Gabriel Urbain Fauré

This recording contains a selection from the two flute and piano trio Pipe Dreams’ repertoire, spanning several centuries. From the eighteenth century come the Trio in F major by Telemann and the Trio in G minor by Vivaldi. Franz Doppler contributed greatly to the nineteenth-century virtuoso flute repertoire and two of his compositions are heard here; his Duettino (on Hungarian themes) and Andante and Rondo. Also from the nineteenth-century is Emil Kronke’s light-hearted Deux Papillons. Arrangements of Fauré’s Sicilienne and Cantique de Jean Racine and Arthur Sullivan’s Twilight exhibit the lushness found in much of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century repertoire, and two unaccompanied duets provide short excursions into folk and contemporary music, both eastern European; one, a traditional Bulgarian dance entitled Daichava Chara in characteristic 2+2+2+3 rhythm, and Capriccio, written in 1980 by Hungarian-born Antal Doráti, the renowned conductor. Nancy Ruffer, Anna Pope and Helen Crayford formed their trio Pipe Dreams in 1992. They have performed in and around London and provided entertainment for a variety of occasions. Each member brings to the trio her own experience as an established musician not only in London but internationally as well, performing as soloists, orchestral and chamber players.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the artlessness, tenderness and magic of the child's world fascinated several French composers. In these sets of pieces for piano duet, each transports the listener to the land of dreams and takes a nostalgic look back to his own early life. With restful languor and penetrating timbre, Gabriel Fauré guides us into the intimate universe of the young 'Dolly' (1893-96). In 'Jeux d’enfants' (1871), Georges Bizet evokes juvenile joys with typically French finesse, poetry and clarity. In his 'Petite Suite' (1889), Claude Debussy offers four tableaux that so charmed listeners to his elegant, supple playing; and finally it is the turn of Maurice Ravel, with his passionate devotion to the theme of childhood, to tell us the tales of 'Ma mère l'Oye' (1908-10), thereby creating one of the most poetic and discreetly lyrical works of his time.

Saint-Saens and Faure, two leading representatives of Late Romanticism, teacher and pupil linked by the same musical ideal. Both of them, with the fire of youth or in their full maturity, produced tender, luminous works. Confronted with Wagnerian mists, they brightened the French musical landscape. At her desk as leader of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris or as soloist, the violinist Deborah Nemtanu presents her vision of the last French Romantics.

Recorded in St. Jacob’s Church in Viimsi, Estonia, boy soprano Heldur Harry Polda is studying at the Tallinn Music High School and performs a beautiful selection of gentle works by Gluck, Cacinna, Faure, Schubert and includes Lionel Bart’s ‘Where is Love’ from Oliver. He is joined on this recording by the Tallinn Sinfonietta and conducted by veteran conductor Risto Joost to present a definitive collection, Cantus angelicus.

This collection of popular classics perfectly evokes that the unique atmosphere of the night- time. All but two of the tracks are by the acclaimed American conductor Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra who perform works by Ravel, Satie, Debussy, Vaughan Williams, Bizet, Faure, Borodin and Tchaikovsky. Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra complete the album with excerpts from Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances.

Mischa Maisky will be 65 on 10 January 2013; he made his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon 30 years ago; and he left the Soviet Union 40 years ago.

10 Classic DG Albums, balanced carefully between his great concerto and recital CDs and presented in Original Jacket artwork.

Elegant slipcase presentation, with 10 mint-packs offering gatefold presentation for each album inside.

This release is not a limited edition.

TRAVELING SONATA: An adventurous program of European masterworks for flute and guitar, from scintillating young artists VIVIANA GUZMÁN and JÉRÉMY JOUVE. Their outstanding performances have been captured brilliantly by Grammy®-winning recording engineer Keith O. Johnson. A winner for all audiophiles and music lovers!

This album is a musical journey full of emotion, from the soothing and mellow music of Faure and Satie to the driving excitement of ”Bolero” and “Carmen,” to the thrilling modern music of Dyens, Duplessy and Ourkouzounov.

From matter to colour…

The cello players of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, moved by an enthusiasm and complicity that is frequently admired, created a cello ensemble in 2005, Les Phil’Art’Cellistes, now composed of Jean-Claude Auclin, Pauline Bartissol, Catherine De Vençay, Marion Gailland, Renaud Guieu, Karine Jean-Baptiste, Jérémie Maillard, Clémentine Meyer, Nadine Pierre, Jérôme Pinget, Daniel Raclot et Nicolas Saint-Yves.

From the Prelude to Lohengrin to …del matiz al color… by the Argentinean composer Martin Matalon, this first disc by the Phil’Art’Cellistes (The Philarcellists) spans some 150 years of music. An invitation to travel in the special repertoire of the cello? A tribute to composers who have aimed for the universal, whilst drawing on the vigour of a national culture? Certainly, but not only. The subtitle of the album, 'from matter to colour', gives us another vital lead: the connection of music with the other arts. In fact, not one work on the programme is 'pure music'. Whether it be dance with Dvořák, theatre with Wagner, Fauré and Bernstein, or the visual arts with Debussy and Matalon, each piece opens up to a different dimension, more visual, more tactile, more significant, too, of which the cello, often compared to the human voice, becomes the special interpreter. But this disc is, above all, the expression of a common culture: that of the orchestra and the symphonic repertoire that refers back to the very origins of the ensemble, founded in 2005, within the cello section of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Les Phil’Art’Cellistes? Creation and raison d’être of an ensemble unlike the others…