Marc Namblard

Digitally remastered and expanded edition of Marc Almond's 11th solo album, Stranger Things (2001). Containing no less than 32 bonus tracks across discs two and three including original song demos, remixes, rarities, alternative versions and live renditions of Stranger Things album tracks recorded around the time of the album's sessions.

This lively production originated at Baden Baden in 2003 and moved to the Aix-en-Provence Festival the following year. Marc Minkowski is the moving spirit of the performance and “moving” is the right epithet, as most of his speeds are on the fast side. No harm in that when the work is so lengthy. He assembled a fine young cast, all of whom are up to their taxing parts, headed by Malin Hartelius as Konstanze, who is at once a visually attractive performer, absolutely tireless in her three arias, and at the same time projects a very moving portrayal. She is partnered by a promising young tenor in Matthias Klink as Belmonte. He is deprived of one of his arias but sings the rest with fluency and makes an eager young lover. Magali Léger is a bright-buttoned Blonde with voice to match, and her Pedrillo, Loïc Felix, is a suitable partner.

Henriette de Coligny, Comtesse de La Suze, was more than just a woman of letters admired in her time, even by the very demanding Boileau. It was as a free woman that she married for love; after the death of her husband, a second one was forced on her, but, still a free woman, she demanded to be ‘de-married’! Surrounded by expert musicians, Marc Mauillon shows us that her précieux poetic universe mixes tenderness with the most unexpected strokes of audacity, so much so that her verse inspired many composers of the Grand Siècle – and after!

The music of C P E Bach makes complex stylistic demands of the performer like little else of its time, the extraordinary drama and intensity tempered by Enlightenment elegance and the influence of the Baroque. Marc-André Hamelin’s performances set new standards in this endlessly absorbing repertoire.