GRAMOPHONE AWARD 2015 WINNER (RECITAL CATEGORY). A welcome return of Carolyn Sampson and Ex Cathedra to Hyperion, performing the rich, fulsome music of the French Baroque. Their recording of love songs from Rameau’s operas (Hyperion CDA67447) was hugely acclaimed for Sampson’s stylish, fluid, seductive performances, and ten years later her artistry is even more dazzling. This album is of particular interest as rather than concentrating on one composer it showcases the works written for the premiere soprano of the day, Marie Fel. Voltaire called her his ‘adorable nightingale’. For d’Aquin, she was an enchanted being. Marie Fel was the soprano who held an entire generation spellbound at the Paris Opéra and at Louis XV’s court during one of the most glorious periods of French music. With a voice described as ‘pure, charming, silvery’ (La Borde), ‘touching and sublime’ (Grimm) and ‘always lovely, always seductive’ (d’Aquin), she inspired some of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s finest music and introduced a whole new level of virtuosity and expression into the French singing tradition. Her long, triumphant career is traced through this fascinating recording.

The Traveller, for choir, children’s choir, orchestra, tenor, violin and speaker, was the third in a series of four major works with words by Vikram Seth and music by Alec Roth, commissioned jointly over four years by the Salisbury, Chelsea and Lichfield Festivals (2006-09). Each work featured the violinist Philippe Honoré as soloist, and each took a different geographical/cultural area as its starting point.

Following the discovery of the Americas, Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church was established with incredible speed. Many of the Native Indians were part of highly sophisticated civilizations, most notably the Aztecs and the Incas, and were very responsive to the new ideas, especially music, which was already an important social and spiritual element in their lives.

The English composer Alec Roth has been active for several decades and collaborated with Indian novelist Vikram Seth on an opera in the 1990s. Here he seems to tread into the profitable choral music territory mined by John Rutter. Although he is in no way a clone of Rutter, your reactions to that composer may give you an idea of how you'll feel about the Roth works here.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) remains best known as a composer of virtuosic instrumental music, particularly in the form of concertos like The Four Seasons. This CD, first released in 1991, demonstrates that Vivaldi’s large-scale sacred choral music is equally stunning.

This resplendent CD introduces another outstanding 'early music' ensemble to Hyperion - Jeffrey Skidmore's Ex Cathedra, who will explore some of the lesser-known Baroque byways for us. They make their entrance with this programme of music by one of the four composers assigned to Louis XIV's Chapel in 1683. The disc gives us the opportunity to hear two of Lalande's 'grands motets' in full (substantial, sectional works in which episodes for vocal soloists are interspersed with passages for small ensembles and chorus, the orchestra providing both accompaniment and interludes), as well as a solo movement extracted from another one, and one of his instrumental pieces. This is music which was highly regarded both in the composer's own day and beyond, and performed throughout the eighteenth century.

A contemporary of Lully and Lalande, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was something of an outsider to the French court of Louis XIV, which helps to explain his comparative obscurity. A period of study in Rome doubtless gave Charpentier exposure to the polychoral style long-established from the time of Gabrieli, and this recording presents the triple-choir Salve Regina alongside the opulent Messe à quatre chœurs – written for four separate choirs, with a large continuo team of four organs, four theorbos, bass viol and great bass viol! The possibilities opened up by such a wealth of musicians engender music which seems as close to the proverbial “choir of the angels of heaven” as could be desired.