no et me

This latest version of Gluck’s masterpiece is something of a double hybrid: its starting point is the Berlioz version, which combines what Berlioz regarded as the best of the Italian original and the French revision (and using a contralto Orpheus), and then it is modified further, with a number of reorderings and some music restored, as well as revised orchestration. It isn’t very ‘authentic’, in terms of Gluck No. 1, Gluck No. 2 or Berlioz, but that of course doesn’t much matter as long as it works.

Hippolyte et Aricie was Rameau's first surviving lyric tragedy and is perhaps his most durable, though you wouldn't know it from the decades we had to wait for a modern recording. Now there are two: this one, conducted by Marc Minkowski, and William Christie's version on Erato. Choosing between the two is tough. Minkowski uses a smaller and probably more authentic orchestra, and with the resulting leaner sound, the performance has more of a quicksilver quality accentuated by Minkowski's penchant for swift tempos. His cast is excellent. –David Patrick Stearns

Emma Kirkby, Paul Agnew, Andreas Scholl, les bambins de St John's College, les violes de Concordia et Carole Cerasi vous attendent pour ce grand frère de l'Indispensable Purcell. A retrouver dans les kiosques, avec votre numéro de mai.

Castor et Pollux is Rameau’s third opera and is packed with arias that show off the soloists to their best advantage: Tristes apprêts for Télaïre, Nature, Amour for Pollux, Séjour de l'éternelle paix for Castor, and Soulevons tous les dieux for Phébé. In this new recording Judith Van Wanroij, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Tassis Christoyannis and Véronique Gens are the outstanding performers, alongside the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra conducted by György Vashegyi, in a new edition of Rameau's work prepared under the aegis of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Research that was begun several years ago on questions of performance practice has now been complemented by their intensive work on the score and the division of roles, respecting what we now know about performance practice at the Paris Opera in Rameau's day.

Last year, Magma were able to celebrate their 35th anniversary. The band played 4 weeks at Triton in Paris, each week with a different setlist representing the different eras in the history of Magma, and a different notable guest musician from the band's past. "Mythes Et Legendes Vol. 1" is an excellent document of the band's first week at Triton…

John Eliot Gardiner is one of the leading conductors in the active authentic performances movement in England, performing Baroque music but also extending his range into later repertoire. He first conducted at the age of 15, and after finishing school he studied at King's College, Cambridge. While still an undergraduate, he conducted the combined Oxford and Cambridge Singers on a 1964 tour of the Middle East and founded the Monteverdi Choir, which has consistently performed on his recordings since.