Théotime Langlois de Swarte & William Christie – “Générations” Senaillé & Leclair : Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:08:23 minutes | 2,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Poised at the convergence of 18th-century French and Italian schools, Leclair and Senaill’e were the French Paganinis of their day. Technically challenging yet full of poetry, rhythmically varied and always dance-like, their sonatas find two fervent advocates in Th’eotime Langlois de Swarte and William Christie. Transcending generational differences, the “venerated elder statesman of early music” (Opera News) and the youthful violin prodigy join forces to help us rediscover these still unjustly neglected pages.
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Les Arts Florissants, Théotime Langlois de Swarte & William Christie – Haydn: Paris Symphonies – Violin Concerto No. 1 (Live) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:06:22 minutes | 2,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Commissioned by the Comte d’Ogny for the Le Concert de la Loge Olympique, the ‘Paris’ Symphonies form a key milestone in Haydn’s output.
William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have long loved these highly original works and offer us an exhilaratingly elegant and poetic reading of four of them.
The coupling is the all-too-rarely played Violin Concerto No.1, here directed by the soloist Théotime Langlois de Swarte.
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Les Arts Florissants, William Christie, Rachel Ramond, Leo Jemison, Trinity Boys Choir, James Way, Sreten Manojlović – Handel: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:41:56 minutes | 1,87 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
L’Allegro … ist eine Mischform aus Oratorium, Ode und Serenade und gehört zu den rätselhaftesten Werken von Händel, aber auch zu seinen genialsten! Mit der für sie typischen Poesie laden uns William Christie und Les Arts Florissants zur Wiederentdeckung dieses Meisterwerks ein, in dem der Komponist Metaphysik in Malerei verwandelt und Gedanken in reinste Emotionen.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – In an Italian Garden: Aria, Cantatas & Madrigals (Live) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:36 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The six young singers of the Academy of Le Jardin des Voix, selected from several hundred candidates, offer us a musical journey through some of the finest pieces in the Italian repertory, from a Banchieri madrigal to Haydn’s Orlando paladino. Thanks to an outstanding training programme and the musical values transmitted by William Christie and Paul Agnew, here is a chance to discover both some splendid vocal gems and a group of new performers who honour them with talent, grace and humour. Sheer delight!
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Si vous vouliez un jour…airs serieux et à boire, Vol. 2 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:40 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
As the first of a series of publications that aim to celebrate forty years of the “Arts Flo” founded by William Christie in 1979, this new album, recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2016, is made up of “serious songs and “drinking songs” from France in the 17th century. Following the filming of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, performed at the Salzburg Festival 2018, and the ambitious complete recording of Carlo Gesualdo’s Madrigaux conducted by Paul Agnew, who is little by little taking over as the ensemble’s conductor, new editions are returning towards harmonia mundi, the “historic” publisher of the Arts Florissants and their founder.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Rameau: Platée (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:14:05 minutes | 2,73 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
A marsh nymph thinks she is so irresistible that Jupiter himself will take an interest in her… Brimming with exceptional dramatic and musical verve, this strangely under-recorded ‘ballet bouffon’ offers us Rameau’s art in a nutshell: glittering orchestration, harmonies and rhythms of unprecedented modernity. William Christie and his comrades plunge with delight into what is one of its composer’s most fascinating works.
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Les Arts Florissants & William Christie – Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:06:32 minutes | 3,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
An echo of the luxuriant performance at the 2018 Salzburg Festival, where this recording was made, this new version of the Coronation of Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi, conducted by William Christie (who had already recorded the piece once before, at a concert in Madrid, with production by Pier-Luigi Pizzi, in 2010) met with unanimous acclaim thanks to its exceptional musical execution. A distribution to die for, dominated by Sonja Yoncheva’s voluptuous interpretation of the titular role, and fabulous instrumentation from the Arts Florissants, led by Christie, with no fancy tricks, from the vantage point of his harpsichord. These ingredients all add up to a very high quality production to mark the fortieth anniversary of the ensemble, which was founded in 1979.
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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 & 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 and William Christie – Le Jardin De Monsieur Rameau (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:01 minutes | 1,53 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Les Arts Florissants
In this new album, William Christie invites us to a wander in the vocal art of the 18th Century, at the time of Rameau and his contemporaries. These musical treasures, as with the famous gardens ‘à la française’, are closely linked to these times of splendour. The soloists come from the Jardin des Voix, the Arts Florissants’ Academy for young singers in which the most promising talents of the upcoming generation had the priviledge to work with the ensemble, before starting a worldwide tour of the most prestigious venues. This recording crowns their work.
Composer: Michel Monteclair, Antoine Dauvergne, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Nicolas Racot de Grandval, …
Performer: Emilie [Mezzo-Soprano (Vocal)] Renard, Daniela [Soprano (Vocal)] Skorka, Victor [Baritone (Vocal)] Sicard, Cyril [Bass (Vocal)] Costanzo, …
Conductor: William Christie
William Christie, Les Arts Florissants – Händel: Music for Queen Caroline (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:15 minutes | 1,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Les Arts
Queen Caroline was an emblematic female figure of the 18th century: the wife of King George II of England, a woman of great beauty, a champion of science and the arts, Caroline d’Ansbach was also the friend and patroness of Handel. The latter was entrusted with the solemn music composed for the grand ceremonies that marked the reign – be it «The King shall rejoice», given for the King’s coronation, the «Queen Caroline» Te Deum written for her own ascension to the throne, or «The Ways of Zion do mourn» performed at her funeral. This recording brings together, for the first time, three works underlining the strong link between the monarch and his favourite composer. This performance by the complete forces of the choir and orchestra of Les Arts Florissants brings to life these scores which are both flamboyant and brimming over with humanity.
“Christie calibrates his performance perfectly – bringing swift movement to Handel’s rapidly set verses…but allowing plenty of spacious swagger and grandeur in the big choruses supported by trumpets…This is an ideal recording for those of us looking for a change from the enthusiastically full-throated and highly articulated Handel singing we get from many British choirs … fit for a queen.” –International Record Review
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