A world apart…

An acknowledged masterpiece of the cello repertoire, Henri Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain… finds a brilliant champion in Jean-Guihen Queyras. Alongside Gustavo Gimeno at the helm of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the cellist delivers a powerful and poetic reading of this major addition to the list of notable 20th-century concertos.

It is paired with two other works that are very much its equals in stature. Both the dazzling study of instrumental sonorities that is at the core of Métaboles and the rarely heard First Symphony are enhanced by the selfsame attention to detail—and by the sumptuous colour palette of the storied Luxembourg orchestra.

DIAPASON D’OR
CHOC CLASSICA

Restless and troubled

The year 1939. Alarmed by the imminent outbreak of war, Benjamin Britten composes a violin concerto of rare intensity, raw and at the same time highly personal. The upheavals of that time find a haunting echo in his music, a key aspect of this work for Isabelle Faust, who enlisted the help of Jakub Hrůša and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra for this major recording event: an absolute, albeit misunderstood, masterpiece that is in desperate need of rediscovery!

After her acclaimed recordings of music by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Berg, the violinist has partnered with Alexander Melnikov (piano) and her brother Boris Faust (viola) as they invite us to discover some beguiling examples of Britten’s chamber music.

DIAPASON D’OR ARTE

A Life in Music

Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants embark on an ambitious and highly intriguing new project! Rather than approaching Bach’s output as being set in stone, an imposing monument for the ages, they invite us to accompany him on his life’s journey decade by decade, as fellow travellers observing his progress along the way. In this first instalment, we follow Bach the young ‘rock star’ making conquests from Arnstadt to Mühlhausen.

Each volume in the series will also feature a cantata by one of Bach’s most notable contemporaries (here, a work by Johann Kuhnau). A unique opportunity to better understand the imprint of Bach’s time on his music and to hear what made his voice, always so personal and so original, stand out.

Classical Album of the Week / THE TIMES *****

Resplendent Handel!

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor, under the incisive and nuanced direction of Justin Doyle, bring us a dazzling reading of three early masterpieces of Handel’s sacred music. An album that has already garnered a TTTT rating from Télérama!

It was in Rome, where he resided between 1707 and 1710, that the young musical genius composed these dazzling psalm settings. Highlighting this composer’s masterful blend of profound spirituality and vibrant theatricality, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor, along with the luminous Carolyn Sampson in the Laudate pueri, deliver a wonderfully fresh listening experience.

Symphonic C.P.E. Bach

With this scintillating new album, featuring works from C.P.E. Bach’s years in Berlin alongside those composed later in Hamburg, the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin round off their complete cycle of all the symphonies by Johann Sebastian’s inspired son.

The high point of a recording project begun over two decades ago, this final instalment offers the quintessence of his art, revealing the full originality of this unjustly neglected music, whose freedom and inventiveness paved the way for Haydn and Mozart.

Royal Couperin!

Pierre Gallon and Matthieu Boutineau invite us to discover François Couperin’s Concerts Royaux in a version for two harpsichords—a rare combination, yet one that was especially dear to the court composer to the Sun King.

In a reading at once brilliant and moving, the two performers join forces to bring out all the poetry, tenderness, gaiety, and inexhaustible invention of this astonishing collection. This journey into a world at the juncture of the waning Grand Siècle and the dawning age of the Enlightenment marks Pierre Gallon’s first solo project for harmonia mundi.

“Love potion” turned into nectar.

In this programme of Wagner opera scenes transcribed for piano solo – but taking full advantage of the instrument’s sumptuous sonority – Nikolai Lugansky highlights the astonishing dramatic and emotional impact of each excerpt. An impressive panorama of the essentials of the composer’s output!

Traversing through some of the most poignant moments in the Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal, Lugansky the virtuoso poet of the keyboard honours the profoundly human dimension of Wagner’s iconic legacy, which encompasses love, betrayal, sacrifice, and the quest for the absolute…

Three gems of musical neoclassicism

Ranging from the Italy of the “commedia dell’arte” depicted in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella to the picaresque Spain evoked in Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto and chamber opera (El retablo de maese Pedro), this exhilarating programme takes us on a delightful journey into musical neoclassicism!

Pablo Heras-Casado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra explore the colourful and multifaceted world of Stravinsky’s and Falla’s music of the 1920s. Among the attractions is Benjamin Alard’s use of a sumptuous Pleyel harpsichord dating from that period and of the type which Wanda Landowska played at the Falla premieres.

Vivaldi, all life long!

Théotime Langlois de Swarte and Le Consort invite us to follow the thread that runs through representative instrumental compositions of the ‘red-haired priest.’ Starting with the earliest concertos he wrote in Venice and ending with his final works composed in Vienna, follow their fanciful itinerary that illustrates the myriad facets of Antonio Vivaldi.

Whether it is the music for which he is now beloved (such as the initial version of the ‘Summer’ Concerto from The Four Seasons) or his previously unrecorded compositions (including sonatas, sinfonias, and concertos), Vivaldi never ceased to innovate within established genres, musical forms, and timbres. A portrait of the composer who holds special significance for Théotime Langlois de Swarte, this double album has already joined a bevy of the most streamed classical releases and garnered both a Choc de Classica and a Trophée Radio Classique award!

A hymn to love

With his Turangalîla-Symphonie, French composer Olivier Messiaen produced one of the most spectacular orchestral scores created in the twentieth century. Gustavo Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) bring us a powerful and poetic reading of this towering work, available in Dolby Atmos. His featured soloists are Marc-André Hamelin (piano) and Nathalie Forget (ondes Martenot).

A whole world in itself, the Symphony takes its inspiration from the medieval legend of Tristan and Yseult, as well as from the culture and classical music of India. The score indicates solo parts for a piano and for the ondes Martenot—both instruments that the composer deploys in concerto-like manner. More than a half century after the TSO’s GRAMMY-nominated first recording of the same piece led by Seiji Ozawa, for this new version the Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno have called on virtuoso soloists who are expert performers of the work, with the end result that is nothing short of a major recording event.

A wizard of the viola

With his latest album, Timothy Ridout shines a light on the legacy of Lionel Tertis (1876-1975), one of the greatest masters of the viola in recent times. Come along on a musical journey of discovery, featuring some of the most inspired showpieces for the instrument – including works originally intended or transcribed for it.

Still little known to the public at large, Lionel Tertis was instrumental in the modern-day renaissance of the viola. Accompanied by James Baillieu and Frank Dupree on the piano, the young British prodigy Timothy Ridout here invites us to explore the many facets of this striking repertoire, along with some key works by Tertis himself, by his contemporaries, and his students.

A world beyond

Adam Laloum takes us on a journey into the deepest core of Schubert’s most nakedly human universe. Through an explorations of the sorrows and the joys of the works created on the threshold of the world beyond, he lets the music speak to each of us like few other artists can.

His earlier Schubert recording (D. 894 and D. 958) left no doubt that Laloum is one of the most impressive Schubertians of his generation. With the composer’s Moments musicaux and the Sonata in A major —a kind of musical testament—he plunges us into a sonic world in which the heartbreaking beauty of each harmony evokes the yearning of a wounded and lonely heart, filled with worry, but also with hope. A vehement reading, with a visionary point of view!

In praise of variation

Cédric Tiberghien continues his fascinating traversal of Beethoven’s piano variations. This second volume contains such nuggets as the phenomenal set of 32 Variations in C minor, alongside other sparkling examples of the genre in which the composer revels in varying and transforming popular opera arias of his day… Spectacular artistry on display!

As part of his project, the first volume of which juxtaposes Beethoven’s variation cycles with those of Mozart and Schumann, Cédric Tiberghien now invites us not only to discover often neglected gems by Bonn’s native son but also to turn our attention to a later evolution of the variation form in the works of notable American composers. An exploration that informs as it delights.