be a better testimony to Offenbach's melodic fecundity. Better still is the action, taking place in a carnival sideshow and suggesting all kinds of ideas for a production set in modern times. It is gloriously preposterous even by operetta standards. A girl, Zanetta, accidentally breaks the nose off a wax figure of the Princess of Trébizonde and agrees to stand in for the figure herself. A prince (a pants role) -- who has dropped a lottery ticket into the till in lieu of paying admission -- falls in love with the "Princess." Meanwhile, the lottery ticket, with a castle as the prize, comes up a winner and overturns the relationships between rich and poor. The comic scenes thus spawned are handled with the needed high spirits by the cast and the several choruses (executed by Opera Rara's remarkable house chorus), and conductor Paul Daniel is ideal in this genre, consistently pushing the tempo just slightly in order to bring the forward momentum. This recording is based on a 2022 London production but is a "cast recording," not a live one, and it is quite clear sonically. La Princesse de Trébizonde has been recorded only twice before, once in Russian (!) and once for French radio in 1966; this sprightly performance is much needed.© James Manheim /TiVo
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