César Auguste Franck

In February 1969 Giulini presented a programme with a particularly intelligent compilation. Rossini's overture to Semiramide, Symphony No.4 by Schubert, Psyché et Éros by César Franck and La Mer (Debussy) outlined the development from classical music to Impressionism, with each composition already relating to the next one. On 15 February 1969 Joachim Matzner's critique in Die Welt was entitled "Drama and utmost sensitivity". He went on to say that there was hardly another conductor who could combine a melody so sensitively with dramatic tension. "All the melodic phrases, no matter how aristocratic and subtle his conducting, were threedimensional, the counterpoints, rather than being just an additional part were true to their name, defining accents were deployed. And yet, even when the music was intensified almost to the limit, in Giulini's hands it sounded fundamentally unostentatious – neither blurred nor conspicuous. His rendering of Debussy's La Mer in all its marvellous flexibility, its transparency, its colours that never took on a life of their own, made it one of the grandest events to have been put on in Berlin's concert halls for many a year." On 21 February 1969 Rudolph Ganz, writing in the Frankfurter Rundschau, started by praising the intelligent compilation of the programme. Of the overture to Semiramide he wrote that it was no jolly piece of noise but a paragon of precision; Schubert's Symphony No.4, dubbed by the composer the 'Tragic', was just that – neither pompous nor bathetic, but nervous and tense. The romantic climax was Franck's brief fragment Psyché et Éros and Eros and the thrilling finale was La Mer, which was "... extraordinarily animated and vivid. Here again Giulini's tense precision that missed not a single detail of the score was paramount, yet he coaxed a supreme performance from the musicians of the Philharmonic Orchestra." From the booklet note by Helge Grünewald

Marc Hervieux is one of the most sought after Canadian vocalists, both nationally and internationally. His intention here is to return to the Christmases of his childhood and he wanted to be accompanied by a choir and excellent musicians. His selection includes some well known and some not so familiar Christmas works.

Gerard Gillen performs the music of Peeters and Franck on the organ of St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral Dublin. Over the years, the Pro-Cathedral organ has become regarded as one of the finest examples in Ireland of the late nineteenth-century grand Romantic organ. Gillen is one of Ireland’s leading church and concert organists.

The Choir of St George's Chapel,Windsor Castle offers a sumptuous programme of jewels from the anthem tradition whose repertoire spans five centuries. Under the luminous direction of Timothy Byram-Wigfield, and in the luxurious resonance of St George's Chapel, the choir resounds with exhilarating energy.

This recording is dedicated to all those who lost their lives on 11 September, 2001.The proceeds from this track will be donated to the British Memorial Garden Trust Inc. www.britishmemorialgarden.org

Following the critical acclaim of his recent recordings of rare Russian concertos, Oleg Marshev turns his attention to French repertoire. This release features three of the best-known works for piano and orchestra from composers of French or nearby origin (Franck born in Belgium). The showpiece of the release is Ravel’s Concerto for piano and orchestra but the outsider is surely Debussy’s Fantaisie, an attractive rarely played piece.

This is Vol.22 of the Edition Ruhr Piano Festival and features outstanding young pianists giving their debut recital.

The organ sculpture of the Romanesque monastery church in Alpirsbach.

A collection of everyone’s favourite sacred choral music, including Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Franck’s Panis angelicus.

In addition to these famous works is music by Bruckner, Stanford, Grieg, Byrd, Mendelssohn, Lotti, Rachmaninoff, Elgar and Brahms. This is music to soothe the soul!