2015 Combat

So much of new differently arranged and so-called "collector's" compositions have been located at the Eastgate Studios within the last couple of months, so that the decision for the SEVENTH and LAST double CD out of the Booster series was made very easily. The Booster CD's have been a kind of a corner stone within the TD community building some guidelines for those newbies who needed some help where to start discovering the various landmarks of TD's work. Quite a reasonable number of newer compositions have also found their way into the public. But we do not want the Boosters become a racehorse within a series of titles all running against each other. Therefore decision has been made to stop with a last product which simultaneously has some of the best and rare TD compositions from all decades to offer - of course subjectively speaking. Relax, sit back and enjoy a little trip with the TD time machine through a well-known and sometimes strange musical territory.

« Ce que j'ai vécu en Centrafrique ? J'en ai peu parlé avec ma famille, je n'ai pas eu envie de les tracasser avec ça. ? Moi c'est l'inverse, j'ai tout dit. Je pense qu'il faut que les gens sachent ce qu'on fait. Autrement, ils vivent un peu dans les nuages? » Benoît, sergent ; Vianney, lieutenant…

What a fantastic download. Firstly, the voice of Maria Callas, in this sample of her work there are so many contrasting emotions, love, joy, happiness, sadness, anger, regret etc. Secondly the range of operas that this selection opens up, there are 43 operas represented, from the familiar: Carmen, La Traviata, Tosca to the less familiar Medea, Un Ballo Maschero, Ernani to the unknown (to me) Il Pirata, La Vestale, Le Pardon de Peomel. So it alerts your ears to new possibilities. Thirdly the soundscape is good excellent orchestras the Philharmonia and La Scala being the most represented and excellent conductors Serafin and Pretre together with Resigno, Votto, Karajan etc. Lastly the generosity, over 4 hours of good music.

Bonjour à tous ! Aujourd'hui, on se retrouve pour une critique du nouveau coffret de la collection "Écoutez le cinéma !" de Stéphane Lerouge, consacré à l’œuvre musico-cinématographique du (plus) grand artiste français : Serge Gainsbourg.

2016 marks the 40th anniversary of Jean Martinon’s death. This 14-CD collection focuses on Martinon’s activity with the Orchestre National de l’O.R.T.F between 1968 and 1975 and on repertoire – much of it French – that complements the works by Debussy and Ravel that feature on Martinon’s best-known recordings. The box brings together recordings he made for both EMI and Erato and also includes the first commercial releases of live recordings kept at France’s Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) and dating from 1970 (Roussel’s Symphony No 3), 1971 (Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin) and 1972 (Falla’s complete Three-Cornered Hat).

Il y a cent ans s'affrontaient dans le ciel de Verdun les premiers as de l'aviation lors de combats mémorables entre « Bébé » Nieuport français et Fokker allemands. D'une main, le pilote armait sa mitrailleuse tout en pilotant de l'autre ! Un siècle plus tard, la guerre aérienne a changé de visage, et les acrobaties des frêles biplans font sourire face aux Rafale extrêmement sophistiqués ? …

At the height of the famous Querelle des Bouffons (1754), the elderly Rameau yielded to insistent requests from the Académie Royale de Musique for a major revision of Castor and Pollux, 17 years after the lukewarm reception of its premiere. He deleted the Prologue and made substantial modifications to the dramatic structure, with a completely new first act! But the original has continued to overshadow the revision, unjustly so when one considers the modernity of its orchestration. The inspired direction of Raphaël Pichon shows the extent to which this music heralds the Classical orchestra.