Orchestre des Champs-Elysées

Ann Hallenberg, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Philippe Herreweghe – Brahms: Symphony 4, Alt-Rhapsodie, Schicksalslied (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:06:26 minutes | 641 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Phi

“The four symphonies of Brahms form the kernel of our musical heritage, along with such works as the Monteverdi Vespers, the Bach Cello Suites and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. To mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and the half-century (!) of Collegium Vocale Gent, we conceived the project of recording them in tandem with major choral works by this composer whose instrumental and vocal worlds are in essence inextricable. Johannes Brahms was at heart a singer. His entire oeuvre is underpinned by poetry and text, indeed even by rhetoric, following on in organic succession from ‘early’ music, notably the music of Schütz and Bach, of which he had a profound knowledge and whose tradition he was bent on continuing, to the horror of the modernists of his day. In the twentieth century, the world of the orchestra and that of the voice often followed different paths. But, contrary to this tendency, the trajectories of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Collegium Vocale Gent have always been closely linked.
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Ann Hallenberg, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Philippe Herreweghe – Johannes Brahms: Œuvres pour chœur & orchestre (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 56:18 minutes | 524 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Phi / Outhere Label Group

For his 3rd album on Phi, his new label published by the group Outhere, Philippe Herreweghe has brought together a splendid set of artists in the Lutoslawski hall in Warsaw. Ann Hallenberg, whose voice won over the public of some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, takes on the Rhapsody for contralto solo and men’s chorus by Brahms while the rest of the programme leads the listener through his essential works for chorus and orchestra. Herreweghe’s long-time affinity with the composer of A German Requiem has enabled him to provide a coherent and personal vision of those musical pages in which Brahms gave free course to his most intimate thoughts. Collegium Vocale Gent is joined in this endeavour by the members of the Accademia Chigiana of Sienna with whom it formed a European ensemble that was officially recognised as Cultural Ambassador of the European Union just a few months ago. Together with the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and its authentic instrumentarium, this great choir interprets the Burial Song, the Song of Destiny, the Song of the Fates and the motet Warum ist das Licht gegeben. A great moment for all admirers of Brahms and fans of choral singing at its very best!
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