Various Artists - Contrasts - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Sandrine Piau and Véronique Gens have a longstanding rapport and dreamed of making a recording together. Here they pay tribute to two singers who, like them, were born within a year of each other, Mme Dugazon (1755-1821) and Mme Saint-Huberty (1756-1812) both enjoyed triumphant careers in Paris, inspiring numerous librettists and composers. Gluck even nicknamed Saint-Huberty 'Madame-la-Ressource', while 'a Dugazon' became a generic name for the roles of naïve girls in love, and later of comical mothers. Rivals? They very likely were, given the quarrelsome spirit of the operatic world of the time, even if they never crossed paths on stage. Intermingling airs and duets, Piau and Gens here play the heroines of Gluck, Grétry, Monsigny, J. C. Bach, Piccinni, Edelmann and Cherubini. Developed in collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, this program on the cusp between Classicism and pre-Romanticism is very much the heart of the repertory championed by Julien Chauvin's Le Concert de la Loge.

Various Artists - Religious Folk Songs from Dalecarlia / Various [COMPACT DISCS] date 01/18/1996

Sharon Kam is one of the world's leading clarinetists. For her debut album on Orfeo (and performing for the first time in this trio line-up), she delivers a dramatic, sharply contrasting programme that is presented chronologically. Performing with her brother Ori Kam (viola) and the pianist Matan Porat, the programme begins and ends with music by Mozart and Bartók, the latter's Contrasts producing possibly the most original and captivating contribution to the repertoire for this combination of instruments. In between are works by Schumann and Brahms that contain multi-layered biographical references and are closely related in their romantic spirit. InchSharon Kam is a clarinetist with an exceptionally wide expressive range.Inch (Edward Greenfield)