Michel Godard Castel Del Monte

This is a previously unpublished album including Beethoven's late masterpieces, Piano sonatas, Op.109 & 110 and Bach's uncommon Overture in the French Style, drawing inspiration from the French tradition of François Couperin and showcasing the perfect technique and musical inspiration of one of the greatest French pianists at his best.

Dante Alighieri, born in Florence in 1265, was at once a poet and an important political figure of his time. His celebrated Divine Comedy relates his supposed descent to Hell and slow ascent to Paradise. Godard’s operatic treatment of his life (1890) skilfully juxtaposes the political milieu – crowd scenes in Florence and the quarrel between Guelfs and Ghibellines – with the expression of the courtly love he feels for Beatrice, betrothed to his friend Bardi.

A great trailblazer of early music, Michel Corboz rose to fame thanks to the numerous albums he devoted to Monteverdi at the beginning of his career.

Michel Corboz's I dolci frutti: Venise avant Monteverdi, vol. 2 is a captivating exploration of early Venetian Baroque music.

Maestro Marek Janowski, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir present Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (1859), together with a stellar cast, headed by Freddie De Tommaso (Riccardo), Lester Lynch (Renato) and Saioa Hernández (Amelia). Un ballo in maschera is Verdi’s tragicomic masterpiece, in which the composer skilfully switches gears between the light and tragic, as well as between his earlier and more mature style. As such, it is both an entertaining and highly sophisticated work.

Rosemary Standley (Moriarty’s singer), a Franco-American singer with a gentle, charismatic voice, tackles Baroque repertory with sobriety and elegance. She is accompanied by the ensemble of Bruno Helstroffer, a guitarist and lutenist at the crossroads between ‘early’ and ‘modern’ worlds, made up of musicians who specialize in early instruments (harpsichord, organ, viola da gamba, serpent).

In 1863 Martine de Béhague’s grandmother bought the site where the Romanian Embassy now stands. She commissioned Gabriel Hippolyte Alexandre Destailleur (1822-1893), the architect who restored the châteaux of Courances and Vaux-le-Vicomte, to build a Louis XV-style town house that would be an appropriate setting for her collection of 18th-century artefacts she planned to house there. The architect was internationally renowned, had connections with the Imperial family and had worked for the Rothschilds in Vienna among others.

Bruno Helstroffer writes of his new release: Its a logbook, the one Ive never really kept. My years of blues/rock and early music mingle here; the thousands of kilometers travelled with that theorbo of mine, the cities and the countryside, the railways, the skies, the scents, the lights; but above all, the music of the people. Partite variate sopra questaria francese detta lalemana is a tablature by Piccinini of an aria also called La Monica.

An album between worlds - ancient Japanese folklore, modern European folk-pop, sometimes even with a distinctly Celtic touch: That's the first collaboration between singer Chiyomi Yamada and the Japanese folk band Baobab. Originally a classically trained soprano, the exceptional artist has been experimenting with traditional Japanese sounds and the combination of Far Eastern and Western sound aesthetics for many years. On this album, she returns to her roots both musically and spiritually: "Songs of my land" is a tribute to the ancient Japanese folk song, to the mysterious Shinto spirituality and to the people who have been celebrating life and love on this land with their songs for thousands of years.

To celebrate his own 50th birthday percussionist Lucas Niggli released his solo album entitled "Alchemia Garden" which enchants listeners with its organic musical imagery. This solo performance sonically mimics the idea of the metamorphosis of materials and growing gardens.