Salisburgensis

The Grandes Eaux de Versailles (The Versailles Fountains Show) is a selection of works from the new CDs and DVDs label “Château de Versailles Spectacles”: Les Arts Florissans, L’Europe galante, Le Devin du village, The Missa of Cavalli, “The Quarrel of the Te Deums” of Blanchard and Colin de Blamont, The Sun King Mass (DeLalande, Couperin, Lully), the Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis, the Lully’s Te Deum and Phaeton. Entirely recorded in the emblematic places of the Château, such as the Royal Opera, the Royal Chapel, La Cour de Marbre or the Little Queen's Theater (Trianon), you will find compositions interpreted by the best and most promising artists.

The subtitle of this SACD is "The Ultimate Audio Experience". But open the notes, and you discover that all the tracks save one are from 44, 48, and 96KHz PCM sample original sources. There are some great performances here –- forever trapped in mid-definition resolution. They date from 1993 to 2003, a surprising number of them being recorded in 2001-2003, after DSD recording was available. In listening to this SACD, I was beginning to have doubts about the SACD format until I noticed the sources in the liner notes.

Gunar Letzbor and his ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria are proven specialists for Austrian baroque music. During recent years, they have rediscovered, performed and recorded polychoral Festive Masses by Weichlein, Ramhaufsky and Hochreither and thus Georg Muffat's magnificent 'Missa in labore requies' is a logical choice of repertoire. This work is the only surviving church music by Georg Muffat and is overwhelming in sonic impact and profundity but also a richness of melodic invention. In its polychoral design, the work is in the tradition of Salzburg Festive Masses, reflecting in their extraordinary musical opulence, the almost boundless material wealth of the prince bishops who commissioned them.

75 CD box set (with original jackets) is the first complete collection comprising all of Reinhard Goebel's recordings on Archiv Produktion. It shows Reinhard Goebel as a violinist, conductor, music scholar, and founder of his celebrated ensemble Musica Antiqua Koln. Featuring almost 30 years of recording history from the Neapolitan Recorder Concertos from 1978 to Telemann's Flute Quartets recorded in 2005.

75 CD box set (with original jackets) is the first complete collection comprising all of Reinhard Goebel's recordings on Archiv Produktion. It shows Reinhard Goebel as a violinist, conductor, music scholar, and founder of his celebrated ensemble Musica Antiqua Koln. Featuring almost 30 years of recording history from the Neapolitan Recorder Concertos from 1978 to Telemann's Flute Quartets recorded in 2005.

Baroque Masterpieces - collection of Baroque music in the best performance in the company Sony BMG DHM Artenova. One of the best collections of Baroque music! The greatest works - the legendary performance! Baroque music is a style of European classical music in the period from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque era follows the Renaissance and the Classical period precedes. The main in this music was an expression of emotions. Baroque music - this violence and ecstasy, in contrast to the confidence and independence of the Renaissance.

The technology at our command, the electronic images we see every day, the ease and swiftness of world travel and communication has left modern humans with a waning sense of awe. We can argue about who was or is better off, but for 17th century Europeans, awe-inspiring events happened with some regularity. Pageantry was one of the more effective and popular means to impress a congregation, and there was nothing like a huge celebration in a massive cathedral to remind each person of his place in the grand scheme.

Julia Böhme is described on the cover as a "female alto". Fair enough I suppose; such is the current dominance of the falsettist (in baroque music anyway) that altos are assumed to be male, while lowish females always call themselves "mezzo-sopranos". The word "contralto" is almost forgotten. And indeed Böhme's sound is reminiscent of falsetto - clear and rather hollow – but she is far more powerful and flexible than male altos, and can sing right down to a good loud g without any baritonal embarrassments. No wobble, and a pleasantly unaffected delivery. So far I have only noticed her as a principal alto in Václav Luks' Collegium 1704 – you can see her (a tall lady) in their DVD of Biber's Missa Salisburgensis, where she makes a striking contribution…