Marie Flore Tout Dit

The Orlando Consort performs the music of Machaut, the most significant French poet and composer of the fourteenth century. Sometimes described as ‘the last of the trouvères’ because of his dual talents as poet and musician, Machaut built on past traditions yet spearheaded a new school of lyric composition. In the field of literature, he developed several of the poetic forms and genres that dominated for generations to come. His impact on the musical life of his age was equally profound; he is closely associated with the new style of polyphonic love-song that became so popular in the fourteenth century, and today is considered the supreme representative of the Ars nova musical tradition that revolutionized composition and notation in that period.

Thierry Amiel has finally returned after an absence of 4 years preparing his third album which consists of acoustic versions of songs by Sarah McLachlan, of whom he is a fan. The silken voice, as smooth as honey, is as pure and true as when he made his first appearance on the French Show, "In Search of a New Star". With an incredible range, the singer reaches the highest notes with ease and fills each song with pure emotion.

Metier Records, the new-music label of Divine Art Recordings Group, has a fascinating new recording bringing together music by Robert Schumann and Tristan Murail. The album, to be released in June 2019, will be titled ‘Une rencontre’ (‘An encounter’) and is a meeting of Romantic and contemporary music, climaxed by the premiere recording of Murail’s ‘revisit’ to Schumann’s Kinderszenen, a transcription written especially for the cello soloist Marie Ythier.

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.