'It would be difficult to find a simpler and more poignant subject', Massenet remarked during the composition of Ariane, a vast score in five acts premiered at the Paris Opera in October 1906. The libretto by Catulle Mendes is part ancient drama, part symbolist poem, and sets Phaedra and Ariadne, two sisters in love with Theseus, in violent conflict with each other. This epic work does not shrink from relating the combat against the Minotaur, from showing a ship tossed by the raging billows, nor even from transporting the audience to the Underworld where Persephone reigns. Despite its flamboyant orchestration, its grandiose scenography and its triumphant premiere, Ariane remains one of the few Massenet operas never recorded until now. The young Egyptian soprano Amina Edris takes the title role with ardour and passion, surrounded by a cast well versed in the specificities of the French style. The Bavarian Radio Chorus provides dedicated support in the epic scenes, under the baton of Laurent Campellone, a great champion of Massenet.
After the critical success of the first volume of Beethoven’s symphonies, Jordi Savall now offers us from the Sixth to the Ninth.This latest publication crowns a nearly two-year world tour and confirms the extent to which the director renews our vision of these most famous works. The Concert des Nations shows that it also knows how to magnify the repertoire of the early 19th century, which will be confirmed by a forthcoming Schubert album.
Les deux oeuvres sont des classiques des concerts pour enfants qui connaissent un même succès mondial : le conte musical « Pierre et le loup » de Prokofiev et « Le Carnaval des animaux » de Camille Saint-Saëns, que ce dernier a décrit – probablement avec un clin d’oeil – comme une « Grande fantaisie zoologique ». Est-ce que l’essentiel est ainsi dit ? Pas du tout. Car la question se pose de savoir pourquoi les adultes apprécient autant que les enfants l’histoire du brave Pierre et du méchant loup. Cela a sans doute à voir avec la géniale musique de Prokofiev. Il faut en outre se souvenir que Saint-Saëns a composé son « Carnaval » pour un concert privé à domicile, c›est-à-dire pour le divertissement d’adultes. Et ces derniers ne pouvaient apparemment pas se retenir de rire, si bien que le compositeur a soudain pris peur et a strictement interdit la publication de son oeuvre charmante, craignant que ses oeuvres sérieuses ne soient dès lors plus prises au sérieux. D’une certaine façon, on lui a donné raison : en termes de popularité auprès des jeunes et moins jeunes, aucune autre oeuvre de Saint-Saëns ne peut rivaliser avec le « Carnaval des animaux ».
Jordi Savall's exemplary performance of Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks is among the finest available on disc: refined and precise, but very big, with blood-stirring grandeur. This is just the kind of extroverted, rousing presentation that best highlights the music's open-air ceremonial function. Savall's Le Concert des Nations is essentially a chamber orchestra with double or triple winds, but the sound he elicits from the group is majestic and surprisingly powerful. The playing is crisp and the rhythmic articulation bracing, but the sound is never brash. In fact, more often than not it is seductively sensual, a heady integration of precision and supple, shapely phrasing. Handel left no authoritative edition of the score of Water Music and it has traditionally been divided into three suites, but Savall reorders the material into two suites, a decision that makes more sense in terms of key relationships and that sounds entirely satisfying.
Thomas Siffling was one of the first German trumpet players who used electronic devices for extending his sound on the trumpet. For many years, he belongs to the pioneers of electronic influence in jazz…
Journeyman vocalist Michael Des Barres had a life-changing experience when asked to fill-in for Robert Palmer on the Power Station's tour in 1985. Des Barres – a gifted performer and rock veteran – was finally seeing the fruits of his labors turn into success. It's obvious in the grooves that he was enthusiastic about his present and future when cutting his second solo album, Somebody Up There Likes Me. A crack session group (featuring Andy Taylor, Steve Jones, Jim Keltner, and the Tower of Power horns) was assembled, and the LP was produced to sound like a Rod Stewart platter from the era. In fact, Des Barres – who has a similar, ragged tone – sounds more like Stewart here than on previous releases (emulating some of his vocal mannerisms, and even going so far as to include two members of Stewart's backing band). The man seemed keenly aware that this was the moment, turning in a strong mix of rockers and ballads. The elements were in place for a hit.