DMITRI CHOSTAKOVITCH (1906-1975)
24 Preludes & Fugues, op 87.
Alexander Melnikov, piano

These twenty-four preludes and fugues have become so closely associated with the personality and playing style of their ‘official interpreter’ (Tatiana Nikolaeva) that history has ended up deciding that ‘that’s the way to perform them’ without looking any more deeply into the matter.
Yet this op.87 is brimming with fascinating answers for anyone who takes the trouble to ask the right questions; and it is not the least merit of Alexander Melnikov to have approached the work from first principles and come up with his own, eminently musical solutions!

"Other pianists since have been reluctant to attempt the marathon – lasting more than two hours. In this muscular, virile account, fellow Russian Alexander Melnikov makes you wonder why these works are considered monotonous or didactic. In his virtuosic hands, each one glints." The Observer

UPC: 794881942626 --- Territories: World
Apple ID : 368043679--- Label : harmonia mundi

La Roque d'Anthéron vol 5
30th International Piano Festival
Boris Berezovsky, Anne Quéffelec, Brigitte Engere , Jean-Fréderic Neuburger ...

For 29 years now, the La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival has established itself as an exceptional event in the worldwide musical and piano landscape. The acoustic qualities of the stage, ideal for piano recitals as well as concertos and symphonies, can only enhance the wonders of this magical and legendary garden that carries the whole history of the Château de Florans.
René Martin’s reputation as an Artistic Director has nothing more to prove. As well as the La Roque Festival, the Grange de Meslay Festival, among others he has created the Moments Musicaux de l’Hermitage-Barrière at La Boule and the Folle Journée festivals in Nantes, Tokyo, Bilbao, Rio, etc...
This recording enables to share the exceptional journey of the latest edition, acclaimed by more than 85 000 spectators.

UPC: 3760127221241 --- Territories: World--- Apple ID:375692543 - Label : Mirare

ELISABETH JACQUET DE LA GUERRE (1665-1729)
Violin, viol & bass continuo sonatas
La rêveuse

Elisabeth Jacquet De La Guerre, a gifted harpsichordist, was also a great composer whose sonatas were much admired. Her successful blend of Italian fire with French elegance, which allows the violin to shine in brilliant passages while giving fine solos to the viol, places these pieces among the finest French instrumental music of the early 18th century.

UPC: 3760127221050 --- Territories: World --- Apple ID : 369805501 Label : Mirare

Frederic CHOPIN
Les 21 Nocturnes
Pascal Amoyel

The twenty-one Nocturnes cover the whole of Chopin's creative life: his troubled youth in Warsaw, his loves, then his later years, moving towards abstraction. The last four are among the most beautiful of the Nocturnes.

Telerama : 4 keys

UPC: 794881971626 --- Territories: World --- Label : Calliope

Charpentier: O Maria ! Psaumes et Motets
Ensemble Correspondance, Sébastien Daucé

This project is the result of one year of researches and collectiv work on sound and colors guided by the compositions of Marc-Antoine Charpentier. If one identifies its religeous music generally as harmonic achievement, it is probably underevaluating what makes its originality among French composers at the end of the XVIIe century. His stay in Roma for 3 years influenced Charpentier by the powerful influence of italian rhetoric. Reading his scores, this aspect of his inspiration become obvious and to play his music having this in mind gives a special expressive way to his musics.
The beautiful Supplicatio pro defunctis, pray to the Virgin for the deads is a moving piece : built on a strophic form concluded by « O Maria ! », the intense aura, the richness of the harmonic writting, the beauty of the text make of this piece one of the most powerful pieces of Charpentier. The other major piece of the program is the motet Madgalena lugens, written on the pattern of roman sacred stories whose sensuality goes beyond all other french composer of the time.

UPC: 3760009292291 --- Apple ID 373860611 --- Territories: World --- Label : Zig Zag Territoires

LOUIS COUPERIN
Suites pour clavecin
Pavane
Christophe Rousset, clavecin

Christophe Rousset is one of the most brilliant harpsichordists of his generation, whose recordings – for Harmonia Mundi, Decca, Ambroisie – have all been hailed by the international press.
This is the first time Christophe Rousset has recorded works by Louis Couperin. He preferred not to record the complete works, as he explains:
“For this recording, we have selected the very finest pieces by Louis Couperin. We ruled out the idea of performing all the pieces. We did not want to have three Courantes in succession or a Chaconne and a Passacaille following each other in the same key, nor for the suites to be unnecessarily long, and lacking the coherence and pertinence that the form requires. Although the material available would have enabled us to put together several suites, we decided to present just one suite in F or in A. And generally we have followed the order of Parville rather than of Bauyn. Thus, I believe, the listener will be able to apprehend Louis Couperin at his most expressive, in the richness of his harmonies and rhetoric, and in the subtle contrasts that make him one of the most amazing precursors not only of his nephew François Couperin, le grand, but also of Jean-Baptiste Lully.”

UPC: 794881970629 --- Territories: World --- Label : Aparté

Georg Friedrich HAENDEL
Scipione
S. Piau, D.L. Ragin, O. Lalouette, D. Lamprechts Les Talens Lyriques, dir. C. Rousset

With their founder and conductor Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques appear all over the world, presenting both new revivals and established masterpieces of the Baroque and Classical eras.
Among their most notable achievements is Handel’s Scipione, recorded fifteen years ago. That recording was no longer available. Furthermore, no other version has been recorded since then.
Hailed by the international music press, their Scipione has a marvellous cast: Sandrine Piau, Derek Lee Ragin, Doris Lamprechts, Olivier Lallouette…
This ensemble and its conductor have recorded many works for Decca, Virgin, Naïve and Ambroisie, Christophe Rousset is also regarded as one of the world’s finest virtuoso harpsichordists, and has made numerous recordings for Harmonia Mundi, Decca and Ambroisie.
The opera Scipione dates from 1726. This is the ONLY available recording.

UPC: 794881970520 --- Territories: World --- Label : Aparté

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750
Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin Partita II in D minor BWV 1004, Sonata in C major BWV 1005 Partita III in E major BWV 1006
Isabelle Faust, Violin

Isabelle Faust has gone back to the original manuscript sources to offer us her version of a masterpiece of the violin repertoire. In Bach’s time, music for solo instruments was still little explored territory, and his sonatas, partitas and suites immediately established themselves as a benchmark, technically challenging and brimming with creativity.

5 stars Financial Times - one full page in Gramophone

UPC: 794881943821 --- Territories: World
Apple ID : 361231342--- Label : harmonia mundi

Manuel Blasco de Nebra 1750-1784
Piano Sonatas N°s 1-6 - Pastorela N°s 2 and 6
Javier Perianes, Piano
Javier Perianes, Positive organ

Javier Perianes invites us to discover the keyboard works of a composer who, like himself, was a native of Andalucia : the heir to Scarlatti in many respects, Blasco de Nebra magisterially combined his own natural heritage with the forms imported by the Hispano-Neapolitan composer. The sonatas and pastorales presented on this disc shed light on the multiple facets of his creative genius, alas cut short all too soon: he died at the age of just thirty-four.

UPC: 794881943920 --- Territories: World
Apple ID :360698702--- Label : harmonia mundi

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)
Arianna a Naxos
Lieder & canzonettas
Stephanie D'Oustrac, mezzo-soprano
Aline Zylberajch, pianoforte

A loving ribbons entwining youthful feelings, the sigh of beloved, the torment of betrayed love in Arianna a Naxos, Haydn’s vocal masterwork. Stephanie d’Oustrac and Aline Zylberajch journey a palette of sharp, intense emotions foreshadowing Schubert.

EDITOR'S CHOICE in Gramophone (May issue )

UPC: 3760135100248 --- Territories: World
Apple ID : 362427311 --- Label : Ambronay