Wagner: Lohengrin: Prelude to Act 1

Released for the Wagner bicentenary in May 2013, the first disc by a British organist entirely devoted to Wagner, and a major contribution to the small discography of Wagner transcriptions for a solo instrument.

Wagner’s major orchestral works, including the Overture to Mastersingers and Ride of the Valkyries, in virtuoso transcriptions for solo organ by Edwin Lemare.

Played by Jonathan Vaughn on the 1911 Harrison and Harrison organ of St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol – regarded as one of the finest high Romantic organs ever built.

Jonathan Vaughn is a former organ scholar of St John’s College, Cambridge, and is most often heard accompanying the world-class choir of Wells Cathedral in his capacity as assistant organist of the Cathedral.

This debut solo recording from Jonathan Vaughn demonstrates his supreme virtuosity in powerfully dramatic repertoire, as well as the immense range of tone colour of the Redcliffe organ, and will capture the imagination of all lovers of Wagner’s music.

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…