Philippe Katerinetotal à L'ouest

The Romantic Violin Concerto series reaches Belgium and the music of Joseph Jongen, a composer more celebrated for his organ music now, but who was equally admired in his day for his orchestral and chamber works. Jongen studied at the Liège Conservatoire where he heard the great violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and composer-conductors Vincent d’Indy and Richard Strauss.

Johann Theile - Secular Arias & Canzonettas 1667 - Les Amis de Philippe
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 361 MB | RS
Recorded: 19-21 June 2003, Sendesaal Radio Bremen
Released: 2005 | Label: cpo 777002 | TT: 76:10
Schirin Partowi - canto | Werner Buchin - alto | Henning Kaiser - tenore
Matthias Vieweg - basso | Les Amis de Philippe, Ludger Rémy

The performances are unflaggingly first-rate. All four singers command period style with notable ease, and with their lithe and flexible voices imbue the songs with ornamental grace and character. The instrumentalists of Les Amis [de] Philippe make a substantial contribution here with richly textured, contoured playing. (Steven Plank, operatoday.com)

Volga-Tatar-born Canadian composer and conductor Airat Ichmouratov conducts the London Symphony Orchestra for this recording of two of his major works, Chandos’ third album dedicated to the works of this outstanding composer. Both concertos are recorded here by the soloists who premiered each work. Ichmouratov’s first viola concerto was conceived in 2004, whilst he was a conducting student at the Universite de Montreal. His fellow Ph.D. candidate, the violist Elvira Misbakhova, wanted something new for her doctoral performance, preferably a concerto that combined lyrical impulses and virtuoso challenges. The resulting work is a large-scale piece in three movements that exploits and celebrated the naturally sombre character of the instrument.

Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1603 after an eleven-year gestation, bears witness to the metamorphosis of the madrigal and the rapid evolution of music at the turn of the two centuries. It is also a model of the genre and may be regarded as one of the most innovative and emblematic of its composer’s style.

Bach’s St John Passion, with its famous opening chorus traversed by shadows and light, is a powerful musical and spiritual reflection. Dramatic, grandiose, complex, resolutely theatrical: there has been no lack of superlatives to describe this supreme masterpiece of western music. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent present an accomplished reading that reflects their knowledge of the composer, based on extensive research and deepened by countless concerts. Soloists Krešimir Stražanac and Maximilian Schmitt demonstrate the breadth of their talents in the roles of Jesus and the Evangelist.

'Recording an album entirely devoted to Händel is an unmissable opportunity for any singer who loves Baroque music, but especially for a countertenor. In fact the sheer choice of arias, each more wonderful than the one before, is staggering, but does mean that every singer can find the numbers best suited to his or her voice and personality. Although it’s only in the last few years that I’ve been able to play the big Händel roles on stage – Sesto in Giulio Cesare, for example, or Ruggiero in Alcina – for this recital I wanted to choose a selection of arias from less well-known operas. I’ve been performing some of them for many years now and I felt ready to record them with my ensemble, Artaserse, a group of players who have gained further maturity from the experience of performing around the world over the years.