Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Le Jardin De Monsieur Rameau (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:01 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
“Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau,” the second recording by Les Editions Arts Florissants, was released in April 2014 as part of the commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death.
These recordings reprise the program of French music given for the 2013 Jardin des Voix, performed by William Christie and six soloists from the sixth edition of the Arts Florissants Academy for young singers.
From Rameau to Dauvergne via Campra, the musicians invite us on a promenade through the vocal art of the French Enlightenment.
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Xavier de Maistre, Les Arts Florissants, William Christie – La Harpe Reine: Concertos for Harp at the Court of Marie-Antoinette (Live) (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:10:08 minutes | 731 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Mention Marie Antoinette, and inevitably the guillotine springs to mind – one is less likely to think of the harp, which, according to courtiers’ accounts from the end of the Ancien Régime, she played admirably.
Thanks to Louis XVI’s queen and to her Austrian origins, a whole new and deliciously refined repertoire saw the light of day in Versailles, a repertoire that subsequently became known throughout Europe. To celebrate their first musical partnership, William Christie and Xavier de Maîstre have undertaken to revive these splendid works in a program full of charm and surprises. Audiences will discover Les Arts Florissants playing an unexpected collection of concertante pieces by Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz, Johann David Hermann and Joseph Haydn on authentic late 18th-century instruments.
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Les Arts Florissants, William Christie – J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 (Live) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:45:00 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are renowned of their spectacular performances of Bach’s epic masterpiece, which they have toured extensively.
During their last tour (in Munich, Frankfurt, Lucerne, Aix-en-Provence and Paris) there was a stampede for tickets and they performed every night in full houses, to spellbound audiences.
This album is the culmination of the tour: it was recorded in an open session in London, and captures the special atmosphere of the concerts
It is presented in a 2-CD casebook and contains a booklet featuring original notes by John Eliot Gardiner translated in English, German and French.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Handel: Music for Queen Caroline (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:15 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Queen Caroline was an emblematic female figure of the eighteenth century. The wife of King George II of England, Caroline of Ansbach was a woman of great beauty, a supporter of the arts and sciences, and also a friend and protector of Handel.
It was Handel who was commissioned to compose the ceremonial music that accompanied her reign—“The King Shall Rejoice” played at her and George’s coronation, the “Queen Caroline” Te Deum, written for her arrival in England, and also “The Ways of Zion do Mourn,” composed for her funeral.
In this recording which, for the first time, brings together these three works illustrating the very strong link between the queen and her chosen artist, the choir and orchestra of Les Arts Florissants, whose ranks were enlarged for the occasion, bring back to life music that is at once flamboyant and poignantly human.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Bien que l’amour…airs sérieux et à boire (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:03 minutes | 1,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
With this anthology of airs sérieux and airs à boire of the Grand Siècle, Les Arts Florissants launches a new series on harmonia mundi. We may listen to the tracks on this disc as contemporaries turned the pages of successful collections of songs alternating between invocations to Bacchus and invitations to love. Around William Christie at the harpsichord and his musicians, five singers offer multiple combinations of close-knit voices. From the intimacy of the salons to the liveliness of court banquets, these airs, models of refined skill, make light of the paradoxes of our hearts – for as an air by Lambert tells us: ‘Though Love creates all my grief, / I wish to love and to die loving.’
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Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew – Monteverdi: Madrigali Vol. 3, Venezia (Live) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:42 minutes | 700 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Recorded at the Cité de la Musique during the complete cycle of Monteverdi madrigals mounted in partnership with the Philharmonie de Paris and the Théâtre de Caen, the last volume in our trilogy probably contains the best-loved gems of a composer who had become maestro di cappella at St Mark’s in Venice, and finally entered the priesthood. Alongside the great operas that have survived from this period, the final madrigals methodically explore the multiple possibilities offered by the rapidly developing practice of basso continuo and by an unprecedented exploitation of solo voices. And, in that respect, the celebrated Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda forms a spectacular finale to our Monteverdian adventure!
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Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Les Maîtres du Motet (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:03 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
It’s thanks to a complete stroke of luck that several of Pierre Bouteiller’s rare works have been preserved for posterity, including this Messe à cinq voix. During a long journey from Paris to Strasbourg, Sébastien de Brossard – who was relying on the collegial hospitality of chapel masters at various churches along the route – found himself lodging with Bouteiller, who was working at Châlons-sur-Marne. The two musicians exchanged manuscripts, including thirteen motets and the Messe pour les défunts by Bouteiller, which have been found in Brossard’s private library. In order to bring these works by Brossard and Bouteiller to life, and to perform them in the manner that they were sung in their day, during funerals, Paul Agnew, leader of the Arts Florissants has chosen to insert plain-chant sections to mark different points along the cortège and the funeral rites. In the reconstruction offered in this recording, Brossard’s Miserere comes sandwiched between two organ pieces – the instrumental Kyrieby André Raison – which figures in the procession towards the tomb, and then the return to the church. The time of the Sun King is reconstructed with care, right down to the choice of acoustics (the Abbey of the Holy Trinity in Lessaye, Manche) and the selection of vocalists.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – N’espérez plus, mes yeux… Airs sérieux et à boire, Vol. 3 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:38 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
With this third volume of “Airs sérieux et à boire”, the ensemble Les Arts Florissants return to this genre whose refinement had marked the French musical landscape for over a hundred years. By turns gallant, earthy, or spiritual, these vocal miniatures, prized at the French court, ushered in a ground-breaking style which opened the door to an endless variety of interpretations. “One can hardly find enough praise for the individuality of these inspired performers, for their skill to make the music animate the words ( . . . ) as they display a joyful unity of purpose. A unique event!” (Opéra Magazine).
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Les Arts Florissants – Monteverdi: L’Orfeo, SV 318 (Live) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:46:35 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dynamic
Les Arts Florissants was founded by William Christie in 1979, and takes its name from an opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier which the group recorded in 1982. They specialise primarily in French baroque repertoire, and their advocacy of operas by Lully, Rameau and Charpentier was a driving force in the revival of interest in this area from the late 1980s onwards; key recordings include Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie and Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and Purcell’s King Arthur (which all won Gramophone Awards in the 1990s), Mozart’s Die Entführung aus de Serail (a Building a Library First Choice in 2014), and a series of Monteverdi’s Madrigals on the ensemble’s own label.
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Les Arts Florissants – Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri terzo & quarto (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:37:36 minutes | 985 MB | Genre:
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Following the acclaim which met their double-album set devoted to the first two books of Gesualdo’s madrigals (2020 Gramophone Award), Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants now focus on the composer’s Ferrara period. ‘The sheer inquisitive delight that these singers bring to Gesualdo’s extraordinary world indicates a very exciting series ahead.’ Gramophone
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Les & Larry Elgart – The New Elgart Touch (1965/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 28:30 minutes | 659 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy
Les Elgart (trumpet) and his brother Larry (alto/soprano sax) led one of the more popular swing orchestras of the ’50s. Their smooth, tightly arranged sound helped keep the declining big-band style alive on the charts for a little while longer, and their later reunions often produced stylistic detours into contemporary easy listening trends.
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Les Ambassadeurs, La Grande Écurie & Alexis Kossenko – Per l’Orchestra di Dresda, Vol.1 Ouverture (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:39 minutes | 1,70 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Alexis Kossenko delves into the repertoire of one of the most admired orchestras in Europe during Bach’s lifetime. The greatest composers of the century composed for this famous ensemble, who were showcase for the musical splendor of the court of the prince-electors. Combining concerti and sacred music, this album is the first volume in an exceptional series devoted to this orchestra.
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Les Ambassadeurs, Alexis Kossenko – Vivaldi: Per l’orchestra di Dresda (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:06:02 minutes | 666 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Les Ambassadeurs launch a series of recordings devoted to the repertory of the Dresdner Hofkapelle at the time of Bach, with the aim of rediscovering the splendid sound of an ensemble then regarded as the orchestral ideal. The ties of friendship between Johann Georg Pisendel – who led the orchestra – and Antonio Vivaldi held firm for life. Between their first meeting in Venice in 1716 and the death of the Prete Rosso in 1741, Pisendel continually enriched his collection of Vivaldi concertos, a certain number of which were manifestly tailor-made for his outstanding technique and equally exceptional delicacy of expression. This explains why Dresden holds so many Vivaldian treasures, sometimes autograph, sometimes copied in Pisendel’s own hand.
Although the concertos assembled by Les Ambassadeurs bear no explicit dedication, there can be little doubt that they were expressly written for the Dresden orchestra: they feature the instrumentation typical of the court Kapelle, with its horns and oboes vying for prominence with the violin.
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Les Agrémens and Guy Van Waas – Dauvergne: La Vénitienne (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:55:40 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
Dauvergne’s final operatic work follows neither of the established genres of the period, neither tragédie lyrique nor opéra-ballet. With La Vénitienne, the composer turned towards comedy.
Taking a libretto written during the reign of Louis XIV in 1705, he drew on the very best of his talent and skill and created a synthesis of everything that was modern at that time: it is as if Rameau, Pergolesi, Grétry and Mondonville had joined forces to compose this work that is by turn tragic, tender and richly comic, in which the virtuosity of the arias and the splendour of a large orchestra is blended with the piquant spirit of the Age of Enlightenment.
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Les Accents & Thibault Noally – Bach & Co (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:16 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Violinist Thibault Noally leads his ensemble Les Accents through a new musical adventure inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach. Around the father of European music are summoned by famous and more discreet contemporaries, all authors of concertos, such as Telemann, Fasch and Förster. Enlightened by the miraculous southern light emanating from the works of German Baroque pieces, the album vibrates thanks to the obvious pleasure of the musicians to play once more together at Aparté’s. Guided by the spirit of the Leipzig cantor, the musicians walk through the alleys of the eighteenth century following the Thibault Noally’s sound. Most comfortable in this environment, he and his violin literally sing with his musical mates in the double concertos for recorder or oboe. Baroque repertoire is inexhaustible!
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