Joanna Kowalczyk / Rafał Kowalczyk SONATY NA FLET I FORTEPIAN

 

SONATY NA FLET I FORTEPIAN

Taryn Fiebig / Scott Davie

 

ON ETERNAL LOVE

 

Laurent Naouri / Frédéric Loiseau EN SOURDINE

 

EN SOURDINE

 

Matt Haimovitz / Mari Kodama MON AMI, MON AMOUR

 

MON AMI, MON AMOUR

 

Sabine Devieilhe / Alexandre Tharaud CHANSON D'AMOUR

CHANSON D'AMOUR

Alissa Zoubritski TRANSCRIPTIONS LYRIQUES

TRANSCRIPTIONS LYRIQUES

Carolyn Sampson / Joseph Middleton FLEURS

FLEURS

Anna Ovsyanikova / Julia Sinani LES SAISONS FRANÇAISES

LES SAISONS FRANÇAISES

Franziska Pietsch / Josu de Solaun FANTASQUE

FAURÉ | DEBUSSY | RAVEL | POULENC

Jungran Lee / Ilya Rashkovsiy RENDEZ-VOUS À PARIS

                                                         RENDEZ-VOUS À PARIS

Hanna-Elisabeth Müller / Juliane Ruf REINE DE COEUR

                                                                   REINE DE COEUR

Judith Ingolfsson / Vladimir Stoupel POULENC - FERROUD - RAVEL

There is one thing that all the three works here have in common: they stand out clearly from an entire French tradition of sonatas for violin and piano. Each, in its way, represents an affirmation of aesthetic independence as well as a fascinating and at times cruel or bitter reflection of its era. The sonatas of Poulenc, Ferroud and Ravel, without foregoing a lofty elegance, are freed from a certain number of rules and forms that had been long imposed.

Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel are both soloists with strong profiles, who search passionately for new paths in the intimate atmosphere of the chamber music recital. After the “Concert-Centenaire” trilogy this is the fourth CD of the renowned duo on the Accentus Music label.

Carolyn Sampson / Joseph Middleton REASON IN MADNESS

Throughout history men have feared madwomen, burning them as witches, confining them in asylums and subjecting them to psychoanalysis – yet, they have also been fascinated, unable to resist fantasizing about them. For their new disc, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have created a programme that explores the responses of a variety of composers to women whose stories have left them vulnerable and exposed. As a motto they have chosen an aphorism by Nietzsche: ‘There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.’
Brahms’ Ophelia Songs, composed for a stage production of Hamlet, appear next to those by Richard Strauss and Chausson, while Ophelia's death is described by both Schumann (in Herzeleid) and Saint-Saëns. Goethe’s mysterious and traumatized Mignon appears in settings by Hugo Wolf as well as Duparc, while his ill-used Gretchen grieves by her spinning-wheel in Schubert's matchless setting. Sadness and madness tip into witchery and unbridled eroticism with Pierre Louÿs's poems about Bilitis, set by Kœchlin and Debussy. Sampson and Middleton end their recital as it began, with a suicide by drowning: in Poulenc’s monologue La Dame de Monte-Carlo, the elderly female protagonist has been unlucky at the gambling tables and decides to throw herself into the sea.

Lang Lang PIANO BOOK

Recorded at London’s Abbey Road studios and in Beijing, ‘Piano Book’ is Lang Lang’s very personal playlist for everyone who loves the piano. It’s also the fruits of an astonishing career that has taken him from child prodigy to virtuoso at the very top of his profession. Equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the Olympics or just for a few hundred children in the public schools, Lang Lang is a master of communicating through music and his new album is a testament to that.

Cameron Carpenter RACHMANINOFF Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini POULENC Organ Concerto

Sony Classical announces the release of the new album by exceptional American organist Cameron Carpenter, with both his first orchestral recording and his first live-concert recording. This release features an original version of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, recorded live at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, paired together with Poulenc’s popular Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani. This world-premiere version of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody demonstrates Carpenter’s extensive musical skills: he arranged the original piano part for organ himself. The album programme is completed with Vierne’s Organ Symphony No. 1, recorded live as the concert encore. Carpenter is joined by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under renowned conductor Christoph Eschenbach, and all works were performed on his innovative International Touring Organ.

The album represents the culmination of Carpenter’s 2018 season as Artist-in-Residence at the Konzerthaus Berlin and is also a testament to his enduring friendship with Maestro Eschenbach, whom he first encountered whilst a student at the Juilliard School.

Carpenter explains the stimulus behind arranging Rachmaninoff’s piece: “I love and want to play this work. The question is then ‘How do I get my hands on this music, by any means necessary?’ As with many, even most, non-organ works, this requires the creation of a detailed transcription founded on study of the original.” The orchestral part remains unchanged, and what Carpenter performs here is “a recomposition for organ – guided by the original – of the piano part … it is a way of honouring a great work.” 

Richard Watkins / Julius Drake THE ROMANTIC HORN

This recording represents a selection of some of the most well-loved works for the horn. As our repertoire is relatively small, it seemed an ideal opportunity to select a programme of music from most European countries. The romantic horn was a fairly obvious title, given that all the works highlight the lyrical side of the horn—which is, essentially, what the instrument does best. I have always had a soft spot for Hunter’s moon—Gilbert Vinter being a leading figure in the light music movement, at its height in the 40s and 50s, but sadly now out of fashion. Finally, this project was the perfect opportunity to celebrate my collaboration over many years with Julius Drake, my friend and colleague with whom it has been the greatest privilege and honour to work. (Richard Watkins)

Eugénie Warnier / Marine Thoreau La Salle / Quatuor Les Heures du jour SOIR - BERCEUSES (MAIS PAS QUE...)

My singing debut was very abrupt, a matter of urgency. I was at the time an intern in gynaecology and obstetrics, and one evening, returning home from attending a performance of Rusalka at the Bastille Opera, I knew I had to sing. Starting to work your voice at the age of 25 is a difficult challenge, I ‘did’ everything as a matter of urgency. I use this word because despite my desire to learn to sing I had above all to do it very quickly, almost immediately on stage. I was able to enter the great temple through the door of early music. Little by little, by learning as I went, I was able to make progress, ‘carve out my space’, often with a certain form of violence, because I had to get ahead as fast as possible. The idea of this disc was born, I believe, a very long time ago and it has been shaped slowly, delicately. It was a journey towards peaceful reassurance, a gentle desire for songs that came from afar, for a melodious childhood, music-loving, melodic, for the love of the beautiful : a text, an air, easy to remember, soothing, reposeful. This ever present desire took form, became reality. With maturity came a self-confidence built up day after day until its first manifestation at Bordeaux Opera where I met an audience that was open-minded, moved, receptive and that had rejuvenated my desire to touch and move... the seed had been planted. (Eugénie Warnier)

Sophie Karthäuser / Eugene Asti LE BAL DES ANIMAUX

A mirror for the human animal The inhabitants of the animal kingdom have long been a subject of fascination for visual artists, and a source of inspiration for composers as well. Whether voicing their affection and awe, or mocking the human animal, composers have paid tribute to our furry and feathered friends by producing masterpieces of invention, musical mimicry, and wit. Peacocks, ducks, dromedaries, pigs, butterflies, carp, cicadas, and owls are just some of the creatures in the menagerie assembled for this recording, featuring the mischievous voice of Sophie Karthäuser, deftly accompanied by Eugene Asti.

Raquel Camarinha / Yoan Héreau RENCONTRE

‘Rencontre' is the first recital album of soprano Raquel Camarinha and pianist Yoan Héreau, new signings on Naïve. It crystallizes several years of passionate live music-making for the duo. From Debussy to Poulenc, via Ravel and the all-too rare Delage, we are invited on a journey akin to a game of mirrors between composers, music, poems, characters and performers, that is in turn amorous, dreamlike, mysterious and wonderfully evocative. The Portuguese soprano Raquel Camarinha was born in Braga in 1986. She began her vocal studies in 2000, completed the Secondary Singing Course in 2004, and in 2009 the Undergraduate Course in Music, at the University of Aveiro. In 2011 she took her master’s degree at the Paris Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et Danse, in the class of Chantal Mathias. Winner of several national and international awards, in 2011 she won first prize at the Luísa Todi National Singing Competition in Portugal, as well as the Best Female Performer Award at the Armel Opera Competition in Hungary.

Orchestre Symphonique De Québec / Fabien Gabel GAÎTÉ PARISIENNE

From the waltz to the French cancan to the ballet, this program by the Orchestre symphonique de Québec under the baton of conductor Fabien Gabel illustrates the perfect symbiosis between dance and French music. On the menu: Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales; Jacques Offenbach’s suite Gaîté Parisienne, arranged by Manuel Rosenthal; and the suite Les Biches by Francis Poulenc. 

Recognized internationally as one of the stars of the new generation, Fabien Gabel is a regular guest of major orchestras in Europe, North America, and Asia, and has been music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec since September 2012. He is also music director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes for the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons, taking over from David Zinman.