Thomas Dunford, Paul Agnew, Alain Buet, Ruby Hughes, Reinoud Van Mechelen – Dowland: Lachrimæ (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Thomas Dunford, Paul Agnew, Alain Buet, Ruby Hughes, Reinoud Van Mechelen – Dowland: Lachrimæ (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:04:46 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

After the success of the first fourteen reissues, which restored to the limelight some of the gems of the early music repertory in the catalogues of our labels, here are fourteen new titles to allow listeners to renew acquaintance with further treasures of the Renaissance and Baroque (and even a journey through time thanks to Raphaël Imbert’s album Bach Coltrane), performed by some of the leading interpreters of the genre; most of these discs won one or more awards on their first release. As with the first series, the artists have been asked to contribute to the booklets, in which, with a few years’ hindsight, they talk about their conception of the works and how they went about recording them. The photographers of the Magnum agency illustrate the covers of the series with their work; this time the common design element is the colour yellow.In addition to the 13 titles shown below, the album FIRENZE 161 by LE POEME HARMONIQUE, VINCENT DUMESTRE, will also be reissued.

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Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Schütz: Italian Madrigals (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Schütz: Italian Madrigals (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:54 minutes | 1020 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

1611. After two years of study with Gabrieli in Venice, Heinrich Schütz tried his hand at composing madrigals on Italian poems. This mere ‘graduation exercise’ turned out to be a masterpiece: the young German composer demonstrated his ability to identify each nuance of the text with a different musical emotion, a refinement heightened here by the interpretation of Les Arts Florissants.

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Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew – Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri primo & secondo (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew – Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri primo & secondo (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:21:39 minutes | 802 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Much gossip has surrounded the double murder committed by Carlo Gesualdo, who killed his young wife and her lover when he caught them in flagrante delicto. The remorse he felt for this atrocious crime is said to have inspired the Neapolitan composer to write new harmonies, using and abusing scraping and characterful chromatisms. Paul Agnew takes aim at this widespread belief, contending that “this aristocratic double murder only indirectly influenced the musician’s life.” In a very interesting introductory text, the “Associate Musical Director” of the Arts Florissants sets the figure of Gesualdo back into his historical context, explaining just how his tormented psychological state would have fed into his own musical evolution, alongside the musical journeys of his peers. The same line of argument is also made by musicologist Denis Morrier in his analysis of the two first Books of Madrigals, which are presented here: “At once visionary and conservative, eccentric in language and conventional in form, these works have fascinated musicians and commentators across the ages”, he writes.

Following the recording of 17 madrigals from Book IV to Book VI, conducted by William Christie in 1988, this new album marks the first stage of a complete recording of Gesualdo’s Madrigals, which are to be performed across three seasons at the Philharmonie de Paris. Passionate, violent, dark and burning with meaning, Gesualdo’s music touches the heart and speaks to us of the doubts and contradictions of the human soul.

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Les Arts Florissants, Paul Agnew – Monteverdi: Madrigali Vol. 3, Venezia (Live) (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

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) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

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 & Paul Agnew – Gesualdo: Tenebræ Responsoria, Feria Quinta (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Gesualdo: Tenebræ Responsoria, Feria Quinta (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:12 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

With their bold harmonies, their counterpoint of unequalled refinement and their raw emotion, the Tenebrae Responsories are the sacred counterpart to Gesualdo’s last two books of madrigals, published the same year (1611). Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants here prolong their critically acclaimed exploration of those six increasingly venomous collections. Their interpretation of the Responsories for Maundry Thursday subtly shifts towards the conscious dolorism of the late works of the Prince of Venosa.

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Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri quinto & sesto (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Gesualdo: Madrigali, Libri quinto & sesto (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:18:27 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Fully integrated with the musical line, the singers avoid melodrama through intimate, small gestures as if acting for screen, not stage.’ Gramophone Critics’ Choice 2021 Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants conclude their exploration of this fascinating corpus. Even more than in his first books, Gesualdo here displays incredible modernity, playing in inimitable fashion on dissonances and chromaticisms. Love and death, joys and sorrows embrace and clash amid ever bolder harmonies.

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Sophie Karthäuser, Lucile Richardot, Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Vivaldi: The Great Venetian Mass (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Sophie Karthäuser, Lucile Richardot, Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew – Vivaldi: The Great Venetian Mass (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:07 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

A puzzling paradox: although Vivaldi devoted over 30 years to composing for the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, no complete musical setting of any liturgy by him has come down to us. By intercalating existing examples of his sacred music (such as the famous Gloria) and other works given a different text to suit their new liturgical function (Sanctus and Agnus Dei), the ensemble Les Arts Florissants now offers us a compelling reconstruction of a solemn Mass which the “Red-Haired Priest” might have written… for just such an assembly of exceptional soloists!

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