Awards galore for Médée
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Discography
Charpentier's Médée has just been released to critical acclaim.
Barely released, the album Médée is already causing a stir! Here are short extracts from the reviews that have earned Hervé Niquet, Concert Spirituel, Centre de musique baroque de Versailles and Alpha Classics a Diamant | Opéra magazine, a Bravo TTTT | Télérama and a Diapason d'or | Diapason magazine.
"The third complete studio recording of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's masterpiece, this new and intense Médée, with a sound recording that does not erase any of the instrumental rough edges, has a lot going for it. [...] At the helm of his ensemble Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet has applied the most recent discoveries in the interpretation of French Baroque music (arrangement of instruments, number of players, etc.). He draws everyone into the same momentum. The choirs, who intervene relatively little, have the flexibility and energy to match; the orchestra, where the strings have pride of place, leaves no one in peace, with the woodwinds adding a touch of colour here and there. For despite its length, the work is made up of fairly brief arias and recitatives, making it a score that is always on the move."
Christian Wasselin, Opéra magazine, February 2024
"The story of the dark heroine is brought to life by admirable music and a superb vocal cast. [...] For the second instalment of his Baroque tetralogy, begun in 2023 with a dazzling version of Marin Marais's Ariane et Bacchus, the conductor of Le Concert Spirituel brings out the best in his choir and orchestra, engaged from the prologue to the dénouement in a lively narrative in which the theatre emerges from the music".
Sophie Bourdais, Télérama, 27 January to 02 February 2024
"Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel and Véronique Gens offer us much more than the most historically informed Médée by Charpentier possible today: a renewed vision of a masterpiece. [...] Until now, there have only been two recorded versions of this Médée, not many for such a masterpiece. The new recording somewhat upsets our habits, but for the better. You become attached to it over and over again, and one could paraphrase the line that opens Act IV: "Never has it been heard so beautifully".
Loïc Chahine, Diapason, February 2024
For more information on this album >> Médée de Charpentier Alpha 1020
