![Stéphane Degout, Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon - Enfers (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/25/mco9qcxnqmbbc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Stéphane Degout, Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon – Enfers (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:27 minutes | 1,47 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
With his ensemble Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon has written the listing for this album in the form of a “pastiche” of a Mass for the Dead, a Requiem both sacred and profane. While it is a long way from having all the defining traits, it does possess all the outlines: Introit, Kyrie, Gradual, Sequence, Offertory, In Paradisum… The idea came about after a recent discovery, in the Bibliothèque Nationale of an anonymous requiem mass from the 18th century, in which the writer constructed a “parody” based on musical extracts from Castor and Pollux and the Fêtes de Paphos by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Note that the term “parody” doesn’t necessarily imply satire or mockery: it refers to the practice of taking up older music and setting new words to it. This fusion of sacred music (the mass) and profane music (lyrical tragedy), a common practice during the Enlightenment, was a procedure that Pichon wanted to take up.
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Stéphane Degout – Brahms: La belle Maguelone (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:55 minutes | 1,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © B Records
The legend of the beautiful Maguelone has gone through centuries before Johannes Brahms set it to music in his eponymous Lieder cycle, based on Ludwig Tieck’s novel. Stephane Degout has decided to pay tribute to the French origins of this epic romantic tale in a new project with Alain Planes, Marielou Jacquard and Roger Germser. An exceptional concert that blends Brahms’ music with an exquisite reading crafted as close as possible to the legendary source, captured by b*records at the Theatre de l’Athenee Louis-Jouvet.
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Stéphane Degout & Simon Lepper – Lieder & Balladen (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:16 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
“The mystery of the ballad comes from the way it is told” – Goethe. This fascinating repertory requires the performer to play each of the characters as he or she would in an opera.
Who better than Stéphane Degout to take up the challenge of plunging into the heart of German Romanticism? Fresh from winning a Victoire de la Musique in 2019, the French baritone truly embodies each of the protagonists in these shattering miniature dramas. Beside him here are a longstanding partner and two exceptional guests.
Read more![Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion, Julian Prégardien, Stéphane Degout, Sabine Devieilhe, Lucile Richardot, Christian Immler, Reinoud van Mechelen, Maitrise De Radio France - J. S. Bach: Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/13/l0cpm6qibiixa_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion, Julian Prégardien, Stéphane Degout, Sabine Devieilhe, Lucile Richardot, Christian Immler, Reinoud van Mechelen, Maitrise De Radio France – J. S. Bach: Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:41:27 minutes | 3,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Dès le chœur d’entrée, Raphaël Pichon et son ensemble Pygmalion seront sensibles à la nuance, emplissant leur geste de couleurs et d’attentions finalement peu courantes dans ce moment le plus souvent marqué par l’ampleur et la densité du son. Les inflexions pianissimos, le soudain allégement des textures, le ton général chambriste placent cette Passion, devenue a posteriori le temple et sommet de l’expression dramatique religieuse du XVIIIe siècle, ailleurs. Bach y est ici le cousin direct d’un Georg Philipp Telemann dont les propres Passions présentent des effectifs plus restreints et parfois plus variés en terme d’instrumentarium. Elle s’inscrit aussi dans les perspectives doloristes des Membra Jesu nostri de Dietrich Buxtehude.
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Stéphane Degout, Pygmalion & Raphaël Pichon – Mein Traum. Schubert, Weber, Schumann (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:40 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
One morning in 1822, Schubert wrote down an enigmatic text in which all his ghosts seem to take shape: wandering, solitude, consolation, disappointed love. Inspired by this dreamlike narrative, Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion and Stéphane Degout have devised a vast Romantic fresco, combining resurrection of unknown treasures with rediscovery of established masterpieces.
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Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques & Stéphane Degout – Couperin: Ariane consolée par Bacchus, Apothéoses de Lully & de Corelli (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:08 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Christophe Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques and Stéphane Degout – F. Couperin: Ariane consolée par Bacchus, Apothéoses de Lully & de Corelli: The genius of François Couperin (1668-1733) whispers precious secrets in Christophe Rousset’s ear, which he reveals to us in this new recording. Here, the cantata Ariane consolée par Bacchusis unveiled in preview, served by a dream cast.
Whereas in early September Actes Sud will publish the monograph he devoted to François Couperin, Christophe Rousset wanted to carry out the project of recording the composer’s complete (or almost!) catalogue. This first release on the Aparté label is the forerunner of a boxed set on the occasion of the composer’s 250th birthday.
Couperin came from a dynasty of musicians very much in the public eye, starting with the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. This dynasty would remain important after the death of Francois Couperin, who was called Couperin le Grand (‘the Great’). Even though chosen personally by the Sun King, the musician’s life was not particularly interesting, going from the organ of St-Gervais in Paris to that of the Chapelle Royale at Versailles. Although France quickly forget him after his death, which coincided with the affirmation of Rameau’s genius, the Germans, following J. S. Bach, would consider him the most accomplished expression of French genius in the 18th century.
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Alain Planès, Eugene Asti, Sophie Karthäuser & Stéphane Degout – Debussy: Harmonie du soir, mélodies & songs (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:05:47 minutes | 1,93 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
This fine album centred on Debussy, entitled, Harmonie du soir (it is now the fashion to give classical releases titles of their own) presents a bouquet of melodies mostly dedicated to the nocturnes of which Debussy was so fond. It has a romantic opening, with the Nocturnes by John Field, and then by Chopin and Fauré.
The programme is a delight for the ears , with a certain, rather precious, “je ne sais quoi” alongside the consummate articulation and diction offered by both Sophie Karthäuser and Stéphane Degout, two artists at the dazzling height of their maturity. The evocative, tender, liquid piano of both Alan Planès and Eugène Asti also provides an air of great expansiveness.