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Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater has enjoyed enormous fame ever since the eighteenth century – Rousseau called its first movement ‘the most perfect and touching that has ever come from the pen of any composer’. There were many arrangements of the work, by Bach or Hiller among others. It was performed more than eighty times at the Concert Spirituel in Paris between 1753 and 1790, in multiple versions, probably also with the participation of a choir. After consulting several manuscripts and editions held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Julien Chauvin has chosen to record it with soprano and mezzo soloists (the equivalent of the French dessus and bas-dessus) and a two-part children’s choir: ‘The choir can play a real role in the narration of so powerful and poignant a text’, he says.

Sandrine Piau and Véronique Gens have a longstanding rapport and dreamed of making a recording together. Here they pay tribute to two singers who, like them, were born within a year of each other, Mme Dugazon (1755-1821) and Mme Saint-Huberty (1756-1812): both enjoyed triumphant careers in Paris, inspiring numerous librettists and composers. Gluck even nicknamed Saint-Huberty ‘Madamela- Ressource’, while ‘a Dugazon’ became a generic name for the roles of naïve girls in love, and later of comical mothers. Rivals? They very likely were, given the quarrelsome spirit of the operatic world of the time, even if they never crossed paths on stage.

Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater has enjoyed enormous fame ever since the eighteenth century – Rousseau called its first movement ‘the most perfect and touching that has ever come from the pen of any composer’. There were many arrangements of the work, by Bach or Hiller among others. It was performed more than eighty times at the Concert Spirituel in Paris between 1753 and 1790, in multiple versions, probably also with the participation of a choir. After consulting several manuscripts and editions held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Julien Chauvin has chosen to record it with soprano and mezzo soloists (the equivalent of the French dessus and bas-dessus) and a two-part children’s choir: ‘The choir can play a real role in the narration of so powerful and poignant a text’, he says.

This Albert Roussel disc couples the Third Symphony with one of the composer's most popular pieces, the complete music for the one-act pantomime ballet Le Festin de l'araignée. This recording completes a cycle of three releases featuring the four symphonies and two ballets by the French composer, performed by the Orchestre de Paris and music director Christoph Eschenbach. This series has contributed to the rediscovery and recent revival of the great French composer's music.

IIl arrive que l'histoire puisse s'écrire et se lire comme un roman. C'est tout le pari réussi de Frédéric Mounier, dépeignant à l'instar d'une grande fresque populaire ces jours de 1870 où, Paris encerclée, la France sembla condamnée à disparaître. Un immense récit. …

Avec le présent ouvrage, l’auteur du best-seller Paris, deux mille ans d’histoire revient sur les hommes qui, aux côtés du roi, ont fait de Paris la première ville d’Europe. …

Une découverte de maisons, de monuments, d'événements et de faits divers au cours d'un vagabondage dans les rues de Paris.
Métronome, c'était le grand souffle de l'histoire de France sur la capitale. …

Etude historique des réjouissances au XVIIIe siècle, où elles sont contrôlées par les autorités qui y voient les signes tangibles d'une communion avec les sentiments du souverain. Certaines normes sont cependant détournées par les Parisiens qui s'approprient les manifestations de joie avant de revendiquer un droit de se réjouir indépendamment de la Couronne à partir de 1770.