William Christie - Divertissements de Versailles - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Daniel Weissmann, Managing Director of the Liège Royal Philharmonic, is also a violist. Following an initial album released by Fuga Libera (2018) and chiefly devoted to German music, he continues his exploration of the chamber repertory for viola with this new album, here in partnership with the pianist Peter Petrov. The programme explores the French Romantic repertory, in a world premiere recording of the British musicologist Hugh Macdonald's remarkable and formidably difficult arrangement for viola and piano of Berlioz's Harold en Italie. The album is completed by 'fin-de-siecle' pieces by Vierne, Chausson and Tournemire (all three students of Cesar Franck), written between 1894 and 1897, which embrace the full expressive and melancholic potential of the instrument.

On the eve of a vigorous eightieth birthday, the most French of American musicians has chosen the Musée de la musique to assemble a host of young artists who are dear to him William Christie has watched over their budding skills, and they have already become masters. This program celebrates the composers he has so passionately championed and, in some cases, brought back to life.

La Golferamma. Due Cornetti da Chiesa e da Camera. Musica Italiana 1600 - 1650. Performed by Le Concert Brisé [William Dongois, cornets and recorder; Yoshimichi Hamada, cornets and recorder; Carsten Lohff, Spanish and Italian organs and harpsichord; Pierre-Alain Clerc, Italian organ and regal]. Recorded at the Church of St. Laurent in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at the Museum of Art and History in Neuchatel, Switzerland, in October 1998.