VARIOUS COMPOSERS
N'espérez plus mes yeux… Airs sérieux & à boire Vol.3 Les Arts Florissants, William Christie [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 30/Apr/2021 ] With this third volume of Airs sérieux et à boire, the ensemble Les Arts Florissants return to this genre whose refinement had marked the French musical landscape for over a hundred years. By turns gallant, earthy, or spiritual, these vocal... |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Un Jardin A L'italienne: Airs, cantatas & madrigals Les Arts Florissants, William Christie [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 8/Sep/2017 ] This concert was recorded live at the Melbourne Recital Centre in Australia within the framework of Le Jardin des Voix: the Academy launched by Les Arts Florissants in 2002 as a showcase for young talent. . |
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Claude Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande Julien Behr, Vannina Santoni, Alexandre Duhamel, Marie-Ange Todorovitch, etc / Les Siècles, Chœur de l'Opéra de Lille François-Xavier Roth [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD - released 28/Jan/2022 ] 'I enjoyed the orchestral contributions of Les Siècles and the lucidity that period instruments bring to Debussy's score...there's an almost clinical clarity to their playing.' Gramophone Award Finalist 2022 - Opera |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Harold en Italie / Nuits d'été Stéphane Degou (baritone) Tabea Zimmermann (viola) / Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 18/Jan/2019 ] "Les Siècles use woodwind and brass instruments from the middle decades of the 19th century, which, combined with the gut strings, create busy, buoyant textures over which Tabea Zimmermann's solo viola can soar with ease" Sunday Times |
HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Marie-Josephe Jude, Jean-Francois Heisser (pianos) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 18/Jan/2019 ] A double dose of fantastic! A composition that marked the birth of the modern symphony orchestra, it was instead through the medium of the piano that Symphonie fantastique became generally known to the public when Franz Liszt - a prime champion of... |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Winterreise Mark Padmore (tenor) Paul Lewis (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 4/Mar/2022 ] Composed in 1827 and first performed privately for members of Schubert's circle, Winterreise initially received a mixed reception. Now acknowledged as the greatest song-cycle ever penned, the work (here played in the original keys) receives a... |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge Matthias Goerne (baritone) Chistoph Eschenbach (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 20/May/2016 ] "this is supremely seductive Lieder singing, with a natural intelligence and ease with the words, matched by playing from Christoph Eschenbach that coaxes and caresses the piano with loving delicacy." Gramophone Award WINNER 2017 - Solo Vocal |
FRANCIS POULENC
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Poulenc: Stabat Mater / Salve Regina / Litanies a la vierge Michèle Lagrange (soprano), Choeur & Orchestre national de Lyon, Serge Baudo [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 21/Jul/2017 ] "Baudo leads French forces in a highly idiomatic performance" ClassicalNet |
BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Late Piano Sonatas, Opp. 101,109 & 111 Nikolai Lugansky (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 13/Nov/2020 ] Édouard Herriot once said: 'In Beethoven, everything comes from within. His model is not the rule of the schoolroom.' This is particularly true of the late sonatas, which contain elements of both intimate journal (Romain Rolland saw in op.101 'a day... |
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 14, 17 & 23 Nikolai Lugansky (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 11/Feb/2022 ] For this second volume of Beethoven sonatas, Nikolaï Lugansky goes back in time and selects three milestones in the composer's stylistic evolution: the 'Moonlight', the 'Tempest' and the 'Appassionata'. The Master of Bonn gradually broke with the... |
BYRD / TALLIS / GERARDE / FERRABOSCO / WILDER
Spem in alium - Vidi aquam ORA Singers, Suzi Digby [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD/DVD - released 2/Oct/2020 ] A musical banquet from the Golden Age. This programme brings together a true choral landmark from the sixteenth century, with its present-day reflection, a commission by Sir James MacMillan. |
IGOR STRAVINSKY / PETER EOTVOS
Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps / Eötvös: "Alhambra" Concerto Pablo Heras-Casado, Isabelle Faust, Orchestre de Paris [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 25/Jun/2021 ] More than a century after the historic scandal of its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, The Rite of Spring has established itself as one of the 'musts' of the modern orchestral repertory. And if the source of the telluric forces generated... |
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: The Famous Piano Sonatas Paul Lewis (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD - released 10/Jun/2022 ] Paul Lewis's recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at once took its place as one of the great modern sets. To celebrate twenty years of collaboration with the British pianist, harmonia mundi invites you to rediscover some of the finest... |
JOSEF HAYDN
Haydn: Piano Sonatas [Nos 32, 40, 49, 50] Paul Lewis (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 15/Apr/2018 ] "Paul Lewis has finally turned his attention to Haydn. Hurray for that, for it's a superb fit; it's also clear that he has absorbed the experience of working with Alfred Brendel as a young man, and the results are nothing if not personal." Gramophone |
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn: Piano Sonatas Nos.20, 34, 51 & 52 Paul Lewis (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 10/Sep/2021 ] In 2018, Paul Lewis embarked on an exploration of one of the richest bodies of work of the Classical era: the keyboard sonatas of Haydn. For his second volume, the British pianist tackles some of the most remarkable pieces in this vast oeuvre: the... |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Piano Sonatas Paul Lewis (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 28/Oct/2022 ] Paul Lewis completes his exploration of Schubert's sonatas, begun almost twenty years ago, with three early masterpieces. The Sonatas D537 and D568 display the daring and freshness of their youthful creator, while with D664, dazzling in its artless... |
REINHARD KEISER
Keiser: Croesus René Jacobs [ Harmonia Mundi / 3 CD - released 30/Aug/2019 ] Keiser is one of the most astonishing early German composers to have been brought to light in recent years. The composer of a good sixty operas, all of them for the Hamburg Opera, during his lifetime he was regarded as 'the greatest and most... |
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Telemann: Italian Opera Arias Nuria Rial (soprano) / Kammerorchester Basel, Julia Schroder [ Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 14/Nov/2011 ] "Rial's enchanting recital with the Basel Chamber Orchestra comprises high-quality arias...the orchestral performance is beautifully poised to support Rial's serene soprano?" BBC |
JOHN SHEPPARD
Media Vita and other liturgical works Stile Antico [ Harmonia Mundi SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Feb/2010 ] "Stile Antico celebrate not only the richness and diversity of Sheppard's harmonic structures, but delighting in the sheer momentum of his often relentless, unceasingly unfolding lines and sometimes clashing colors. Highly recommended." (10/10... |
TOMAS LUIS de VICTORIA
Victoria: Tenebrae Responsories Stile Antico [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 9/Apr/2018 ] "The beautifully blended voices of Stile Antico approach these 18 expressive, cleverly varied Holy Week pieces, written in Rome by the greatest of Spanish-born Renaissance composers, with a poised devoutness rather than theatricality" Sunday Times |