Lully Phaeton

Here is a very special recording devoted to early 18th-century dance music for which we have recently rediscovered choreographies from the period. Such a discovery may well come as a surprise, since it is not generally realised that, long before the proliferation of various 20th-century systems of dance notation, an earlied system had already been invented and them forgotten, only to be rediscovered within the last few years.

The Grandes Eaux de Versailles (The Versailles Fountains Show) is a selection of works from the new CDs and DVDs label “Château de Versailles Spectacles”: Les Arts Florissans, L’Europe galante, Le Devin du village, The Missa of Cavalli, “The Quarrel of the Te Deums” of Blanchard and Colin de Blamont, The Sun King Mass (DeLalande, Couperin, Lully), the Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis, the Lully’s Te Deum and Phaeton. Entirely recorded in the emblematic places of the Château, such as the Royal Opera, the Royal Chapel, La Cour de Marbre or the Little Queen's Theater (Trianon), you will find compositions interpreted by the best and most promising artists.

This important release presents the complete music for harpsichord by Henri D’Anglebert. D’Angelbert was a famous keyboard virtuoso and composer at the court of Louis the XIV, the Sun King. His style is typically French, expressed in a rich counterpoint and lavish ornamentation, a free and improvisatory style, in which sometimes the metre indications are missing (“non mesuré”) and a high level of virtuosity.

This compilation offers a selection of the best recordings of French baroque repertoire drawn from Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra’s own catalogue.
The album includes the 2005 JUNO Award-winning, Grammy Award-nominated recording of an orchestral suite from Rameau’s epic five-act “tragédie en musique” Dardanus, originally released on CBC Records.
The Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and guest soloists are featured in a 2006 CBC recording of the Grand Motet “Dominus regnavit” by Mondonville.
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Ms. Lamon and Tafelmusik have earned high marks … The music's greatness might not be so obvious but for Tafelmusik's fine period style… It will have listeners wondering why this music is not as well-known as works by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. –The New York Times

Many Italian composers of the 17th century went abroad to look for a job. Most of them travelled to Austria or Germany, but some took another direction. The best-known of them was Giovanni Battista Lulli, who as Jean-Baptiste Lully dominated musical life in France in the second half of the 17th century. Another one was Pietro Antonio Fiocco, who stayed the largest part of his life in the Southern Netherlands.

The event known as 'Les grandes eaux Musicales de Versailles 2012', when all the fountains are working, accompanied by music, is presented by the Palace of Versailles in collaboration with Alpha. The music consists of a selection of absolute masterpieces of French Baroque music, from seventeenth- and eighteenth- century songs to great classics of the operatic repertoire, performed by some of the label's leading artists, including the ensemble Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, Café Zimmermann and others.

John Kitchen continues his much-lauded series of recordings from the instruments of the world-famous Roger Mirrey collection of keyboard instruments. Recorded in St Cecilia's Hall, Scotland's oldest purpose-built concert hall, this programme is specifically designed to highlight the unique qualities of the 1755 double-manual harpsichord by Luigi Baillon. Built in Cyteux, Burgundy, it has a very different sound from Parisian instruments of the time; cleaner and brighter in tone, it is the perfect vehicle for Kitchen's subtly nuanced playing, which brings the sophistication of the period to new life.