Christophe Rousset

Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques – Atys (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:52:11 minutes | 3,34 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Château de Versailles Spectacles

This is Atys, the royal opera, Lully’s masterpiece, which was first performed before the court in 1676. A legendary work in the rediscovery of Grand-Siècle operas, Atys is a prime example of the emerging lyric art: love is at the heart of the plot and the hero dies on stage – for the first time in Lully’s work – evoking a magnificent lament that will bring tears to even the hardest heart. Lully’s incredible music magnifies Philippe Quinault’s gloriously tragic text, creating their first masterpiece together, an Atys adored by the Sun King

Christophe Rousset gives his vision of a work that has fascinated him for three decades, giving it the vivid colors filled with Reinoud Van Mechelen’s portrayal of a wonderful Atys.

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Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset – Pancrace Royer: Surprising Royer, Orchestral Suites (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:05 minutes | 1,50 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Aparté

After two recordings devoted to the harpsichord pieces of Savoyard composer Pancrace Royer, Christophe Rousset, this time conducting, turns to the composer’s orchestral suites. Taken from Royer’s operatic works and (with the exception of a live version of Pyrrhus) never previously recorded, these choreographic pieces reveal a new facet of the composer. The brilliance and virtuosity of his harpsichord compositions are well known; here we discover his gift for refinement and lyricism. These dances show Royer’s singular sense of harmony and fine use of orchestral contrasts, as well as an almost whimsical rhetoric of the unexpected. Some of his best-known pieces, including the famous “March of the Scythians” from Zaïde, are to be heard here in their orchestral form. This recording will undoubtedly further the rediscovery of this iconoclastic composer, whose very personal style and innate sense of drama are given striking depth and relief here under the baton of Christophe Rousset.
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Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset – Lully: Acis et Galatée (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:51:16 minutes | 2,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Aparté

Composed on 1686 as part of the festivities organised by the Duc de Vendôme in honour of the Grand Dauphin, during the latter’s visit to his estate at the Château d’Anet in September of that year, Acis et Galatée is Lully’s last complete opera. His faithful librettist Quinault having retired from writing for the stage, he collaborated this time with the poet Campistron on a work that tells the story of the love between the sea-nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis – a love threatened by the violence of the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. This opera, an undoubted dramatic success, gives the orchestra an important part, expressively evoking, for example, the giant’s cries of anger, the terror of the chorus, and the lovers’ hasty flight in Act III. It includes some magnificent pieces, including the final passacaille, as well as inventive treasures, such as duet for hautes-contre (high tenors) “Ah! Je succombe au tourment qui m’accable”, or the burlesque march that accompanies the entry of Polyphemus and his fellow cyclopes, conveying their uncouthness. But the loveliest pieces in the score are for Galatea: “Enfin, j’ai dissipé la crainte”, for instance, or “Que ne puis-je expirer après ce coup funeste?”. Lully died in March 1687, a few months after the première, leaving Achille et Polyxène unfinished.
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Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset – Lully: Acis et Galatée (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:51:16 minutes | 2,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Aparté

Composed on 1686 as part of the festivities organised by the Duc de Vendôme in honour of the Grand Dauphin, during the latter’s visit to his estate at the Château d’Anet in September of that year, Acis et Galatée is Lully’s last complete opera. His faithful librettist Quinault having retired from writing for the stage, he collaborated this time with the poet Campistron on a work that tells the story of the love between the sea-nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis – a love threatened by the violence of the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. This opera, an undoubted dramatic success, gives the orchestra an important part, expressively evoking, for example, the giant’s cries of anger, the terror of the chorus, and the lovers’ hasty flight in Act III. It includes some magnificent pieces, including the final passacaille, as well as inventive treasures, such as duet for hautes-contre (high tenors) “Ah! Je succombe au tourment qui m’accable”, or the burlesque march that accompanies the entry of Polyphemus and his fellow cyclopes, conveying their uncouthness. But the loveliest pieces in the score are for Galatea: “Enfin, j’ai dissipé la crainte”, for instance, or “Que ne puis-je expirer après ce coup funeste?”. Lully died in March 1687, a few months after the première, leaving Achille et Polyxène unfinished.
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Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset – Lully: Thésée (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:41:45 minutes | 2,82 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté

With Thésée, Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques continue their tour of Lully’s operas, in which they have become specialists. Lully’s third musical tragedy, and one of the least recorded, Thésée recounts the hero’s youth, long before his battle with the Minotaur or his intrigues with Ariadne and Phèdre. The story takes the listener on a journey through a series of changing settings – from the underworld to the island of paradise, from Versailles to Athens – supported by the incredible vocal eloquence of Lully’s music, underpinned by a constant and hitherto unrivalled tension.

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Les Talens Lyriques & Christophe Rousset – Salieri: Armida (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:05:35 minutes | 2,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté

Recorded from 10th to 13th July 2020 at the Philharmonie de Paris, this Armida teaches us a little more about Antonio Salieri, so loved during his lifetime and so maligned later, especially because of his obscure relationship with Mozart that the nineteenth century invented and that Milos Forman’s film has given more life to in our time.

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