Lenyalo Le Thata

Theresia Orchestra The international youth orchestra Theresia is devoted specifically to the performance of Classical-era music on period instruments. Ensemble members undergo training from senior musicians but also perform as a group and have made several recordings.

Le Carnaval du Parnasse, Mondonville's heroic ballet, was a dazzling triumph at its premiere in 1749, eclipsing Rameau'sZoroastre, which premiered the same year. Dedicated to the Marquise de Pompadour, muse of the arts and the omnipotent favourite of the King, this whimsical carnival is nothing short of a deliciousmarivaudage: on Mount Parnassus, Apollo and his Muses indulge in feasts of the senses and entertainments of the heart…Mondonville displays prodigious virtuosity throughout, depicting unheard-of orchestral colours and imagining unbridled dances and vast ceremonial choruses comparable to those in his great motets. Alexis Kossenko and his ensemble Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Ecurie, joined by the eminent vocal power of the Choeur de Chambre de Namur, have made an exceptional rediscovery of this masterful reincarnation of the splendours of the Court of Louis XV, then at its apogee.

Le Carnaval du Parnasse, Mondonville's heroic ballet, was a dazzling triumph at its premiere in 1749, eclipsing Rameau'sZoroastre, which premiered the same year. Dedicated to the Marquise de Pompadour, muse of the arts and the omnipotent favourite of the King, this whimsical carnival is nothing short of a deliciousmarivaudage: on Mount Parnassus, Apollo and his Muses indulge in feasts of the senses and entertainments of the heart…

La Compagnia del Madrigale releases another imaginative album on Glossa, turning to a late composition by Orazio Vecchi, Le veglie di Siena from 1604.

Georges Prêtre was one of the leading conductors of the last half of the 20th century, especially known for operatic conducting and performances of French music. He studied trumpet as a boy, graduating from the Douai Conservatory. Nazi occupation of Paris did not substantially interfere with the teaching activities of the famous Paris Conservatory, where Prêtre continued his musical studies. He took first prize in trumpet in 1944 and studied harmony with Henri Challan and Maurice Duruflé. He began studying conducting with André Cluytens, Pierre Dervaux, and Richard Blareau. His conducting debut was in operetta, a fact that eluded biographers since he used the assumed name of Georges Dherain. His official conducting debut was at the Marseilles Opera in 1946, in Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys. He spent a decade primarily in provincial French opera houses: Marseilles (1946-1948), Lille (1948), Casablanca (1949-1951), and Toulouse (1951-1955). He was appointed music director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1956, debuting with Richard Strauss' Capriccio and conducting a wide variety of repertory there.

Il n’a pas tant d’albums, Daniel Bevilacqua, et son parcours de chanteur nommé Christophe est pour le moins accidenté. Il y a de grands trous, dont un vrai gouffre qu’il a fallu 13 ans à remonter. Mais là où les grands succès suffisent à presque tout le monde (Aline, Les marionnettes, Les mots bleus et Les paradis perdus, c’est à peu près ça), les amoureux du plus angoissé des yéyés, du malheureux chronique à la voix de verre, veulent toutes les traces qu’il a laissées de son passage sur terre, et ils sont ici servis : les versions italiennes, les duos, ses états des lieux successifs à l’Olympia, la bande originale du film Sur la route de Salina (1970), les raretés d’avant Aline jusqu’à une reprise de Béart, sur un album hommage dont il est forcément le fantôme, puisque disparu juste avant. La COVID-19 a trouvé en lui une proie de choix, un étouffement annoncé. On peut se s’estimer heureux qu’il ne soit pas mort en 1965 : cette intégrale est celle d’une vie en sursis.

With Le Roi David, written when he was less than 30 years old, Honegger produced one of his first great masterpieces. In 27 numbers overflowing with astonishing musical invention, the oratorio brilliantly recreates a distant biblical past in a resolutely modern language. It enjoyed immediate and lasting popular success.