1. Summer nights, H.Berlioz, M.-N. Lemieux (Erato)
The work that Marie-Nicole Lemieux has carried within her for so long, she bequeaths it to us in optimal conditions, with a perfect program (Summer nights by Berlioz, Scheherazade by Ravel, Persian melodies by Saint-Saëns and the attentive direction of Kazuki Yamada). The art here is the alchemy between word and voice. The poems are therefore as well served as the vocal art in a unique and personal interpretation, often moving, which synthesizes an art and an endearing artistic personality.
2. Waves, J.-P. Rameau, M. Ravel, B. Liu (DG)
A pianist trained in major Montreal musical institutions, Bruce Liu is conquering and convincing the musical world. Waves juxtaposes compositions by Rameau, Alkan (Barcarolle, Aesop’s Feast) and Ravel (Mirrors). We remain stunned by the fine distinction of this Rameau, the facetious virtuosity of Aesop’s Feast. But it is Ravel who is decisive in this fabulously recorded disc. Sad birds is unforgettable.
3. Symphony no 5, PI Tchaikovsky, M. Honeck (Reference Recordings)
The most exciting orchestral record of the year on the label which, for two decades, has produced the best orchestral recordings. There 5e Symphony by Tchaikovsky is a favorite symphony for Manfred Honeck, who played it in Lanaudière with his fantastic Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2012. “Major sensual experience,” we wrote. The interpretation is even more accomplished and crazy ten years later. The finale is heartbreaking.
4. Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, C. Monteverdi, E. Gonzalez Toro (Gemelli Factory)
The most beautiful discographic object of the year is also an essential contribution to the Monteverdi discography. After a big Orfeo (Naïve), Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and his ensemble I Gemelli revisit Monteverdi’s last opera (staged in Venice 1639) and Montrealer Rihab Chaieb faces, as Pénélope, the tenor and conductor. In this book of 230 pages and 3 CDs, everything is thought out. Scenes from the libretto whose music is missing in the manuscript found have even been “reinvented” with care and talent.
5. Kreisleriana, R. Schumann, B. Grosvenor (Decca)
A regular on our charts, the British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is, like Bruce Liu in the Ravel on his album Waves, a magician of sound, with an innate sense of mastery of time and resonance. Summit of this art, the Intermezzi opus 117 of Brahms as a major complement to a reference interpretation of Kreislerianaof the 2e Romance op. 28 and of Blumenstück by Robert Schumann. Because, something rare, Grosvenor masters the swell, the ebb and flow of the music of this tormented poet so well.
6. Contra-Tenor, Mr. Spyres, Il Pomo d’Oro (Erato)
The superhero of lyrical art gives us here an “ante-episode” of his album Baritenor from 2021, where he sang both tenor and baritone arias. Contra-Tenor leads to Mozart (Mithridates), while Baritenor left from there. The program therefore takes us from baroque music to classical music by traveling through the French and Italian repertoire with tunes by Lully, Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and dazzles us with the always so “extraterrestrial” side of this alternation of the two registers.
7. Trios, F. Schubert, C. & T. Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt (Ondine)
Two CDs, released after the death of pianist Lars Vogt, contain the Trios op. 99 and 100 and Schubert’s “Arpeggione” sonata, plus a nocturne and a rondo recorded in February and June 2021, before his cancer diagnosis and after the start of his treatment. One should not expect a musical atmosphere weighed down by tragic feeling, but a quintessence of subtlety and an exploration of the border between the material and the immaterial, for example, in the transitions between themes.
8. Concertos nbone 21 and 24, WA Mozart, R. Levin, R. Eggar (AAM)
The pianist and pianofortist Robert Levin is one of the artists of the year, for the publication of his complete Mozart sonatas on the composer’s instrument (ECM) and for the completion at AAM, thanks to enthusiastic crowdfunding, from the complete concertos once begun with the late Christopher Hogwood (1941-2014) and abandoned by Decca. Never have we heard such abundant ornamentation: Levin is the most daring in the world to celebrate Mozart’s instrumental vocality.
9. Symphony no 5, G. Mahler, R. Payare, OSM (Pentatone)
For their first album, we can certainly say that Rafael Payare and the OSM stood out. Conductor and orchestra have succeeded in a symphony right at the moment when, through cinema, it is gaining new fans and arousing renewed interest. The interpretation seduces with its ardor, its passion, but also its naturalness, its fluidity, its logic and its instrumental performance. From Daphnis and Chloe with Charle Dutoit, no OSM record had been so striking.
10. Schubert Revisited, M. Goerne (DG)
Bringing Schubert’s most beautiful melodies into the concert hall with an orchestra and making them reach an audience beyond the increasingly restricted circle of Lieder lovers. Schubert Revisited, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie (without conductor), achieves this goal through skillful orchestrations by Alexander Schmalcz, professor at the Leipzig Conservatory. They adorn and color the melodies without betraying Schubert or burying the baritone Matthias Goerne, faithful to his flattering reputation.
11. Roma Travestita, B. de Sá, Il Pomo d’Oro (Erato)
Vocal hat trick for Erato in this 2023 list with the vocal discovery of the year, Bruno de Sá, 33, Brazilian sopranist. “Sopranist” means that his voice is even higher than a countertenor. Bruno de Sá, who has not changed, is a natural soprano: the first notes of the air of Griselda by Alessandro Scarlatti who opens the CD, you are struck by how incredible it is that a man sings like this… The miracle is that it doesn’t sound artificial. Stunning and promising CD.
12. Symphony in D, C. Franck, A. Altinoglu (Alpha)
Rafael Payare and Alain Altinoglu, “top 2” in the process aimed at finding a successor to Kent Nagano, are in the same list! At the time, Altinoglu, highly courted by the Orchester national de France (ONF), had finally signed with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and extended his commitment to the Brussels Opera. His first major symphonic CD recorded in Frankfurt is perfect: the best Ssymphony of Franck from Bernstein-ONF (DG) in an ideal coupling, with Redemption And The cursed hunter.
13. Composers, M. Bonis, L. Farrenc, etc. (Bru Zane)
Yes, it’s an 8-CD box set, but the production is historic and striking. While the time has come for diversity and rediscovery, the Palazzetto Bru Zane exhibits the work of 19th century French composerse century, in piano, chamber music, melody and orchestral music. With 21 female composers gathered here, there is plenty to discover a number of works beyond Cécile Chaminade, Mel Bonis, Marie Jaëll and Hélène de Montgeroult. A real choice, with excellent performers thanks to great editing work.
14. The Golden Renaissance, W. Byrd, Stile Antico (Decca)
For the 400e anniversary of the death of William Byrd, Stile Antico, an ensemble formerly revealed by Harmonia Mundi and now active at Decca, gives us a CD which pays a perfect tribute to the composer, including sections of the Mass for four voices are interspersed with motets by the same composer. Unlike many other periods, the Tudor reign was truly a golden age for English music and Stile Antico makes the hypnotic potential of Renaissance vocal music palpable.
15. Ariane, J. Massenet, L. Campellone (Bru Zane)
After The Wizard recorded in Saint-Étienne, Bru Zane and Laurent Campellone join forces again for the lyrical revelation of the year: an opera by Massenet off the beaten track (Manon, Thais, Werther) Ariane (1906). This recording made in Munich, and bringing together Amina Edris, Kate Aldrich, Jean-François Borras and Jean-Sébastien Bou, does justice to a forgotten opera which convinces both in the grandiose epic and in the sensual, intimate and colorful. The editorial object is beautiful, too.