1er Amour (2013)

This is an excellent and varied selection of composers from the very well known like Palestrina, Monteverdi, Bach and Vivaldi, through the less famous but familiar like Frescobaldi, Sainte-Colombe and Zelenka, to the downright obscure. It is all delightful: the musicians are uniformly excellent, and include such great names as Gustav Leonhardt, Cantus Colln, Christopher Hogwood and so on. They give fine performances both of the familiar works and of the less familiar ones. Obviously there will be discs you like more than others and you may already have favourite versions of some works, but these discs are never less than very good and are often outstanding.

Jordi Savall - Erasmus von Rotterdam: Eloge de la Folie (2013) {6CD Box Set Alia Vox AVSA9895A+F}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.06 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.00 Gb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 22 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Alia Vox | AVSA9895A+F
Classical / Renaissance / Vocal Music / Chamber Music

This new project is a Tribute to Erasmus (1466-1536), a Dutch Renaissance scholar, known as the 'Prince of the Humanists'. Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament and also wrote 'In Praise of Folly', 'Handbook of a Christian Knight' and many other works. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation; but while he was critical of the abuses within the Church and called for reform, he kept his distance from Luther and Melancthon and continued to recognise the authority of the Pope. His middle of the road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps. Jordi Savall regards him as a model of wisdom and tolerance.

Pourquoi l'ex-femme de Bertrand Cantat s'est-elle suicidée ? Deux journalistes, Stéphane Bouchet et Frédéric Vézard, se sont penchés sur cette énigme dans leur livre Bertrand Cantat-Marie Trintignant. L'amour à mort. Ils reviennent sur le «drame de Vilnius», à savoir le décès de l'actrice Marie Trintignant, battue par l'ancien leader de Noir Désir, en Lituanie, en 2003. Mais les auteurs s'attardent également sur les raisons du suicide par pendaison de l'ancienne épouse de Cantat, Kristina Rady, en 2010. (Mathilde Cesbron - Le Figaro du 27 juin 2013) …

Long before the advent of surtitles in the opera house, success across Europe of new dramatic works depended on their plots being understood by local audiences. Such was the case for the German singspiel that is Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and when it was introduced to in Paris in 1801 it was adapted and re-titled Les Mystères d’Isis: this is the opera which Le Concert Spirituel and the Flemish Radio Choir have recorded for this new release on Glossa (Diego Fasolis conducting the ensembles in place of the then indisposed Hervé Niquet).

Jordi Savall - Jean-Baptiste Lully - L'Orchestre du Roi Soleil (1998) {Alia Vox AVSA 9807 rel 2003}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 346 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 153 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 34 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1998, 2003 Alia Vox | AVSA 9807
Classical / Baroque / Orchestral

The years from 1670 to 1673 mark one of those crossroads at which history in general, and the history of art in particular, sometimes judiciously brings together just the right combination of people, events and even instruments. In fact, the events of those years were to have major consequences, not only for the future of French music, but also, to a certain extent, for Western music as a whole.

Le duo violon et harpe est plutôt rare. On a davantage l'habitude d'associer la flûte à la harpe, alors que les sonorités du violon et de la harpe se marient à merveille. La harpiste Marielle Nordmann et le violoniste Nemanja Radulovic qui sont amis de longue date et se produisent souvent ensemble, nous offrent (enfin !) un enregistrement de leur belle collaboration. Dans cet album les transcriptions sont majoritaires, car le répertoire original pour cette formation est assez restreint. On trouve même la célèbre Méditation de Thaïs de Jules Massenet (au départ pour violon et orchestre) dont on ne compte plus les adaptations..

Le duo violon et harpe est plutôt rare. On a davantage l'habitude d'associer la flûte à la harpe, alors que les sonorités du violon et de la harpe se marient à merveille. La harpiste Marielle Nordmann et le violoniste Nemanja Radulovic qui sont amis de longue date et se produisent souvent ensemble, nous offrent (enfin !) un enregistrement de leur belle collaboration. Dans cet album les transcriptions sont majoritaires, car le répertoire original pour cette formation est assez restreint. On trouve même la célèbre Méditation de Thaïs de Jules Massenet (au départ pour violon et orchestre) dont on ne compte plus les adaptations..