L Empire 2024

Bassoonist Mathieu Lussier‘s new recording features six of the twelve sonatas from Étienne Ozi’s “grandes sonates” for accomplished bassoonists, accompanied by Christophe Gauthier (harpsichord and fortepiano) and Amanda Keesmaat (cello).

Mathieu Lussier Canadian bassoonist and conductor Mathieu Lussier has performed with many ensembles in North America and Europe, playing modern and Baroque bassoons with Les Violons du Roy, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Arion Baroque Orchestra, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Apollo's Fire, and the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal. He became the artistic director of the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival in 2007. He has also performed chamber music with the Ensemble Pentaèdre de Montréal, the Caliban Quartet, and Musica Franca. He was named as associate conductor of Les Violons du Roy in 2014, and he has conducted the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax, the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra, the Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra, and the Montréal Symphony Orchestra. Lussier has also taught at the University of Montréal, and he has had many of his own compositions performed and published in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. He has recorded Baroque and Classical repertoire for ATMA Classique, including pieces by Vivaldi, Telemann, Boismortier, Devienne, Gossec, Méhul, and Mozart.

Would you know Miss Duval, composer of a single opera, The Geniuses, performed nine times in 1736, which was a great success and has never been revived since its creation at the Royal Academy of Music in Paris? Singer and composer, Mademoiselle Duval is the second woman to have created an opera there, following Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.

Fers de lance de la scène Heavy / Speed Metal française depuis plus 40 ans, ADX est de retour chez Verycords avec son 12ème album : « LEmpire du crépuscule ». Plus en forme que jamais, ADX nous livre tout au long des 10 chansons de ce nouvel album une nouvelle démonstration de son talent, et sa patte y est immédiatement reconnaissable : riffs de guitares puissants, rythmes rapides et énergiques, solos virtuoses, le tout porté par des mélodies irrésistibles et des paroles épiques. Doté dune production en béton signée Francis Caste (Black Bomb A, Poga Car Crash Control), « Lempire du crépuscule » prouve qu'ADX est toujours le maître absolu du genre, et que son règne n'est pas prêt de prendre fin !

Connaitriez-vous Mademoiselle Duval, compositrice d’un unique opéra, Les Génies, joué neuf fois en 1736, qui connut un franc succès et n’a jamais été repris depuis sa création à l’Académie Royale de Musique de Paris ? Chanteuse et compositrice, Mademoiselle Duval est la seconde femme à y avoir créé un opéra, à la suite d’Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. Si sa vie reste mystérieuse, cette claveciniste confirmée au point d’éblouir le public en tenant le continuo à la création des Génies, écrivit une œuvre de divertissement contemporaine des Indes Galantes, déployant à chaque acte une nouvelle intrigue amoureuse centrée sur les Génies des Eaux (Les Nymphes), de l’Air (Les Sylphes), de la Terre (Les Gnomes) et du Feu (Les Salamandres). C’est une petite merveille que la curiosité de Camille Delaforge nous livre enfin, dirigeant avec passion cette rareté du répertoire français avec un absolu bonheur !

With their new album "Chansons sans paroles", the young brass ensemble "Salaputia Brass" takes us through the history of French chanson. From the Renaissance madrigal to the present day, almost every era is represented. New arrangements specially tailored for the ensemble allow these works to be heard in a completely new tonal brilliance. Due to the expressiveness of the brass instruments and their tonal proximity to the human voice, the music speaks volumes, even without the words.

1694: the first French opera composed by a woman is premiered at the Academie royale de musique. The fateful destiny of the Greek lovers, driven to blindness and horror by the gods: Cephalus will kill Procris, whom he believes to be unfaithful, and himself… A virtuoso harpsichordist much appreciated by Louis XIV, Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre chose to become a composer at a time when such freedom was virtually unheard of for a woman. Her gamble paid off, with six performances and the admiration of posterity: this flamboyant work has finally been brought back to the public by Reinoud van Mechelen.