L'oasis Enchantée

Even by the supremely high production standards of Alpha recordings, this issue is especially splendid. Entitled Versailles, L'ile enchantée, it fully lives up to its name. As directed by Skip Sempé, the widely varied program features music written for Louis XIV's pleasure palace, performed by the Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra with mezzo soprano Guillemette Laurens and bass violist Jay Bernfeld. Each work is superbly selected, and every performance is absolutely idiomatic and wonderfully alive. There is wit and tenderness and elegance and, yes, nobility to their performances, which taken together form as much a portrait of the Sun King as the palace of Versailles itself.

Jorg Demus is perhaps better known as a pianist than a composer– having recorded more than 350 LP's, compact discs, and videos. He has performed throughout Europe and the Americas and has played under the baton of conductors like Herbert von Karajan, Joseph Krips, Seiji Ozawa, and others. His output as a composer appears to be relatively small and confined to chamber works– but what a first-rate composer he is!