J. S. BACH
Bach: Cantatas For Soprano Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Freiburger Barockorchester, with Andreas Wolf (bass-baritone) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 21/Apr/2017 ] "Tempos are justly chosen and the appropriately resonant importance given to the basso continuo provides icing on this most delicious of cakes." BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month, August 2017 ***** |
J. S BACH
Bach: Tonet Ihr Pauken Secular Cantatas BWV 214 & BWV 207 Carolyn Sampson, Peter Kooy / Collegium Vocale Gent / Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 6/Jan/2008 ] "A release of considerable aplomb and exceptional vitality." (Gramophone) |
MAURICE RAVEL / MODEST MUSSORGSKY
Ravel [Includes Piano Concertos & La Valse] Cédric Tiberghien (piano), Stéphane Degout (bartone) / Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD Box Set - released 14/Jun/2024 ] Les Siècles present two of their successful series of Ravel recordings on period instruments under François-Xavier Roth, with Cédric Tiberghien at the piano and baritone Stéphane Degout. |
MAURICE RAVEL
Ravel: Concertos pour piano -Melodies Cédric Tiberghien, Stéphane Degout, Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 20/May/2022 ] Les Siècles continue their successful series of Ravel recordings on period instruments under François-Xavier Roth, with Cédric Tiberghien at the piano and baritone Stéphane Degout. |
FREDERIC CHOPIN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mazurkas (selection) / Polonaise-fantaisie / Scherzo No. 1 / Nocturne Op. 48 No. 1 Cedric Tiberghien (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 20/Sep/2010 ] "Tiberghien seems to have the poise and poetry of Chopin in his blood. He makes the piano sing...This is an imaginative disc of shifting moods that are readily within Tiberghien's expressive orbit and which he interprets with sublime inspiration."... |
ARVO PÄRT / PETERIS VASKS / JAMES McMILLAN
Pärt: Stabat Mater, Magnificat, Da Pacem Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Dmitri Ensemble, Graham Ross [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/May/2020 ] Encompassing works by Arvo Pärt (Estonia), PÄ“teris Vasks (Latvia), and James MacMillan (a native of Scotland), this album charts the evolution of choral music in three regions of Northern Europe that saw the rise of a startling new language beginning... |
MENDELSSOHN
Symphonie Nr.2 "Lobgesang" Christiane Karg, Christina Landhamer, Michael Schade, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Pablo Heras-Casado [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Mar/2014 ] Symphony, cantata, or oratorio? The Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), commissioned by the city of Leipzig from its Kapellmeister Mendelssohn to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the invention of printing in 1840, has elements of all three... |
LALANDE / CHIEN / COLIN / ANONYMOUS / etc
Les Funérailles Royales de Louis XIV BLU-RAY + DVD Céline Scheen, Lucile Richardot, Samuel Boden, Marc Mauillon, Christian Immler / Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon [ Harmonia Mundi Blu-ray + DVD / 2 Blu-ray Disc/DVD - released 23/Feb/2018 ] The funeral of Louis XIV mirrored his reign: grandiose and filled with pathos. Raphaël Pichon has chosen the setting of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, built 'for the use' of the Sun King, to present a musical reconstruction of the event, with... |
J. S. BACH
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Bach: Leipziger Weihnachtskantaten [Christmas Cantatas from Leipzig] / Magnificat in E flat Carolyn Sampson, Mark Padmore, Ingeborg Danz, Peter Kooy, etc / Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD Box Set - released 6/Jan/2008 ] The Christmas cantatas have in common the use of a church chorale as their conceptual starting point, and their intimate performing forces. In Bach's output they constitute a kind of meditation on the meaning of the feast of Christmas. |
ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI
A. Scarlatti: Opera Overtures and Concertos Concerto de' Cavalieri, Marcello Di Lisa [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 20/Apr/2017 ] "…dispatched with swashbuckling swagger…" (Gramophone) |
J. S. BACH
Bach: The Art of Fugue Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 9/Jun/2023 ] Notated on four staves, as though intended for some unspecified set of instruments (or even voices? or keyboard?), these thirteen erudite contrapuncti, four canons, and an unfinished triple fugue-incorporating the letters of Bach's name-are often... |
JOSEF HAYDN
The Seven Last Words of Christ Hob.XX:2 Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Mar/2014 ] |
ANONYMOUS
"Indiscretions" The Curious Bards [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Sep/2023 ] "The musicians' description of this music as 'new treasures waiting to be unearthed' is indeed warranted...all excellently played, generating the convivial intimacy of performance in a lost age." BBC Music |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Overtures, Romances & Arias Daniel Behle (tenor) / L'Orfeo Barockorchester [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 20/Sep/2017 ] "The German lyric tenor brings all his gifts as a lieder singer - cut-glass diction, eager storytelling persona - without dissuading me that Schubert was even less of a music dramatist than his idol, Beethoven." Sunday Times |
LEONARDO VINCI / LEONARDO LEO / RICCARDO BROSCHI / ANTONIO Maria BONONCINI
Rivals : Arias for Farinelli & Company David Hansen (countertenor) / Academia Montis Regalis, Alessandro de Marchi [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 6/Sep/2013 ] "Hansen dazzles throughout with his vocal fireworks...de Marchi draws some crack playing - here fiery, there serene - from the Academic Montis Regalis." Five Stars BBC Music November 2013 Opera Choice |
BIZET / CAPUA / DONIZETTI / OFFENBACH / etc
Les Contre-Tenors [The Counter Tenors] Dominique Visse, Andreas Scholl, Pascal Bertin (countertenors) [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 21/Jul/2017 ] Three countertenors having fun, back in 1995, hot on the heels of the original Three Tenors! Dominique Visse, Andreas Scholl, Pascal Bertin: three distinctive and outstanding voices are showcased singing pieces they would not normally perform but... |
J. S. BACH
Bach - Small Gifts Dorothee Oberlinger (recorder/director), Andreas Scholl (counter-tenor) Ensemble 1700 [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Dec/2017 ] "Andreas Scholl, voice fresh and unblemished as ever, and recorder player/director Dorothee Oberlinger are in their element...Oberlinger's small, Cologne-based chamber ensemble plays with lithe precision, each musician a soloist. |
CAMILE SAINT-SAENS
Saint-Saens: Cello Concerto No.1 - Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3 Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello) / Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, James Gaffigan. with Pascal Amoyel (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Mar/2017 ] "[A] luscious and lyrical account of the concerto, with rich orchestral detail" Irish Times |
BENOÎT MENUT
Menut: Les îles - Une traversée de la mer d'Iroise aux Caraïbes Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello) Maya Villanueva (soprano) / Ensemble Syntonia [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/May/2020 ] An ocean crossing from the Iroise Sea to the Caribbean Inspired as much by the poems of Dominique Lambert and Aimé Césaire as by Nito Dariel's sculptures, Benoît Menut's first album for this label unfolds like a paean to the ocean and to nature. |
VIVALDI
Cello Concertos Roel Dieltiens (cello) / Ensemble Explorations [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 3/Jun/2013 ] "One-to-a-part transparency and articulation can't overcome the stifling reverberation of a Belgian church. Dieltiens, forward of the strings, plays indulgently, but with heartfelt passion." (BBC Music) |