PURCELL
Hail Bright Cecilia / Come ye Sons of Art / Funeral Sentences for the death of Queen Mary Jennifer Smith, Ashley Stafford, Brian Gordon, Paul Elliott, Stephen Varcoe / Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Orchestra, John Elliot Gardiner [ Erato Veritas / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2015 ] *** Three Stars (Penguin Stereo Guide) |
FRANCOIS COUPERIN
Francois Couperin Edition Sophie Daneman, Patricia Petibon, Guillemette Laurens, Caroline Pelon, Sandrine Piau, Frans Bruggen, Anner Bylsma, Lionel Rogg, etc [ Erato Warner Classics / 16 CD Box Set - released 15/Oct/2018 ] "Singing, accompaniment and recording are all that could be desired. The accompaniment is, appropriately, the lightest possible." MusicWeb on the Leçon de Ténèbres |
Stacey Kent, Bernard Lavilliers Quatuor Ebène
Brazil [ Erato / CD - released 10/Apr/2014 ] On this latest album from the Ébène Quartet, it's Brazil as you've never heard it before..the Ébène Quartet have made a mixture of bossa nova and samba, shaken up into an intoxicating cocktail of rhythms and melodies from a diverse range of cultures |
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
The Carol Album - Seven Centuries of Christmas Music Taverner Consort, Andrew Parrott [ Erato Classics Redline / CD - released 15/Feb/2018 ] "Every track on (this) disc proves surprising and every performance proves charming. Recorded in warmly atmospheric and very immediate digital sound, fans of recherché Christmas music will be delighted by this (recording)" AllMusic.com |
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Theodora (complete opera recorded in 2015) Theatre des Chams-Elysees / Katherine Watson, Philippe Jaroussky, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Callum Thorpe / William Christie (cond) [ Erato / Warner Classics DVD / 2 DVD - released 20/Feb/2017 ] Handel's Theodora, a tale of Christian martyrdom in 4th century Antioch, is a dramatic oratorio rather than an opera, but it achieved a new currency in 1996, when William Christie conducted a staging at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Christie, who... |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Aranjuez (LP) Thibaut Garcia (guitar) [ Erato / LP - released 2/Oct/2020 ] Expressing his own cultural identity, guitarist Thibaut Garcia combines Rodrigo's archetypally Spanish Concierto de Aranjuez with a declaration of l'esprit français: Alexandre Tansman's neoclassical Musique de cour, inspired by the court of Louis... |
J. S. BACH / MANGORE / TANSMAN / VILLA-LOBOS
Bach Inspirations Thibaut Garcia (guitar) with Elsa Dreisig (soprano) [ Erato Warner Classics / CD - released 4/Oct/2018 ] "This entry by the young French guitarist Thibaut Garcia has much to recommend it, and indeed Segovia seems to have exerted a strong influence on Garcia's tone, self-possessed but sensuous." AllMusic.com |
POULENC
Dialogues des Carmélites (Complete opera recorded in 2013) Théâtre des Champs-Elysées / Patricia Petibon, Sophie Koch, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau / Jérémie Rhorer (cond) [ Warner Erato Classics DVD / 2 DVD - released 15/Dec/2014 ] "Patricia Petibon gives the performance of a lifetime as Blanche...[Plowright's] performance has a dramatic veracity that is disturbing in the extreme...Long sceptical about the piece, I was completely won over - the highest complement I can pay it." |
FRANCIS POULENC
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites (Complete opera recorded in 2013) BLU-RAY Théâtre des Champs-Elysées / Patricia Petibon, Sophie Koch, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau / Jérémie Rhorer (cond) [ Warner Erato Classics Blu-Ray / Blu-ray Disc - released 15/Feb/2015 ] "[Plowright's] performance has a dramatic veracity that is disturbing in the extreme...Long sceptical about the piece, I was completely won over - the highest complement I can pay it." The Guardian |
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER
Charpentier: Motets for Double Choir Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman [ Erato Veritas / 2 CD - released 1/Mar/2015 ] Koopman and his superlative handpicked soloists bring out the very best of Charpentier's polychoral artistry. This set contains the only available recording of the oratorio Josue (Joshua), with exquisite string-playing and Koopman's lively continuo... |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Cello Suites Truls Mork (cello) [ Erato Classics / 2 CD - released 9/Jan/2006 ] "these are commanding performances, inspired by the composer's own unquenchable spirit." Gramophone Magazine February 2006 Editor's Choice |
RODRIGO / ALBENIZ / BARRIOS / COSTE / GIULIANI / VILLA-LOBOS / etc
Panorama de la guitare: The world of classical guitar music Turibio Santos, Oscar Caceres, Graciela Pomponio, Maria Luisa Anido, Leo Brouwer, Konrad Ragossnig, Barbara Polasek, Angel Romero, etc [ Erato / Warner Classics / 25 CD Box Set - released 10/Apr/2018 ] A treasury of the classical guitar: as a solo and concerto instrument, and as a partner to other instruments, in music from Europe and Latin America that spans five centuries. Most of these recordings are making their first appearance on CD. |
TCHAIKOVSKY / SIBELIUS
Violin Concertos Vadim Repin (violin) / London Symphony Orchestra, Emmanuel Krivine [ Warner Classics The Erato Story / CD - released 10/Apr/2014 ] "Simply the best, the most perfect violinist I have ever heard" (Yehudi Menuhin) |
LALO
Symphonie espagnole, for violin and orchestra in D minor, Op. 21 (with Chausson-PoAme, for violin & orchestra) Vadim Repin (violin) / London Symphony Orchestra / Kent Nagano [ Erato / CD - released 11/Jan/2008 ] 1001 Classical recording you must hear before you die (1851-1900) - "Vladim Repin, an impressive jazz improviser as well as fully-fledged virtuoso, has the ease, sanfroid, and old fashioned charm to pull off this showpiece with panache." (1001... |
W. A. MOZART
Mozart For My Baby Teresa Berganza, Aldo Ciccolini (piano), Jean-Bernard Pommier (piano), Michel Portal (clarinet), Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner [ Erato Classics / Warner Classics / CD - released 1/Sep/2017 ] The music most people call "classical"--works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart--is different from music such as rock and country. Classical music has a more complex musical structure. |
MAURICE RAVEL
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe (complete ballet) / La Valse Orchestre et Choeurs de L'Opera national de Paris, Philippe Jordan [ Erato / Warner Classics / CD - released 1/May/2015 ] This new recording of Daphnis et Chloé, Ravel's most sumptuous score, marks a number of firsts as it evokes the heady days of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris in the early years of the 20th century. It grew from performances of the... |
Various Artists
Simply The Best Night At The Opera [ Erato / 2 CD - released 31/May/1999 ] |
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Britten: Operas [incls 'Peter Grimes', 'The Turn of the Screw' & 'Billy Budd'] Various Artists incls Pop Wagner, James Bowman, Ian Bostridge, Angelika Kirchschlager, Elisabeth Comeaux Nelson, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Felicity Lott [ Erato Classics / 13 CD Box Set - released 20/Oct/2019 ] Gramophone Awards 1988 Winner - Opera |
JULES MASSENET
Massenet: Operas Victoria de los Angeles, Nicolai Gedda, Cheryl Studer, Beverly Sills, Renee Doria, Teresa Berganza, Jose van Dam, Sherrill Milnes, etc [ Erato / 16 CD Box Set - released 1/May/2018 ] "This is as good a performance as we are likely to get of this persuasive work. Victoria de los Angeles as Charlotte is adorable, both in character and in the sheer beauty of sound." (Gramophone on Werther) |
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Iolanta (complete opera recorded in 1984) Galina Vishnevskaya, Nicolai Gedda, Walton Gronroos, Tom Krause / Groupe Vocal de France & Orchestre de Paris, Mstislav Rostropovich [ Warner Classics Erato Opera Collection / 2 CD - released 12/Oct/2009 ] "Rostropovich's 1984 Paris concert performance [is] centred round Galina Vishnevskaya… singing warmly and strongly, with a fine Vaudemont from Nicolai Gedda." Gramophone |