Juste Ciel!

The latest release from the outstanding Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) is devoted to the monumental opera Circé by Henry Desmarest. Lully's death in 1687 was a defining moment in the history of French opera. Until then, his dominance in tragédie en musique was almost as great as Louis XIV's dominance in French politics. The 1690s then saw a veritable explosion of new voices on the French operatic stage - both among composers and librettists. Some composers, such as Pascal Colasse, sought to maintain the closest possible proximity to Lully's model, while others, such as Charpentier, Marais, Campra, Desmarest, and their librettists, betrayed a voice and vision all their own from the beginning.

The second volume of the Complete Harpsichord Works includes the unpublished harpsichord works of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières from manuscript sources. Performed by Karen Flint on the 1635 and 1627 Ioannes Ruckers harpsichords.

Le récit de l'ultime concert des Beatles, qui eut lieu en janvier 1969 sur le toit de leur compagnie Apple Records. Ils se produisirent durant quarante-deux minutes avant d'annoncer leur séparation quelques mois plus tard. L'auteure s'attache à montrer la dimension biblique de cette prestation, avec ses figures christiques, son ascension vers le ciel et ses fidèles. …

Jean-Marie Leclair's Scylla et Glaucus (Tragédie en un prologue et cinq actes, Paris, 1746) provides an excellent opportunity for György Vashegyi, a luxury cast and music scholars at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles to revisit the French Baroque operatic canon and emerge with a fresh new take on this established work, the violin virtuoso and composer's single offering for the Paris Opéra.