Lea Desandre / Thomas Dunford / Jupiter AMAZONE

 

AMAZONE

Théotime Langlois de Swarte / Tanguy de Williencourt PROUST, LE CONCERT RETROUVÉ

 

PROUST, LE CONCERT RETROUVÉ

 

Francesco Corti JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Little Books

 

LITTLE BOOKS

 

Suren Bagratuni / Hrant Bagrazyan SONGS OF MY CHILDHOOD

 

SONGS OF MY CHILDHOOD

 

Matan Porat CARNAVAL

CARNAVAL

 

Khatia Buniatishvili LABYRINTH

LABYRINTH

 

Gábor Boldoczki / Cappella Gabetta / Andres Gabetta VERSAILLES

VERSAILLES

 

Luc Beauséjour ANTHOLOGIE

ANTHOLOGIE

Luc Beauséjour LE RAPPEL DES OISEAUX

LE RAPPEL DES OISEAUX

Alexandre Tharaud VERSAILLES

                                                                   VERSAILLES

Thomas Dunford / Jean Rondeau BARRICADES

                                                                  BARRICADES

Trio SR9 ALORS, ON DANSE?

For their second album on Naïve, the three percussionists (marimba players) of Trio SR9 have chosen to shine the light on the theme of dance, in all its rich variety throughout the history of Western classical music: from Rameau and Bach, to Debussy, Satie and Borodin.

So, shall we dance?

The first part of the album is a set of Baroque dances (Gavotte, Sarabande, Minuet, Gigue...) drawn from the legacy of various European composers. These pieces are presented in the form of a large suite, as was the tradition at the time.

Then we move on to explore Europe of the nineteenth century. A taste for exoticism and folk dance rhythms are here made even more sublime by Claude Debussy with his Tarentelle Styrienne, Béla Bartok with the Romanian Dances and Alexander Borodin with his Polovtsian Dances.

The last part of the disc is dedicated to the mysticism of dance and begins, perhaps unsurprisingly, with the Ritual Fire Dance by Manuel de Falla. It is followed by Narnchygäer, a new work for three marimbas and the first of its kind composed by François Tashdjian especially for the SR9 Trio.

Lastly, it is around the three Danse de Travers by Erik Satie that this programme is weaved. This common thread punctuates each part of the album with sweetness and melancholy.

After a highly-regarded first album, Bach on the marimba, this new programme allows us to go one step further in revealing the many riches of the marimba, the sumptuously-crafted five-octave rosewood instrument. It's via the sound of three marimbas that the Trio SR9 demonstrates its ability to develop the reputation of percussion, all in one choreographed gesture …

Agnès Clément LE ROSSIGNOL EN AMOUR

Isn’t it true that the sounds of the harp soar directly up to heaven? The program idea of the splendid young French harpist Agnès Clément, who won the ARD competition in 2016, is absolutely compelling: a production featuring music that renders homage to the birds. On her first GENUIN album, she gazes at the nightingale, quarrels with the cuckoo, and flies with the swallow into the spring, as love truly takes wing in the exciting artist’s debut release. We hear Francis Poulenc alongside François Couperin, Franz Liszt together with Paul Hindemith – in the original and in arrangements. This album is perfectly balanced to the last detail.

Lucie Horsch / Academy of Ancient Music BAROQUE JOURNEY

The astonishing 19-year-old Dutch recorder player Lucie Horsch returns to takes us on a journey around Baroque Europe, showcasing the most virtuosic music from her native Netherlands, as well as Germany, Italy, France, Spain and England.

Highlights from the album include Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Bach’s Badinerie and the world premiere recording of a concerto by Jacques-Christophe Naudot and Dido’s Lament by Purcell.

For her second album, Lucie is joined by the Academy of Ancient Music who are making their first DECCA recording in over 20 years!

Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset FRANÇOIS COUPERIN Les Nations

The 350th anniversary of François Couperin's birth evoked less activity than other anniversaries in the year 2018, when this album appeared, but if you missed it you might find this a worthwhile acquisition as a state-of-the-art Couperin performance. Harpsichordist/director Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques are lyrical indeed in the set of trio sonatas called Les Nations, "the nations." The set purports to evoke four nations: France, Spain, L'Imperiale (the Holy Roman Empire), and La piémontaise (the Piedmont kingdom, in Italy). Whatever features might have suggested these national styles are hard to hear now, and really Les Nations is above all one of the works in which Couperin cultivated what he called elsewhere les goûts réunis, the "reunited" tastes of Italy and France. In the four Nations, his solution was unique: each of the four parts consists of a little Corellian Italian sonade, or sonata, with its own four sections compacted into a single movement, followed by suite of French dances. You might wonder why trio sonatas would require the larger ensemble of Les Talens Lyriques, but this works: the set probably would not have been performed at a stretch in Couperin's time, and Rousset changes things up with varying forces. Best of all, the playing of Rousset's group is honed to a delightful languor, a smoothness and grace that have rarely been equaled in the historical-performance sphere. The sarabandes get flutes instead of violins, and you could sample the one from the Impériale suite for a taste. Browse the paintings of Lancret or Watteau while you do, and you may experience peak French. Just lovely. (James Manheim)

Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset FRANÇOIS COUPERIN Ariane consolée par Bacchus - Apothéoses de Lully & de Corelli

Here, for the first time, we can hear what appears to be a lost cantata by François Couperin. Numerous of his secular airs, chansons and canons survive in manuscript and print, but until now none of the cantatas known to have existed at the time of his death (1733) have been found. Rousset’s cogent argument for attributing this anonymous manuscript work, hitherto known only from a 1716 Amsterdam catalogue entry as ‘Ariane abandonée’, is, I believe, compelling.

This Ariane consolée par Bacchus, somewhat unusually, is for a baritone. Although best known as an opera singer and recitalist of later repertoire, Stéphane Degout adjusts his voice to the varied pace within the recitatives and expresses words such as ‘douceur’ in the first Air and the tongue-twisting text of the ritournelle in the final Air with the lightest touch. Moreover, the acoustic of the Eglise Saint-Pierre (Paris) allows us to enjoy both the warmth of his voice and the detail of his fluent ornamentation. The presence of Christophe Coin playing the concertante bass viol part in these tracks adds further to the pleasure to be had from listening to this modern premiere.

The remaining works on the disc were recorded in the exceptional acoustic of the former 14th-century monastery Les Dominicains de Haute-Alsace. Couperin’s entertaining pair of apotheoses accorded to Lully and Corelli is almost unique in the repertoire because of his ‘acerbic’ programmatic commentaries, elegantly delivered here by Rousset from the keyboard. These works have been recorded many times but rarely so well. Rousset’s vision for his ensemble of oboes, flutes, violins and viol is sublime, as too are his harpsichord realisations. This is a landmark recording to treasure. (Julie Anne Sadie / Gramophone)

Les Paladins / Jérôme Correas COUPERIN Leçons de Ténèbres

‘A few years ago, I was composing three Leçons de Ténèbres pour le Vendredy Saint, at the request of the Dames Religieuses de L[ongchamps], where they were sung successfully [...] even though the singing is noted in the key above, every other voice type would be able to sing them, especially since most of the people who accompa- ny nowadays know how to transpose...’.

This is what François Couperin says in the preface of the Leçons de Ténèbres du Mercredy Saint, giving us some very useful insights for better understanding a work that we must listen to here without the context of a religious ceremony or a church. (Jérôme Correas)

Juri Vallentin BRIDGES

What a development the oboe has endured since it was largely responsible for creating pastoral moods or laments! At Genuin Classics, Juri Vallentin captures the entire timbre of a modern instrument on this recording. The prizewinner of the 2017 German Music Competition and other major competitions demonstrates the oboe's rich tone in interaction with wonderful chamber music partners. A real bridge over the centuries: sparkling baroque music of Pez and Couperin meets the exciting sounds of Hosokawa and Erkoreka. An exquisite programme and a world-class performance!

Olivier Fortin FRANÇOIS COUPERIN L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin

The harpsichord is perfect in its compass, and brilliant in itself; but, as one can neither swell nor diminish its notes, I shall always be grateful to those who, through consummate art sustained by good taste, manage to make this instrument capable of expression.’
Why is it difficult to play the music of François Couperin when it seems so simple at first glance? By offering precious information on the interpretation of his music (and more generally on the interpretation of French music of his time) in his treatise L’Art de toucher le clavecin (The art of harpsichord playing), Couperin provides us with the necessary elements for today’s performer, who seeks above all to respect the composer’s intentions. However, fear of not going beyond the indications given by the latter and excessive attention to every detail can inhibit inspiration and distract from the purpose of the works. Like the French language, it consists of rules but also of many exceptions. Modern grammars and dictionaries give us complete, firm, infallible answers to all these questions. But things were quite different at the time.

Les Folies Françoises / Patrick Cöhen-Akenine FRANÇOIS COUPERIN Portraits crosés

The great originality of the harpsichord works of François Couperin (1668-1733) lies in his progressively freeing himself from dance suite forms inherited from the 17th century to compose genre pieces, equipped with proper titles and grouped in ordres (of the same tonality, alternating major and minor). Even if one can still hear underlying dances, Couperin builds as a composition principle a Classical aesthetic founded upon imitation.

Yet while specialising in musical portraits, Couperin often falls impishly into enigmatic titles: one of the favourite games of harpsichordists and musicologists has always consisted of attempting to decipher them.