Charmant

This first complete recording of Rameau’s tribute to the lyric arts, poetry, music and dance, is riveting. At first sight, it should not work within the limitations of sound recording. It depends heavily on spectacle, on pastoral stage sets and costume, and movement in dance on any pretext – inserted as allegory, as plot, or in festive rejoicing. The dramatic ‘argument’ is negligible, never developing credible passions within its mythological characters. For instance, in the second of the three ‘entrées’, an oracle decrees that Tyrtaeus must conquer a nation before he and Iphise can marry. He does, and they do!

This Swedish opera star's flair for dramatic roles (not to mention his distinctively beautiful voice) made him one of the most in-demand tenors in the world. This set collects the best of Bjorling's EMI solo recordings plus highlights from the three complete operas he recorded for his longtime label. He sings La Donna E Mobile Verdi; E Lucevan Le Stelle Puccini; Cielo E Mar Ponchielli; Mi Batte Il Cor O Paradiso Meyerbeer; Instant Charmant En Ferment Les Yeux Massenet, plus Borodin, Gounod, Sibelius and more!

In a stunning world premiere recording, music director and conductor Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale, and an international cast of French Baroque opera stars present Jean-Philippe Rameau’s original 1745 version of Le Temple de la Gloire, with libretto by Voltaire. Presented as a fully staged opera in April 2017, the three sold out performances enjoyed universal critical acclaim from some of the world’s leading publications. The original manuscript had not been performed since 1745 and is housed at U.C. Berkeley’s Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library. Originally written to honour King Louis XV and commemorate the Battle of Fontenoy, the version of this ballet héroïque that has been heard up until now is the second version which was substantially changed by Rameau to appease the King and Parisian tastes.

With Isbé, a pastorale héroïque by Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, György Vashegyi has revived another overlooked dramatic work from the French Baroque – much as he did with Rameau’s Les Fêtes de Polymnie – for another release on the Glossa label. In his native Budapest, Vashegyi has been developing his interpretations of Baroque music with his Orfeo Orchestra and Purcell Choir for nearly three decades now, and for this recording he has assembled a magnificent team of vocal soloists, well-versed in the idiom of eighteenth- century French opera: Thomas Dolié assumes the important role of Adamas, the Chief Druid, who is besotted by Isbé, and yet is also provided with modern Enlightenment thinking (the opera was premièred in 1742).

The alluring voices of Tassis Christoyannis and Véronique Gens immerse the listener in the atmosphere of the nineteenth-century Parisian salons and the mélodies performed there. The composer and organist César Franck, famed for his instrumental music, proves himself equally skilled in setting poems by Musset, Hugo, Chateaubriand, Daudet and Dumas. This first complete recording of his works for voice and piano ranges over his entire creative life.