Jean François Foliez

These CD's present Cras's complete orchestral works, minus his "Andante religieux," which is still in manuscript. Here, Cras's style is not really "impressionist", but more a mixture of late-20th century French romanticism with touches of impressionism. The music is sort of in the vein of D'Indy, Magnard or Tournemire, with fleeting influences from Debussy and Ravel, but without really sounding like any of them. Cras eschews academic form, and allows his materials to find their own shapes, somewhat like late Debussy. Although some movements are melancholy or mysterious, the clouds are never terribly dark, and Cras's accustomed optimism constantly reasserts itself.

As with many of the composers works, live instruments are combined with electronics in Karlheinz Stockhausens Mantra. Written in 1970, the work is scored for two ring-modulated pianos. Each player is also equipped with a chromatic set of crotales (antique cymbals) and a wood block. A short-wave radio producing morse code or a magnetic tape recording of morse code can either be controlled by one of the pianists or by a separate performer. Mantra was written for the great piano duo of Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky. The pianists performed at the works premiere and on its first recording in 1971 for Deutsche Grammophon. This exciting new recording from Mirare features pianists Jean-Francois Heisser and Jean-Frederic Neuburger, accompanied by Serge Lemouton on electronics.

‘The dreamer! That double of our existence, that chiaroscuro of the thinking being’, wrote Gaston Bachelard in 1961. ‘The old is dying, the new cannot be born, and in that chiaroscuro, monsters appear’, adds Antonio Gramsci. Sandrine Piau has chosen to use these two quotations as an epigraph to her new recording: ‘My family and friends know about this obsession that never leaves me completely. The antagonism between light and darkness. The chiaroscuro, the space in between…’ This programme, recorded with the Orchestre Victor Hugo under its conductor Jean-François Verdier, who is also principal clarinettist of the Paris Opéra, travels between the chilly Rhenish forest of Waldgespräch, a ballad by Zemlinsky composed for soprano and small ensemble in 1895, the night of the first of Berg’s Seven Early Songs (1905-08), and the sunlight of Richard Strauss’s Morgen, which are followed by the Four Last Songs, composed in 1948, the first two of which, Frühling and September (evoking spring and autumn respectively) are also, as Sandrine Piau concludes, ‘the seasons of life’.

Jean-François Paillard leads his chamber orchestra in this reference recording of Couperin's "Les Nations". "Les Nations" is a vast project in which the virtues of both the French and Italian styles are set next to each other. Each of the four ordres celebrates a Catholic power of Europe – France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont – and each is a combination of an Italianate trio sonata with its free-form virtuosity and a large-scale and elaborate French dance suite.

There is little in the way of a clear theme tying together this collection of Baroque works, which includes music by English and Italian composers, instrumental and vocal, secular and sacred, performed by the French group Ensemble Amarillis with soprano Patricia Petibon and tenor Jean-François Novelli. For the listener looking for a general assortment of pieces from the Baroque era, performed with lively energy, this could be just the thing. Outstanding are the vocal tracks featuring Petibon and Novelli. Petibon, whose jewel-like high soprano shines in the music of Purcell and Francesco Mancini, is a pleasure.

'The dreamer! That double of our existence, that chiaroscuro of the thinking being', wrote Gaston Bachelard in 1961. 'The old is dying, the new cannot be born, and in that chiaroscuro, monsters appear', adds Antonio Gramsci. Sandrine Piau has chosen to use these two quotations as an epigraph to her new recording: 'My family and friends know about this obsession that never leaves me completely. The antagonism between light and darkness. The chiaroscuro, the space in between…'

As with many of the composers works, live instruments are combined with electronics in Karlheinz Stockhausens Mantra. Written in 1970, the work is scored for two ring-modulated pianos. Each player is also equipped with a chromatic set of crotales (antique cymbals) and a wood block. A short-wave radio producing morse code or a magnetic tape recording of morse code can either be controlled by one of the pianists or by a separate performer. Mantra was written for the great piano duo of Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky. The pianists performed at the works premiere and on its first recording in 1971 for Deutsche Grammophon. This exciting new recording from Mirare features pianists Jean-Francois Heisser and Jean-Frederic Neuburger, accompanied by Serge Lemouton on electronics.