Michael Laurens

This world première recording, with a first-rate cast, brings to light a major work of the French operatic heritage. Pyrrhus by Pancrace Royer (also noted for his very fine – and virtuosic – harpsichord music) was first performed early in the reign of Louis XV. It is one of the twenty-one tragédies lyriques on the subject of the Trojan War that were performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) between 1687 and 1730.

Frans Brüggen first turned his attention to the music of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies in the 1980s, using period instruments. Now, his quest undimmed, he returns to the glories of Beethoven’s orchestral music for a new cycle being issued in a sumptuous hybrid SACD box set on Glossa. Likewise undimmed is the rapport he shares with his orchestra for one of classical music’s greatest challenges by way of concert performances: Brüggen has long distanced himself from studio recordings.