Christine Mcvie Christine Mcvie (1984){1990,wpcp 3410}

If you’re looking for an acceptable, low-cost cycle of Bach’s harpsichord concertos, this Brilliant Classics set may be of interest. Discs 1 and 2 contain all of the concertos for solo harpsichord and continuo, as well as the Concerto BWV 1060 for two harpsichords and Concerto BWV 1065 for four harpsichords, performed by the modern-instrument ensemble Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum, with soloist Christine Schornsheim, joined by fellow harpsichordists Armin Thalheim, Mechtild Stark, and Violetta Liebsch in the multiple keyboard works. These performances were originally issued in the U.S. nearly 25 years ago on the now defunct Capriccio label.

On 2018’s Chris, French singer-songwriter Héloïse Adelaïde Letissier embodied a masculine alter ego to cover a variety of subjects. With this five-track follow-up EP, Letissier leaves the Chris persona behind and gets a little more personal. On “Je disparais dans tes bras” [“I disappear in your arms”], she rejects a lover’s mixed messages over a kinetic beat—doubling down on 2019’s dance-floor sizzler with Charli XCX “Gone.” “People, I’ve been sad” and “Nada” are more measured and thoughtful, with Letissier opening up about painful childhood memories and heartbreak with vulnerability. She sings, “Voglio fare l'amore con questa canzone” [“I want to make love with this song”] in Italian on the bubbly, synth-driven title track featuring Caroline Polachek, exuding a playfulness that is hard to resist.

The exceptional alto and soprano saxophonist from Canada releases the compelling Day Moon with her impressive quartet on Justin Time Records. The music is at turns, melancholic and ebullient, sober and playful. It’s a date where she creates an improvisational community of close friends in quartet and duo settings. “I got hit hard by the pandemic because I felt alone and was not doing what I’m supposed to do,” Jensen says. “So, I focused on my saxophones, teaching myself to present my sound, my solo voice. It’s almost like becoming the vocalist.”

Maria Bach, who studied with Joseph Marx at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, was able to establish herself as a serious, successful composer during the 1930s. She received outstanding newspaper reviews, and renowned publishers were interested in her music. For example, Doblinger published her "Volga" Quintet. Her relationship with the Russian composer and conductor Ivan Boutnikoff came during this period of her first great successes; he instructed her in instrumentation, and she traveled with him throughout Europe. The three works recorded here for the first time – the "Volga" Quintet of 1928, the Sonata for Cello and Piano composed in 1924, and the String Quintet of 1936 – provide a representative overview of her chamber oeuvre.

What sort of voice did Pauline Strauss have? She was a professional singer when she first met Richard Strauss and he seems have been inspired by her voice, writing a considerable number of songs for her. Before she retired from stage she had sung Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Agathe (Die Freischutz), Leonore (Fidelio) and Donna Anna which implies a voice of some size. But elsewhere she is described as having a voice which was neither large nor beautiful. It should be admitted that the majority of songs which Strauss wrote for her were lieder, with just piano accompaniment.

Alessandro Stradella’s colourful life and eventual murder have since furnished writers with material for novels and stageworks. But he was very highly regarded as a composer during his short life, and made important contributions to several musical forms with operas, instrumental sinfonie and cantatas. This programme features five seldom performed chamber cantatas and two of his sinfonie or sonatas. Soprano Christine Brandes has a light, pleasing voice, and an athletic technique which enables her to circumnavigate most of Stradella’s often demanding vocal writing. But she is stretched to her limits, perhaps even a shade beyond, in the virtuoso, fiendishly difficult ‘Ferma il corso e torna al lido’.

Christine Schäfer's bright, silvery soprano is a perfect vehicle for these solo cantatas. The adventurous Musica Antiqua Köln supports her in lively readings, full of spirit and animation. Schäfer sails through the technical demands with ease, but she also brings a welcome warmth and sensitivity to the texts. Some of the movements are taken at a clip that may surprise, but the performers bring it off with aplomb. The familiar Cantata No. 51 actually isn't a wedding cantata, but its joyous spirit fits the mood, so it's welcome all the same, especially in a performance of such agility and precision.

Following the album Arias, her much-acclaimed debut album on Sony Classical, the German soprano returns to Bach with three famous cantatas she has never recorded before. Regardless of their extraordinary musical beauty all of these cantatas are concerned with religious considerations of grief, guilt and farewell. Based on the Italian model of solo cantata which reached its peak in the extensive output of Alessandro Scarlatti, these melodious and touching pieces highlight Schäfer´s outstanding vocal abilities and musical taste. The arias offer most delightful duets with various instrumental solo parts such as flute, oboe and violin. Christine Schäfer is accompanied by the Berliner Barocksolisten, a first-class ensemble of players from the Berlin Philharmonic who perform on modern instruments in historically informed style.

Star soprano Christine Schafer sings scenes and arias from one of Handel’s most popular operas. The combination of Handel and Schafer ensure this is going to a major release.