Olivier Latry – Franz Liszt: Inspirations (Bonus Track Version) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:33 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Dolce Volta
As well as being the promoter of the piano recital and creator of the symphonic poem, Franz Liszt was also a prodigious innovator in the organ repertory. Olivier Latry – resident organist on the great organ of Notre-Dame-de-Paris for more than thirty-five years – has recorded five of his pieces on the Rieger organ of the Philharmonie de Paris, including the three major published works for the instrument, fleshed out with transcriptions and arrangements.
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Olivier Latry – Bach to the future (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:35 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Dolce Volta
For his first release with La Dolce Volta, Olivier Latry has chosen a programme devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
This recording, made on the massive Cavaillé-Coll organ of Notre-Dame de Paris, of which he is titular organist, raises a number of fascinating questions. “My approach highlights several paradoxes: the notion of performing these key works of Protestantism in one of the most emblematic centres of Catholicism, first of all, but also of playing them on an instrument that is, to say the least, far removed from the Baroque and Classical style of organ building.” (Olivier Latry)
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Olivier Laisney, Yantras, Franck Vaillant, Magic Malik, Damien Varaillon, Romain Clerc-Renaud – Monks of Nothingness (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 46:46 minutes | 529 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onze Heures Onze
Yantras come from Hinduism. They are cards bearing geometrical symbols that capture dynamic forces and that are used as support to gradually stabilize a vision. Symbols and geometry often coexist in the systems used by music composers. It is no exception in trumpeter Olivier Laisney’s new quintet : each musician will pick material from a set of melodic and rhythmic items in order to create and communicate.
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Olivier Korber – Double jeu (Chopin, Etudes, Op. 25) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:58 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 1001 Notes
En salle de marché le jour et à la salle de concert le soir, le pianiste-économiste Olivier Korber consacre son premier album Double Jeu à Chopin.
Le pari d’interpréter le cycle des Etudes opus 25 de Chopin lui offre en 2016 la victoire au Concours International des Grands Amateurs de Piano (Premier Prix, Prix de la Presse et Prix du Public), un tournant qui propulse définitivement sa carrière de pianiste concertiste.
Deux rencontres déterminantes vont nourrir son désir d’enregistrer. Depuis le concours, il bénéficie de l’enseignement très prisé de Rena Shereshevskaya, et le pianiste François-René Duchâble l’encourage avec enthousiasme à aller au bout de son rêve : « Son interprétation des 12 Etudes opus 25 de Chopin était vraiment exceptionnelle. Je ne peux que soutenir son intention de réaliser un enregistrement et lui souhaite le plus large succès possible. »
Poursuivant une trajectoire multiple, il a obtenu son Prix de piano dans la classe de Billy Eidi au Conservatoire de la rue de Madrid, tandis qu’il terminait non loin de là sa première année universitaire à Paris-Dauphine. Il termine major de son Master de finance et son mémoire de fin d’études est publié, le motivant à enseigner à Dauphine depuis l’âge de 24 ans. Durant ces années, le piano ne le quitte jamais.
Il fera ses débuts avec orchestre à Paris en mars 2018 dans le Concerto n°3 de Rachmaninoff. Entre-temps, il a été invité à se produire au Festival Chopin de Nohant en 2016, à la Folle Journée de Nantes et au Centre de Musique de Chambre de Paris en 2017, ainsi que dans de nombreuses salles et festivals.
Sa collaboration avec 1001 Notes débute fin 2015 lorsqu’il participe à une master class organisée par le Festival sur son lieu de travail à la Défense. Olivier Korber a été invité à participer au Festival 1001 Notes en Limousin en 2016, et reviendra s’y produire le 3 Août 2018. L’occasion pour le public de (re)découvrir cet artiste aussi à l’aise avec les chiffres que les notes !
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Olivier Ker Ourio – Singular Insularity (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 51:25 minutes | 636 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bonsaï Music
Toots Thielemans “gave birth to musical sons like Olivier Ker Ourio” writes Michel Contat in his 2016 article published in Télérama magazine, “who continue in his legendary wake to honor the ‘mouth organ’ with emotion.”
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Olivier Ker Ourio – French Songs (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:33 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bonsaï Music
Ce n’est pas la premire fois qu’Olivier Ker Ourio taquine la chanson franaise. L’harmoniciste avait notamment repris Le Grisbi dans Central Park Nord. Il fait un pas supplmentaire avec ce French Songs dont le titre donne trs explicitement le programme. Encore ne prcise-t-il pas qu’il s’agit, entre Et maintenant et autres Champs-Elyses , de tubes de la chanson franaise.
Le rsultat est ingal. Comment pourrait-il en tre autrement ? Nous connaissons tellement toutes ces chansons que le jugement est ncessairement trs svre. Reste que certaines rinterprtations sont vritablement agrables, dont Le Mtque ou le chaloup bicyclette . La version de Toulouse est trs proche de celle de Nougaro et, derrire la patte d’Olivier Ker Ourio, on voit toujours poindre le trottoir ventr sur les tuyaux du gaz . Le sens de la mlodie chez l’harmoniciste est, comme d’habitude, dlicieux et la participation de Sylvain Luc est indniablement un plus.
Ce disque frais et agrable nous invite retrouver au son de l’harmonica des tubes qu’on connat tous et qu’on se surprend siffler. Et, franchement, siffler avec Olivier Ker Ourio, c’est la classe.
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Olivier Hébert, Lofi Octet – Correspondance (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:41 minutes | 515 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odd Sound
Correspondance is Olivier Hébert’s second album. At the head of his LOFI OCTET, this multi-instrumentalist practices the balance between the sensuality of the string quartet and the ardor of jazz. These two worlds merge thanks to a work of writing bringing out the best of both worlds. The astounding result of this stylistic intermingling blurs the limits of chamber music and contemporary jazz.
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Olivier Fortin, Emmanuel Frankenberg, Ensemble Masques – Bach: Concertos for Two Harpsichords (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:44 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
The practice of composing for two keyboard instruments, very common in the illustrious Bach family, naturally achieved its apotheosis with Johann Sebastian, whose three concertos for two harpsichords are performed here by Olivier Fortin and Emmanuel Frankenberg with the Ensemble Masques. These works, particularly the Concerto in C minor, are among the composer’s most admired. They suggest a conception of the concerto specific to Bach: rather than a dialogue between several individual entities, the piece presents a subtle intertwining of melodic lines and blurs the distinction between solo and tutti parts by making them respond to and quote each other, thus illustrating the principle of harmony dear to the composer. Finally, the recording on two harpsichords of the Prelude and Fugue BWV 552, originally composed for organ, is in keeping with the nineteenth-century tradition of transposing Bach’s works with the aim of giving their refined polyphony greater clarity.
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Olivier Fortin – Couperin: L’art de toucher le clavecin (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:57 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
“The harpsichord is perfect as to it compass, and brilliant in itself, but as it is impossible to swell out or diminish the volume of its sound, I shall always feel grateful to any who, by the exercise of infinite art supported by fine taste, contrive to render this instrument capable of expression”, writes Couperin himself in the foreword to his 1713 Premier livre de pièces de clavecin. If we discount the ornamentations which litter the world, Couperin’s music is not a “virtuoso” music, as Scarlatti’s can be, for example. Sometimes taking on a descriptive style, or going in for imitation or portrait, it requires a singular sense of expression: that very “expression” that the composer talks about here. In Art de toucher le clavecin, Couperin offers us precious information on how to interpret and play his music in particular, and French music of the period in general; an artist who aims to respect Couperin’s intentions will find indispensable lessons here. That being said, a fear of stepping outside the bounds set by the author, and a too-minute attention to every detail could rob the works of their vitality and fluency. “As there is a great distance from grammar to declamation, so there is an infinitely greater one between the tablature and good playing style.” Or, in other words, freedom within limits! That is the attitude that Olivier Fortin brings to this fine range of works from the great Couperin, drawn from various of his Livres de clavecin and L’Art de toucher le clavecin. As for the instrument being played, it is a “real fake”, made in 1984 by the manufacturer Martin Skowroneck based on a Hemsch (that is, 18th century French), but signed with the name of the Rouen artistan Nicholas Lefebvre, none of whose instruments survive to the present day, and which was built in 1755. Skowroneck’s aim was to prove to Gustav Leonhardt that it was still possible to build a harpsichord that was perfectly identical to one of the old style, and it seems that Leonhardt was taken with his attempt. Even the material’s ageing was completely artificial! But it is no less of a splendid instrument for all that, and moreover, splendidly recorded, which is not all that common in the harpsichord repertoire.
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Olivier Dion – Exposed (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:45 minutes | 508 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia
Quebecian pop star Olivier Dion has announced the details of his debut album, Exposed. After making his name in his native Canada thanks to a successful turn on Star Académie in 2012, the singer has centred his career on the European market. Dion released debut English single Curious – a slick blend of R&B and pop – and has followed this with tracks with Kinda Love, a woozy romantic number, and smooth pop track Feels Right. Now listen his new album “Exposed”.
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Olivier Darbellay, Noëlle-Anne Darbellay & Benjamin Engeli – Constellations Ardentes (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:07 minutes | 966 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
Don’t be put off by the rather “gruff” style of this album’s first piece, Ori, from Swiss composer Jean-Luc Darbellay, played here by Olivier Darbellay on the horn, and on the violin, Noëlle-Anne… yes, you guessed it: Darbellay, a great family business, even if the work itself only runs to just ten minutes of intensity and musical experimentation. The mixture of the horn and the solo violin has its own charms, and Darbellay clearly knows what he is about. The album continues with some all-too-rare pieces from Koechlin, namely the Four short pieces for piano, violin and horn (played here by pianist Benjamin Engeli who is himself not a Darbellay), written between 1894 and 1907. There follow the Lunules électriques, for horn and violin, with Stefan Wirth, who is every bit as Helvetian as the other artists on this album. Electric? Lunula? This probably doesn’t refer to the half-moon at the base of the fingernail, nor to the Bronze Age jewellery of the British Isles – the local Celts hadn’t invented electricity back then, after all. Perhaps it refers to the Calophasia lunula moth, caught in a bug zapper? The album borrows its name from Lucretius, who, in his De Rerum Natura speaks of “ardent constellations”. But by any name, the album closes beautifully with Brahm’s Trio for horn, violin and piano which Darbellay, Darbellay and Engeli play with great conviction and spirit.
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Olivier Chauzu – Dukas: Intégrale de la musique pour piano (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:16:09 minutes | 652 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Calliope
The complete piano works of French perfectionist composer Paul Dukas mirror two very different masterpieces, one French- inspired (Variations) and the other of Germanic inspiration (Sonata). The Sonata is distinguished by its structure, grandeur and magnificence of tone. A disciple of Gabriel Tacchino, Jean-Claude Pennetier and Gyorgy Sebok, Olivier Chauzu (b. 1963) was trained in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris at the end of the 1980s. He tours France and the world playing as a soloist and in chamber music.
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Olivier Cavé – Haydn & Beethoven: Piano Sonatas (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:30 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Pianist Olivier Cavé had the wonderful idea of juxtaposing three sonatas from Beethoven’s first period – including two dedicated to Haydn, 1795 Op. 2 – and two of Haydn’s own sonatas, one from 1776 and the other from his great maturity in 1789. Of course the contrast couldn’t be greater, but the filiation is obvious, particularly regarding the freedom of tone, architecture, development and overall conception: usual standards don’t apply to the great Haydn, and seem never to have applied to Beethoven, even in his younger years. This may in fact be the main lesson young Beethoven gleaned from the old master – as we know how tense their relationship was, and started to wane from the end of 1795. Olivier Cavé, a disciple of Nelson Goerner, Maria Tipo and Aldo Ciccolini, gave his first concert in 1991 with the Camerata Lysy led by Yehudi Menuhin; his various recordings earned him several 5 Diapasons and Quatre étoiles Classicaprizes, and his tours saw him perform around the world, from the San Francisco Symphony to the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron, from New York to Tokyo and many other places in between…
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Olivier Benoit, Orchestre National de Jazz – Europa Oslo (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:09:02 minutes | 747 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ONJ Records
Whether appearing solo as a guitarist or leading orchestras whose personnel and size couldn’t vary more — they range from the quartet to the big-band —, Olivier Benoit’s sole obsession has always been to further his explorations of territories still barely represented on the official map of contemporary music.
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