Anne Bertin Hugault, Marianne Croux Rita Strohl Douze Chants de Bilitis

Surprising as it may seem, there has never been a complete recording of Bizet’s songs. The formidable team assembled here fills this gap and offers a chance to discover a little-known side of his vocal music, with numerous rarities, early works, alternative versions and other unpublished pieces compiled by the leading specialists and accompanied by period instruments. On the 150th anniversary of his death, the creator of Carmen richly deserved this tribute!

In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi premiered his Orfeo for the Carnival opening in the Court theatre of Duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua. For the first time in the history of music, real characters are brought to life with deeply moving human feelings: with this exceptional dramatic power, modern opera in born. Stéphane Fuget, a great specialist in this repertoire and its historical instrumentation, after Le Retour d’Ulysse dans sa Patrie, has brought together some of the finest vocal and instrumental virtuosos for this new Orfeo: he has entrusted the eponymous role to the splendid and sensitive Julian Prégardien, to sing all the magnificence of the first true hero in the history of opera.

In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi premiered his Orfeo for the Carnival opening in the Court theatre of Duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua. For the first time in the history of music, real characters are brought to life with deeply moving human feelings: with this exceptional dramatic power, modern opera in born. Stéphane Fuget, a great specialist in this repertoire and its historical instrumentation, after Le Retour d’Ulysse dans sa Patrie, has brought together some of the finest vocal and instrumental virtuosos for this new Orfeo: he has entrusted the eponymous role to the splendid and sensitive Julian Prégardien, to sing all the magnificence of the first true hero in the history of opera.

Moving music from 19th century France with Sandra Lied Haga and Katya Apekisheva.

The fashionable literary salons of Paris were centres of experimentation in the refined art of conversation that expressed an idealised vision of love as well as a most poetic depiction of aristocratic society. The women who founded these salons, such as the Marquise de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudery, exerted a considerable influence on social culture and its fashion for preciosite, creating a poetic style whose inevitably plaintive accents would swiftly lead lovers who frequented such salons down the winding paths of the pays de Tendre. "The true character of those who love is composed of tenderness and plaintiveness", according to Abbe Charles Cotin – and music was employed as a means of expressing every nuance of amorous feeling that many poets of the style galant took great pains to depict. The musicians who were most in vogue would then take their galant verses and set them to song in the form of airs serieux, a genre which dominated all secular French music for most of the reign of Louis XIV. This album, a world premiere recording, is devoted to the airs serieux of Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre, a scion of one of the most prestigious families of French musicians of the 17th century.

The fashionable literary salons of Paris were centres of experimentation in the refined art of conversation that expressed an idealised vision of love as well as a most poetic depiction of aristocratic society. The women who founded these salons, such as the Marquise de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudery, exerted a considerable influence on social culture and its fashion for preciosite, creating a poetic style whose inevitably plaintive accents would swiftly lead lovers who frequented such salons down the winding paths of the pays de Tendre. "The true character of those who love is composed of tenderness and plaintiveness", according to Abbe Charles Cotin – and music was employed as a means of expressing every nuance of amorous feeling that many poets of the style galant took great pains to depict. The musicians who were most in vogue would then take their galant verses and set them to song in the form of airs serieux, a genre which dominated all secular French music for most of the reign of Louis XIV. This album, a world premiere recording, is devoted to the airs serieux of Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre, a scion of one of the most prestigious families of French musicians of the 17th century.

Cellist Edgar Moreau and pianist David Kadouch have some pleasurable surprises in store with this programme of French sonatas from the late 19th and 20th centuries. The composers are Franck, Poulenc and two little-known figures, Rita Strohl and Fernand de La Tombelle. Forming an adjunct to the programme is the world premiere recording of a piece by Poulenc, titled Souvenirs and written in 1944. As the French magazine Télérama has written: „Both known as outstanding soloists, David Kadouch and Edgar Moreau also form a close-knit, well-balanced chamber duo, playing with passion and commitment.“

Cellist Edgar Moreau and pianist David Kadouch have some pleasurable surprises in store with this programme of French sonatas from the late 19th and 20th centuries. The composers are Franck, Poulenc and two little-known figures, Rita Strohl and Fernand de La Tombelle. Forming an adjunct to the programme is the world premiere recording of a piece by Poulenc, titled Souvenirs and written in 1944. As the French magazine Télérama has written: „Both known as outstanding soloists, David Kadouch and Edgar Moreau also form a close-knit, well-balanced chamber duo, playing with passion and commitment.“