François Martin

Liszt’s predestination for sacred music doubtless stemmed from his childhood, when he had close ties to Catholicism through his father. He went on to compose many works expressing the virtues of various saints, and to those works Martin Haselböck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie are devoting a series of recordings.

This recording includes works for the oboe by four French Baroque composers, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, Francois Courpin, and Marin Marais. Among them Montéclair is a cantata "Pan et Syrinx" (Pan et Syrinx). The story of the faun Pan chasing the nymph Silinks is popular with composers. On the one hand, this is a sad story about love that can never be obtained, and the drama and imagination in it are quite suitable for composers to play; A flute, this "pan flute" can be played with a modern flute (as in Debussy's Syrinx), or with an oboe like Montéclair. The tone of the oboe is not as cold as the flute, but rather warm, elegant and fresh. On the one hand, it is very suitable for depicting the quiet life of nature or the countryside. The sweet memories of a lost love couldn't be more fitting.

Martin Stadtfeld's new double album "Baroque Colours" presents a colorful sound panorama of the Baroque - with original works from Bach to Rameau as well as his own arrangements of well-known Baroque hits and unknown musical gems.

The starting-point for this unique recital is a true Mozart rarity, the Sonata for bassoon and cello K292 which Mozart wrote in 1775, pairing the bass members of string and wind families not to comic effect but rather demonstrating their expressive versatility and contrasting tone-colors, in the hands of sufficiently practiced performers; the Sonata is accessible by only the most skilled amateur performers such as its original dedicatee, the nobleman, pianist and occasional bassoonist Thaddaus Wolfgang von Dürnitz. The counts considerable musical gifts may be judged from the teenaged Mozarts dedication of the Piano Sonata K284 in the same year: one of the composers first works of absolute genius, notably in the extraordinary landscape of its long theme-and-variation finale.

Three 20th-century orchestral scores, Bartók’s Two Pictures, Debussy’s Jeux and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, all dating from 1910-13 and all linked (as the detailed CD booklet explains), are brought to life in the hands of two exceptional French pianists. The central interest is the ballet Jeux. One of the world’s outstanding Debussy interpreters, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has added to his complete Chandos recordings with his own transcription for two pianos. Written late in Debussy’s life for Nijinsky, Jeux involves an emotionally erotic and harmonically daring game of tennis. Bavouzet and his well-matched partner, François-Fréderic Guy, play with nimble grace, capturing the works wit and mystery. This gripping album is dedicated to Pierre Boulez, guru and enabler, for his 90th birthday.

This release contains the complete works for organ by François Couperin, composer to the court of Louis XIV. James Johnstone continues his series of recordings on the great baroque organs of Europe on the 1699 organ by Julien Tribuot, Louis XIV’s organ builder, now in the Eglise St Martin in Seurre, Burgundy. This last surviving instrument by a revered builder is close to its original condition. A leading baroque organist, James Johnstone recorded these works as part of 350th anniversary celebrations of Couperin's birth in 2018, and completes Metronome’s survey of Couperin’s complete keyboard works.

Charpentier's Te Deum written in the bright key of D major features a four-part choir and eight soloists. It displays the composer's total command of religious music combined with a gift for melodic writing. Brilliant and majestic, yet profound, this Te Deum (Charpentier wrote four Te deums) was probably composed to celebrate the victory at Steinkerque in August 1692 during the wars against the countries of the League of Augsburg. [The struggle would eventually be in vain; and Strasburg, and the Palatine succession lost to France].