Raphael Haute Fidelite

The funeral of Louis XIV mirrored his reign: grandiose and filled with pathos. Raphaël Pichon has chosen the setting of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, built ‘for the use’ of the Sun King, to present a musical reconstruction of the event, with chiaroscuro lighting designs by Bertrand Couderc. Solemn grands motets like the De profundis and Dies irae of Michel-Richard de Lalande and the poignant Marche funèbre pour le Convoy du Roy by André Danican Philidor are juxtaposed with rarely heard music by Jean Colin, Louis Chein and Charles d’Helfer. An outstanding performance by Pygmalion, filmed on the occasion of the tercentenary of the event, in November 2015.

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.

The six sonatas for violin and harpsichord obbligato rank amongst the most beautiful chamber music composed by Bach however, they are overshadowed by the solo sonatas. They are performed beautifully here by Daniel Gaede and Raphael Alpermann. The slow movements display a range of moods, from desolate and lonely to radiantly festive. Meanwhile, the fast movements are a mixture of high-spirited instrumental music and contrapuntal mastery. There are canons, fugues, chorale preludes and much more: practically a compendium of options. Daniel Gaede and Raphael Alpermann guide us through this treasure trove of curiosities with virtuosity and sensitivity.

In 1646, France's first minister, Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, eager to bring Italian culture to Paris, hired Luigi Rossi to write an opera for the Paris carnival. The premiére was given a magnificent staging and the performance, which lasted six hours, was a triumph. However, the expense of the performance only stoked discontent against Mazarin, which soon broke out into full-scale popular rebellion. On this video, Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion recreate the magic of that first performance, thanks to a skillful musical reconstruction and the group's vibrant, multi-colored timbre. The dramatic power of the myth of Orpheus is brilliantly conveyed in Jetske Mijnssen's production, which transposes the story into contemporary terms, to evoke the timeless experience of love and death that humanity both desires and fears.

Spanish pop star Rafael Martos (born Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez and globally as "Raphael") is one of Spain's best-known singers. His multi-octave range and flamboyant stage persona have entertained and engaged people worldwide since 1959. He is also a movie and television actor, and the father of Spanish movie director Jacobo Martos. Raphael is perhaps known best in his homeland for dramatically acting out his songs while on-stage. His record company, Hispavox, awarded him with the world's one and only "Uranium Disc" for his compilation album Ayer, Hoy y Siempre due to the impossibility of presenting him with 300 platinum discs – it sold 50 million copies.