Lea Desandre / Thomas Dunford / Jupiter AMAZONE

 

AMAZONE

Alexandra Ivanova SENTIMENT

 

SENTIMENT

 

Christian-Pierre La Marca CELLO 360

 

CELLO 360

 

Lux Nova Duo INSPIRACIÓN BACH

 

INSPIRACIÓN BACH

 

Gábor Boldoczki / Cappella Gabetta / Andres Gabetta VERSAILLES

VERSAILLES

 

Andrew Blanch / Ariel Nurhadi ALCHEMY

ALCHEMY

 

Anthony Romaniuk BELLS

BELLS

Jorge Federico Osorio THE FRENCH ALBUM

THE FRENCH ALBUM

Luc Beauséjour ANTHOLOGIE

ANTHOLOGIE

Luc Beauséjour LE RAPPEL DES OISEAUX

LE RAPPEL DES OISEAUX

Duo Palissandre MOSAÏQUE

MOSAÏQUE

Grigory Sokolov BEETHOVEN - BRAHMS

                                                        BEETHOVEN - BRAHMS

Alexandre Tharaud VERSAILLES

                                                                   VERSAILLES

Víkingur Ólafsson DEBUSSY - RAMEAU

                                                            DEBUSSY - RAMEAU

Chantal Santon-Jeffery / Purcell Choir / Orfeo Orchestra / György Vashegyi BRILLEZ, ASTRES NOUVEAUX!

                                                   BRILLEZ, ASTRES NOUVEAUX!

Johanna Rose HISTOIRES D'UN ANGE

One of the most peculiar features of the arts in the lavish Versailles court of the Sun King was his conservatism. His instrumental music produced a series of dances during decades, the so-called suites, of unchangeable composition, barely reminding us of old rhythms like the gallarda or the pavana which made room for novelties such as the gigue or the sarabande, installed from then on for future decades. 

The gambist Marin Marais, referred to as the angel for his delecacy in comparison to the devil Forqueray, played a central role in that little but great world of short melodic stories, charming subtleties, delicate ornaments and changing repertoire - Changes that made everything remain the same. Surely De Visée, a musician like Marais from the Sun King's own chamber, accompanied him dozens of times on the theorbo and the guitar.Our concert, a close visit to that court environment, will take the form of a large suite, initiated by a prelude in improvised style, followed by exotic pieces of a - merely apparent - goût étranger, truly as familiar as the allemande or the rondeau. To finish, like the great operas of Lully, there will be a series of imposed variations such as the chaconne and the folia, that will bring us echoes of that majestic, albeit intimate and decadent world which reached its maximum brilliance on the eve of its extinction.

The MIN Ensemble / Aksel Rykkvin / Mark Bennett / Lazar Miletic LIGHT DIVINE

This juxtaposition of Handel and Rameau is an interesting proposition because the soloist is the boy treble Askel Rykkvin (whose voice has since changed) and the Norwegian MIN Ensemble bridge the gap between modern- and period-instrument chamber orchestras with a pragmatic compound of both (modern strings, oboes and bassoon but Baroque trumpets, flute, theorbo and harpsichord). 

Directed by trumpeter Mark Bennett, the disparate mixture of orchestral movements is sequenced engagingly. The first movement of Handel’s Concerto in D (HWV331), a close relation to the Water Music, is played to nonchalant and vibrant effect. Rykkvin and Bennett duet with impeccable poise and judicious trills in the opening section of the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne. The gorgeous passacaglia from the Trio Sonata, Op 5 No 5, leads neatly into ‘What passion cannot music raise and quell’ from Song for St Cecilia’s Day; the rhapsodic cello solo is played with whispered intimacy by Gunnar Hauge, and Rykkvin captures the fusion of Dryden’s poetry and Handel’s music. A hunting aria from the Roman cantata Diana cacciatrice is performed with infectious buoyancy. For good measure, before seven Rameau extracts, there is a precise account of a virtuoso battle aria from Albinoni’s Statira (an opera written not for Venice, as the booklet assumes, but for the 1726 Rome carnival).

The Ramellian half is dominated by arrangements of orchestral pieces, played charismatically; Rykkvin’s polished technique and confident musical personality yield a lovely account of Télaïre’s lament from Castor et Pollux and there is a delightful pastoral for a young shepherdess from Naïs, in which a pair of modern cors anglais cleverly imitate a musette. (David Vickers / Gramophone)

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 …

Luc Beauséjour MOMENTS BAROQUES AU PIANO

 The repertoire on this recording was written for harpsichord during the Baroque period, generally considered to span the years 1600 to 1750. While many pianists have played Bach, Scarlatti, Handel, Rameau, and even Couperin and Froberger, few harpsichordists have come to the defence of the harpsichord repertoire on the modern piano.

The idea was born during a meeting with Analekta president, François Mario Labbé. I was submitting some recording proposals for harpsichord and clavichord, and he asked me, “Why not make a CD of piano music?” Somewhat taken aback, I asked for a few days to think about it.

Not long after, I suggested a program that would not only include harpsichord repertoire already covered by pianists–Bach, Scarlatti, and Handel– but would also feature some lesser-known works. In compiling this program, I played for several friends on various occasions to get their opinions. After reading through quite a number of works, I selected those that appealed to me most and that I felt worked best on the piano.

Some pieces borrowed from the harpsichord repertoire sound very good on the piano, but I quickly realized that not all Baroque repertoire lends itself to the modern instrument with equal satisfaction.  (Luc Beauséjour)

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.