RIAS Kammerchor, Freiburger Barockorchester, Rene Jacobs – W.A. Mozart: Don Giovanni (2007) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

RIAS Kammerchor, Freiburger Barockorchester, Rene Jacobs – W.A. Mozart: Don Giovanni (2007)
3x SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 170:33 minutes | Scans + PDF Booklet | 8,26 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans + PDF | 3,01 GB
The playful drama in two acts | Features Stereo and Multichannel surround sound

If there is one thing that marks out René Jacobs’s approach to Mozart, it is the way he constantly asks himself questions – and the specifically musical brilliance of the answers he comes up with. The success of his recent version of La clemenza di Tito is proof of that! After Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, his recording of this centrepiece of the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy offers us the latest fruits of his reflections on Classical opera. Premiered at the 2006 Innsbruck Festival and recorded shortly afterwards, this production is nourished by his thoughts on Don Giovanni as taboo-breaker and on a ‘physiology of roles’ that respects Mo art’s intentions as nearly as possible. This SACD set contains the arias of both versions created by Mozart (Prague 1787, Vienna 1788).

(more…)

Read more

RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs – Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs – Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:40:06 minutes | 2,79 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Astounding modernity The 1782 premiere in Vienna of Die Entführung aus dem Serail brought Mozart unprecedented public and professional success. This dazzling triumph did not come by chance: with music placing the accent on exoticism and a libretto celebrating the ideas of the Enlightenment, the opera ran counter to contemporary prejudices concerning the Ottoman Empire. In championing a German national opera, Mozart gave an important place to the spoken dialogue, often severely cut, but fully restored and brought to life here to underline the astounding modernity of the text.

“Mari Eriksmoen was an charming and malicious Blonde with a light and elegant soprano well-suited to the fiery English maid. As Konstanze, Robin Johannssen’s soprano boasted a middle range with silvery tones. The male side of the cast was just perfect. As Pedrillo, Julian Prégardien allied both appealing singing and jubilatory acting. Maximilian Schmitt’s Belmonte impressed by his powerful and manly lyric sound and with aptly executed fioriturain “Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke”… The strongest performance however came from Dimitry Ivaschenko. The Russian bass, combining splendid deep tone with extreme flexibility, managed to convey the comical side of his character, without reducing it to the buffoonery that often mars other interpretations.

Totally at one with the theatrical approach to the performance, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin followed the maestro’s contrasted tempi and played superbly…this performance at the Concertgebouw took place a few days after Mr. Jacobs recorded the work in the studio with the same team of soloists and orchestra. Without the visual support, that recording will be a very different experience but I’d certainly be keen to see if it matches up to my memories.” Nicolas Nguyen, 21 September 2014, bachtrack.com

(more…)

Read more

René Jacobs & Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin – Handel: Agrippina (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

René Jacobs & Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin – Handel: Agrippina (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 03:23:07 minutes | 1,99 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

After his acclaimed explorations of such Handel operas as Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, René Jacobs now tackles the first great operatic success of the ‘caro Sassone’ (Venice, 1710), the climax of his Italian period. This version reconstructs the work in its original conception, the only one to combine explosive topicality with extreme dramatic cogency. As a result, this tale of amorous intrigues against a background of Roman history, the ‘prequel’ to Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, emerges more fascinating than ever.

(more…)

Read more

René Jacobs, RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin – J.S. Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (Matthäus-Passion) {5.1 Edition} (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

René Jacobs, RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin – J.S. Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (Matthäus-Passion) {5.1 Edition} (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:39:02 minutes | 6,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

It has haunted René Jacobs since childhood: first as a boy soprano in Ghent, then as a countertenor, he has constantly frequented the supreme masterpiece that is the ‘St Matthew Passion’. Jacobs uses the layout of the Good Friday Vesper service from Bach’s time, with choirs front and back, rather than side-by-side. He also gives us extra soloists to complete the bi-choral effect. For Bach, the two halves were 28 metres apart. At that distance, coordination difficulties begin to appear between the speed of light, and the speed of sound, and we cannot determine how Bach dealt with this problem. However the wonders of SACD multichannel surround sound can at last give an impression of what Bach intended for St Thomas’ Church in Leipzig.

As ever, harmonia mundi’s production values are such that we are given several essays on the concept of the layout in Bach’s time, reflections on the new recording by René Jacobs, full texts and biographies in a 176 page booklet, with sumptuous packaging. This is, somewhat surprisingly, René Jacobs’ first recording of ‘St Matthew’.

(more…)

Read more

Rene Jacobs – Cavalieri: Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Rene Jacobs – Cavalieri: Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:32:48 minutes | 1,66 GB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Composed at a time when neither oratorio nor opera existed, this Rappresentatione premiered in February 1600 is a magisterial musical drama. In its dialogue between Soul and Body – an emblematic theme of the Counter-Reformation – it employs singers, chorus, and an extensive orchestra whose varied timbres both accompany and characterise the soloists. At the dawn of the Baroque revolution, song, stage action, dance, and instrumental music combine in perfect harmony.

(more…)

Read more

René Jacobs – Beethoven: Missa solemnis, Op. 123 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

René Jacobs – Beethoven: Missa solemnis, Op. 123 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:01 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Faced with the plethora of Beethoven recordings released in 2020, we expect more from some than from others, and this applies to this Missa Solemnis. An absolute masterpiece of Western music, it is conducted by René Jacobs, whose recent recording of Leonore (the first version of the opera Fidelio by the same Beethoven) conquered the musical world.

(more…)

Read more

Bejun Mehta, Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs – Handel: Ombra cara (2010) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Bejun Mehta, Freiburger Barockorchester, René Jacobs – Handel: Ombra cara (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:11:44 minutes | 696 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

If Handel’s arias enjoy such success today, perhaps it is because they lie at the intersection between past and present, light and shadow. They might very well illustrate on their own the entire range of possibilities offered by the voices of his time. On this 2010 recital album, countertenor Bejun Mehta has chosen most of the ‘hits’ from the repertoire of the famous castrato Senesino. From shadow (Ombra cara) to light (Sento la gioia), Grammy-winner René Jacobs conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in perfect accompaniment to Lewis.

(more…)

Read more

Freiburger Barockorchester and René Jacobs – Beethoven: Leonore (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Freiburger Barockorchester and René Jacobs – Beethoven: Leonore (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:20:03 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

From Leonore (1805) to Fidelio (1814) there were three successive versions of Beethoven’s opera, only the last of which has been in the repertory since the 19th Century.

Going against tradition, René Jacobs has chosen to revive the earliest version, reworking the librettos and the spoken dialogue: a genuine tour de force, this still unknown Leonore forms an incomparable musical and dramatic structure requiring exemplary mastery on the part of both orchestra and singers. This landmark recording proves its case in every respect.

(more…)

Read more

Vivica Genaux, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Rene Jacobs – Arias for Farinelli (2003) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Vivica Genaux, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Rene Jacobs – Arias for Farinelli (2003)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 77:33 minutes | Scans & Digital booklet | 3,59 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans & Digital booklet | 1,36 GB
Features Stereo & Multichannel Surround Sound / Harmonia Mundi # HMC 801778

Recording an album of arias written expressly for Farinelli, one of the most legendary castratos of the eighteenth century, is brave; his name invokes a world of superhuman vocal feats, remarkable pathos, and a uniquely strong and brilliant tone that, for obvious anatomical reasons, will not be replicated by modern singers. But that clearly does not scare Vivica Genaux who, along with René Jacobs and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, dives into Farinelli’s repertory as if it were her very own. She reveals a voice capable of dizzying speed and agility, and a refreshing ability to find in the highly ornamented, expression-through-excess style that typified opera seria of the time a sincerity and musical integrity that makes a case for its wider exploration. Jacobs and the Akademie are equally impressive, playing with a rhythmic vitality and crisp ensemble that elevates their role to an equal plane with that of the voice. Inclusion of Baldassare Galuppi’s Concerto à quattro in D minor – a rare orchestral selection on a vocal recital album – is especially interesting; although it lacks the visceral appeal of the sung selections, it showcases the ensemble to great effect. Genaux is terrific in all respects, but she really shines when the fireworks start. There are jaw-dropping passages in these arias that are impossibly intricate, often combining furious coloratura and ornament upon ornament with wide leaps and extremes of range, both high and low. Hearing her negotiate these difficulties with such clarity and confidence is awe-inspiring and fun. Especially noteworthy are “Qual guerriero in campo armato” from Idaspe, by Riccardo Broschi (Farinelli’s brother) and Geminiano Giacomelli’s “Quell’usignolo,” from the opera Merope. Both are showpieces that very few people could sing at all, let alone so winningly.

(more…)

Read more

B’Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs – Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759 “Unfinished” & Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 “The Great” (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

B'Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs - Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759

B’Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs – Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759 “Unfinished” & Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944 “The Great” (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:27:45 minutes | 3,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone

Multiple prize-winning conductor René Jacobs and the B’Rock Orchestra complete their Schubert cycle on Pentatone with the composer’s two most famous symphonies, the Unfinished and Great. In his extensive liner notes, Jacobs develops a theory that the B Minor Symphony did not remain “unfinished”, but was deliberately left unfinished, because Schubert shaped its two movements in analogy to Mein Traum (My Dream), an autobiographical narration in two parts, written in 1822, simultaneous to the creation of the symphony. While the first half of Mein Traum tells about his mother’s decease and his problematic relationship to his father, the second part enters a magical, Romantic realm, and eventually brings a reconciliation with his father. On this recording, the two parts of the narration precede the two movements of the Unfinished symphony, and are recited by Tobias Moretti. Jacobs argues that, after the dream-inspired Unfinished, the Great C Major Symphony, with its solemn character and sublime dimensions, served as a liberation for Schubert. Presenting these contrasting works forms a fitting apotheosis to a cycle that has been designed from the onset as a series of symphonic pairs. The players of the B’Rock Orchestra present these works on period instruments; transparent, but full of fire.
(more…)

Read more

B’Rock Baroque Orchestra, René Jacobs – Handel: Orlando (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

B’Rock Baroque Orchestra, René Jacobs - Handel: Orlando (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

B’Rock Baroque Orchestra, René Jacobs – Handel: Orlando (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:39:58 minutes | 3,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Archiv Produktion

Making his Archiv opera debut, celebrated Handelian and Grammy award winner René Jacobs, the most exciting opera conductor of the day (Münchner Merkur), leads his dynamic, exquisitely honed B Rock Baroque Orchestra Ghent and an outstanding cast in one of the composer s most spectacular and ravishingly beautiful creations recorded at Concertgebouw Brugge in summer 2013.

In a recording career spanning four decades, Jacobs has surveyed a phenomenal amount of repertoire, operatic and instrumental: from Monteverdi to Mozart, from Bach to Pergolesi, with Händel, Gluck, Telemann and many more in-between, every new recording being hailed as an event by the press.

Following game-changing recordings of Handel s Giulio Cesare (1991), Rinaldo (2003) and Agrippina (2011), celebrated early and baroque music elder statesman René Jacobs makes an eagerly expected return to Handel on disc.

The title role, written for the legendary castrato Senesino, is sung by its finest modern exponent, Bejun Mehta, one of the most commanding, exhilarating countertenors of the modern era (New York Times).

This is a major new release under the Archiv imprint. Featuring a world-class cast of singers headed by countertenor Bejun Mehta, it ties in with a major revival of the critically acclaimed 2012 stage production by Pierre Audi in Amsterdam and a European concert tour in June. The opera is new to DG s catalogue and is the first studio recording of a complete opera for the label since 2011.
(more…)

Read more

B’Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs – Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

B'Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs - Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

B’Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs – Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:20 minutes | 1013 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone

Multiple prize-winning conductor René Jacobs and the B’Rock Orchestra continue their Schubert cycle with a recording of the composer’s Second and Third Symphony. Jacobs approaches these pieces as a symphonic pair revealing contrasting aspects of Schubert’s personality and compositional approach; the former being serious, ambitious, aiming to “outdo” Beethoven, while the latter is deliberately un-heroic: light, lyrical, and full of Italianizing elements. Interestingly, Jacobs discerns a comparable tandem approach in Schubert’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, which will form the next episode of this recording project. The players of the B’Rock Orchestra present these works on period instruments, transparent, but full of fire.
(more…)

Read more

B’Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs – Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

B'Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs - Schubert: Symphonies Nos.  4 & 5 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

B’Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs – Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 59:22 minutes | 2,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone

Tragic and light symphonies from a heavy soul. Conductor Ren’e Jacobs and the B’Rock Orchestra present the third instalment of their Schubert cycle with a recording of the composer’s Fourth and Fifth Symphony. Just as with the Second and Third, Jacobs approaches these works as a symphonic pair, revealing contrasting aspects of Schubert’s personality and compositional approach. The Fourth is Schubert’s first symphony in a minor key, and adumbrates a totally new harmonic worldview that Dvor’ak associated with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. On the contrary, the Fifth sounds Mozartian and cheerful, although that light-heartedness is only an appearance, as is so often the case in Schubert’s music. In the composer’s words, “too light a mind usually harbours a heart that is too heavy!” Looking closer beneath the surface, the cross-relations between the “Tragic” Fourth and “lighter” Fifth become all the more evident. The players of the B’Rock Orchestra present these works on period instruments; transparent, but full of fire.
(more…)

Read more

Bejun Mehta, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs – Che Puro Ciel: The Rise of Classical Opera (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Bejun Mehta, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs - Che Puro Ciel: The Rise of Classical Opera (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Bejun Mehta, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs – Che Puro Ciel: The Rise of Classical Opera (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:48 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Arias & scenes from l’Orféo et Euridice, Ascanio in Alba, Antigona et Ifigenia in Tauride (Traetta), Il trionfo di Clelia (Hasse), Artaserse (Bach), Ezio (Gluck), Mitridate (Mozart)

In the famous Preface to Alceste (1767), Christoph Willibald Gluck and his librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi posited a new direction for opera. They spoke of moving beyond Baroque forms, of striving for a new naturalism in opera. They wanted, in Calzabigi’s lovely phrase, to liberate the language of the heart. Taken from the height of this Reform period, the arias on this disc reveal composers exploring and experimenting, at struggle and at play, as they create the new forms that bring to opera the noble simplicity of the Classical era. Bejun Mehta returns to the Wigmore Hall and Covent Garden in 2014 [Mitridate].
(more…)

Read more

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs – Bach, J.S.: St John Passion, BWV 245 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs - Bach, J.S.: St John Passion, BWV 245 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs – Bach, J.S.: St John Passion, BWV 245 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:46:33 minutes | 1,88 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

The two faces of a monument :: Bach revised his Johannes-Passion regularly: he returned to it over a period of twenty-six years, from 1724 to his death. It is the version hallowed by tradition, established by the Kantor a year before his death, that is presented on these albums.
(more…)

Read more
%d bloggers like this: