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Richard Wagner : Der Fliegende Holländer - Pierre-Louis Dietsch : Le vaisseau fantôme ou le maudit des mers

Marc Minkowski

Classical - Released November 4, 2013 | naïve classique

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Wagner: Le vaisseau fantôme (Diapason n°615)

George London

Opera - Released June 28, 2013 | Les Indispensables de Diapason

Booklet
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Wagner : Der fliegende Hollander (Le Vaisseau fantôme)

Matti Salminen

Opera - Released September 1, 2011 | PentaTone

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama
In preparation for the Wagner bicentennial in 2013, Marek Janowski and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and Rundfunkchor Berlin began an ambitious project of recording the composer's ten major operas for Pentatone with Der fliegende Holländer in 2010. The recording's strongest points are the stellar performances by the orchestra and chorus; there's real fire and passion in their playing and singing. This is not Wagner's most dramatically coherent opera, but Janowski manages to keep the momentum going and the big moments are genuinely stirring. The leads are mostly very fine but not consistently memorable; the general lack of real distinction keeps this from being a contender as a top-ranked recording of the opera. Daland has been a signature role for Matti Salminen, who delivers the strongest performance among the leads; his characterization is sharply and vividly realized, and while his noble voice shows its age, it's appropriate for the role. As the Dutchman, Albert Dohmen has a vocal quality not sufficiently differentiated from Salminen's, and although his singing is never less than adequate, he fails to convey the character's mythic dimensions. Ricarda Merbeth as Senta has a voice that's large enough for the part but that's somewhat hard and inflexible, and that fails to generate much sympathy for her character. Robert Dean Smith usually sounds strained as Erik, except in his relatively rare quiet passages. The singer who makes the strongest and most lingering impression is Steve Davislim in the small role of the Steersman. The sound is clean, full, and nicely nuanced.© TiVo
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Le Vaisseau fantôme (Intégrale)

Wolfgang Sawallisch

Classical - Released March 3, 2010 | Myto Historical

Distinctions 4 étoiles Classica
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Wagner/Liszt : Transcriptions

Tanguy de Williencourt

Solo Piano - Released October 13, 2017 | Mirare

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
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Camille Saint-Saëns: Phryné

Hervé Niquet

Opera - Released February 11, 2022 | Bru Zane

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Everyone knows Camille Saint-Saëns has a great sense of humour thanks to his Carnaval des Animaux in which no one escapes ridicule, not even him. Now the Palazzetto Bru Zane Foundation and Hervé Niquet have unearthed Phryné, a forgotten comic opera from 1893 enriched with recitatives composed by André Messager three years later.Received with immense and lasting success in its time, this brilliant work eventually fell into the abyss, never to be seen again. Fortunately, fans of Saint-Saëns made great efforts to rediscover his works on the centenary of his death in 2021. Phryné captures the "Grecomania" that was prevalent in all the arts in France at this time, especially in Offenbach’s music and even in architecture (just think of the beautiful Parisian district of New Athens in the 9th arrondissement). Ironically, and perhaps a little cheekily, Saint-Saens confessed that he was “working on this little piece with infinite pleasure” and was infatuated with this courtesan musician who had served as a model for the sculptor Praxitele.Always keen to discover a forgotten repertoire, Hervé Niquet brought together a few singers, Florie Valiquette, Cyrille Dubois, Anaïs Constans and Thomas Dolié, to breathe some life back into Phryné with his Concert Spirituel, with the aim of producing a concert version to be performed in the Opéra de Rouen Normandie in 2021. Though Lucien Augé’s libretto may seem tasteless today with its hefty dose of misogyny, Saint-Saens’ music is simply delicious, with a succession of arias and ensembles. This modest and charming opera-comedy, which Charles Gounod so enjoyed, offers a less serious and less academic take of a composer that well and truly deserves to be rediscovered. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Tchaïkovsky: Le Lac des Cygnes (Les Etoiles du Bolchoï)

L'Orchestre National du Bolchoï

Classical - Released November 21, 2005 | Via Classic

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La Flûte Enchantée

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released April 23, 2021 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & The Firebird

Orchestre de Paris

Classical - Released March 24, 2023 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

Hi-Res Booklet
One year after winning a Qobuzissime for his first Sibelius monograph, Klaus Mäkelä is back with the Orchestre de Paris for a programme devoted to Stravinsky's two stage masterpieces: The Rite of Spring and The Firebird. The Rite of Spring is perhaps best remembered for its chaotic premiere in May 1913, Paris, where it famously provoked a riot amongst the audience. Over time, this event has left its mark on history as one of the most notorious artistic scandals of the 20th century. It’s impossible to overlook this vital work today, and yet its canonisation has arguably caused its monstrous and archaic character to fade out of our collective memory.Somehow, Mäkelä manages to completely restore the cathartic dimension of the piece. From the meticulous choice of tempos to the contrasts between the different orchestral sections, every measure of the score is rich and invigorating. This young Finn is a true master, revealing himself as a conductor of rare sensitivity and incisive vision that commands with confidence. On the flipside, The Firebird is inspired by a Russian folk tale in which Ivan Tsarevich battles the demigod Kashchei. Under Mäkelä, it becomes a grandiose festival of light and sound; a ballet imbued with a visceral sense of urgency that keeps the listener captivated throughout. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz
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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
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Pancrace Royer: Surprising Royer, Orchestral Suites

Les Talens Lyriques

Symphonic Music - Released May 5, 2023 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet
Beyond the neglect of French Baroque music in general, it is a bit hard to understand why composer Pancrace Royer was almost completely unknown until Christophe Rousset came along to champion him, first in harpsichord music and now, with these suites of music drawn from operas, in orchestral music. In the 18th century, Royer was quite well known and admired among others by Rameau, whose music he helped along considerably. Royer certainly inhabited Rameau's stylistic world, but from the evidence here, his music is distinctive and merits the adjective "surprising" that Rousset has attached to it. It is colorful, given to unexpected turns of harmony, and vivid in its evocation of the exotic scenes of French opera. Sample the "Air pour les turcs" ("Air for the Turks") from Zaïde, reine de Grenade, with its crackling percussion. Royer challenged his orchestra with virtuoso ensemble writing in the likes of the "Premier et second tambourins" from Almasis, and Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques step up with precise, vigorous readings that one imagines would have made the composer overjoyed. The inclusion of two alternate versions for movements from Zaïde is also unusual and gives insight into the compositional thinking of the day. Essential for specialists and enthusiasts interested in the French Baroque, this album is a lot of fun for anyone, with only overdone church sound detracting from the overall effect. © James Manheim /TiVo
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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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Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C Minor "Organ Symphony", Introduction et rondo capriccioso in A Minor & La muse et le poète

Noah Geller

Classical - Released June 9, 2015 | Reference Recordings

Hi-Res Booklets
For sonic showcases, Camille Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 in C minor, "Organ," is increasingly recorded by orchestras eager to show off their virtuosity and distinctive tone colors, so this HDCD from Reference Recordings is typical for its flashy program and high-fidelity reproduction. Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony deliver this celebrated Romantic symphony with extraordinary vitality, crisp articulation, and brilliant sonorities, and their performances of the two filler pieces are equally vivid and exciting. Of special note are the soloists, organist Jan Kraybill in the symphony, violinist Noah Geller in the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, and the duo of Geller and cellist Mark Gibbs in La muse et le poète, who give a heightened sense of drama and panache to their respective parts. But the real star of this album seems to be the 24-bit high definition recording, which really sets the musicians in sharp relief and gives them credible dimensions and presence. For listeners who have several recordings of the symphony, this disc will be fun to hear, if not necessary to own, though newcomers to Saint-Saëns could do a lot worse than to add this terrific sounding recording to their collections. © TiVo
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Offenbach: La Princesse de Trébizonde

Paul Daniel

Opera - Released September 22, 2023 | Opera Rara

Hi-Res Distinctions 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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Psyché

Christophe Rousset

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

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Stravinsky: L'Oiseau de feu; Feu d'artifice; 4 Etudes

Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)

Classical - Released July 7, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Stravinsky : Le Sacre du printemps - The Firebird Suite

Mariss Jansons

Ballets - Released November 2, 2018 | BR-Klassik

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
Mariss Jansons has been enormously successful in his live recordings of late- and post-Romantic symphonies, and he has made a strong case for 19th century orchestral music in general, though his catalog of performances with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on BR Klassik shows little representation of modernist works, aside from Britten's War Requiem in 2013 and Stravinsky's Petrushka in 2015. Flash forward to 2018, with this fairly routine pairing of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps and the suite from L'Oiseau de feu, and it might indicate a trend, perhaps because Jansons has nearly exhausted the heavily Germanic repertoire he has championed since the millennium and needs fresh material. His performance of Le Sacre du printemps doesn't rank with the all-time greats because it doesn't offer any revelations or details in the score or original interpretive ideas, but it has sufficient rhythmic energy and instrumental color to be counted as a respectable reading, and would be worth following with a score. The performance of L'Oiseau de feu similarly has everything in place to make it acceptable, though anyone looking for an exciting and innovative interpretation should look elsewhere, because Jansons' offering essentially accords with Stravinsky's 1967 recording of the suite with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, so it may be regarded as a standard performance with a pedigree. With this release, Jansons may be preparing to pursue a different direction from his customary material, but he needs to explore pieces beyond Stravinsky's great ballets to make his intentions known.© TiVo
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Poétiques de l'instant II: Ravel & Mantovani

Quatuor Voce

Classical - Released June 9, 2023 | Alpha Classics

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Écho & Narcisse

Hervé Niquet

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

Hi-Res Booklet