Khalab & M'berra Ensemble M'berra

This is the sound, the story, of the M’berra Ensemble, a collective of Malian musicians from the M’berra Refugee Camp in southeast Mauritania, and Italian producer and electro-shaman Khalab. In a sprawling tent city rising out of the desert, out of nothingness, at the border with Mali in West Africa, brought together by spirit and circumstance, the group’s Arab and Tuareg members — some unknown, some who have previously toured Europe — find solace and beauty in music and song.

Guillaume de Machaut - Les Motets - Ensemble Musica Nova (2011) {2CD Set Aeon AECD1108 rec 2002}
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© 2002, 2011 Aeon | AECD 1108
Classical / Medieval / Early Music / 4th Century

Complete Motets of Machaut (re-release) Since the beauty, richness and diversity of such an oeuvre made it impossible to choose amongst the 23 motets by the Canon of Reims, the Musica Nova ensemble decided to embark on the adventure of a complete recording. Two years of work and research were necessary for putting this programme together, as the musicians strove for an in-depth approach to each motet in terms of both style and an instrumentation made possible by the very structure of the ensemble. This disc, which had a resounding critical success when first released, offers the first complete translation in modern French of Guillaume de Machaut's motets. An indispensable set!

In late February 1653, just after the Fronde rebellion, the most influential spectacle of the early reign of Louis XIV was created at the Louvre: the Ballet Royal de la Nuit. Grandiose, and carefully elaborated at the highest levels of the state, the libretto by Bensérade called upon the finest artists of the time. Banishing the troubles of Night, Louis XIV danced in the Sun King costume that would henceforth be for ever associated with him. An indispensable world premiere recording!

The serenata Polifemo opens with an overture for which Bononcini adopts the formal model of the two-part French ouverture in which a slower section with dotted rhythms is followed by a quicker section often involving fugal textures. Bononcini combines his French model with the Italian concerto principle with its multiple choirs of instruments: here the wind ensemble alternates in the quick section with the strings. Although it is in only one act, Polifemo is made up of no fewer than twenty musical numbers: seventeen arias, two duets and one chorus. With a single exception, these numbers are cast in da capo form. Some have no instrumental prelude, whereas eight end with a postlude described as a “ritornello”, with elaborately worked-out parts for the instrumentalists. These postludes presumably allowed preparations to be made for the following action.

Robert Paterson’s The Four Seasons consists of four song cycles, with a total of twenty-one songs, for four different voice types: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass-baritone. Each voice type represents a different season: Summer Songs (soprano), Autumn Songs (mezzo-soprano), Winter Songs (bass-baritone), and Spring Songs (tenor). The four critically-acclaimed singers on this album, soprano, Marnie Breckenridge, mezzo-soprano, Blythe Gaissert, tenor Alok Kumar, and bass-baritone David Neal have worked closely with Paterson, and gave the world premieres of these works with American Modern Ensemble, one of America’s most beloved new music ensembles.

Antoine Dauvergne (1713-1797), compositeur et maître de musique de la Chambre du Roi, directeur du Concert Spirituel jusqu'en 1773, puis directeur de l’Académie royale, enfin nommé surintendant de la Musique à Versailles, a été redécouvert par le grand public lors des Grandes Journées Dauvergne organisées par le Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

Inspired by the Psyché created collectively by Lully, Molière, Corneille and Quinault, Locke’s Psyche was a veritable artistic firework display: seeking to vie in splendour with the operas of continental Europe, it luxuriously combined theatre, song, dance, and spectacular machines and scenery. Sébastien Daucé here offers us his splendid reconstruction of this key masterpiece in the history of early English opera.

Semele was first presented in London in 1744; it was billed as an oratorio for murky reasons, but indeed it is operatic. I believe that this is the third recording of the work: John Eliot Gardiner’s (on Erato) is severely cut, and although much of the singing is good, it can’t compare with John Nelson’s complete, gorgeous performance (on DG) played on modern instruments. This latter is a lithe, brilliant show with Kathleen Battle in her greatest recording as the vain, self-destructive Semele and Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey close to magnificent, with tenor John Aler an elegant if slightly underpowered Jupiter.

The BBC Singers and conductor David Hill join with one of the world´s oldest continuously running orchestras, The Norwegian Wind Ensemble (NWE), to present this major new arrangement of George Frideric Handel’s most celebrated oratorio – Messiah HWV 56. Arranged for wind ensemble by NWE member Stian Aareskjold, this version here receives its world premiere recording with a stellar cast of soloists who bring this visionary re-scoring of this famous work vividly to life.