New Releases
to view information on what is coming from Harmonia Mundi over the next few months, please click here (including sound clips)
February 2012
Beethoven / Berg
Violin Concertos
Isabelle Faust
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Shostakovich
Piano Concertos
Alexander Melnikov
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Tune Thy Musicke To Thy Hart
Stile Antico
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Ysaye
6 Sonatas for solo violin
Tai Murray
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Schubert
Wilkommen & Abscheid
Werner Gura
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Solo Oboe
Bach, Berio, Britten etc
Cecile Moinet
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January 2012
Slavic Heroes
Various arias
Mariusz Kwiecien
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Janacek
Choral Works
Cappella Amsterdam
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Mozart
Keyboard Works vol.3
Kristian Bezuidenhout
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Treasures of Russia (3CD)
Hillier, Gatti, Engerer
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Browse the catalogue
Use the links below to browse through recordings of the most popular composers and aritsts on Harmonia Mundi. If you would prefer to use the advanced search page and enter your own search criteria, please click here.
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Composers
Bach, CPE
Bach, JS
Bartok, B
Beethoven, LV
Berlioz, H
Biber, H
Bingen, HV
Boccherini, L
Brahms, J
Bruckner, A
Buxtehude, D
Charpentier, MA
Chopin, F
Corelli, A
Couperin, F
Debussy, C
Dowland, J | Dvorak, A
Faure, G
Gershwin, G
Gesualdo, C
Handel, GF
Haydn, FJ
Liszt, F
Lully, JB
Mahler, G
Marais, M
Martin, F
Mendelssohn, F
Monteverdi, C
Mozart, WA
Part, A
Piazzolla, A
Purcell, H | Rachmaninov, S
Rameau, JP
Ravel, M
Rossini, G
Saint-Saens, C
Scarlatti, A
Schubert, F
Schumann, R
Schutz, H
Shostakovich, D
Strauss, R
Stravinsky, I
Tallis, T
Tavener, J
Tchaikovsky, P
Telemann, GP
Vivaldi, A
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Artists
Academy of Ancient Music (ensemble)
Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin (ens)
Amoyel, Pascal (piano)
Anderszewski, Piotr (piano)
Anonymous 4 (ensemble)
Belohlavek, Jiri (conductor)
Bertrand, Emmanuelle (cello)
Bezuidenhout, Kristian (keyboard)
Braley, Frank (piano)
Chiu, Frederic (piano)
Christie, William (conductor)
Creed, Marcus (conductor)
Cuarteto Casals (ensemble)
Deller, Alfred (countertenor)
Egarr, Richard (keyboards)
Ensemble 415 (ensemble)
Ensemble Organum (ensemble)
Faust, Isabelle (violin)
Fink, Bernarda (mezzo-soprano)
Freiburger Barockorchester (ensemble)
Fretwork (ensemble)
Goerne, Matthias (baritone)
Gura, Werner (tenor)
Henschel, Dietrich (baritone)
Herreweghe, Philippe (conductor)
Hilliard Ensemble (ensemble)
Hillier, Paul(conductor)
Jacbos, Rene (conductor)
| Jerusalem String Quartet (ensemble)
Kaufmann, Jonas (tenor)
Kern, Olga (piano)
Les Arts Florissants (ensemble)
Lewis, Paul (piano)
Lieberson, Lorriane Hunt (mezzo-soprano)
Manze, Andrew (violin)
McGegan, Nicholas (conductor)
Melnikov, Alexander (piano)
Nagano, Kent (conductor)
Nakamatsu, Jon (piano)
O'Dette, Paul (lute)
Orlando Consort (ensemble)
Padmore, Mark (tenor)
Planes, Alain (piano)
Pons, Josep (conductor)
Queyras, Jean-Guihen (cello)
Scholl, Andreas (countertenor)
Seiler, Midori (violin)
Staier, Andreas (keyboards)
Steger, Maurice (recorders)
Stile Antico (ensemble)
Tharaud, Alexandre (piano)
Tiberghien, Cedric (piano)
Tokyo String Quartet (ensemble)
Trio Wanderer (ensemble)
Vladar, Stefan (piano)
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Recent Reviews
HMU807554 - Stile Antico: Tune Thy Musicke To Thy Hart
We are, perhaps, in a wood-panelled Elizabethan hall, where in the early 17th century the family of a large house gather for their private prayer. Voices and viols mix in harmony, ranging from the familiar simplicity of Thomas Campion's "Never weather-beaten sail" to the elaborate verse anthem by Orlando Gibbons's "See, see the word is incarnate", the whole story of salvation condensed into six superb minutes. Tallis, Tomkins and Byrd are here, but the revelation is the little-known John Amner, whose "A stranger here" reaches a climax of rare dissonant intensity, powerfully sung. Another triumph for the superb Stile Antico ensemble and Fretwork.
Nick Kenyon, The Observer, 29 January 2012
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HMC902097 - Janacek: Choral Works
With 31 tracks, this CD offers a superb introduction to Janacek, the choral miniaturist, and a vital context to enrich appreciation of his operas. The scope ranges from 19 tiny nursery rhymes, scored for choir and instrumental ensemble with exquisite piquancy, to a blazingly patriotic setting of the Lord’s Prayer. Also notable is his poignant Elegy on the Death of My Daughter Olga. A seven-minute mini-opera, The Wolf’s Trail, tells a cautionary tale about sexual jealousy written (Military Wives-style) for a women’s chorus while their husbands were away at the First World War.
Richard Morrison, The Times, 14 January 2012
The Glagolitic Mass apart, Janácˇek’s choral music is not widely performed on the international stage, but there is much to enjoy in this programme. Six early “Moravian Choruses” sound nothing at all like Janácˇek – scarcely surprising since they are transcriptions he made of duets by Dvorˇák. But a much more personal voice comes through in such pieces as The Wolf’s Trail and a sequence of nursery rhymes, accompanied by instrumental ensemble and performed here with character and distinction.
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph, 14 January 2012
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HMW906101 - Mariusz Kwiecien: Slavic Heroes
Following in the footsteps of his tenor compatriot Piotr Beczala, the Polish baritone programmes a rare selection of operatic scenes by eastern European composers. He bookends his solo recital debut with roles he has made his own in recent years: Tchaikovsky’s Yevgeny Onyegin and Szymanowski’s Krol (King) Roger. He sang the former in the controversial Bolshoi Opera staging by Dmitri Tcherniakov, which appeared at Covent Garden in 2010, while his first assumption of the latter, at the Paris Opéra in 2009, marked a move away from the lyric Mozart and bel canto roles in which he had previously specialised. His Onyegin — here heard in his reproof to Tatyana after receiving her impassioned letter, and in his moment of truth in the penultimate scene, when he realises, too late, that he loves her — is close to ideal: lyrical, still youthful, attentive to nuances of notes and text. Roger’s ecstatic Hymn to Apollo could hardly be bettered today. Kwiecien pushes his voice too hard in Robert’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and he should probably wait a few years before singing the same composer’s Mazeppa, or Borodin’s Prince Igor, but the items from three operas — Halka, The Haunted Manor and The Word of a Nobleman — by his 19th-century countryman Moniuszko, and excerpts from Smetana’s The Devil’s Wall, Dvorak’s The Cunning Peasant, Rimsky’s Sadko and Rachmaninov’s Aleko, are recital-disc caviar.
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, 22 January 2012
Your head might explode in the final track of Slavic Heroes. Bombarded by treacly tones and the lush eroticism of Szymanowski's Król Roger, this is heady stuff indeed. But it's just one of many such treats on Mariusz Kwiecień's new recording. Recital discs can be hit and miss. Too heavily themed and they appear gimmicky. Without a clear subject, they are vague vehicles. Here language is the only link. But from the familiar passages of Eugene Onegin to rarities by Smetana, Moniuszko and Dvořák, Kwiecień shows that he is truly a voice to reckon with.
For the first time, Harmonia Mundi has extended its production outfit to the UK. A surprising choice, then, to go to Poland. But if talent and quality are the only criteria, they have chosen well. The Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (under Łukasz Borowicz) provides a luscious soundscape. Given the weight and wealth of Kwiecień's voice, they are placed prominently in the mix. The sound is occasionally a little too velvety, as there's more steel in this music than the recording lets on.
But it's a tiny price to pay for the bounties it affords. After the anaemic anti-hero of ENO's recent Onegin, Kwiecień is sex personified. The sheer lyrical arrogance of his dismissal of Tatyana breaks your heart. And, as if playing the opera for real, his Act 3 aria is palpably neurotic. Yet he can just as easily turn his hand to the spirited aria from Moniuszko's Haunted Manor or the vast otherworldliness of Szymanowski. I cannot wait to hear Kwiecień performing these roles live.
Gavin Plumley, Entartete Musik, 8 January 2012
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HMU807427 - Schubert: String Quintet, Quartettsatz
A great deal of care and thought about phrasing, articulation, accents and dynamics has evidently gone into this impressive performance of the quintet. (Interestingly, a text slightly different from the standard score is used in the first movement and the scherzo.) As a result, the essentially driven, haunted character of the work comes out unusually strongly. I’m not convinced by the difference in tempo that the players make between the opening of the finale (surely faster than Schubert’s allegretto) and the second theme, but they capture the desperate character of the movement’s conclusion beautifully. The Quartettsatz is vividly played, and it’s a bonus to hear the fragmentary andante.
David Cairns, Sunday Times, 27 November 2011
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HMU907559 - Il Caro Sassone: Handel in Italy
The title of this disc is taken from John Mainwaring’s 18th-century biography of Handel. The composer’s opera Agrippina , reported Mainwaring, was greeted at its early Italian performances with shouts of “viva il caro Sassone!” Anyone hearing this disc is likely to want to cheer not just the Saxon Handel – who wrote the cantatas and arias recorded here in his early 20s – but also the English soprano Lucy Crowe. Crowe follows the young composer’s flights with musical and emotional fidelity, in tones from tender to sharply penetrating. She uses her voice with quasi-instrumental freedom, but also with the kind of micro-inflection that the voice can make so much more potent and heart-piercing than any instrument. Harry Bicket and the players of the English Concert are hand-in-glove partners to the vocal wizardry.
Michael Dervan, Irish Times, 16 December 2011
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United Kingdom
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