Raphael Feullatre

Benno Ammanns oeuvre reveals influences from impressionism to free tonality, yet he belongs to no stylistic school. The Swiss composer wrote Missa Defensor Pacis (Defender of the Faith) in 1946 for the official canonization, at St Peters in Rome, of Nicholas of Flüe, patron saint of Switzerland. This prestigious commission, with its complex polyphony, countless variations, and use of the cantus firmus technique, is one of the most important and extensive Masses by a Swiss composer for a cappella choir. The Basler Madrigalisten are one of the most traditional professional vocal ensembles in Switzerland and are primarily devoted to demanding repertoires from the Renaissance to contemporary music. The ensemble, founded in 1978 by Fritz Naf at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, has been under the direction of Raphael Immoos since 2013 and has toured Europe, the USA, Australia, and Asia.

For admirers of Steuart Bedford's recordings of the music of Benjamin Britten, this re-release of his 1984 recordings of the Symphony for cello and orchestra with his arrangement of a concert suite from Death in Venice will be gratefully received. Bedford had been anointed by Peter Pears, Britten's musical executor, as a Britten interpreter and even allowed to create the concert suite. Bedford's conducting is surely more assured than Britten's in general, but his interpretations were clearly steeped in Britten's interpretations.

After ‘Stravaganza d’amore’, their superb album of late sixteenth-century Florentine music, Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion return to Italy, this time to Mantua. Here they offer us their reading of one of the peaks of sacred music from this period: Monteverdi’s Vespers. Revealing like no other interpreters the poignant interiority of these pieces, they bring out to the full their inherent sense of theatre. An overwhelming experience.

Alpha presents the reissue of Ensemble Pygmalions version of Dardanus, conducted by Raphaël Pichon and recorded in the majestic acoustics of the Opéra Royal at Versailles Palace. This set won multiple awards on its first release: Rameau, a flinty-hearted composer lacking in imagination? Rameau, a cold mathematician in his chord progressions and a severe draughtsman in his vocal lines? One need only listen, in Dardanus, to the melancholy laments of Princess Iphise, splendidly sung by the soprano Gaëlle Arquez, to realise the treasures of tenderness and invention that still remained in the youthful heart of the fifty-six-year-old composer! . . . This version, which fills an important gap in the discography, possesses all the assets needed to speak to us today, and to last.

With each new album, the Stradivari collection invites you to discover another unique instrument lovingly preserved and housed at the Museum of Music in Paris, such as the magnificent 1734 Guarneri cello and the 1855 Gebauhr grand piano, both of them exceptionally well suited to the music of Beethoven and his contemporaries. When these remarkable examples of European instrument-making are entrusted to performers as adept as Raphaël Pidoux and Tanguy de Williencourt, the composer’s celebrated Sonatas of Opus 5 stand revealed as never before!

The three Leçons de Ténèbres pour le mercredy (Tenebrae for Wednesday) are the only ones by François Couperin to have survived: 'recitations' destined to accompany the Office of the Tenebrae during one of the nights of Holy Week. Couperin is one of the uncontested masters in this exercise fusing vocal virtuosity and deep religious feeling.