Haller

Four world premiere recordings of little-known cantatas and chamber music by Telemann, brilliantly played by experts in the field of early music. „Soprano Dorothee Mields sings like an angel, tenor Benoît Haller’s voice is warm and agile and melodious, the instrumental soloists are all world class, and their ensemble colleagues are equally informed technically and in sync musically. And the sound is a perfect balance of intimate setting and room resonance that allows the uninhibited natural timbres of voices and instruments to be heard. And to all of this, we add the benefit of some terrific Telemann works that few listeners will have heard – and that even experienced Baroque fans will not immediately recognize as coming from this composer.“ (Classics Today)

THIRTY YEARS of friends, heroes, riffs, past, present, things borrowed, and things new (four never-heard-before songs from the Death Magnetic daze), all with the family who has been there throughout

Christian Thielemann, “by common consent the leading Wagner conductor of our time” (Die Presse), returns to Bayreuth for this radiant account of Die Walküre filmed at the 2010 Festival. Appearing on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time, it provides the only audio-visual document of Tankred Dorst’s Ring production, and follows the hugely successful release of the whole cycle on CD. Two new singers join the cast: Johan Botha as Siegmund, who was showered with praise by the press (“ideal vocal casting” in the words of the critic on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and Edith Haller, with her “beautiful, strong soprano voice” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) as his sister and lover Sieglinde.

Monteverdi - Madrigali Guerrieri Ed Amorosi - Concerto Vocale, René Jacobs (2002) {2CD Set Harmonia Mundi HMC 901736.37}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 701 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 369 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 87 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2001 Harmonia Mundi | HMC 901736.37
Classical / Baroque / Vocal Music

Monteverdi was seventy-one when he published his Eighth Book of madrigals. This collection, a monumental work of remarkable beauty, is a synthesis of all Monteverdi's experience in the realm of secular music. It is the culmination of a genre, the Italian madrigal, which here achieves a rare state of perfection. INDISPENSABLE!

An extraordinary enterprise … As an experience of the sounds and styles of French organ culture this boxed set, it seems to me, is indispensable … the body of music is mostly, here, not created but simply made alive by the apt choice of instruments … it is a resource to which to return with delight.

Georg Philipp Telemann - Perpetuum mobile. Cantatas & Chamber Music
Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble / Dorothee Mields / Benoît Haller / Han Tol
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 350 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Carus # 83.165 | Country/Year: Europe 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

Soprano Dorothee Mields sings like an angel, tenor Benoît Haller’s voice is warm and agile and melodious, the instrumental soloists are all world-class, and their ensemble colleagues are equally informed technically and in sync musically. And the sound is a perfect balance of intimate setting and room resonance that allows the uninhibited natural timbres of voices and instruments to be heard. And to all of this, we add the benefit of some terrific Telemann works that few listeners will have heard–and that even experienced Baroque fans will not immediately recognize as coming from this composer…

Two late and baleful tragedies by Euripides focus on the ill-starred daughter of the Greek King, Agamemnon. Will he sacrifice Iphigenia in order to secure fair winds for his voyage to Troy? In Aulis, the drama rages until she is spared. Having escaped to Tauris, Iphigenia finds herself compelled to kill her own brother before, once more, the fickle gods intervene. Gluck's operatic settings are very rarely staged together, but Pierre Audi's production makes a darkly compelling case for their dramatic unity. All the lead performers here are experienced exponents of Gluck, and together they present a powerfully idiomatic experience.

François-Joseph Gossec’s name is more often found in history books than on record collectors’ shelves. During his long life (1734-1829) he contributed to opera reform in Paris before the arrival and domination of Gluck, was one of the directors of the Concert Spirituel, and wrote 50 symphonies. In old age he became the foremost composer of French revolutionary themes, and the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille was commemorated with a performance of his Te Deum that featured more than a thousand performers. The Missa pro defunctis initially had more modest origins. Also known as the ‘Messe des Morts’, it was first performed in 1760, and aroused notable reaction due to Gossec’s use of trombones, a novelty at the time.

Premiered at the King's Theatre, London during May 1739, this is not a familiar Handel opera, although its music certainly will be. It is a pasticcio opera cobbled together by Handel using an existing libretto and music he plundered from the little known Francesco Araja (c1709-1770).