The Nicolas Errèra

A cloudy sky and raindrops beating on the window: this itself is practically music, and for centuries, the sound of rain from the clouds has inspired not only painters but also poets and composers. On her debut GENUIN release, violist Karolina Errera and her piano partner Lilit Grigoryan present a selection of highly emotional music from John Dowland to Benjamin Britten. The prizewinner of numerous international competitions has placed a wide range of original works and arrangements on the program of this album – moving works that are best suited by both the warm sound of viola and piano, as well as the playing culture of the two interpreters!

Germaine Tailleferre is best known for being the only female member of the French group of composers known as Les Six, and her stylish combination of neo-Classicism with a ready wit and energy can be compared to Poulenc and Milhaud. From the captivating Romance written while still a student, to her sparkling music for the 1937 Paris international exhibition, all of these pieces show Tailleferre as being very much at the heart of the contemporary French musical scene. This recording, described by the composer’s granddaughter as being ‘as though Tailleferre herself was perfoming these works’, is the first of three volumes presenting the complete piano music played by Nicolas Horvath.

In this wonderfully planned programme the whimsical poetry of York Bowen’s Hans Andersen ‘fragments’—music for a fully-fledged technique, despite the fairy-tale titles—is pleasingly complemented by the bravura of the studies. Nicolas Namoradze proves more than equal to the demands of both.

Nicolas Lebègue, the principal organist of King Louis XIV from 1678 until his death in 1702, represents the first state of perfection for the French organ. Alternating great virtuoso pieces worthy of the pomp of Versailles, inspired Noëls and poetic elevations, these Vêpres de Noël (Christmas Vespers) showcase the traditional alternation of vocal pieces, as practised by nuns in Paris, Port-Royal or the Filles-Dieu who attended to prisoners sentenced to death: Lebègue’s motets for single voice, and the plain-chant composed by Nivers for use in Paris. All the atmosphere of this “French-style” nativity is recreated with generosity and beauty under the direction of Nicolas Bucher, on the keys of the Great Organ of the Chapelle Royale.

Forty years have passed since Gidon Kremer created a little musical oasis in the Austrian town of Lockenhaus in 1981. The violinist’s open-minded attitude has left its mark on this event, which has become a must in the concert calendar, and the cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, who took up the torch in 2012, continues the same philosophy. For this fortieth anniversary, he has decided to call on composers who have come to Lockenhaus or had works performed there in the past ten years. Hence the programme contains two premieres – the cello concertos of Raphaël Merlin and Helena Winkelman – but also short pieces by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lera Auerbach, Patkop, Maja Ratkje, Matan Porat, Kurt Schwertsik and Johannes Fischer. Musical postcards that celebrate the anniversary while foreshadowing the next forty years!

The thirteen sonatas on this première recording represent the complete music for solo piano by the Parisian keyboardist and composer ANNE-LOUISE BRILLON DE JOUY, a musician much celebrated in her day and greatly admired by Boccherini. Introducing technical innovations more usually associated with Czerny and Liszt, these sonatas reflect a gloriously rich musical environment, incorporating and transforming elements from music of the time with great imagination and wit, and showing us that Madame Brillon's glittering salon, though private, was by no means isolated.

As a jazz critic, the first thing I notice with Myriam Alter’s latest release, cleverly titled It Takes Two, is a friendly reminder: Alter is not a jazz musician. The music on It Takes Two, as with most of the music from her releases over the years (dating back to the early 1990s), bespeaks of more elemental musical qualities and less so about altered chords (not to mention chord changes), intricate arrangements or rhythmic complexity, all qualities that are typically found in most of the music we call jazz.

For the first time in four years, we have a proper Nicolas Jaar album: Cenizas. The latest entry from the Chilean-American composer neé DJ is both the end of a drought and the capstone on an incredible run.
As an album, Cenizas wanders, floats, drifts. Jaar’s work has always been experimental, but this record is without a doubt his most “challenging,” rife with exercises in drone, ambient, and noise, often at the same time. In many cases the only punctuation in these songs is the smooth arrival of Jaar’s lilting baritone, a soothing voice hovering in the abyss. Historically, Jaar’s most exciting songs have often featured some moment of lift-off, where an unexpected instrument arrives, the drum kicks in, or a beat picks up…

Jean-Nicolas Diatkine comes from a family of recognised doctors and considers commitment to others to be the basis of his profession. It seemed impossible for him to do without this basic attitude in the exercise of his profession, which is why he always sees his artistic development as a return to the essential artistic values to which he has devoted himself over the last thirty years. At the same time, he makes the in-depth study and deeper understanding of the narrative of each composer an absolute priority and an indispensable step before any public performance of a work.