F. COUPERIN: Messe a l’usage des Paroisses; Concert a l’organ de Cavarrubias – Michel Chapuis, organ; MUFFAT: Apparatus Musico-Organisticus – Rene Saorgin, organ; PURCELL: King Arthur; Folksong Recital – Deller Consort and Choir; BYZANTINE CHANT: Priere de Marie-Madeleine – Sister Marie Keyrouz, soprano; OLD ROMAN CHANT: Messe de saint Marcel – Ensemble Organum/ Marcel Peres, conductor; MUSIC OF THE TROUBADOURS: La Comtessa de Dia – Clemencic Consort; HILDEGARD VON BINGEN: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula – Anonymous 4; DUFAY: Complete Isorhythmic Motets – Huelgas-Ensemble/ Paul Van Nevel, conductor; BACH: St. Matthew Passion (complete oratorio); A Musical Offering; The Art of Fugue – La Chapelle Royal/ Collegium Vocale Gent/ Philippe Herreweghe, conductor/ Davitt Moroney, clavecin/Janet See, transverse flute/ John Holloway, violin/ Jaap ter Linden, cello/ Martha Cook, clavecin/ Fretwork; LULLY: Atys (complete opera) – Les Arts Florissants/ William Christie, conductor; MARAIS: La Gamme – London Baroque/ Charles Medlam, conductor; MONTEVERDI: Pianto della Madonna – Concerto Soave/ Jean-Mark Aymes, conductor; BIBER: Rosary Sonatas, Five Joyful Mysteries – Andrew Manze, violin/ Richard Egarr, organ and clavecin; VIVALDI: Stabat Mater – Ensemble 415/ Chiara Banchini, conductor; TELEMANN: Funeral Cantata; Overture, “La Bizzare” – Cantus Colln/ Konrad Junghanel, conductor/ Akademie fur Alta Musik Berlin; D’ANGLEBERT: 4 Harpsichord Suites – Kenneth Gilbert, harpsichord; LORD HEBERT OF CHERBURY’S LUTE BOOK – Paul O’Dette, lute; BANCHIERI: Barca di Venetia per Padova – Ensemble Clement Janequin/ Dominique Visse, conductor; L. COUPERIN: Symphony for Harpsichords – William Christie, David Fuller, harpsichords; SCHOBERT: Piano Quartet – Luciano Fritz, pianoforte/ Chiara Banchini, Veronique Mejean, violins/ Philipp Bosbach, cello; KEISER: Croesus (complete opera) – Rias Chamber Choir/ Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin/ Rene Jacobs, conductor; HAYDN: Piano Trio No. 39; Cello Concerto in C – Patrick Cohen, pianoforte/ Erich Hobarth, violin/ Christophe Coin, cello/ Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello/ Freiburger Baroque Orchestra/ Petra Mullejans, conductor; MOZART: 6 German Dances (transcribed for piano); Symphony No. 38, “Prague” – Andreas Staier, Christine Schornsheim, piano; Freiburger Baroque Orchestra/ Rene Jacobs, conductor; ROSSINI: Petite Messe solennelle; Quartet Sonata in B-flat – Rias Chamber Choir/ Marcus Creed, conductor; Ensemble Explorations; SCHUMANN: Frauenliebe und –leben – Bernarda Fink, mezzo soprano/ Roger Vignoles, piano; BRAHMS: Clarinet Sonata No. 1 – Michel Portal, clarinet/ Georges Pludermacher, piano; WOLF: Goethe-Lieder – Juliane Banse, soprano/ Dietrich Henschel, baritone/ Rundfunkchor Berlin/ German Symphony Orchestra Berlin/ Kent Nagano, conductor; RAMEAU: Suite in G – Alexandre Tharaud, piano; BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” (transcribed for piano by Liszt) – Georges Pludermacher, piano; BERLIOZ: Nuits d’ete – Brigitte Balleys, soprano/ Orchestre Des Champs-Elysees/ Philippe Herreweghe, conductor; FALLA: El Amor brujo – Ginesa Ortega, “cantaora”/ Orchestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure/ Josep Pons, conductor; SCHUBERT: Fantasy in C; Sonata, D. 960 – Isabelle Faust, violin/ Alexander Melnikov, piano/ Paul Lewis, piano; CHOPIN: Ballades (complete) – Cedric Tiberghien, piano; LISZT: La Lugubre Gondole – Emmanuelle Bertrand, cello/ Pascal Amoyel, piano; SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 8 – Jerusalem Quartet; CHAUSSON: Piano Quartet – Les Musiciens; COPLAND: Piano Trio, “Vitebsk” – Trio Wanderer; JANACEK: On an Overgrown Path (Series 1); String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters” – Alain Planes, piano/ Melos Quartet; BARTOK: Contrasts – Ensemble Walter Boeykens; PART: Berlin Mass – Theatre of Voices/ Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ/ Paul Hillier
I have gone to the trouble of listing every piece in this amazing collection in order to facilitate what should be an easy decision for anyone even remotely interested in great music and great collections. Merely perusing this list should be all the information you need to make an intelligent assessment. For those of you who know this company and its products, you undoubtedly have a number of the recordings in this set. Even so, the price (which I found on Amazon.com for around $65, or about $2 per disc) should be low enough to allow you to afford your collection some leeway in holding duplicates. For those who have never heard of Harmonia mundi (and if not, you probably haven’t heard that we landed a man on the moon either), read on. Enlightenment shall follow forthwith.
This company actually got its start in 1958, and I must admit that even I did not know it went back that far. In fact, HM discs did not readily present themselves to me until the CD age—I cannot recall buying any of their products before 1980, though I have since seen some of their old LPs and can testify to their existence. [In fact some of those early LPs are still prized by analog aficionados as right up there with the Living Stereos and Living Presences, and certain titles have been reissued as 180-gram audiophile vinyls…Ed. ] Most people know of HM as a company that “specializes” in early renaissance and baroque music, and of long-forgotten composers and their works as presented on “authentic” instruments. Until the fairly recent past, this was probably not an unkind assessment. But since then the company has spread its wings and now tries its hands at the more modern also, though we can hardly accuse them of being purveyors of the esoteric avant-garde (thank God). As you will notice, Arvo Part is the latest and greatest here, and his music could easily be considered a throwback of sorts—no disparagement intended, as I love his work.
The keyboard is what must first be considered when any consideration is given to Harmonia mundi, as this is where the initial bread-and-butter was garnered, once known as an “organ” company because they have released about 50 discs of music for the instrument, including the complete Bach organ works. But keyboard in general seems to remain a forte (sorry!), and the catalog is replete with wonderful recordings, including virtually each one in this set. The first two discs are dedicated to that heritage, offering us some wonder Couperin and Muffat on some spicy and colorful French instruments noted for their delectably crisp reed and trumpet registries. And one thing you will notice all through this set is the amazing uniformity of sterling sound. No matter how old the recording, the producers seem to have been able to achieve a digital clarity to their analog sound, and brought the warmth of analog into the digital age. Quite astounding. The harpsichord pieces are simply delightful, especially D’Anglebert’s pieces, a great inclusion. Paul O’Dette gets a whole disc to himself, deservingly so, and we have an outstanding group of vocal pieces, whether the Dufay isorhythmic motets (here complete, despite a 20 year difference between first and last), and the lovely and even funny madrigals of Adriano Banchieri.
Bach of course must be represented, and is in three of his greatest works. Only the Art of Fugue lets me down slightly, and that is primarily because of instrumentation and not performance (and this is always controversial in this piece). The St. Matthew Passion is one of the first Philippe Herreweghe successes with the company, and many today (and someone was speaking to me just the other day about this) regard it still as the greatest ever set to disc. A bold statement, maybe not true, but certainly has claim to that title. There are many fine instrumentalists and soloists here (and I could not list them all), including the superb cellist Chrisophe Coin in the Haydn 1, the always welcome Bernarda Fink, versatile Alain Planes in Janacek, and the phenomenal Paul Lewis giving us his take on Schubert. But this is unfair—if I mention too many by name, I shall have to mention them all. Again, read the header—this should be all the information you need.
At a time when the “name” companies are reducing releases, abandoning the classics, or presenting us with inferior products, Harmonia mundi has itself become far greater in my mind than some of the “names” ever were, save perhaps the heyday in the 50s and 60s. They churn out a host of releases each year, and though I may disagree with some of the philosophical underpinnings and choices of some releases, performance quality is rarely among those issues, sound almost never, and artistic integrity absolutely never. We should be grateful to them for continuing the struggle, fighting the good fight, and actually giving a whole generation of artists who would never have been signed by the big labels a chance at not only fame but a recorded legacy. The last disc is this collection by the way, contains the texts and translations in digital form for each vocal piece here. Normally I would balk at this, but I do understand why their elimination was mandatory here, and the inclusion of such in the already large 145-page booklet would not have been feasible. Great notes, too.
This is an outstanding issue, and one that belongs in every collection. Congratulations on their 50 years, and here’s to 50 more! Bernard Coutaz, the founder, says in the introduction to this set that he has “total faith in Harmonia mundi. If I believed in God, I would thank Him.” Strange comment from a man who has done more to spread that faith via the music he has recorded than almost anyone else I can think of. Thank him, Bernard.
— Steven Ritter
