Calcutta 1789 – À la croisée de l’Europe et de l’Inde, le nouvel album de Notturna, est un portrait fascinant de la vie musicale en Inde au XVIIIe siècle, pendant la période coloniale britannique. Sous la direction de Christopher Palameta, le programme associe la musique indienne traditionnelle à des œuvres de Purcell, Handel, J. C. Bach et d’autres compositeurs européens. Les instrumentistes de Notturna sont rejoints par la sonorité voluptueuse du sitar, joué par Uwe Neumann, et du tabla, joué par Shawn Mativetsky.Inspiré d’un programme de concert de 1789 découvert dans les archives de Calcutta, l’enregistrement reconstitue le riche échange culturel qui s’est développé entre les musiciens indiens et anglais amenés en Inde dans l’entourage de la Compagnie britannique des Indes Orientales.

ATMA Classique est ravie de présenter Anguille sous roche, le premier enregistrement de la dernière mouture du célèbre duo de violes Les Voix humaines. Le nouveau binôme est composé de Mélisande Corriveau, qui succède à la cofondatrice du duo, Margaret Little, et de Susie Napper. Corriveau et Napper se produisent ensemble depuis deux décennies en tant que membres du Consort Les Voix humaines. Toutes deux jouent sur des violes historiques du luthier londonien Barak Norman.

The newest recording by the Juno-Award winning Ottawa Bach Choir on the ATMA Classique label, features six Motets by J.S Bach: Singet dem Herrn, BWV 225; Der Geist hilft, BWV 226; Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227; Fürchte dich nicht, BWV 228; Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229; and Lobet den Herrn, BWV 230. The choir is accompanied by an expanded baroque continuo, featuring Jonathan Oldengarm, organist; Matthew Larkin, harpsichord; Lucas Harris, theorbo; Jean-Christophe Lizotte, cello; and Reuven Rothman, double bass.

With this 2011 release, Musica Vaticana, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, led by its founder Christopher Jackson, solidifies its reputation as one of the very finest choirs specializing in music of the Baroque and Renaissance. Its tone is warmly blended and pure, and it is able to produce a wide range of tonal colors suited to whatever is being performed. Most importantly, the chorus enters fully into the spirit of the music, so its performances are lively and spontaneous-sounding.

Refusing to pander to the classical pop market, "Quebec's answer to Pavarotti," Marc Hervieux, continues with his quest to bring opera in its purest form back to the charts with his third studio album, A Napoli. Indeed, the follow-up to 2010's Tenor Arias suggests that the Montreal Conservatory of Music graduate still isn't yet concerned with making his craft accessible to the wider public as he confidently tackles 15 of his favorite Neapolitan songs, most of which will be only familiar to opera aficionados.

This transcription of Don Giovanni for string quartet by an anonymous arranger perfectly conveys the symbiosis of voice and instrument – a hallmark of Mozart’s genius. Throughout the opera, the deft arranger recreates the balance between the purely musical aspects of the work, without detracting from its theatrical qualities. In short, drama and buffoonery are both preserved.

French Baroque composer Marin Marais is primarily known for his inward-looking viol music, but he also worked as a "measure beater" at the Académie royale de musique, the institution that evolved into the Paris Opéra, and he wrote vocal music of various kinds, as well. This disc presents instrumental excerpts from Marais' 1709 opera Sémélé. These excerpts are dances, marches, and slightly longer orchestra passages "symphonies," "préludes," an overture, and "entreés" for groups of personages that appear on-stage in the opera.

Loiselle and Boucher have selected transcriptions for cello and organ of some Vivaldi’s well-known works. Loiselle appears regularly at various music festivals and events in Canada and has played as a guest soloist with many different orchestras. Vincent Boucher is a very active recitalist. In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious Prix d’Europe by the Académie de musique du Québec.

Nous soulignons les 10 ans de présence de l’organiste Vincent Boucher au sein de l’étiquette ATMA Classique en faisant paraître un album compilation. Ce disque est un parcours musical qui réunit plusieurs oeuvres du répertoire des trois cent dernières années interprétées sur plusieurs instruments phares de la facture d’orgue canadienne du dernier demi-siècle. Des oeuvres de huit compositeurs, de Johann Pachelbel à Arvo Pärt, mettent en lumière la beauté d’instruments d’illustres facteurs tels que Casavant Frères, Karl Wilhelm, Rudolf Von Beckarath, Juget-Sinclair et Helmuth Wolff qui ont contribué à faire de Montréal la «ville de l’orgue» en Amérique du Nord.

Pianist Sheng Cai devotes his latest recording to piano works by the renowned Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Dedicated to composer Aleksandr Zatayevich and revised in 1940, Six moments musicaux, Op. 16 represents a turning point in Rachmaninoff's writing for solo piano. Abandoning the conventions of salon music, the work is imbued with heightened Romanticism and technical complexity. Rachmaninoff's Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 overflows with intertwined countermelodies in the style of Robert Schumann and with its astonishing virtuosity, follows in the footsteps of Franz Liszt. Rachmaninoff and his friend, the celebrated pianist Vladimir Horowitz, enjoyed transcribing celebrated opera arias, allowing themselves the freedom to change their interpretations spontaneously. It is in this same spirit that Sheng Cai transcribed and performs the piano transcription of the opera Aleko. "I try to create new sounds and colors on the piano which differ from[those in] the orchestral versions of these scores," says Cai. Long attributed to Rachmaninoff, the Polka de W. R. is in fact by German composer Franz Behr (1837-1898). In 1911, Rachmaninoff made this brilliant arrangement of his father's favorite polka. Sheng Cai studied at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and was a top prize winner at the 1998 National Competition. The following year, his family immigrated to Canada where he began studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He earned his Bachelor of Music Degree under full scholarship at New England Conservatory in Boston. His most important teachers include legendary pianists Anton Kuerti and Russell Sherman.

Juno Award-winning ensemble Les Violons du Roy reveals its astonishing breadth with a new CD release, Bartók, under the baton of Associate Conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni. Best known for interpretations of baroque and classical masterpieces, Les Violons tackle Bartók’s Divertimento, Romanian Folk Dances and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta with conviction and verve. Bartók’s music was deeply influenced by Hungarian, Slovakian and Romanian folk music. His Romanian Folk Dances, composed in 1915, have remained his most popular work. Premiered two decades later in 1937, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is the culmination of Bartók’s long search to forge a language for art music that integrates the characteristics of the folk music of the countries of eastern Europe.

Nathan Berg is already well known to audiences from his many recordings in operas, cantatas, masses and symphonies working with conductors such as Rene Jacob, William Christie and Robert Shaw. He has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Telarc, Philips and Erato. On Hyperion he has recently appeared with Marjana Lipovsek in Graham Johnson’s complete Schubert series, and with Sophie Daneman in Mendelssohn. For his debut solo disc on ATMA Nathan Berg has selected a programme covering more than a century of romantic German lieder, including some of the best-loved songs of the genre by Schumann, Brahms, Strauss and Schubert.

Because authentic Baroque performance practices have become so widely accepted, the appearance of Bernard Labadie's excellent 2007 recording of George Frideric Handel's Water Music might not seem exceptional; the use of period instruments by his superb chamber ensemble, Les Violons du Roy, might not seem extraordinary to anyone who has heard recordings of eighteenth century music since the 1980s.

Le hautboïste canadien Vincent Boilard s’entoure du Quatuor Molinari pour un premier album solo consacré à des œuvres de compositeurs canadiens contemporains. Les pièces Searching for Sophia d’Elizabeth Raum, Serenata da Camera, op. 19 de Stewart Grant, In the Stillness of the Summer Wind de Brian Cherney et Requiem Parentibus, op. 34 de Michael Parker constituent le programme musical de cet album audacieux et moderne.

French Canada's ATMA Classique label tends to favor Canadian artists and specifically those from Québec, but the only connection between Canada and young Italian pianist Christian Leotta is apparently that he appeared in 2002 and perhaps – this is not made clear in the booklet – that he began playing the complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas in that city. He's certainly among the youngest performers to have attempted that feat, and perhaps that mark of ambition is what attracted the label to the project.