Bru Zane

'It would be difficult to find a simpler and more poignant subject', Massenet remarked during the composition of Ariane, a vast score in five acts premiered at the Paris Opera in October 1906. The libretto by Catulle Mendes is part ancient drama, part symbolist poem, and sets Phaedra and Ariadne, two sisters in love with Theseus, in violent conflict with each other. This epic work does not shrink from relating the combat against the Minotaur, from showing a ship tossed by the raging billows, nor even from transporting the audience to the Underworld where Persephone reigns. Despite its flamboyant orchestration, its grandiose scenography and its triumphant premiere, Ariane remains one of the few Massenet operas never recorded until now. The young Egyptian soprano Amina Edris takes the title role with ardour and passion, surrounded by a cast well versed in the specificities of the French style. The Bavarian Radio Chorus provides dedicated support in the epic scenes, under the baton of Laurent Campellone, a great champion of Massenet.

Produced by the Bru-Zane Foundation, whose mission is to aid in the rediscovery of unjustly neglected French music, 1780 to 1920. An album of Romantic French cantatas by Cherubini, Heand Boisselot in the company of an exceptional guide, mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes, Opera Fuoco and its conductor, David Stern. The French Cantata, a Baroque-era presence, was restored to favor in the 19th century as an alternative to the Italian stage, then generally perceived in France as being overly exuberant.

Édouard Lalo - Concertante Works for Violin, Cello and Piano - Liège Royal Philharmonic (2016) {3CD Set Alpha 233}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 924 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 458 Mb
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© 2016 Alpha / Outhere Music | Alpha 233
Classical / Concerto / Romantic / Violin / Cello / Piano / Philharmonic

Édouard Lalo made his mark on French music with his opera Le Roi d’Ys, but his instrumental output also has considerable historical importance, with its resolutely innovative aims for its time. More specifically, his concertante music rewards the attentive ear with a brilliant, skilfully constructed style, studded with fresh rhythmic and harmonic inventions that renew the melodic and orchestral language of the genre.

That globetrotting composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote La Princesse jaune in 1872, exemplifying the current craze for all things Japanese. Kornélis, played by the tenor Mathias Vidal, dreams only of the Land of the Rising Sun. Under the influence of a hallucinogenic potion, he becomes infatuated with Ming, a fantasy princess. His cousin Léna – the soprano Judith van Wanroij – despairs of this passion and does not dare to confess her own feelings to Kornélis, who eventually comes to his senses. The running time of this opera enables us to offer a coupling in the shape of a previously unrecorded version of Saint-Saëns’s six Mélodies persanes, thus extending the guiding thread of a yearning for exotic horizons in another direction. Leo Hussain conducts the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse in both works.