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Peter van Heyghen, Les Muffatti, Hasnaa Bennani – Handel: Arie per la Cuzzoni (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:09:25 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Ramée
When one looks at the biographies of famous prima donnas, the suspicion sometimes arises that opera is not really an art form but a way of life. At any rate, for many of its protagonists, the theatrics, the scheming and the scandalmongering of the stage appear to flow seamlessly into real life. And the situation in the eighteenth century was no different from today. Among the most famous and also the most notorious stars of European opera houses was the Italian diva Francesca Cuzzoni, whose extravagance must have been as phenomenal as her singing talent. Had there already been a gutter press in her time, La Cuzzoni would certainly have been one of the most reliable suppliers of headlines. But, even without tabloids, news of La Cuzzonis affairs got around quickly, and indeed seem to have played no small part in the fascination she exercised over her audience. Her early success, her fairytale fame and eventually her dramatic fall caught the imagination of the musical world. This CD features some of the most beautiful and breathtaking arias, composed for the diva by Handel.
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Frank Theuns, Sophie Gent, Bertrand Cuiller, Les Muffatti – Bach Triple (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:05:35 minutes | 2,53 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ramée
Three instruments, three emblematic works, and three excellent soloists! With Sophie Gent on violin, Frank Theuns on traverso and Bertrand Cuiller on harpsichord, Les Muffatti offer a fresh interpretation of Bach’s Triple Concerto, the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the Orchestral Suite in B minor. They provide a variety of orchestral textures, appropriate to the more soloistic style in the Brandenburg Concerto, and the alternating ripieno-tutti settings in the Triple Concerto and the Suite.
While the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto was composed during Bach’s time in Köthen and can be regarded as the first piano concerto ever written, the other two works date from his later years in Leipzig. In these works, Bach exploits the full range of compositional possibilities he had acquired during his lifetime; the highly individual combination of contrapuntal artistry and heightened expressiveness already points to the works composed in the last years of his life.
Les Muffatti have been one of the leading artists on the Ramée label from its beginnings; this, their tenth album for Ramée, also marks the label’s 20th anniversary.
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Les Muffatti, Bart Jacobs – Bach: Concertos for Organ and Strings (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:19:55 minutes | 1,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ramée
Although we know of at least five concertos J.S. Bach wrote for solo organ we have no surviving Bach organ concertos with orchestral accompaniment. Contrast this with the 200+ cantatas: of these, 18 feature organ obbligato, which Bach uses as a solo instrument in arias, choral sections and sinfonias. The most obviously conspicuous date to 1726. In May to November of that year, Bach composed six cantatas which assign a prominent solo role to the organ. Most of these are reworkings of movements of lost violin and oboe concertos written in Bach’s time at Weimar and Köthen. Why Bach wrote such a number of obbligato organ cantatas in such a short period remains unknown. One possible explanation may lie in Dresden, where Bach had given a concert on the new Silbermann organ in the Sophienkirche in 1725. Some scholars think that, in addition to other organ works, he also performed organ concertos, or at least a few earlier versions of the sinfonias, with obbligato organ and strings in order to show off the organ. From the cantatas mentioned above, along with the related violin and harpsichord concertos, it is perfectly possible to reconstruct a number of three-movement organ concertos of this type. By using this method, we hope to bring some of the music which Bach may have performed in Dresden in 1725 back to life.
Read more![Les Muffatti, Clint van der Linde - Salve Regina. Motets by Hasse and Porpora (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/10/rxjb8qsgzu8yb_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Les Muffatti, Clint van der Linde – Salve Regina. Motets by Hasse and Porpora (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:05 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Ramée
Naples was in the mid-18th century the third largest European city and one of the greatest centres of political, commercial and cultural influence. The conservatoires there were founded by religious orders and were originally intended as charitable institutions for the accommodation and education of orphans, but soon became real centres of musical education and performance; many leading composers were pupils and teachers there and so contributed to the founding of the Neapolitan School. Porpora and Hasse are the greatest representatives of the Neapolitan style and both settled in Venice before rising to international fame. Their writing was strongly influenced by opera and reflects the Italian taste of the time; it is also present in their religious compositions.
Les Muffatti and the South-African countertenor Clint van der Linde present works of exceptional expressive power, with Hasse’s Hostes Averni and Porpora’s Nisi Dominus being recorded here for the first time.
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Vox Luminis, Les Muffatti, Peter Van Heyghen – Reinhard Keiser: Brockes-Passion (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:00:30 minutes | 2,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ramée
The Brockes-Passion can be considered the archetype of the German Passion oratorio. As such, it served as a model and source of inspiration for famous later masterpieces, enjoying uninterrupted popularity throughout the 18th century when no less than 11 composers, including Handel and Telemann, set it to music. The superb version by Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739) is not only the first but also adheres most closely to the great rhetorical power and rich changes of affects of the poet’s text. In German literary history, Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747) is known above all for his innovative role during the second quarter of the 18th century. In 1712, the year of the Brockes-Passion’s first performance, Keiser, fellow citizen of Brockes in Hamburg, was already recognized as the most important opera composer in Germany – and, in some opinions, even in Europe. When the genius of these two great artists combined in a single work, the result could only be spectacular. The tricentennial of its first performance justified a belated but nonetheless dithyrambic tribute, here presented by the singers of the Vox Luminis ensemble and the instrumentalists of Les Muffatti.
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