Nesles Blanche

The first release in Deutsche Grammophon’s new partnership with the Verbier Festival that will see the release of exceptional concerts with great artists (2 sets per year from 2016) recorded by Verbier over the years. Something special was bound to happen when Martha Argerich was given carte blanche to invite whoever she wanted, to play whatever she and they chose at her Verbier Festival concert on 27 July 2007. She was the life and soul of the party, playing in seven works and making a rare solo appearance in Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Argerich’s artistic partners are Yuri Bashmet, Renaud Capuçon, Lang Lang, Mischa Maisky, Gabriela Montero, Julian Rachlin in a killer programme.

The combination of recorder and organ in dialogue give us a rich tapestry of textures and moods from the playful to the sensual. With works by Johann Sebastian Bach, the result is an altogether inspiring concert of Baroque music full of life and energy!

François Couturier leads his Tarkovsky Quartet on their third album dedicated to the great film director Andrej Tarkovsky. The two previous volumes, released in 2006 and 2011, were greeted with unanimous international praise; the musical and human experience during the recordings and subsequent tours and concerts revealing the huge potential of the highly original formation consisting of piano, cello, saxophone and accordion.

Although François Couperin (harpsichord) and Antoine Forqueray (Viola da Gamba) often played together in Versailles, they were very different musical personalities. Couperin was regarded as the ideal type of French music with its affective aesthetics. Forqueray on the other hand used the robust, highly virtuoso style of Italy. Together with Pieter-Jan Belder and Sofia Diniz, Rainer Zipperling presents the works of the antipodes, which show their contrasting musical characters.