Swimming Philippe Rombi

Four years after the superb ‘Membra Jesu nostri’, the Ricercar Consort once again turns to Buxtehude.The majority of the cantatas in this recording are centred on Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. With the both dramatic and comforting sounds of his cantatas, Buxtehude succeeded in shifting the focus from human suffering to divine help, thus giving people a foretaste of heavenly harmony and perfection.

This CD offers a glimpse at the work of long-term collaborators Sabrina Frey and Philippe Grisvard. Frey and Grisvard present a program for recorder and harpsichord that exploits the tonal and interpretative registers of these two instruments.

This is a rather brisk reading of Brahms' masterpiece, the most ambitious work in his output and one of the greatest compositions of its type. Though Herreweghe's tempos often pushed the music to its limits here (except for the first section), the performance never actually sounded fast, or at least not offensively fast. In fact, it challenges the Levine/RCA effort.

Collegium Vocale Gent and its founder Philippe Herreweghe continue their recordings of the works of Carlo Gesualdo with 'Silenzio Mio', which contains the Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1596. Regarded as one of the most eccentric composers of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but also one of the most creative, he experiments here with new melodic and harmonic effects that enthralled listeners of the time. These innovations are applied to poems by Alessandro Guarini and several anonymous writers, all of which focus on the expression of personal feelings, particularly a 'pathos' new on the literary scene.

The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Philippe Herreweghe have enjoyed a close relationship since 1997, and the Ghent conductor regularly conducts and records with the Flanders orchestra. After the Second and Fourth Symphonies (LPH032), they are continuing their exploration of Schumann's symphonies: " The symphony has given me many hours of joy. I often give thanks to the beneficent spirit that enabled me to complete such an important work so easily and in such a short time " says the tormented composer. He wrote his first symphony, "Spring", in just four days and orchestrated it in three weeks. The third, known as the "Rhenish", was inspired by a day Schumann spent with his wife Clara in the Rhineland.

We have just discovered a new shining star in the bright Progressive rock universe, a comet named Philippe Luttun, whose forthoming arrival should make a deep impact ! This amazing French multi-instrumentalist offers today a cinematic concept-album inspired by Chernobyl's nuclear disaster that happened April 26th 1986, from its causes to its most terrific consequences. This is not for all audiences! Published in the year 2014 on the Musea Parallèle label, "The Taste Of Wormwood - Voices From Chernobyl" displays eight grandiose tracks, entirely performed by Philippe Luttun, only helped by a female singer here and there. One could be reminded of Pink Floyd, Clearlight, Porcupine Tree, Liquid Tension Experiment or Pulsar, these influences being perfectly assimilated and remixed, often completed by slavic (the action takes place in the U.S.S.R.) or electro touches…

The Violin sonata in D major (HWV 371) was composed (c. 1749-50) by George Frideric Handel, for violin and keyboard (harpsichord). Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xxvii,47; and HHA iv/4,28. This sonata represents Handel's last piece of chamber music. The piece was not published by Walsh. The designation Opus 1 No.13 was first made in the Chrysander edition. A typical performance of the work takes about twelve minutes.

French composer, keyboardist and guitarist Philippe Grancher is a musician those familiar with the French music scene most likely will connect with blues, as he's been a rather succesful purveyor of that kind of music for the last couple of decades. But this veteran musician, born in 1956, first honed his skills on a rather different kind of music. In his late teens Grancher became fascinated with the, at the time, state of the art synthesizers. And his experiments with these instruments ultimately lead to the recording and release of a full length album, 3000 Miles Away. The album is an experimental affair fusing classical piano, synthesizer and guitar into sparse progressive rock compositions.