Quelques notes issues du contralto velouté de Marie-Nicole Lemieux suffisent pour tomber sous le charme. Timbre unique, sens inné de la ligne musicale, apprivoisement des textes de l’intérieur, charisme étonnant, aisance apparente dans tous les répertoires, présence scénique remarquable, la chanteuse semble posséder tous les atouts. La carrière de celle qui se produit maintenant sur les grandes scènes du monde entier devait prendre son envol en 2000, alors qu’elle remporte, presque coup sur coup, le Concours Joseph-Rouleau et le Concours musical international Reine Élisabeth de Belgique. Premiers jalons d’un parcours qui deviendrait rapidement stellaire. Nous la retrouvons ici dans une compilation regroupant certaines des plus belles pages enregistrées sous étiquette Analekta, signées Scarlatti, Handel, Vivaldi et Brahms.
Known as the ‘First Lady of the organ’, Marie-Claire Alain was a strikingly mature, creative and intuitive artist. Spanning four centuries of music, from Baroque masterpieces by the likes of Couperin and Grigny, through cornerstones of the French organ repertoire by Widor, Vierne and Messiaen, to two discs of works by her brother Jehan, this collection is testament to her vast and impressively wide-ranging recording legacy.
Victor Julien-Laferrière, winner in 2017 of the first Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium dedicated to the cello, presents here two French works for cello and orchestra: Outscape by Pascal Dusapin: "The title itself carries the musical project (…) a word rich in meaning that indicates a variety of meanings from the most common to the most philosophical. “Outscape” is the way or opportunity to escape, to invent a path of one's own. I liked this word because it is basically like a summary of the history of my work."
"The grande dame of French organists, Marie-Claire Alain recorded the complete organ music of Bach not once, not twice, but three times. This collection is the third recording, made in the late '80s and early '90s, and recorded digitally by Erato. For this version, Alain had access to restored, historic organs, including some that Bach himself would have played…"