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CHARPENTIER
Lecons de Tenebres du Mercredy Sainct Concerto Vocale / Rene Jacobs (director) [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 1/Feb/2015 ] "Recorded over 30 years ago Rene Jacobs's singers have a disembodied quality that sounds a touch dated. His scrupulous, sensitive shaping of Charpentier's dark-hued 'lessons', however, remains timeless." BBC Music Magazine, Awards Issue 2015 **** |
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Concerto Vocale/Junghanel
Couperin: Lecons De Tenebres [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 12/Jul/2004 ] |
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Connolly/Henschel/Herreweghe
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 4/Sep/2006 ] |
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BARBER / CARTER / LAURIDSEN / O'REGAN / TRADITIONAL / etc
A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert Conspirare / The Company of Voices [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 20/Jun/2012 ] This CD captures the exquisite sound of Conspirare's Company of Voices, as heard and seen on national television in the US. In this one-hour concert contemporary music blends seamlessly with classical favourites, taking the listener on a journey of... |
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HOWELLS / WHITACRE / GRANTHAM / PIZZETTI
Requiem Conspirare / The Company of Voices [ Harmonia Mundi SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Mar/2012 ] "The perfect, and perfectly lovely, unity of Conspirare's choral tone was not entirely welcome. But they're not bland: their care for words and expression guards against that, as does their alertness to changes of mood, whether by movement or... |
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TARIK O'REGAN
Threshold of Night: Music for strings and voices Conspirare / The Company of Voices [ Harmonia Mundi SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 1/Sep/2008 ] A selection of new works by the young British composer Tarik O'Regan, here given their premiere recording. Written since his move to New York, these compositions reflect the cultural plurality of today's urban environment. Here is an art that seeks... |
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BRAHMS
String Quintet No. 2 in G major / Clarinet Quintet in B minor Gerard Causse, Michel Portal / Melos Quartet [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'abord / CD - released 14/May/2001 ] |
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ARRIAGA
String Quartets Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 1/Feb/2004 ] At the age of only 18 years, Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga (1806 - 1826) composed these three string quartets judged by his contemporaries as outstanding in terms of originality and elegance. They basically form his reputation as a composer. |
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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets Vol2. "Revelations" op.18 no.2 / op.59 nos. 2 & 3 / opp. 74 & 132 Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi / 3 CD Box Set - released 15/Mar/2019 ] "their style, with its wide dynamic extremes, fierce rhythms and intense expressiveness, seems to me profoundly Beethovenian." Sunday Times |
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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... |
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W. A. MOZART
Mozart: String Quartets Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 3/Sep/2021 ] "If you like your Mozart taut and urgent, with no concessions to Mozartian 'charm', you should find these brilliantly executed performances as riveting as I do." Gramophone |
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DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1 (Nos. 1-5) Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi / 2 CD - released 1/Nov/2024 ] After being subjected to public attacks by the Soviet regime in the mid-1930s, Shostakovich sought new avenues of self-expression by turning to chamber music, and the string quartet became for him the perfect medium for private confession. To launch... |
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SCHUBERT
String Quartets Nos. 10 and 15 Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 10/Aug/2012 ] these musicians shape the lines to reflect both poetry and youthful spirit. The Casals rightly scale down their their steely resolve that paid dividends in D887 but prefer detachment to ardour, particularly in the slow movement. |
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JOSEF HAYDN
String Quartets Op 33 Nos 1 - 6 Cuarteto Casals [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 10/Jul/2014 ] "Astonishingly insightful playing, musically captivating and technically blemishless. Each and every phrase rings so completely true that one can't imagine the music being played any other way." (BBC Music Five Stars) |
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ENRIQUE GRANADOS / JOAQUIN TURINA
Granados & Turina: Piano Quintets Cuarteto Quiroga & Javier Perianes (piano) [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 15/Aug/2016 ] "This delightful work, flecked with splendid effects and rich moods, can be heard to excellent advantage in a performance that never goes overboard expressively. It never needs to … This is, I think, a unique coupling. I enjoyed the performances very |
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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 |
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RAMEAU / CLERAMBAULT
Orphee Cyril Auvity (tenor) / Pyriade [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 27/Apr/2008 ] Cyril Auvity (tenor) |
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W.A. MOZART
Die Zauberflote [The Magic Flute] (Complete opera) Daniel Behle, Marcos Fink, Maris Peterson, Sunhae Im / RIAS-Kammerchor / Freiburger Barockorchester, Rene Jacobs [ Harmonia Mundi / 3 CD Box Set - released 20/Sep/2010 ] "I suspect I shall reach for this new recording as often as any, for its bubbling, crackling theatricality and an eager, yet unforced, sense of fun." Gramophone Award Finalist 2011 - Opera |
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KAIJA SAARIAHO
Saariaho: L'Amour de loin (complete opera) Daniel Belcher, Ekaterina Lekhina, Marie-Ange Todorovitch / Rundfunkchor Berlin & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano [ Harmonia Mundi SACD / 2 Hybrid SACD - released 20/Aug/2009 ] "Saariaho has declared herself uninterested in the concept of courtly love and prefers to see her work as a more modern, wider meditation on love." Gramophone Awards 2010 Finalist - Opera |
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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem Daniel Harding, Matthias Goerne, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus [ Harmonia Mundi / CD - released 6/Sep/2019 ] Brahms's Requiem, completed in 1868, draws on the legacy of his forerunners, Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach. In setting texts from the German Bible, it deliberately departs from the models of the Catholic liturgy and imposes a sorrowing... |