Dionysos la Naissance de Jack

Klaus Mäkelä brings the Orchestre de Paris to Decca Classics for a major new album of Stravinsky’s most iconic ballet scores. The album represents Mäkelä’s first recording with his French orchestra, which will be followed by a further Ballet Russes release in 2024 featuring Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Debussy’s Jeux and L’Apres midi d’une faune.

Nothing could be more appropriate in celebrating Victoria de los Angeles’s 75th birthday than this extensive conspectus of her recordings of Spanish song over 40 years. It’s hardly possible in a brief review to do justice to such an astonishing achievement on the part of the Spanish soprano; indeed had she sung nothing else her place in recorded history would be assured.

Le Retour des Dieux sur la Terre and Le Caprice d'Erato are part of the tradition inherited from Louis XIV of occasional pieces that served to illustrate major events at Court: Composed four years apart, the first to celebrate the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska in 1725 and the second for the birth of their first son in 1729, these two divertissements are veritable little concert operas in which splendid grand narratives, triumphal overtures, surprising dances, solemn choruses and grandiose finales follow one another.

El Alhambrismo es un movimiento surgido del culto a lo exótico promovido por los viajeros que visitan nuestro país y difunden la imagen de la España romántica. En concreto, el Alhambrismo musical del siglo XIX fue una moda, un tipo de sonoridad que enlaza con la tendencia pintoresquista y con la recuperación de ambientes de la música española de la primera mitad del siglo.

Antonio Florio et son équipe de la Cappella de'Turchini nous ont habitués à de passionnantes découvertes dans le répertoire de leur ville de Naples, au passé musical si riche et pourtant délaissé par la plupart des musiciens.

It all started in 2010. I had asked Eamon Ore-Giron - aka DJ Lengua - if he would be interested in compiling a Latin project for Analog Africa, and if so, if he had a theme in mind. He replied, "Have you ever heard of Rebajada?" The question mark above my head, together with the wall of China, must have been the only other object visible from out of space because Eamon, probably noticing I got paralysed, continued, "Rebajada in Spanish means "to reduce, lowered". It's basically Mexican sonideros (sound-system operators) slowing down the beat of a Cumbia to create a much more tangible music to dance to. I'll send you a mix I made last year and let me know what you think." And so he did.

Leclair, sans conteste le plus important compositeur français de sonates pour violon au XVIIIe siècle, nous livre dans ce recueil la quintessence de son art. Et du point de vue de la virtuosité, des difficultés techniques (pour le violon), il faudra attendre un Paganini, au XIXe, pour trouver de la surenchère. Fétis, l'auteur de la fameuse Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, nous dit que, dans le Dictionnaire Dramatique de l'abbé de La Porte (et Chamfort), on peut lire : « Il manqua toujours à Leclair cette portion de génie qui sert à cacher l'art lui-même, de manière qu'il devienne presque insensible dans la jouissance de l'effet. »