Quintessential piano concertos

Kristian Bezuidenhout continues his exploration of Mozart’s piano concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester. Here they deliver a superb reading of the Concertos nos. 19 and 23, which are justifiably among the most famous in the corpus.

The undeniable popularity of these two works is largely due to their sublime middle movements, but also because they reach the very heights of Mozartian subtlety in terms of orchestration, thematic development, and dramatic instinct. The historically informed performances presented here take the same interpretative approach as earlier volumes in the cycle, underpinned by an utterly luminous musical discourse!

Holy fury!

Now recording exclusively for harmonia mundi, Carlo Vistoli lends his artistry to a showcase of one of the greatest Baroque masters as his label debut: the music of Antonio Vivaldi.

“Diamond” rating from OPÉRA MAGAZINE

Joining the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Italian countertenor invites us on a journey into some of Vivaldi’s finest sacred works. Paired with the celebrated Nisi Dominus and Stabat Mater, the quasi-operatic motet In furore shows the extravert, theatrical side of this music, intended for edification, to be sure, but also for our greater delight.

Shostakovich at his most personal

The Cuarteto Casals embarks on its recording project devoted to the complete string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich: one of the most fascinating chamber-music cycles of the twentieth century.

 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 their complete Shostakovich cycle, members of the Cuarteto Casals offer deeply insightful readings of the first five quartets—works that are pivotal in the composer’s oeuvre.

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The experts compete!

The musical legacy of the Bach family is inseparably linked to the progress in instrument making of the time, which was dominated by the Silbermann family. Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas and his ensemble Les Surprises offer a fascinating comparison between the two dynasties—composers vs. organ builders and fortepiano makers.

Featuring the famous Silbermann organ at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Freiberg, Saxony, along with other superb originals and copies of Silbermann instruments, this recording takes us on a journey through the works of the Leipzig Cantor and of two of his celebrated sons: Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel.

REQUIEM

Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble Pygmalion deliver an overwhelmingly moving reading of Mozart’s testamentary work. A masterly interpretation!

Nurtured by a seminal stage experience (in collaboration with director Romeo Castellucci), this recording offers a series of mirror effects that challenge our preconceptions of such a well-known work. Punctuated by earlier sacred pieces by the composer, it invites a dialogue between rearangements, his homage to tradition, and rarely heard pieces from Mozart’s catalogue.

ALSO ON LP

Awakening the senses

In their bid to give even tiny children access to music, Emmanuelle Bertrand and Pascal Amoyel have devised a delightful programme of lullabies and serenades that will enchant listeners of all ages!

With this album, the duo explore the deepest sources of musical emotion: melodies that touch, console, comfort, and soothe… These little pieces brimful of tenderness and love are a marvellous entry point to listening to music for the very young and a treat for experienced music lovers alike.

ALSO ON LP 

Campra and other masters of Notre-Dame

Alongside their magnificent reading of André Campra’s Requiem, Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances also offer us an opportunity to discover other maîtres de musique of Notre-Dame, representative of the liturgical tradition of the time.

Although now overshadowed by their brilliant colleague, Jean Veillot, François Cosset, and Pierre Robert made no less of a contribution to the development of the ‘French style’ emblematic of the reign of Louis XIV.

Bach’s cello suites in a soaring performance

Seventeen years after his first reading that quickly set the standard (more than 110,000 copies sold), Jean-Guihen Queyras revisits the iconic Bach cycle. This time around, he gives free rein to his imagination as a poet of the cello. His guiding principles? A no-holds-barred approach and a sense of freedom!

In making this new recording, the French cellist has been profoundly influenced by his collaboration with choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, in whose production Mitten wir im Leben sind he has performed over 100 times and was filmed for the enclosed complete version on Blu-ray disc.

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Bruckner on period instruments!

To mark Anton Bruckner’s 200th anniversary, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Bruges-based Anima Eterna orchestra have chosen to record the composer’s Symphony No. 4, the aptly named “Romantic” Symphony, as their birthday present.

The first instalment in a new cycle devoted to the great Austrian symphonist, this recording gives a new lease of life to the work we thought we knew inside out. Thanks to the unique sonorities of the period instruments played by the Bruges orchestra, galvanised by Pablo Heras-Casado’s inspired direction, we can rediscover the dazzling colours and architectural rigour of this ‘cathedral in sound’ as imagined by Bruckner.

Marin Marais, trailblazer and poet

In their new album, Florence Bolton and Benjamin Perrot revisit the composer one of whose pieces gave this ensemble its charming name: La Rêveuse. With their characteristic delicacy and poetic flair, they now explore Marin Marais’ second book of pieces for viol (1701).

Drawing on his heritage (Sainte-Colombe), his friendships (Robert de Visée), and his own visionary genius, Marin Marais blazed new trails for his instrument with this extensive collection. Alongside the customary dances and sets of variations, he invented the ‘character pieces’ that would become so popular in the eighteenth century.

The cello in the Age of the Enlightenment

With this recording of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Concerto in B-flat major (1751) and Antonín Kraft’s Concerto in C major (1804), Jean-Guihen Queyras and Riccardo Minasi, at the head of Ensemble Resonanz, invite us to rediscover two dazzling works from the first golden age of the cello concerto.

To follow a sensational first volume devoted to C.P.E. Bach, they have found in Kraft another composer whose music is as irresistible as it is demanding for the performers. An album full of panache, virtuosity, and infinite poetry.

Capturing Schubert’s voice

 Following his unparalleled performance as the Evangelist in Pygmalion’s recording of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, tenor Julian Prégardien now turns to a tale of unrequited love: Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, in the company of Kristian Bezuidenhout at the keyboard.

In their quest to recapture the expressive palette of the composer’s seminal song cycle, the performers have chosen a magnificent fortepiano modelled on an original by Conrad Graf (Vienna, 1825) and notable for the exceptional variety of its timbres. A most impressive achievement!

Fauré, free of clichés

This year marks the centenary of Gabriel Fauré’s passing. Pianist Aline Piboule pays tribute to the composer, performing on a historical instrument as part of the “Stradivari” series of releases, co-produced with Paris’s Museum of Music.

From his early efforts, still close to Chopin and Schumann, to the final pieces with their heady yet elusive harmonies, here is a chance to trace all the stylistic diversity of Fauré’s music on a superb Gaveau instrument of 1929.

Musical dialogue

William Christie revisits a cherished composer in this enticing programme of Gaspard Le Roux’s music for two harpsichords, performed in partnership with a notable guest artist: Justin Taylor

A rare phenomenon in the realm of French music for harpsichord, Gaspard Le Roux composed works of uncommon originality and sumptuousness as the reign of Louis XIV came to a close. Juxtaposing his Suites with pieces by Lully, Marais, and François Couperin, William Christie and Justin Taylor have found the ideal alchemy to do full justice to the myriad colours of these works, as virtuosic as they are rich in inspiration.

Schubert meets his doppelgänger

In their first recording for harmonia mundi, Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy deliver deeply poetic readings of two masterpieces of the four-hand piano repertoire: Franz Schubert’s celebrated Fantasie in F minor and his remarkable Divertissement à la hongroise.

By way of counterpoint, they present the world premiere recording of Leonid Desyatnikov’s Trompe-l’oeil — written expressly for the duo and conceived as a “reflection” of Schubert’s Fantasy. A dazzling “hall of mirrors” that’s not to be missed.

Paul Lewis plays Schubert

An outstanding interpreter of Schubert, Paul Lewis has been exploring that composer’s body of work for nearly 15 years, recording this repertoire exclusively for harmonia mundi. The essential Schubert recordings of his entire career are now collected together in this box set.

Equal parts poet and virtuoso, Paul Lewis has made unforgettable recordings of Schubert’s late piano sonatas, Wanderer-Fantasie, Moments musicaux, and both books of Impromptus. Assembled together for the first time, these readings are among the modern milestones in the entire Schubert catalogue.