Anne Gastinel / Xavier Phillips OFFENBACH 6 Cello Duos

 

6 CELLO DUOS

Philippe Bianconi DEBUSSY 12 Études - Le Martyre de saint Sébastien

 

12 ÉTUDES - LE MARTYRE DE SAINT SÉBASTIEN

 

Olivier Latry BACH TO THE FUTURE

                                                           BACH TO THE FUTURE

Quatuor Hermès / Geoffroy Couteau BRAHMS Piano Quintet - Piano Quartet Nos. 1 - 3

Sincerity, refinement, and sensibility are probably the terms that best describe the Hermès Quartet.

Those qualities, noticed at an early stage by Miguel da Silva and the Ravel and Ysaÿe quartets, were developed and confirmed with the guidance of Eberhard Feltz, the Artemis Quartet, and members of the Alban Berg Quartet.

In 2009, just a year after its formation at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, the quartet won First Prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition, in addition to the Audience Prize and the SACEM Prize, thanks notably to its interpretation of Henri Dutilleux’s Quartet Ainsi la nuit. The magic touch was in evidence again in 2011, when it was awarded First Prize at the prestigious Geneva International Competition. In the same year the group received prizes from the Académie Maurice Ravel and the Fondation Charles Oulmont.
In November 2012, to cap what was already a series of outstanding achievements, came the supreme accolade of the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York, where the four French musicians, competing with more than 300 candidates from all over the world, won a First Prize that opened the doors of the foremost American concert halls.

The sensibility of its youthful musicians and the high standards they set themselves have enabled the Hermès Quartet in a few short years to acquire an exceptional degree of maturity and embark on a highly promising career. Its engagements now include tours of the United States (autumn 2013 and spring 2015), China (June 2014), Japan, and Egypt, and of course appearances at many leading festivals and venues in France and elsewhere in Europe (Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium), among them the Lockenhaus Festival, the Festival de l’Orangerie de Sceaux, the Festival de Radio France et de Montpellier, the Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, the Crescendo Festival in Berlin, and the Auditorium du Louvre and Cité de la musique in Paris.
This busy schedule provides the members with the ideal opportunity to share their passion for the brilliant and deeply human repertoire of the string quartet.

André Isoir J.S. BACH Te Deum

The French organist and composer, André Isoir, studied in Paris at the École Cesar-Franck with Édouard Souberbielle (organ) and Germaine Mounier (piano). At the Conservatoire de Paris, he studied with Rolande Falcinelli and received the premier prix in both organ and improvisation in 1960. He won several international organ competitions including the St Albans International Organ Festival in England in 1965, then won 3 consecutive annual prizes (Prix du Challenge) at Haarlem Competition in Holland (1966-1968). He was the first French organist to achieve this distinction in the history of the competition. In 1974 Isoir was given the prize in composition by the Amis de l'Orgue for his Variations sur un psaume Huguenot.
c served as organist at St.-Médard from 1952 to 1957, at St.-Séverin from 1967 to 1973, and at the Abbatial Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris from 1973. As a recitalist, he became particularly well known for his performances of the works of J.S. Bach.

André Isoir made many recordings, particularly on the Calliope label. As of 2006, there were 36 of his recordings in the catalog. They have received numerous awards. He made over 20 CD's of the organ works of J.S. Bach. His recordings of the music of César Franck on the organ of the cathedral at Luçon have also been particularly praised. He did not neglect more obscure but very worthy composers. He recorded the complete organ output of Nicolas de Grigny who died in 1703 at only 31, but not before "epitomizing the French classical organ tradition...which was) stylistically more akin to harpsichord than to organ practice at the time."

Vanessa Wagner LISZT, PÄRT

Liszt liked to introduce himself as « half Franciscan, half Gypsy», allowing sensual pleasures to mingle with a profound mystical feeling. With Poetic and Religious Harmonies, inspired by a volume of poetry by Lamartine, the title seems to encapsulate the composer’s passions: literature and spirituality.

In this work, Liszt, the greatest virtuoso of his time and the inventor of the recital, enhances all expressive and technical possibilities of the piano, elevating his favourite instrument to the rank of the ambassador of romanticism.