Raphael Chirbes

Même si ce n’est pas une nouveauté et qu’il serait bien d’entendre un peu plus les créations de ce fabuleux guitariste, c’est quand même un réel plaisir de (re)découvrir l’enregistrement complet du concert du Festival International de Guitare de Liège en 1985. Celui-ci avait déjà été publié partiellement par Columbia/Sony sous le nom "La nuit des gitans" en 1996 mais dans un ordre différent du concert…

This video was recorded live at performances of the original version of 'Dardanus' (1739) given at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in April 2015, in a production by Michel Fau and choreography by Christopher Williams. Raphaël Pichon, the Ensemble Pygmalion and a peerless line-up of soloists received unanimous acclaim from public and press alike.
“van Mechelen rises splendidly to his major dramatic interventions and Florian Sempey as his rival Antenor is commanding and resonant. Michael Fau’s production with effective use of gesture and dance, and Emanuel Charles’s highly coloured, stately sets make for a very handsome visual presentation … Pygmalion provides vigorous and expert orchestral accompaniment, and Raphael Pichon’s assured direction secures superb coordination with the soloists and the firmly focused chorus.” (BBC Music Magazine)

Dvorák’s chamber music is one of the most popular parts of his repertoire and contains some classics of the genre. Thoroughly Romantic, endlessly imaginative and imbued with Slavonic fire, the String Quintet and String Sextet are elegantly performed by the virtuoso musicians of The Raphael Ensemble.

On this 2007 Helios reissue, the Raphael Ensemble delivers a powerfully emotional reading of Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major, D. 956, one that presents it as a fully fledged Romantic work with little Classical restraint. If this piece is regarded as a testament of the composer's anguished inner life, as it was written in 1828 and completed just weeks before Schubert died, then the stormy interpretation given here is perhaps appropriate and valid, insofar as it expresses sudden mood swings, restlessness, intense sorrow, and inconsolable rage.