CAMILE SAINT-SAENS
Bacchanale: Saint-Saëns et la Méditerranée Orchestre Divertimento, Zahia Ziouani [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 19/May/2023 ] Passionate about travel, Saint-Saëns was strongly influenced by the cultural diversity he encountered in North Africa. Zahia Ziouani, as one immersed in these twin cultures herself, is able to shed new light on the composer's travel-inspired works by... |
BARTOK
The Miraculous Mandarin Orchestre National de Lyon [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 17/Jun/2016 ] "The 1924 quasi-ballet that provoked so much indignation at its premiere in Cologne is interpreted by Robertson and his forces with a crisp vivacity rarely evoked on CD." - The Observer (14 Jul 2002) |
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Puccini: Messa di gloria & Orchestral Works Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Gustavo Gimeno [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 14/Apr/2023 ] Before turning his attention to opera, Puccini wrote a number of wonderful works that are perhaps less well known, even if they already put his full genius on show. This is particularly true of the astonishing Messa di Gloria, whose evocative power... |
Orlando Consort
Busnois - Missa O Crux lignum, Motets, Chansons [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 25/Feb/2005 ] "The Orlando Consort functions on a consistently high level both in programming and in execution... this group quickly came to match the excellence of the best male vocal ensembles anywhere, not just in England." - Fanfare |
ANONYMOUS
The Call of the Phoenix: rare 15th Century Church music (music of Dunstaple; Frye; Plummer; Anonymous) Orlando Consort [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 12/Dec/2002 ] "This forthright style of the Orlando Consort is accompanied by immaculate tuning, rhythmic concision and clear articulation of the text." BBC Music Magazine ( Dec 2002) Performance FIVE STARS - GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 2003 - Early Music |
Orlando Consort
Food, Wine & Song - Music and Feasting in Renaissance Europe [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 9/Dec/2001 ] Editor's Choice. Gramophone Magazine January 2002 |
Orlando Consort
The Toledo Summit [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Dec/2003 ] " This glorious, ancient music, expertly sung and ideally recorded, provides a happy respite in a world that in certain critical areas (except for those lip-synching, hyper-processed, tonally challenged pop stars) hasn't really changed much in 500... |
Orlando Consort
Various: Medieval Christmas [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 24/Oct/2011 ] |
The Orlando Consort / Perfect Houseplants
Extempore II: A modern Mass for the Feast of St Michael based on the medieval melody L'homme arme [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 3/Jul/2003 ] The Orlando Consort and Perfect Houseplants reunite for their second intriguing collaboration—a fascinating blend of medieval polyphony, composed jazz, and improvisation |
BUSNOIS
Missa O Crux lignum The Orlando Consort [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 29/Jul/2013 ] " You can hear why Busnois's music was admired so much by the Venetian madrigalists of the beginning of the 16th century." (The Guardian) |
TRADITIONAL
Medieval Christmas: 10th to 16th-century secular & liturgical music for feast days The Orlando Consort [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 12/Dec/2011 ] "As we've come to expect, the singing is first-rate--vibrant, impeccably tuned, and with a strong rhythmic vitality, supported by ideal sound. And although it will be the rare listener who recognizes any of these works, that actually is a good thing:... |
BIZET
L'Arlasienne Suites / Symphony in C Orquesta Ciudad de Granada / Josep Pons [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 1/Sep/2007 ] Written by a 17-year old composer, the totally classical Symphony in C major 'sounds... as if there had not been hundreds written before it. |
STRAVINSKY
Pulcinella / Two suites for chamber orchestra / Dumbarton Oaks Orquesta Ciudad de Granada / Josep Pons [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 29/Jun/2006 ] Originally conceived for the Ballets Russes, Pulcinella asserted itself in its definitive form as the very epitome of Stravinskyan neo-classicism. |
STRAVINSKY
The Firebird / Jeu de Cartes (Complete Ballets) Orquesta Ciudad de Granada / Josep Pons [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 28/Jun/2004 ] "Two contrasted Stravinsky ballets played by this enthusiastic Spanish ensemble and given a new feel by their smaller-than-usual presentation." - Editor's Choice - Gramophone Magazine (May 2001) |
Orquesta Sinfanica de Tenerife Victor Pablo Parez, conductor
Heitor Villa-Lobos - Symphony No. 10 (Amerindia) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Feb/2004 ] "Villa-Lobos mixed up history, religion and geography to produce this sprawling epic...an excellent performance" (Gramophone Jan 2004) |
CORBETT / SCARLATTI / AVISON / BOCCHERINI / CARLOS DE SEIXAS
Á Portuguesa: Iberian Concertos & Sonatas Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música, Andreas Staier (harpsichord and direction) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 19/Oct/2018 ] Iberian exoticism with a difference! This musical journey takes its title from one of William Corbett's Bizzarie universali, a set of concertos which, in truth, owe much more to the Italian tradition than to the Iberian peninsula . . . In the Age of... |
MANUEL DE FALLA / GARCIA LORCA
Falla: El corregidor y la molinera / Lorca: españolas antiguas Ginesa Ortega / Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure, Josep Pons [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 11/Jul/2005 ] |
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Concerto pour Bandoneon / Tres Movimientos Tanguisticos Portenos / Tangos Pablo Mainetti (bandoneon) / Orchestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure, Josep Pons [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 10/Jul/2014 ] "performance of great panache … attractive proposition." (International Record Review) |
SAINT-SAENS
Sonata no.1 / Suite op.16 / etc Pascal Amoyel (violin) Emmanuelle Bertrand (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Sep/2007 ] Written when he was only 27 years old, the Suite for cello remained one of Saint-Saëns’s favourite children all his life. Ten years later, in 1872, he discovered a new passion for the instrument, which led to the monumental First Sonata. ‘Nowhere... |
JOSEF HAYDN
Piano Trios no.43-45 Patrick Cohen (fortepiano) Erich Hobarth (violin) Christophe Coin (violoncello) [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 20/Aug/2005 ] These three Trios were published in April 1797 by Longman and Broderip in London. Haydn brought a density and a variety of writing and expressiveness to a genre that was performed by amateur musicians with the sole aim of mutual pleasure. The... |