Céline b

Two years after releasing her CD dedicated to Book I of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Céline Frisch now presents the second volume of this musical landmark. Bach compiled Book II in 1744, twenty-two years after Book I. It took until 1801 for both volumes to be printed: from then until the present day they have inspired countless composers. After a series of recordings with the Ensemble Zimmermann, an ensemble she cofounded with Pablo Valetti, Céline Frisch returns to her very favourite music, the harpsichord recital. Through these preludes and fugues, she reminds us that far from being technical exercises, the Well- Tempered Clavier is a work of pure pleasure and constant renewed discovery.

After the success of her Goldberg Variations and a disc devoted to Rameau’s harpsichord pieces, Céline Frisch, harpsichordist and co-founder of the Café Zimmermann ensemble, returns to the recital with a programme devoted entirely to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. For this recording, Céline Frisch draws on her ‘bedside’ music. She thus reminds us that, beyond an exercise for advancing his technique (and we are well familiar with Bach’s strictness in this art), The Well-Tempered Clavier is also a work of pure pleasure, like a constant rediscovery: a landscape that one never tires of admiring.

The French harpsichordist Céline Frisch has an extensive discography, including many award-winning recordings devoted to Bach. Now she presents the Partitas, the famous and abundant collection of six suites that Bach composed from 1726 onwards - at the rate of one new partita per year - which he published as his Opus 1: As Céline Frisch points out, “Bach explores the possibilities of each dance in order to extend its limits deploying an intense expressive palette that ranges from the most disarming tenderness through to the most poignant distress and unbridled joy”.

Loved Me Back to Life is Celine Dion's first English-language album in seven years, but even that long gap of time doesn't tell the whole story. The last time Dion placed in the Billboard Top 40 was in 2002, when "A New Day Has Come" reached 22, and the last time she saw the Top 10 was in 1999, when "That's the Way It Is" reached number six. That's a roundabout way of saying that Dion's days as a formidable hitmaker are long gone, but the interesting thing about Loved Me Back to Life is how the French-Canadian diva has seized this opportunity to try a little bit everything, ranging from duets with neo-R&B stalwart Ne-Yo to covers of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen."