Sans 487

How do you describe Leopold Stokowski in one word? Showman, impresario, visionary, firebrand, agent provocateur, magician? Take your pick as he all that and more. It’s 40 years since the passing of one of the most colorful characters in Decca’s roster and one of the most indefatigable innovators in music performance history. His complete recordings for Decca/Phase 4 are presented together for the first time, with a bonus audio documentary featuring an interview with the maestro himself, in a handsome Limited Edition 23-CD boxed set.

The ensemble Les Arts Florissants, founded and for many years headed by American-French conductor William Christie, specializes in the music of the French Baroque. That might seem a poor fit with a greatest-hits collection like this one: surely anyone interested in the French Baroque will already have heard many of the selections included on this three-disc set, celebrating the group's 40th anniversary in 2019. Actually, though, the influence of Les Arts Florissants has been so fundamental that a survey of this kind is entirely appropriate. When Christie founded the ensemble in 1979, French Baroque music was a rare find on recordings. Les Arts Florissants has changed that completely, and Christie expanded the operation with an educational aspect that will keep the momentum going. The group contributed to the growing popularity of 17th century music outside of France, and the gorgeous Monteverdi recordings here (sample Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda) are the equal of any. The three discs in the package are divided into the categories of Music and Theater, Sacred Music, and Secular Music, the last covering chamber-sized groups.

This fabulous five disc set is replete with some of those old Stokowski warhorses all recorded in absolutely mind boggling Phase 4 sound, overblown perhaps but astounding for its time. Decca's remastering is absolutely magnificent and the discs are jam packed with almost six hours of music. This is another fine memorial to a great conductor who remained astonishingly vital until the very end of his life.

Cecy Robson est une auteure de romance contemporaine et d'aventures young adult, et une auteure récompensée d'urban fantasy.
Elle a été finaliste du prix RITA 2016 pour "Once Pure and Once kissed" et a publié près d'une vingtaine de livres. …