With this new release, Benjamin Alard adds two freshly authenticated works to his ambitious complete recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard music. Centred on two chaconnes recently restored to the Cantor, the French keyboard player continues his exploration of an instrumental world in which dance, variation and contrapuntal architecture come together in the same expressive concentration.
With this first solo recording, harpsichordist Dmytro Kokoshynskyy offers far more than a journey through the golden age of the English virginalists. Centred on Tallis, Byrd, Bull, Gibbons and Dowland, among others, he builds an intimate meditation on music as refuge, remedy and mirror of troubled times, extended into our own day by KHORA by the composer Maxim Shalygin.
With this new album, the ensemble Les Lunaisiens, led by Arnaud Marzorati, reaffirms its mission: to bring the ancestral heritage of French chanson back into the spotlight. By presenting a history of France through its songs, the ensemble brings to light contrasting tales from different eras—sometimes dramatic, sometimes satirical—which bear witness to the richness and complexity of the popular vocal heritage.
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, the child prodigy of Louis XIV’s court, is familiar enough; Anna Bon and Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, musicians connected with the Bayreuth milieu and with the flute, an instrument dear to Frederick II, are heard less often. With Compositrices, the flautist Marta Gawlas brings these three figures together in a single gesture: to reveal, without any heavy-handed manifesto, the refinement of their writing and the inventiveness of women composers still too rarely represented on disc. A luminous way into a repertoire waiting to be rediscovered.
We may think we know Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord; here, Atsushi Sakai and Christophe Rousset restore them to their share of mystery. Works that are hard to place, whether a genuine cycle or a gathering of independent pieces, they become here a space of close dialogue between viol and harpsichord, between contrapuntal rigour, inner song and meditation.
Orlando furioso never ceased to exert its pull on the Baroque imagination. With “Furioso”, Xavier Sabata, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu and Franck-Emmanuel Comte offer a concentrated journey through it, in which Ariosto’s hero appears by turns as knight, lost lover, figure of fury and wavering soul. An album built like an inner theatre.
We all know “Iphigenia in Tauris” by Gluck; here is the rarer setting by Tommaso Traetta, brought to disc by Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. Recorded in Innsbruck, this release brings to light a different musical reading of the myth, poised between the legacy of opera seria and emerging dramatic priorities, and carried by a committed vocal cast. A discovery.
With “La Passione di Gesù”, Leonardo García-Alarcón signs his first major oratorio published under his own name. Inspired by Borges, Bach, Pasolini and the Gospel of Judas, the work creates a spiritual and musical labyrinth in which Judas, Mary Magdalene and the risen Christ become the figures of an inner Passion.
With “Reines”, Véronique Gens and the ensemble Les Surprises offer a journey through French opera, from Lully to the late eighteenth century. Between figures of power and wounded heroines, the programme unfolds a true dramaturgy, shaped by a collective approach and a keen sense of musical theatre.
With “Vieni, o Notte”, Francesca Aspromonte and Arsenale Sonoro delve into the intimate world of Scarlatti: three vocal works for soprano, two violins and basso continuo, interwoven with two sonatas for four instruments without harpsichord, form an album of striking poetic and musical unity.
Voces Suaves and Michele Vannelli approach Carissimi’s “Historia di Jephte” with attentive care and a palpable sense of engagement: nothing is overstated, the unfolding of the narrative speaks for itself, and it is from this precision that the emotion arises. Composed in the 1640s, the work has never left the repertoire, admired up to Handel, who reworked its final chorus in his “Samson”.
“Arcadian Dreams” brings together the ensemble Les Délices and soprano Hannah De Priest in a Baroque program inspired by Arcadia. Featuring works by Rameau, Handel, and other rare compositions, the album combines refinement, expressiveness, and musical rediscovery.
