Deshayes

A co-production with the Bru Zane Foundation, Naïve is delighted to release the world première recording of Saint Francis of Assisi by Gounod, whose bicentenary we celebrate in 2018. Under the direction of Laurence Equilbey, a world-class cast finally gives the work – complemented on disc by Liszt's Legend of Saint Cecilia – the exposure the musical world has been waiting for.

After Les Danaïdes and Les Horaces, Les Talens Lyriques concludes the group’s cycle of Antonio Salieri’s French operas with the world premiere recording of Tarare. Often unfairly overshadowed by his brilliant contemporary Mozart, Salieri here composed a genuine masterpiece on the only libretto ever written by Beaumarchais.
Salieri has a taste for exoticism and, like Mozart in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, he transports us into a fantasy Orient seen through the eyes of the pre-revolutionary philosophy of the Enlightenment.

Karol Beffa - Into The Dark - Ensemble Contraste, Johan Farjot (2015) {Aparté AP 108}
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© 2015 Aparté / harmonia mundi | AP 108
Classical / Modern Classical

The music of contemporary French composer Karol Beffa takes us through the mirror into a dream world that is at once strange and intimately familiar. It invites us to explore inner harmony and rhythm. This new recording includes 'Into the Dark', 'Rainbow', 'Dédales' for piano and string orchestra and 'Nuit obscure' for string orchestra and voice. Gorgeously executed by Ensemble Contraste under the direction of Johan Farjot, this recording features mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes, harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, violist Arnaud Thorette and the composer on piano.

Ernest Bloch’s Suite Hébraïque was the starting point for this programme: ‘This music came as a revelation to us. Its language is overwhelming and tells of the ravages of the twentieth century. The other composers in this programme (Ravel, Bloch, Bruch, Prokofiev, Shostakovich) each in their own way experienced the full force of this tormented century and drew inspiration from the most timeless and universal aspects of folk and sacred repertories, the better to respond to the brutality of the age’, say violist Arnaud Thorette and pianist Johan Farjot, who devised this programme. Johan Farjot has also arranged John Williams’s famous Schindler’s List theme for viola and cello. An intense and poignant experience, also featuring other superb artists: Antoine Pierlot (cello), Pierre Génisson (clarinet), Karine Deshayes (mezzo-soprano), and Sarah and Deborah Nemtanu (violin).