Broussai Nos Rêves

Famed for their appearance in Christophe Barratier's 2004 Oscar-nominated Les Choristes, Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc (known in Spain as Los Chicos del Coro de Saint-Marc) are one of the world's most popular children's choirs. Formed in 1986 by director Nicolas Porte at Lyon's Saint-Marc College, the mixed choir of 75 singers, aged ten to 15, has performed its mixture of spiritual hymns, Gregorian chants, and contemporary classical pieces across Europe, the U.S., and Asia ever since.

This CD contains a program devoted entirely to the figure of John Brudieu (Limoges, 1520? - La Seu d´Urgell 1591), one of the masters of Renaissance Europe and one of the most famous composers of the Catalonian countries. He was master of La Seu d´Urgell, where a Mass was conserved defunctorum cum Quator vocibus. That is a Requiem Mass for 4 voices, accompanied by two more songs. The three works can be framed in the ordinary of the mass for the dead: an input, a communion and one output. Thus establishing a synergy between the works and liturgical texts (in latin) to be modified by madrigals (in catalan). The group Exaudi We offer a quality recreation and beauty along with extraordinary career in Columna Musica.

Born in the small town of Votkinsk in 1840, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky achieved considerable renown during his own lifetime and is today hailed as one of the world’s best-loved composers. Having initially studied law before enrolling at the St Petersburg Conservatory aged 22, he is best remembered for his symphonies, operas and ballets; ranking among his lesser-known creations, however, are the Orchestral Suites.

The playing of the excellent National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland - another Naxos discovery - is polished and sympathetic to the Tchaikovskian ardour… A fine, super bargain.

Charpentier’s Médée is one of the glories of the Baroque. Medea’s betrayal by Jason, her comprehensive revenge and the plight of those caught up in this epic tragedy prompted Charpentier to compose music of devastating power. Transcending the constraints of the Lullian tragédie lyrique, he produced characterisations of astonishing complexity and invested vast stretches of music with a dramatic pace and a harmonic richness rivalled among contemporaries only by Purcell. The electrifying exchanges of the third act, mingling pathos with extreme violence, alone put Charpentier on the same imaginative level as Rameau and Berlioz. The machinations of the fourth act and the dénouement in the fifth maintain the same captivating impetus.

If you want a representative sample of Igor Kipnis’ Bach, start with the introductory toccata to the E minor Partita (No. 6). You get little of the music’s introspective undertones, but Kipnis’ subtle registration changes, resourceful ornamentation, and rhythmic extroversion proves quite insidious. Some of Kipnis’ textual emendations will surprise you, such as his duple-meter reading of the Fifth Partita’s Allemanda. Only on the repeats does Kipnis reinstate the middle notes of the right hand triplet groupings.

Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites is a project of French composer Julien Ash, leader and only permanent member, helped by various artists. NLC combines Neo-Classical music with electronics for a unique example of modern chamber music. Piano is joined by violin, acoustic guitar, and acoustic bass plus ambient electronics and processed voices (singing and speaking).