Boulanger

"No one has surpassed Marais: only one has equalled him, and that is the famous Forqueray": with these words,in 1752, a contemporary praised one of the last great virtuosos of the viola da gamba. Known for his formidably difficult and technical musical style, Forqueray's world is nonetheless immensely rich: through the works of thefather Antoine, his son Jean-Baptiste and his nephew Nicolas-Gilles, an august lineage emerges whose grace andgenius never ceased to inspire. At times proud, even bellicose, at other times deeply tender, the viol pieces by this Forqueray family plunge us into a flight of expressions of passions whose vivacity is equalled only by their intensity. Myriam Rignol, as a distant granddaughter, accompanied by her exquisite Timbres, delivers in this complete worka powerful homage to these 18th-century chamber music icons who, in their image, could never be anything otherthan virtuoso.

Das Sommernachtskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker ist jedes Jahr eines der meistbesuchten Klassikkonzerte überhaupt, denn es findet im festlich illuminierten Schlosspark von Schloss Schönbrunn in Wien vor 100.000 Besuchern statt.

Elena Urioste and Tom Poster return for their second recital on Chandos, focussing on French repertoire. The performers write: ‘The three sonatas on this album were all published during the decade 1916 – 26, a musical period to which we often find ourselves drawn, when the world – and the artistic landscape – was changing beyond recognition. Fauré lamented to his wife that his Second Sonata, composed under the shadow of the First World War, had never achieved anything like the popularity of his First; having fallen under the Second Sonata’s spell, we wanted to help to right this continuing imbalance.