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Bizet - Carmen: Prelude & Entr'actes, L'Arlesienne: Orchestral Suite (+Book)

by: Les Musiciens du Louvre, Coeur de l'opera de Lyon

April 28, 2008

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Opera Proibita

by: Cecilia Bartoli, Marc Minkowski, Alessandro Scarlati

October 31, 2005

Opera Proibita (prohibited opera) continues Cecilia Bartoli's trend for producing `themed' albums, but this time instead of concentrating on a single composer - so far we've had Rossini, Mozart, Vivaldi, Gluck and Salieri - we have a collection of 15 baroque vocal pieces by Handel, Scarlatti and Caldara which all share the common, and perhaps unfortunate claim for those composers, of being written during the period around 1700 during which opera music was banned in much of Europe.

The album song list is an alternation between slow and fast arias and recitatives, and the style is pure Bartoli throughout, from the opening `All'arme si accesi guerrieri' (Attention fierce warriers) sung at such breakneck speed that the orchestra ... Read More:

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Rameau: Une symphonie imaginaire

by: Les Musiciens du Louvre Marc Minkowski

May 09, 2005
This is is a really excellent intro to all of Rameau's main tunes, nicely woven together, with a fine balance between orchestra and vaiuous instrumental voices.

Anybody interested in exploring the sound world of Rameau could do a lot worse than start with this CD.

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Offenbach: La Belle Helene [Includes Booklet]

by: Magali Léger, Stéphanie d'Oustrac

September 03, 2001
This is is a really excellent intro to all of Rameau's main tunes, nicely woven together, with a fine balance between orchestra and vaiuous instrumental voices.

Anybody interested in exploring the sound world of Rameau could do a lot worse than start with this CD.

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Offenbach - Le Romantique

by: Les Musiciens du Louvre Marc Minkowski

January 22, 2007
This delightful CD captures the charm, wit and romance of French composer Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) who, as a cellist, sometimes played with Liszt. He wrote the "Concerto Militaire" to exploit his virtuosity. Among the first composers of operetta and one of Europe's more influential 19th century romantics, Offenbach is best known for his fantastic opera "The Tales of Hoffmann", his most frequently performed opus. His next most popular work is the ballet "Gaîté Parisienne" from 1938, which comprises Offenbach melodies arranged and orchestrated by Manuel Rosenthal. The music shows up on a lot of CDs that mix and match famous ballet excerpts.

This recording, with informative notes from Jean-Christoper Keck, editor of the Offenbach ... Read More:

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 40 & 41

by: Les Musiciens du Louvre Marc Minkowski

July 10, 2006
While there's no intrinisic advantage of period instruments over big band style,it has to be said that the practice attracts some of the most charismatic conductors on the scene. One immediately thinks of William Christie,but his one time student Marc Minkowski can give him a run for his money! Listen to the Finale of Symphony No.41 and you'll be swept off your feet by Minkowski's lithe,electrified account! this is Mozart seen throught the eyes of Rameau and all the better for it.Minkowski finds a crudeness which is most apposite:check out the rasping notes at 5:19 followed later by leaps into the heavens!
For once you can believe all the hype on the front of the disc (...'these two favourite symphonies as you've never heard them before') and ... Read More:

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Handel: Italian Cantatas HWV 99, 145 & 170

by: Magdalena Kozená Les Musiciens du Louvre Marc Minkowski

January 15, 2001
Oh dear! It would be such a nice collection of rarely heard Handel cantatas if only Kozena didn't try to be a Bartoli or a von Otter! Not being quite in the same league as an artist and personality as the two divas, Kozena tries to infuse these cantatas with pathos and drama using lots of aggressive vocal gestures, but she isn't able to fill these creations with flesh and blood and make them believable (in this repertoire, you'd have to go back to Janet Baker to hear what I mean). So, we have exaggerated recitativi (sometimes to almost grotesque dimensions) and plain - if often ravishingly lovely - singing. I do find her voice mesmerizing when it just flows surrounded with an aura of melancholy (as in some of her earlier discs, including Handel's Dixit ... Read More:

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Messiah: The Dream Cast

from: Decca

March 09, 2004
Oh dear! It would be such a nice collection of rarely heard Handel cantatas if only Kozena didn't try to be a Bartoli or a von Otter! Not being quite in the same league as an artist and personality as the two divas, Kozena tries to infuse these cantatas with pathos and drama using lots of aggressive vocal gestures, but she isn't able to fill these creations with flesh and blood and make them believable (in this repertoire, you'd have to go back to Janet Baker to hear what I mean). So, we have exaggerated recitativi (sometimes to almost grotesque dimensions) and plain - if often ravishingly lovely - singing. I do find her voice mesmerizing when it just flows surrounded with an aura of melancholy (as in some of her earlier discs, including Handel's Dixit ... Read More:

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Handel:Amadigi

from: Erato

June 06, 1995
Oh dear! It would be such a nice collection of rarely heard Handel cantatas if only Kozena didn't try to be a Bartoli or a von Otter! Not being quite in the same league as an artist and personality as the two divas, Kozena tries to infuse these cantatas with pathos and drama using lots of aggressive vocal gestures, but she isn't able to fill these creations with flesh and blood and make them believable (in this repertoire, you'd have to go back to Janet Baker to hear what I mean). So, we have exaggerated recitativi (sometimes to almost grotesque dimensions) and plain - if often ravishingly lovely - singing. I do find her voice mesmerizing when it just flows surrounded with an aura of melancholy (as in some of her earlier discs, including Handel's Dixit ... Read More: