Les Seins de Glace Icy Breasts (1974)

Pour le flûtiste François Lazarevitch, les concertos de Mozart sont bien sûr un graal qu’il a décidé d’aborder avec son ensemble les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, dans la continuité de leur travail sur les sources interprétatives… Sur une flûte à une clé, copie d’un instrument de l’époque mozartienne, il a enregistré les deux concertos pour flûte et orchestre et sur une flûte à huit clés, flûte avec une patte d’ut, le concerto (en ut) pour flûte et harpe, avec Sandrine Chatron qui joue une harpe ancienne de François-Joseph Naderman.

Journey is a compilation of greatest hits from CDs of Les Boréades de Montréal, an early music ensemble that focuses on music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was probably compiled as a promotional teaser, to tantalize listeners into going out and buying the albums from which these excerpts were extracted, and if that was the intent it ought to be entirely successful. The performers play with infectious verve and with a lilt that comes close to being a swing. The pieces from the earlier to mid-Baroque, by Purcell and Cavalli, come to life with a special energy. The excerpts from Cavalli's opera La Calisto, which include transcriptions of vocal pieces, are especially entertaining, and even without words the music conveys a sense of wild hilarity.

Pour le flûtiste François Lazarevitch, les concertos de Mozart sont bien sûr un graal qu’il a décidé d’aborder avec son ensemble les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, dans la continuité de leur travail sur les sources interprétatives… Sur une flûte à une clé, copie d’un instrument de l’époque mozartienne, il a enregistré les deux concertos pour flûte et orchestre et sur une flûte à huit clés, flûte avec une patte d’ut, le concerto (en ut) pour flûte et harpe, avec Sandrine Chatron qui joue une harpe ancienne de François-Joseph Naderman.

Adam de la Halle (c. 1237 - 1288) was one of the first composers to receive the honour of having manuscripts copied comprising his complete works, surely indicative of the esteem in which he was held. De la Halle moved between two worlds as the music of the courts of the nobility was moving out into the aspiring merchant classes of the cities.
His songs of courtly love are characterised by, to use his own phrase, "mal joli", or delightful woe.

This wonderful disc is a collaboration between Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer (an a cappella ensemble that specializes in the traditional songs of Quebec and Acadia) and La Nef (a trio that specializes in both early and contemporary classical music). The title refers to the crossing of waters both great and small by centuries of sailors; the program combines traditional seafaring songs with accounts of the Seven Years' War and its attendant sea battles. Many of the songs are in the unison, call-and-response style that will be familiar to fans of traditional Quebecois music, and sound very much like early recordings by La Bottine Souriante accompanied by a string section.

The anglophone listener may be deceived by both parts of the "Concertos pour flûte" title of this program of little-known Alessandro Scarlatti chamber music: the music is not for flute (or at least is not played by one), and there aren't any concertos. The recorder was and is known in French as a flûte a bec, whereas the transverse flute would have been known to Scarlatti's associates simply as a traverso.

It has been said several times that, thanks to percussion, Xenakis reintroduced the problem of rhythm that was thought to have disappeared from contemporary music. Architect, engineer and composer, this genius of composition writes music whose complex and harmonious structure contrasts with the explosive energy that comes out of it. From Xenakis’ close collaboration with the Percussions de Strasbourg came two fundamental works, ten years apart: Persephassa in 1969 and Pléiades in 1979. The first, working on the spacialization of sound, is a sound choreography. The second is one of the composer’s most beautiful pieces. The richness of the timbres, the freedom and coherence of the composition make this work a unique rhythmic adventure. In 2022, we celebrate the Centenary of the composer as well as the Sixtieth birthday of Les Percussions de Strasbourg.

Das Berner Ensemble Les Passions de l'Ame erhielt für alle seine Veröffentlichungen bei Deutsche Harmonia Mundi exzellente Besprechungen und wurde 2020 für das Album "Variety" mit einem OPUS KLASSIK ausgezeichnet.