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Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - François Joseph Gossec: Symphonies Œuvre VIII (2008)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - François Joseph Gossec: Symphonies Œuvre VIII (2008)

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - François Joseph Gossec: Symphonies Œuvre VIII (2008)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 300 Mb | Total time: 67:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ricercar | RIC 263 | Recorded: 2006, 2007

We now present a second recording devoted to the composer who can rightly be considered as the father of the symphony in France: François Joseph Gossec. These three Symphonies Op. VIII proclaim their modernity through their use of clarinets and of a Minuet and Trio, this being rare in Paris at that period. A modern symphonic composer of his time, Gossec, who had been born in Hainault in Belgium, also mastered the styles of his adopted land: the ballets in his tragédie lyrique Sabinus can be placed directly in the orchestral tradition of J.P. Rameau, the older composer who had welcomed Gossec to the French capital in 1751.

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Gossec: Symphonies Œuvre XII; Stamitz: Clarinet Concerto (2002)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Gossec: Symphonies Œuvre XII; Stamitz: Clarinet Concerto (2002)

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Gossec: Symphonies Œuvre XII; Stamitz: Clarinet Concerto (2002)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 286 Mb | Total time: 59:06 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ricercar | RIC 218 | Recorded: 2002

François-Joseph Gossec, one of various musicians and composers from Wallonia - the French-speaking part of what is now known as Belgium - who settled in Paris. He was educated as a violinist and bass player in the orchestra of Le Riche de La Pouplinière, who for many years was the patron of Rameau. This had a lasting influence on his development as a composer as he came into contact with other composers and other styles. It was especially the performances of Johann Stamitz, one of the main representatives of the 'Mannheim school' which inspired him to compose symphonies. In 1769 he founded the concert society Concert des Amateurs whose orchestra was quite large in comparison to what was common at the time. In 1773 he took over the direction of the Concert Spirituel.

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Antoine Dauvergne: La Vénitienne (2012)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Antoine Dauvergne: La Vénitienne (2012)

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Antoine Dauvergne: La Vénitienne (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 497 Mb | Total time: 116:20 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ricercar | # RIC327 | Recorded: 2011

Antoine Dauvergne s final operatic work follows none of the established genres of the period. Taking a libretto written during the reign of Louis XIV in 1705, he drew on the best of his talent and skill to create a synthesis of everything that was modern at that time.

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - François-Joseph Gossec: Thésée (2013)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - François-Joseph Gossec: Thésée (2013)

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - François-Joseph Gossec: Thésée (2013)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 495 Mb | Total time: 117:30 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ricercar | # RIC337 | Recorded: 2012

“The father of the symphony”; “bard of the Revolution”: these two phrases sufficed to describe Gossec from the beginning of the 19th century onwards and created a reputation for him that musicographers and music historians of the following century made almost unalterable. Gossec had, however, always been interested in the operatic stage, as can be seen from his works in the more modern genre of opéra comique as well as in the more traditional tragédie en musique. Appointed to provide music for the largest musical institutions of his time, Gossec created more than twenty theatrical works; these enjoyed varying degrees of success but nonetheless reveal a dramatic composer of the first water.

Leonardo García Alarcón, Les Agrémens - George Frideric Handel: Judas Maccabaeus (2010)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Leonardo García Alarcón, Les Agrémens - George Frideric Handel: Judas Maccabaeus (2010)

Leonardo García Alarcón, Les Agrémens - George Frideric Handel: Judas Maccabaeus (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 688 Mb | Total time: 64:04+64:05 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ambronay | # AMY024 | Recorded: 2009

For English-speaking audiences who don't mind their Handel sung by sometimes heavily accented non-native speakers, this version of Judas Maccabaeus is hard to beat. Argentinean conductor Leonardo García Alarcón leads the exemplary ensembles Choeur de Chambre de Namur and Les Agrémens in an exceptionally spirited account of the score that effectively erases any taint of its reputation as starchy favorite of amateur Victorian choral societies. His rhythms are crisp and his tempos impetuous, as is appropriate for the martial subject matter, but his phrasing is also gorgeously shapely and the lyrical numbers are rendered with sumptuous sensuality and flexibility. The brilliance of the performance is amplified by the very resonant and richly ample sound quality, which allows the voices, both choral and solos, to be heard to their best advantage, bright yet warm, with a ringing, exhilarating clarity.

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: La Caravane du Caire (2014)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: La Caravane du Caire (2014)

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: La Caravane du Caire (2014)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 598 Mb | Total time: 139:00 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ricercar | # RIC 345 | Recorded: 2013

Premiered in 1784 at the Académie Royale de Musique, where it ensured the institution’s fortune, La Caravane du Caire was one of Grétry’s most famous operas, its popularity continuing into the 19th century. After the recording made under the direction of Marc Minkowski in 1991, Guy Van Waas proposes an energetic new version that enables us to discover a few variants in relation to the previous version. This production, realized by the Palazzetto Bru Zane of Venice, benefits from a fascinating musicological presentation by Alexandre and Benoît Dratwicki. The libretto is typical of the oriental subjects that were so highly prized in the late 18th century. Here, the beautiful Zélime, sold as a slave to a pasha, is rescued from the seraglio thanks to the courage of her beloved Saint-Phar and the loyalty of another Frenchman, Florestan. The work is peppered with comical situations, tender or bravura arias (including a pastiche of Italian-style coloratura) and embellished with numerous ballets, some of which contribute an original note of exoticism.

Leonardo García Alarcón, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Les Agrémens - Antonio Vivaldi: Vespro a San Marco (2011)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Leonardo García Alarcón, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Les Agrémens - Antonio Vivaldi: Vespro a San Marco (2011)

Leonardo García Alarcón, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Les Agrémens - Antonio Vivaldi: Vespro a San Marco (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 605 Mb | Total time: 69:52+47:56 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ambronay | # AMY029 | Recorded: 2010

The title of the two-disc album, Vivaldi: Vespro a San Marco, implies that the composer wrote a set of pieces comparable to Monteverdi's Vespro della beata Vergine, but the title needs to be interpreted somewhat loosely. The program notes describe the collection of psalms, canticles, motets, and prefatory chants recorded here as an evocation of a service of vespers Vivaldi might have assembled rather than a reconstruction of one he actually ever did. These vespers are distinctly Vivaldian in idiom, but they resemble Monteverdi's in the use of some common texts and in the diversity of musical styles, genres, and performing forces assembled; there is not much of a sense of unity in the traditional sense, but a profusion of delightfully varied musical vignettes, including a cappella chants, solos, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental pieces.

Wieland Kuijken, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - Antonio Caldara: Stabat Mater, Magnificat, Missa Dolorosa (2000)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Wieland Kuijken, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - Antonio Caldara: Stabat Mater, Magnificat, Missa Dolorosa (2000)

Wieland Kuijken, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - Antonio Caldara: Stabat Mater, Magnificat, Missa Dolorosa (2000)
dBpoweramp | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 274 Mb | Total time: 55:34 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Arsis Classics | # AS-00-A-64002-C | Recorded: 2000

Today Antonio Caldara is not a name many would recognise let alone regard as one of the 'great' composers of the Baroque, yet during his own lifetime and long after his death he was held in high esteem by composers and theoreticians alike. Johann Sebastian Bach, for example is known to have made a copy of a Magnificat by Caldara to which he added a two-violin accompaniment to the "Suscepit Israel" section. According to Mattheson, Georg Philipp Telemann in his early years took Caldara as a model for his church and instrumental music. Franz Joseph Haydn, who was taken to Vienna by Georg Reutter, one of Caldara's pupils, sang many of his sacred works when he was a choirboy at St. Stephens and possessed copies of two of Caldara's Masses.

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Choeur de Chambre de Namur - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Céphale et Procris (2010)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Choeur de Chambre de Namur - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Céphale et Procris (2010)

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Céphale et Procris (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 575 Mb | Total time: 149:09 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ricercar | # RIC302 | Recorded: 2009

The success of his first opéra comique Le Huron (1769) won André-Modeste Grétry the high esteem and personal friendship of the Dauphine, after which the French court opened its doors to him and several of his works were performed there in succession. Official confirmation of his status came in 1773, when Louis XV and his court commissioned him to write a large-scale work for a special occasion: this was to be Céphale et Procris.

Florian Heyerick, Ex Tempore, Les Agrémens - François-Joseph Gossec: Requiem; La Nativité (2020)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Florian Heyerick, Ex Tempore, Les Agrémens - François-Joseph Gossec: Requiem; La Nativité (2020)

Florian Heyerick, Ex Tempore, Les Agrémens, Barockorchester Mannheimer Hofkapelle - François-Joseph Gossec: Requiem; La Nativité (2020)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 322 Mb | Total time: 69:00 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 777 869-2 | Recorded: 2009, 2016

François-Joseph Gossec was doubtless one of the most prominent French composers of the eighteenth century and wrote works representing almost all the musical forms and genres. Our recording of his symphonic music has just been awarded an Opus Klassik 2020, and now we would like to share some of his magnificent vocal works with you - since his oratorios and truly amazing Messe des Morts also made him a trailblazing figure. La Nativite to a text by Gossec’s contemporary Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon is his most famous oratorio. It was premiered on Christmas Eve in 1774 and went on to be performed no fewer than nine times in the Concert Spirituel.

Jean Tubéry, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - Johann Pachelbel: Christ lag in Todesbanden (2007)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Jean Tubéry, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - Johann Pachelbel: Christ lag in Todesbanden (2007)

Jean Tubéry, Les Agrémens, Chœur de Chambre de Namur - Johann Pachelbel: Christ lag in Todesbanden (2007)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 297 Mb | Total time: 60:55 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ricercar | # RIC 255 | Recorded: 2006

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was a prominent composer and organist of his era. While working at the Eisenbach court in Thüringen, he became a close friend of J.S. Bach's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach. As a parish musician, Pachelbel wrote most of his music for church services, especially for Mass and Vespers, when both singers and instrumentalists took part. His instrumental accompaniments are unusually rich. Although much of Pachelbel's music is lost, around twenty-six motets; nineteen "spiritual songs;" and thirteen Magnificats, geistliche Konzerte, and Masses have survived.

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Rodolphe Kreutzer: La mort d'Abel (2012)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Rodolphe Kreutzer: La mort d'Abel (2012)

Guy Van Waas, Les Agrémens - Rodolphe Kreutzer: La mort d'Abel (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 491 Mb | Total time: 55:27+35:48 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ediciones Singulares | # ES 1008 | Recorded: 2010

La Mort d’Abel (1810/1825) – halfway between opera and oratorio – presents, in a spectacular fashion, the murder of Abel by his brother Cain consumed by jealousy. Rodolphe Kreutzer deploys therein the grand art of the tragédie lyrique imagined by Gluck whilst adding his own personal touches, which identifies him as being more than the modest violinist dedicatee of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. As a top ensemble in Belgium and across Northern Europe, Les Agrémens and the Chœur de chambre de Namur have, for a long time, been exploring rare repertories with enthusiasm, creativity and to the highest standards. Assisted by singers from the rising generation (notably tenor Sébastien Droy and baritone Jean-Sébastien Bou), conductor Guy Van Waas ventures triumphantly into music which nobody before him had imagined there existing such quality.