Emma Shap

Dietrich Buxtehude: Vocal Music, Vol. 1, was the start of an intended series on the Dacapo label of Denmark begun in 1996 and this was the only volume issued. It features Emma Kirkby with John Holloway and Manfred Kraemer on violins, Jaap ter Linden on viola da gamba, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen on organ. Although Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri is rightly considered one of the great choral masterworks of the Baroque era, his other vocal output – numbering more than 120 works – seems to have a problem gaining the same kind of traction in the repertoire that his organ music has long enjoyed, even though plenty of it has been recorded.

EMMA DAUMAS a pris les « Larmes de crocodiles » comme prétexte pour délivrer aux enfants des petits messages d'amour et d'espoir à travers des personnages attachants et malicieux. Composées et réalisées avec Mathias Miramon, ces fables modernes sont interprétées, outre Emma Daumas, par Gérard Darmon, Alain Chamfort, Elodie Frégé, Marcel Amont et Caroline Loeb.

Emma Daumas signe son retour sur le devant de la scène avec un EP de chansons folk. 2016 est l'année du retour pour Emma Daumas. 14 ans après son expérience Star Academy, l'ex-jeune première devenue maman revient avec une double actualité littéraire et musicale : un roman au vitriol sur ses années Star Ac' et un EP de chansons folk intimes et apaisées. Encouragée par Maxime Le Forestier, elle compose elle-même les 6 titres de son mini-album, réalisé par Benjamin Constant.

The Orpheus in England title of this release refers to the fact that both John Dowland and Henry Purcell were honored with the "Orpheus" designation after their deaths, nearly 100 years apart. The booklet for this Swedish release even comes with an anonymous poem telling the deceased Purcell to "Touch but thy Lyre, the Stones will come and dance themselves into a Tomb." The unusual idea of connecting the two composers, who shared a common tendency toward a mixture of melancholy and daring harmonic thinking, works well, and there are many lovely moments here. Some come from lutenist Jakob Lindberg, who delivers limpid readings of some Dowland standards and arranges a group of Purcell keyboard pieces for lute.

Here is a side of Handel unfamiliar even to those knowledgeable about his music. Most of this CD is devoted to miscellaneous songs in English‚ many of them published in his time on song sheets‚ or in journals‚ or given to friends‚ or intended for use in the theatre. They are‚ generally‚ in a more popular vein than his familiar music‚ and often in the style used by such composers as Arne or Boyce‚ or lesser men‚ in their English songs. The best of them‚ to my taste‚ are the theatre songs: ‘I like the amorous youth’ is a specially charming piece‚ and ‘Love’s but the frailty of the mind’‚ a Congreve setting made for the admired actress­singer Kitty Clive‚ is an exquisite and touching little song‚ especially when sung as beautifully as it is here by Emma Kirkby.

Emma Shapplin, neoclassical artist, author, composer, and producer, started her music career in classical music but then moved to hard rock. When she was 18, singer Jean-Patrick Capdevielle convinced her to return to taking classical lessons so as to improve her singing technique. She discovered that although rock had given her more artistic freedom and hedonistic lifestyle than classical music, it was still not enough for her, so she decided to create her own style. This became a combination of archaic opera and modern trance and/or pop music. Shapplin and Capdevielle subsequently worked together on her first release, Carmine Meo, written by Capdevielle.