Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Capella Mediterranea, Leonardo García Alarcón – Arcadelt: Missa Noe Noe (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:02:30 minutes | 1,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
Given that not one of the Masses by Jacques Arcadelt was included in our boxed set that revealed his immense musical personality to the world, we now remedy this situation with an indispensable addition. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon chose the Missa Noe Noe, which is presented here in the context of the Christmas liturgy. We have also included motets not only by Arcadelt but also by Josquin Desprez, as he was the great model for musicians of his generation. The recording ends resoundingly with Josquin’s imposing Benedicta es coelorum regina for six voices, although in an expanded version for twelve voices by Jean Guyot de Chatelet (1512 – 1588): another Walloon composer to be discovered!
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Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Chœur de Chambre de Namur & Gergely Madaras – César Franck: Hulda (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:38:06 minutes | 2,91 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bru Zane
The injustices of history are made to be redressed. Here a cast of international singers, under the dynamic direction of Gergely Madaras, devotes itself with conviction to the task of reviving one of the forgotten glories of French Romantic opera. Hulda, completed in 1885, was never staged in César Franck’s lifetime. This gory medieval legend recounts the multiple acts of vengeance its heroine inflicts on the Aslak clan, which slaughtered her family, and on her unfaithful lover Eiolf. The ferocious performance of American soprano Jennifer Holloway in the title role is matched by the sinister presentiments of her French colleague Véronique Gens and the tender outbursts of Dutch soprano Judith van Wanroij. Although the imaginary Norwegian setting brings Wagner to mind, Franck continues the tradition of French grand-opéra while adopting the contemporary Verdian idiom. The intensity of the action is reflected in harmonic and instrumental experiments that place Franck in the forefront of the modernists of his time. The inventiveness of the ballet is matched only by the splendour of the choral writing. How could such a masterpiece have languished in oblivion for so long? Quite simply, because it was deliberately buried by Franck’s pupils, who preferred to keep for themselves the glory of personifying the French operatic revival.
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La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Choeur de Chambre de Namur – Neukomm: Requiem à la mémoire de Louis XVI (Collection Château de Versailles) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:01:43 minutes | 577 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
In spite of the immense success he enjoyed in his lifetime, Sigismund Neukomm (born in Salzburg in 1778, died in Paris in 1858 at the age of eighty) is practically forgotten nowadays. Yet he left a catalogue of nearly two thousand works, including fifty masses and a number of oratorios and motets. Neukomm spent twenty years in the service of Prince Talleyrand, who commissioned him to write a Requiem Mass in memory of Louis XVI, guillotined in Paris on 21 January 1793. This was the second mass of the fifty he was eventually to compose, several of which were dedicated to monarchs. The Requiem was given at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna on 21 January 1815 by more than three hundred singers divided into two choirs. Neukomm conducted one of them, while the other was directed by his friend Salieri. As part of their joint series of recordings, the Château de Versailles and Alpha continue their rediscovery of repertory that has marked the history of France and of music. Here Jean-Claude Malgoire conducts this unpublished Requiem. This is the first appearance in the Alpha catalogue of this pioneering figure from the golden age of the exploration of Baroque performing practice.
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Capella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur & Leonardo García Alarcón – Antonio Draghi & Leonardo García Alarcón: El Prometeo (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 02:06:32 minutes | 4,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
The original score of El Prometeo (Prometheus) is held in the Leopoldine Library in Vienna. It dates from 1669 and was written by Antonio Draghi, a composer who was also a singer, notably in the operas of Cavalli. For the first time in history, an Italian set a text in Spanish. The last act of El Prometeo has disappeared. But since the libretto of this act has survived, Leonardo García Alarcón decided to rewrite all the music for it. ‘I immersed myself in Draghi’s music in order to understand his style, his favourite intervals, the type of melody he composed and the type of basso continuo he was fond of, so as to try to produce a score that is worthy of him. So I hope that this third act will measure up to his music, his intentions and his creativity!’ says the Argentinian conductor. Directing a brilliant cast (Fabio Trümpy, Mariana Flores, Giuseppina Bridelli, Scott Conner, Borja Quisa, Zachary Wilder, Ana Quintans), Leonardo García Alarcón brings this Baroque opera to life in Spanish, an opportunity to show his love for his mother tongue, ‘a supremely musical language’!
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Le Concert de la Loge, Chœur de Chambre de Namur & Julien Chauvin – Mozart: Requiem – Paisiello: Messe pour le sacre de Napoléon (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:22 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Le Requiem de Mozart n’est présenté à Paris qu’en 1804, dans une version légèrement différente de celle composée par Mozart. La presse se fait l’écho d’un triomphe. 1804 est aussi l’année du sacre de Napoléon : de ses conquêtes méditerranéennes, Bonaparte avait rapporté un goût prononcé pour la musique italienne. Il confie ainsi au Napolitain Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) la direction de sa chapelle musicale et lui commande la musique de son couronnement, une Messe solennelle en si bémol majeur . Le Palazzetto Bru Zane a créé l’édition moderne de l’œuvre qui est enregistrée ici. Outre la fastueuse 1804, l’autre année qui relie Napoléon à Mozart, c’est 1841, lorsque son Requiem retentit à nouveau aux Invalides alors que le corps de Napoléon y fait son entrée…Sandrine Piau, Chantal Santon, Eléonore Pancrazi, Mathias Vidal et Thomas Dolié sont les solistes de ce programme dirigé par Julien Chauvin, à la tête de son Concert de la Loge et du Chœur de Chambre de Namur.
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Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Millenium Orchestra & Leonardo García Alarcón – Handel: Solomon (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:32:10 minutes | 2,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
Handel’s oratorio Solomon is now regarded by its performers and its listeners as one of his greatest compositions. This was not, however, always the case. Solomon was not performed outside of London during Handel’s lifetime, an unusual occurrence during his British career. The work had therefore enjoyed only a limited success, although we may well wonder why, when oratorios sung in English had been so successful until then. Could it have been the obvious lack of theatricality in the libretto, or the public’s growing indifference to the genre? Or was he afraid to alienate the Anglican church, given the rumours of lines with erotic connotations in the first and third acts? Here, Leonardo García Alarcón and his singers and instrumentalists offer us a flamboyant version of the work that would certainly have won over the most hesitant of London listeners in 1749!
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Chœur de Chambre de Namur & Thibaut Lenaerts – Franck: De l’autel au salon. Œuvres chorales (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:26 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Musique en Wallonie
“Vox humana” or “Vox celestis”? For César Franck (1822-1890) the one is often a metaphor for the other; whether in sacred or secular vein, spirituality is inherent in all his vocal music, even the most modest of his choral works. Certain of these form the focus of attention in this first recording. They remain unpublished; were they perhaps thought to be of lesser worth for having originated in a religious or private celebration or in response to a publisher’s commission? We should remember that it was often the specific circumstances that provided Franck with the stimulus necessary for the realization of some of his masterpieces. Be that as it may, listening to these choral works offers the listener some delightful discoveries.
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Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Millenium Orchestra, Leonardo García Alarcón – Handel: Semele (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:50:21 minutes | 2,84 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Ricercar
Semele is a masterpiece. For what else can one call a drama in which the perfect symbiosis of text and music conjures up such suggestive power? “To hold the mind, the ears and the eyes equally spellbound”: this recommendation by La Bruyère (Les Caractères: Les ouvrages de l’esprit) refers to the “machine plays” so adored by the public in the Baroque period. But even without machinery or indeed without sets or real staging, Handel’s oratorio involves us in the tragic fate of his heroine with supreme skill.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Les Solistes, Bruno Boterf – Du Mont: Pour les Dames Religieuses (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:44 minutes | 599 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
Henri Du Mont first made provision for the performance of a number of his compositions by women’s voices in his Cantica Sacra (1652) and thus made it possible for these works to be sung in convents. This recording includes not only the motets intended for these institutions but also one of the Messes Royales in plainsong and several organ pieces from his Meslanges composed for the Dames religieuses qui touchent l’orgue.
This recording is the second in a systematic exploration of the several collections of music by Henry du Mont that were published in Paris. The first recording in this series was devoted to the Cantica Sacra and was released in 2010 to mark the 400th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Clematis, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon – De Lassus: Canticum canticorum (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:04:51 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
At the height of the Renaissance, the music of Orlande de Lassus frequently combines the emotion of secular music with sacred compositions. With their erotic connotations, the texts of The Song of Songs are an ideal source for bringing together sacred and profane feelings. Based on his most famous song, Lassus wrote one of his unitary masses: Suzanne un jour. Along with the Magnificat that he composed on De Rore’s madrigal Ancorche col partire, here are two religious compositions of which the themes are borrowed from evocations of amorous turmoil.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Leonardo García-Alarcón – Giorgi: Ave Maria (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 54:58 minutes | 523 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
This recording is devoted to the works of a composer about whom we know practically nothing — neither his date of birth nor even his origins. All that we do know is that Giorgi held the position of maestro di cappella in San Giovanni Laterano in Rome in 1719 and that he ended his career in Lisbon, dying there in 1762.
The discovery of his music was a life-changing experience for the young Argentine conductor Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon, music director of Clematis and the Cappella Mediterranea and now also of the Choeur de Chambre de Namur.
Giorgi’s music contains many characteristic traits of Renaissance polyphony such as the use of the polychoral style as well as madrigalesque effects, although these older techniques are nonetheless put at the service of a new style of richly imaginative music with new harmonic colours.
A concertante Mass with soloists and instrumental accompaniment forms the centrepiece of this recording, although several motets from Giorgi’s immense body of work are also included; one of these is the deeply moving Ave Maria that also provides the CD with its title.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur – Lully: Dies irae, De profundis & Te Deum (Collection Château de Versailles) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:22:48 minutes | 2,89 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Although Lully never held any post in the Chapelle du Roi, his influence on the development of the grand motet, so emblematic of the Grand Siècle, was of decisive importance. He wrote imposing motets celebrating the glory of God and the King for the great ceremonies at court. His most celebrated motet was undoubtedly his Te Deum, which rang out for the first time in 1677 and became the king’s favourite. In 1687 Lully directed it once again, but struck his foot violently with the heavy walking stick he used to beat time. The wound became infected and the gangrene gradually spread, causing the surintendant’s death on 22 March. Such was the tragic destiny of the man who was capable of conveying the most brilliant glory but also all the anguish of death in the same vein of grandeur. That theatrical grandeur is the characteristic of this version recorded in the Chapelle Royale of the Château de Versailles. Lully is in the limelight again in 2019, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opéra), of which he was director from 1672 until his death.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Christophe Rousset – Lully: Ballet royal de la Naissance de Vénus (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:07 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Written at the request of Louis XIV in honour of his sisterin-law, Henrietta of England, Le Ballet royal de la naissance de Vénus was performed in 1665 with Henrietta herself as the goddess of love and youth.
In twelve entrées, this grandiose spectacle, combining dancing, music and poetry, served the power of the king, while attesting to the magnificence of his court.Musically very inventive, it shows the culmination of the ballet genre, on which Lully was to draw in creating the tragédie en musique.
To complete the programme, excerpts from Les Amours déguisés (Armida’s famous lament “Ah! Rinaldo, e dove sei?”), Psyché, Le Bourgeois gentil homme and Le Carnaval – from the latter, a piece recycled from Les Noces de village, a burlesque aria sung by the boastful village schoolmaster Barbacola, a basso buffo role that Lully wrote for himself.
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Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Leonardo García Alarcón – Capuana & Rubino: Requiem (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:03:05 minutes | 994 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
This album of world premiere recordings of 17th century masses showcases the Namur Chamber Choir and its artistic director, Argentinian conductor Leonardo García Alarcón. The choir champions the musical heritage of its native region while at the same time tackling great works of the choral repertoire. These Requiem Masses by Capuana and Rubino are apparently the only two settings of the Requiem composed in Sicily during the Baroque period. Capuana’s work is imbued with the intense emotion of the madrigal school while the Rubino is a true glorification of Renaissance polyphony.
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