Renaud Capuçon / Frank Braley / Gautier Capuçon BEETHOVEN Piano Trios "Ghost" | "Archduke"

                                                              GHOST | ARCHDUKE

Pascal Moraguès / Frank Braley / Christian Poltéra BRAHMS Clarinet Sonatas & Trio

Brahms is re-inspired thanks to... the clarinet. For one year the composer wrote little, feeling that his work must be finished. But in 1891 he would go to Meiningen in Germany, and make the reinvigorating acquaintance of virtuoso court orchestra clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld. By the sides of this extraordinary musician, Brahms would gain a deeper understanding of his playing as well as the technical and musical possibilities of the instrument. He thus composed his four last chamber music pieces with the clarinet : The Trio Op. 114 in 1891, the Quintet Op. 115 ; then in the summer of 1894 his two Sonatas for Clarinet, Op. 120.

GUILLAUME CONNESSON Musique de chambre

Guillaume Connesson, born in 1970, is currently one of the most widely performed French composers worldwide. Commissions are at the origin of most of his works (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre National de France...) including Pour sortir au jour, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2013) and Les Trois Cités de Lovecraft (co-commission of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lyon). Moreover, his music is regularly played by numerous orchestras (Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra et al.)
He won a Victoires de la Musique award in 2015 as well as Sacem’s Grand Prize in 2012.
His discography includes, amongst others, two monographs of chamber music and two symphonic monographs on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The first, Lucifer, obtained a ’ Choc’ from Classica magazine, and the second, Pour sortir au jour, numerous critical distinctions such as the ’Diapason d’Or de l’Année’ as well the Classica ’Choc de l’Année’.
After studies at the Conservatoire National de Région in Boulogne-Billancourt (his birthplace) and the Paris Conservatoire, he obtained premiers prix in choral direction, history of music, analysis, electro-acoustic and orchestration.
He has been professor of orchestration at the Aubervilliers-La Courneuve Conservatory since 1997.
In residence from 2016 to 2018 with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with the Orchestre National de Lyon, he is also devoting himself to the composition of an opera, Les Bains macabres (on a libretto by Olivier Bleys), commissioned by the Opéra National de Bordeaux.

Gautier Capuçon / Frank Braley SCHUBERT Arpeggione

In the first decade of his recording career, cellist Gautier Capuçon has demonstrated great versatility, playing as often as a chamber musician as he has appeared as a concerto soloist. His repertoire covers the standard cello works, though he frequently performs pieces that are less expected. Thus, on this 2014 release from Erato, Capuçon delivers a stirring performance of Franz Schubert's famous Arpeggione Sonata, which is regularly recorded by cellists, yet he fills the rest of the disc with pieces a bit off the beaten path, such as Robert Schumann's Five Pieces in Folk Style, Claude Debussy's Sonata for cello and piano, and Benjamin Britten's Sonata in C. This makes for a varied and stimulating program that challenges listeners who don't know these pieces as much as it challenges Capuçon and his accompanist, Frank Braley. These works place apparent technical demands on the performers, so they may be regarded as music for virtuosos, though the overriding feeling of the program is of flowing lyricism and extraordinarily sustained expressiveness. Capuçon is a master of the long line, and the continuity of his phrasing and emotional connection to the music is unbroken through the album. Braley is an attentive pianist who follows Capuçon's lead with an excellent sense of direction and timing, and he is sympathetic to the subtle changes of moods. This album was recorded close-up to the musicians, so it has great presence as well as some places where Capuçon's breathing is quite audible. (Blair Sanderson)

Gautier Capuçon / Frank Braley BEETHOVEN Sonatas & Variations for Cello & Piano

Universally recognised as the finest cellist of his generation, Gautier Capuçon has a firm reputation as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He is a regular performer with the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony, and at festivals such as Verbier and Lugano, and has won several awards at the ECHOS and the Victoires de la Musique.

Following on from last year’s live recording of the Shostakovich cello concertos, this album sees Gautier return to the studio with his friend and recital partner of many years, Frank Braley, in a programme of Beethoven’s Sonatas for Cello and Piano. In addition the album includes Beethoven’s wonderful variations on three different themes – two on arias from Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte, and the other from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus. This is the first new recording of the complete Beethoven cello works for some time and is a long-awaited release. (Warner Classics)