Diapason July 2019

Zefiro, Alfredo Bernardini - The Baroque Collection [10CDs] (2019)

Zefiro, Alfredo Bernardini - The Baroque Collection [10CDs] (2019)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 3.46 Gb | Total time: 11 h 20 min | Scans included
Classical | Label: Arcana | A202 | Recorded: 1993-2017

During the summer of 1989, oboists Alfredo Bernardini and Paolo Grazzi together with bassoonist Alberto Grazzi founded Zefiro, a versatile ensemble specialized in 18th century music predominantly featuring wind instruments. Zefiro soon made a name for itself worldwide, and to celebrate its thirty years of activity Arcana is releasing an elegant 10-CD set of their complete recordings of baroque music. From the ensemble’s first disc (Sonatas by Zelenka - Grand Prix du Disque), the compilation alternates recordings of repertoire composers and pieces that have become absolute points of reference, such as the Vivaldi Bassoon Concertos, Handel’s Fireworks (Diapason d’or de l’année 2009) or the Bach Overtures (judged by Gramaphone to be one of the 50 best Bach recordings of all time).
Roberte Mamou - Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein & Glinka: Russian Seasons (2019)

Roberte Mamou - Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein & Glinka: Russian Seasons (2019)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 251 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 176 Mb | 01:16:47
Classical | Label: Pavane Records

This new album comes to us from the colorful multi-faceted pianist Roberte Mamou, nicknamed Poetess of Sound when she was awarded the Diapason dOr for her recording dedicated to Cimarosa. It is about poetry with Slavic soul as a connecting the thread. This release is an inner journey that goes from melancholy to uncontrolled exaltation. Glinka, Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky tell us here about nostalgia, sadness, and tenderness. Roberte Mamous multi-faceted and colorful musical personality emerges magically from the instrument when she plays, in a breathtaking alchemy which owes something to the flavors and scents of Tunisia where she spent her childhood. The experience of ten years as vocal coach at the La Monnaie Royal Opera in Brussels is also discernible, but perhaps what comes across most is the love and passion which she has always felt for music in all its forms. As a soloist Roberte Mamou has appeared with some of the greatest orchestras and ensembles. To name but a few, the Berlin Symphonic, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Moscow Soloists, the Collegium Instrumentale in Bruges, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Lille.
David L. Ball, Christ Cathedral Choirs & John A. Romeri - Christ Cathedral Dedication: A Place for Christ Forever (2019)

David L. Ball, Christ Cathedral Choirs & John A. Romeri - Christ Cathedral Dedication: A Place for Christ Forever (2019)
WEB FLAC (Tracks) | Cover | 01:05:16 | 295 MB
Classical | Label: Gothic

July 17, 2019, marks the date Christ Cathedral (formerly the Crystal Cathedral) is dedicated to be the liturgical and artistic center for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. The music for that service is presented here, which includes many original works commissioned for the occasion. Dr. John A. Romeri is the Director of Music and Organist for Christ Cathedral, Los Angeles. He is the conductor of the newly-formed Cathedral Choir, Vietnamese Cathedral Choir, Diocesan Children’s Choir, and the Diocesan Adult Choir. Dr. Romeri earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance, Magna cum Laude, from the Conservatory of Music, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, and a Master of Sacred Music degree from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. Juilliard-trained organist David L. Ball serves as organist and assistant director of music at Christ Cathedral. David completed both the Bachelor and Master of Music at The Juilliard School in New York City, studying under Mr. Paul Jacobs. He was recently named one of The Diapason’s 20 under 30.
Sinfonia Grange au Lac & Esa-Pekka Salonen - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" - Strauss: Metamorphosen (2019)

Sinfonia Grange au Lac & Esa-Pekka Salonen - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" - Strauss: Metamorphosen (2019)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 343 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 182 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:15:18
Classical | Label: Alpha Classics, Outhere Music

This live recording of Strauss’s Metamorphosen and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony marks the birth on record of the ‘Sinfonia Grange au Lac’, an orchestra created in July 2018 on the occasion of the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, the prestigious festival created by Mstislav Rostropovich in 1985 and revived since 2014. A musical ambassador intended to promote the excellence of its parent festival worldwide, the Sinfonia Grange au Lac consists of musicians from leading European orchestras (in Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, London, Lucerne, Munich, Paris, Salzburg, Valencia and Vienna) as well as existing groups such as the Trio Karénine and the Quatuor Ébène. And it was a stroke of genius to manage to secure the services of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sinfonia Grange au Lac - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen (2019)

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sinfonia Grange au Lac - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen (2019)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 354 Mb | Total time: 75:20 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Alpha Classics | Alpha 544 | Recorded: 2018

This live recording of Strauss’s Metamorphosen and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony marks the birth on record of the ‘Sinfonia Grange au Lac’, an orchestra created in July 2018 on the occasion of the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, the prestigious festival created by Mstislav Rostropovich in 1985 and revived since 2014. A musical ambassador intended to promote the excellence of its parent festival worldwide, the Sinfonia Grange au Lac consists of musicians from leading European orchestras (in Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, London, Lucerne, Munich, Paris, Salzburg, Valencia and Vienna) as well as existing groups such as the Trio Karénine and the Quatuor Ébène. And it was a stroke of genius to manage to secure the services of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Sinfonia Grange au Lac, Esa-Pekka Salonen - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" - Strauss: Metamorphosen (2019) [24/48]

Sinfonia Grange au Lac, Esa-Pekka Salonen - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" - Strauss: Metamorphosen (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/48 kHz | Time - 75:15 minutes | 782 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Digital Booklet

This live recording of Strauss’s Metamorphosen and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony marks the birth on record of the ‘Sinfonia Grange au Lac’, an orchestra created in July 2018 on the occasion of the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, the prestigious festival created by Mstislav Rostropovich in 1985 and revived since 2014.
Benjamin Bernheim, Frédéric Chaslin, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna - Boulevard des Italiens (2022)

Benjamin Bernheim, Frédéric Chaslin, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna - Boulevard des Italiens: Puccini, Donizetti, Verdi, Spontini, Cherubini, Mascagni (2022)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 257 Mb | Total time: 59:13 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Deutsche Grammophon | # 486 1964 | Recorded: 2021

Documenting more than a hundred years of Italian operatic music in France, Benjamin Bernheim’s new album Boulevard des Italiens. Music stretching from Spontini’s La Vestale to Mascagni’s Amica – all sung in French – receives gold-star treatment from Bernheim, a tenor ideally placed to sing this repertoire in his native language. As he explains, “The aim was really to show the history of the French language in opera houses in Paris by way of these Italian composers who brought their pieces there. With the Opéra Garnier at one end, and the Opéra-Comique at the other, the Boulevard des Italiens is where it all happened.”
Alexei Lubimov - Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Op. 109, 110, 111 (2010)

Alexei Lubimov - Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Op. 109, 110, 111 (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 249 Mb | Total time: 66:01 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Zig-Zag Territories | ZZT 110103 | Recorded: 2009

Alexei Lubimov’s 2010 disc of Impromptus by Schubert was praised in the press. During the same recording session in Haarlem in July 2009, Alexei Lubimov continued with the last three sonatas of Beethoven, Beethoven’s musical testimony which he plays with all the mastery of a great russian pianist, "a kind of russian Pollini" (Alain Lompech, Diapason).