Gégoir de Lacourt

L'intelligence émotionnelle est l'art de comprendre et de maîtriser ses émotions au quotidien. Elle permet d'affronter ses angoisses, mais aussi de mieux vivre avec les autres et d'être plus positif. Être heureux malgré les aléas de la vie, ça s'apprend ! Pratiquer la pensée positive, c'est poser un regard bienveillant sur soi et sur son quotidien, gagner en harmonie, en sérénité et en énergie. …

Overshadowed by such prominent Spanish Renaissance composers as Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero, and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Juan Esquivel was considered a minor and fairly obscure figure until his reputation was elevated by inclusion in the revised edition of Robert Stevenson’s Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age. Today, his works are increasingly appreciated by modern scholars and listeners thanks to the discovery in 1973 of a large volume of Esquivel’s music, published in 1613, which included masses, psalms, Magnificats, hymns, a Te Deum, a Requiem, and numerous antiphons and responsories.

To this day, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor continues to be the least frequently performed of all his symphonies. Not as revolutionary as the first, or as brutally reckless as the third, Bruckner’s core ambition with his Second is a constant testing, exploration, and expansion of the possibilities of the symphony. Conductor Marek Janowski and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande succeed in doing justice to the work, and the recording is clear proof of Janowski’s brilliance when it comes to conducting Bruckner. In reviewing the recording, Gramophone declared: “There’s more than a touch of the great Eugen Jochum in Janowski’s approach.”

After Franck, Debussy and Strauss, Mikko Franck and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France here continue their collaboration with Alpha Classics, this time with the spotlight on Igor Stravinsky. The programme begins with two pieces from his so-called ‘neo-classic’ period: his Capriccio and Octet. In the first, in which Stravinsky sets up a dialogue between piano and orchestra, the soloist is one of the great stars of the new generation, the French pianist Nathalia Milstein. Then the mood darkens, with the primitive rhythms and ferocious chordal attack of The Rite of Spring , a work that Mikko Franck has long since wanted to immortalize on CD: a major masterpiece of the 20th century and an essential milestone for every orchestra. Every single player seems to be on fire in this recording, which puts the seal on seven years of collaboration and achievement with its Finnish Music Director.

Violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and harpsichordist Justin Taylor, two of the most promising virtuosos of the new generation and founder members of the ensemble Le Consort, now present a duo album that pays tribute to a great eighteenth-century dynasty of musicians, the violinists and composers of the Francoeur family.

“Vox humana” or “Vox celestis”? For César Franck (1822-1890) the one is often a metaphor for the other; whether in sacred or secular vein, spirituality is inherent in all his vocal music, even the most modest of his choral works. Certain of these form the focus of attention in this first recording. They remain unpublished; were they perhaps thought to be of lesser worth for having originated in a religious or private celebration or in response to a publisher’s commission? We should remember that it was often the specific circumstances that provided Franck with the stimulus necessary for the realization of some of his masterpieces. Be that as it may, listening to these choral works offers the listener some delightful discoveries.