NEW RELEASE SEPTEMBER 2023

A Paris welcome.

The six symphonies Haydn composed for Parisian audiences in the mid-1780s are imbued with the kind of wit and humour that no fan of this composer could fail to appreciate…as William Christie would agree!

The fruit of a commission by the Comte d’Ogny for the Concert de la Loge Olympique, Haydn’s set of six so-called ‘Paris’ Symphonies forms a key milestone in his output. Having long admired these highly original works, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants now bring us four of them in exhilaratingly elegant and poetic readings. This is coupled with the all too rarely played Violin Concerto no.1, here directed from the violin by the soloist, Théotime Langlois de Swarte.

NEW RELEASE September 2023

Intriguing and irresistible!

Following on their impressive debut album [Ex]tradition, the Curious Bards continue to explore material from the Scottish and Irish folk traditions preserved in 18th-century publications. Their new collection of airs and dances brings us more of this fascinating repertoire, in which the distinctions between serious music and popular inspiration need no longer apply.

This recording is an opportunity to discover the Gaelic musical culture as it has been preserved in the manuscripts of the period: all the pieces on the programme are taken from collections of tunes forming the heritage of an entire nation. Leaping from an Irish jig to a frenetic Scottish reel, you will quickly find yourself swept away in the musical whirlwind generated by the Curious Bards!

Performing live on 22 September 2023 at the Abbey of Montmajour

RELEASE DATE : 1st September 2023

Visiting the Schumanns

Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Hanna Salzenstein, Fiona Mato—the members of the Dichter Trio are releasing their debut recording as part of the Stradivari collection.

The Dichter Trio takes us on an imaginary visit to one of the most iconic couples in 19th-century Germany: the home of Robert and Clara Schumann, enlivened by their artistic, musical, and personal exuberance. Bach was one of their models; Gade, Kirchner, and Brahms: their protégés; and Felix Mendelssohn—a close friend! An immersive look at their music-making that tells us more than a shelf full of books…

Also featuring baritone Samuel Hasselhorn

NEW RELEASE AUGUST

Poet and virtuoso !

Locatelli’s concertos are among the most virtuosic in the entire repertory — and even seen as impossible to play ! Or rather, they used to be…

Violinists dread these works by a composer who was long regarded as the only artist capable of performing them. But perhaps the hardest thing is not merely to ‘get through them’, but to make something of them. And that extra-special something is precisely what Isabelle Faust and il giardino armonico have set out to find, a few years after a benchmark recording of the Mozart violin concertos. The result is as dazzling as even the most demanding connoisseur could hope for.

Images © ACCENTUS, 2023

NEW RELEASE / AUGUST 2023

Interstellar thrills.

The virtuoso ORA Singers celebrate the feast of the Assumption with a selection of dizzying works..

This recording takes us on a fantasy choral journey using the traditional services of Vespers and Benediction as its guide. It weaves hypnotic plainchant around renaissance gems and modern masterpieces. The music of the great Renaissance masters, Palestrina, Guerrero and Anerio sit alongside distinctive voices from the twenty-first century: James MacMIllan, Julian Anderson, John Joubert, Sven-David Sandström and Matthew Martin.

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NEW RELEASE SUMMER 2023

Handel as a philosopher.

In his attachment to one of the least easily categorizable scores of the “dear Saxon,” William Christie has long wanted to revisit L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, with its interior dialogue between the allegorical figures of “the joyful man, the contemplative man, and the moderate.” A master work of the Enlightenment.

A hybrid work situated somewhere between oratorio, ode and serenata, L’Allegro… is undoubtedly one of Handel’s most mysterious works, but also his most inspired! With their accustomed poetry, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants offer us the chance to rediscover this masterpiece, in which the composer transforms metaphysics into painting and ideas into pure emotions.

RELEASE DATE: 16 JUNE

A musical treat on Spanish time

By adhering to every detail of Ravel’s original scores, François-Xavier Roth is able to rediscover the unique colours inherent in this music that owes so much to Spain… Whether he is conducting L’Heure espagnole or the world-famous Bolero, this fifth volume of his Ravel cycle brings us closer than ever to the sources of its inspiration!

The Bolero, performed on the instruments of the period, regains all its original colour and restores the scoring that later tradition had inexplicably discarded: the use of two tabors (“tambours,” subsequently replaced by a side drum) and the castanets.

As for Ravel’s first operatic effort, entrusted to such an ideal cast (Isabelle Druet, Julien Behr, Loïc Félix, Thomas Dolié, and Jean Teitgen), it gains an irresistible vitality fuelled by the composer’s infectious comic force.

NEW RELEASE 26 MAY 2023

In service to César Franck

Throughout his duo sonatas, trios, and quintets, César Franck’s chamber music is remarkable for its intensity, especially evident when its champions are members of the Trio Wanderer and their favourite collaborators.

Between his youthful piano trios and the prodigious late works of a mature composer represented by his Violin Sonata in A major and Quintet in F minor, this 2-CD set honouring César Franck highlights a fundamental turning point in the history of French chamber music. Offering an echo of Franck’s composition for the same forces, Louis Vierne’s deeply moving Quintet completes the programme that gives each member of the Trio Wanderer and their partners—Catherine Montier (second violin) and Christophe Gaugué (viola)—ample occasion to shine.

RELEASE DATE: 21 APRIL

Rolling River

A splendid panorama of American choral music from the post-war period to the present day.

Choral singing enjoys astonishing vitality in the United States of America. Alongside Bernstein’s prodigious Chichester Psalms, Barber’s Two Choruses, and Erb’s much-loved arrangement of Shenandoah, Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge introduce us to the colourful works of the younger generation of composers on the other side of the Atlantic.

Latest New Releases

The Major Festivals of the Summer season

Raphaël Pichon conducts The Marriage of Figaro at the Salzburg Festival 2023

Partnered by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for this new production directed by Martin Kušej, the principal cast includes Sabine Devieilhe, Lea Desandre, Adriana González, Krzysztof Bączyk, and Andrè Schuen.

Performances will take place on July 27 and 30, and on August 5, 11, 15, 17, 20, and 28.

To learn more about this production, click here.

Upcoming albums, projects, life of the label…

Die schöne Müllerin marks the launch of a major Schubert project

Samuel Hasselhorn and Ammiel Bushakevitz will be in recital on 14 October 2023 at the Salle Cortot in Paris to perform Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, just weeks after the release of their recording of this masterpiece, availble on 22 September 2023.

This first volume sets the tone for a major series of releases, continuing each year through 2028, that will mark the bicentenary of Schubert’s death—a fascinating journey through the immense corpus of the composer’s lieder.

 

To purchase tickets

Schubert200

mockup Ligeti

Les Siècles travel through centuries!

Featuring the remarkable Kammerkonzert and the Six Bagatelles for wind quintet, here is a welcome reissue of an album showcasing various facets of György Ligeti.

Ligeti’s interest in sonorities and instrumental timbres is well known. François-Xavier Roth and the musicians of Les Siècles, themselves true alchemists of sounds and colours, recorded shimmering interpretations of these three works in 2016, displaying unprecedented clarity and naturalness, and also tremendous humour. They have been superbly remastered for this reissue.

The harmonia mundi artists at the BBC Proms

Paul Lewis, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth, Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, Gustavo Gimeno, Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon have been invited this year to perform at the Royal Albert Hall and we are very proud to announce it.

The tickets for the BBC Proms 2023 are on sale now and can be booked here

Tickets on sale

The Bach cycle continues

Benjamin Alard has just finished recording the Goldberg Variations, performed on the prodigious three-manual Hass harpsichord!

The artist returns to this one-of-a-kind instrument some 12 months following the release of his recording of Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier, enthusiastically received by the critics (Diapason d’or, Gramophone magazine’s Editor’s Choice, etc.). Future volumes are also in the process of being recorded, each of them performed on one of several extraordinary instruments…

Forthcoming releases:

VOL. 9: KÖTHEN, THE YEARS OF happiness

VOL. 10: CLAVIERÜBUNG, VOLUMES I AND II

VOL. 11: THE MUSIC LIBRARY OF ANNA MAGDALENA

J.S Bach - B. Alard

The Art of Fugue at the centre of the harmonia mundi catalogue

One of the most enigmatic works in Bach’s entire output has given rise to a number of recorded versions and interpretations. A few weeks before a new reading joins this list, here is an overview.

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 considered to be his musical testament. Shrouded in myths traceable to the work’s origins. The Art of Fugue is a puzzle for the performers and for the listeners alike. And yet, between a solo harpsichord, a consort of viols, a chamber orchestra, and the unexpected threesome of Les inAttendu, several solutions present themselves. Simply enter the words “art of fugue” into the search field to discover the four versions released by harmonia mundi… in anticipation of a fifth, entrusted to the intrepid musicians of the Cuarteto Casals.

Available June 9

J.S. BACH, THE ART OF FUGUE / CUARTETO CASALS (HMM 902717)

PROMS : Requiem de Mozart / Pygmalion

More Ravel from Les Siècles

The fifth release in a Ravel cycle that has already become a reference edition: L’Heure espagnole paired with the world-famous Bolero announce the many rhythms and moods that have “a touch of Spain about them.”

Is it possible to rediscover the Bolero? When the piece recovers its original garment, complete with period drums and castanets, the answer is yes! As for that Hour, championed by an outstanding cast consisting entirely of native French-speakers: its caustic comedy remains quintessentially Spanish! This release follows four earlier Ravel albums emblematic of the meticulous work by Les Siècles under the baton of François-Xavier Roth—a genuine quest whose aim is well worth mentioning: to perform the most famous works of symphonic repertoire on the instruments for which the music was written, to follow as closely as possible the intentions of the composer, and, whenever possible, to use the original scores.

Release date: 16 June 2023

PROMS : Requiem de Mozart / Pygmalion

A royal honour! 

In 1727, having just become a naturalised British subject, Handel was commissioned to write a set of anthems for the coronation of George II. Since he could hardly have expected ever to see a more majestic occasion, the composer took full advantage of it to put on a musical firework display of unprecedented splendour. The RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin give thrilling accounts of these flamboyant works – some of which are still used today at each new coronation!

 

Available 28 April 2023

PROMS : Requiem de Mozart / Pygmalion

Dolby Atmos sound

is present on many new releases and re-releases by harmonia mundi..

No less than 17 new releases and a minimum of 12 remasterings are announced in Dolby Atmos format on the label in 2023. Find the complete list of releases in this format in our Topics.

J.S. BACH | B. ALARD

The April-June 2023 releases

No less than eleven new harmonia mundi releases await you between April and June. Those wishing to celebrate the coronation of Charles III will be able to count on the famous “Zadok the Priest” from the Coronation Anthems by the RIAS Kammerchor (28 April). Alexander Melnikov renews (and amplifies) his exploits as a ‘multi-instrumentalist’ with no less than seven keyboards which, from the clavichord to the Steinway, from the harpsichord to the pianoforte, host seven Fantasias spanning three centuries! (28 April). Gustavo Gimeno offers us a new reading of Puccini’s Messa di Gloria at the head of the Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg (14 April). In May, the Trio Wanderer presents a monograph dedicated to César Franck and Louis Vierne. In June, several masterpieces as you have never heard them before: Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony by the Freiburger Barockorchester (Pablo Heras-Casado), L’Heure espagnole and the Bolero by Les Siècles, L’Art de la Fugue brilliantly adapted for string quartet by Les Casals…
All the news of the semester: click here.

Isabelle Faust in the spotlight

2023 is decidedly a year of good fortune: as a follow-up to her acclaimed Stravinsky Violin Concerto recording, she will release two exceptional albums this fall, one of which is entirely unaccompanied.

Isabelle Faust is no ordinary violinist: her approach to exploring the repertoire created for her instrument is as demanding as it is methodical, an activity that continues in the recording studio where several projects are underway. Earlier this year, she could be heard at Europe’s finest venues, performing Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with Antoine Tamestit and John Eliot Gardiner; come autumn, she is featured on two recordings destined to make their mark.

This August will see the release of an album of concertos by the “Paganini of the eighteenth century,” the great Pietro Antonio Locatelli, which reunites her with her partners from Il Giardino Armonico, led by Giovanni Antonini… Two months later will find her in a simpler setting as a solo violinist for an album of unaccompanied works by French, Italian, and German composers. The prospect of two dazzling projects well worth the wait!

Available 25 August and 20 October, respectively.

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A passion for excellence 1958.

Now 65, the label cultivates an insolent youth. Exploring new repertoires, broadening our horizons, developing young talent and constantly striving for excellence: this is harmonia mundi’s motto. We are demanding, passionate and proud of our independence. This is our story…

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