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CD Review | Ambroise Thomas: Psyché, Hélène Guilmette, Bru Zane

By Pascal Blanchet on 14 November 2025 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music

Ambroise Thomas: Psyché Hélène Guilmette (Psyché), Antoinette Dennefeld (Éros), Tassis Christoyannis (Mercure), Mercedes Arcuri (Dafné), Anna Dowsley (Bérénice), Artavazd Sargsyan (Antinoüs), Philippe Estèphe (Gorgias) Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian National Choir, György Vashegyi, conductor Bru Zane, 2025 In the fall of 2024, Montreal audiences had the opportunity to discover Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas, a somewhat forgotten French composer whose music was met with enthusiasm. It has been a long time, however, since we heard Quebec soprano Hélène Guilmette, who has enjoyed a brilliant career, mainly in Europe, for more than 20 years. This complete recording of the opera Psyché, while…

CD Review | Nuits blanches Olivier Bergeron, Olivier Godin

By Justin Bernard on 14 November 2025 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Vocal

Bergeron, Godin — Nuits blanches Olivier Bergeron, baritone; Olivier Godin, piano Leaf Music, 2025 Olivier Bergeron was recently heard at the Festival d’opéra de Québec in a production of Carmen, where he played a supporting role, Moralès. The young baritone is now back in the spotlight with his first album, Nuits blanches, released by Leaf Music. And what better way to make your recording debut than with French mélodies. This repertoire is clearly well-suited to his voice and highlights his greatest qualities as a performer. Accompanied by the distinguished pianist Olivier Godin, a connoisseur of French music, Bergeron immediately demonstrates…

CD Review | Philippe Jaroussky, Gelosia! Artaserse, Erato

By John Gilks on 14 November 2025 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Classical Music, Vocal

Philippe Jaroussky — Gelosia! Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor; Artaserse Erato, 2025 The latest recording of Italian cantatas by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and his own baroque ensemble, Artaserse, is built around two settings of Metastasio’s Perdono amata Nice sometimes referred to as La Gelosia. They are quite different. Nicola Porpora’s 1746 setting is unusual in that it includes a short overture. Its accompanied recitatives and the two da capo arias—“Bei labbri” and “Giuru in nocchier che, al mare”—are quite elaborate and have plenty of additional ornamentation in their A section repeats. Baldasarre Galuppi’s setting was written 36 years later and is in…

CD Review | ARC Ensemble: The Chamber Works of Ernest Kanitz

By Heather Weinreb on 13 November 2025 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Classical Music

ARC Ensemble: The Chamber Works of Ernest Kanitz ARC Ensemble: Erika Raum & Marie Bérard, violins; Steven Dann, viola; Thomas Wiebe, cello; Joaquin Valdepeñas clarinet; Kevin Ahfat, piano Guests: Wallace Halladay, saxophone; Anna Štube, violin; Joel Quarrington, double bass Chandos, 2025 ARC Ensemble’s Music in Exile series continues to unearth the lost musical treasures of a war-torn 20th century. In its latest instalment, the ensemble has revived the strikingly varied and enigmatic chamber works of Ernest Kanitz—a composer exiled from his native Vienna following the German annexation of Austria. Though Kanitz’s move to the United States was marked by multiple…

CD Review | Invented Folksongs, Anna Pidgorna, Ludovico Ensemble

By John Gilks on 11 November 2025 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Contemporary

Pidgorna: Invented Folksongs Anna Pidgorna, composer & vocals; Ludovico Ensemble Red Shift Records In 2012-13 Ukrainian/Canadian composer and vocalist Anna Pidgorna visited Ukraine to record traditional Ukrainian folk music. She used this material as a jumping-off point for her own composition Invented Folksongs. It’s a set of four longish (each 10 minutes or so) songs and two shorter instrumental pieces. These are in no way an “arrangement” of traditional pieces à la Benjamin Britten. The texts were written by Pidgorna herself and the compositions blend some folk elements with music that uses rhythms and tonalities that don’t sound at…

CD Review | Andrew Staniland Calamus, Leibel, Regehr, Chafe

By John Gilks on 11 November 2025 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Contemporary, Vocal

Staniland: Calamus Jane Leibel, soprano; Vernon Regehr, cello; Robert Chafe, narrator Leaf Music Andrew Staniland’s Calamus is a setting of four poems from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. They are scored for cello and soprano with an actor reading each poem prior to the music. The work is completed by four variations for cello. Each song lasts about six to eight minutes and so, with the readings and the variations, the recording comes in at around 39 minutes. Calamus 6 sets “Not Heaving from my Ribb’d Breast Only.” This is the busiest and most dissonant of the four settings. It…

Messiah Aria Primer | “But who may abide”: Alto, countertenor, mezzo…or bass?

By Emma Yee on 10 November 2025 Audio, Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Opera

For many singers, this is the busiest time of the year, filled with holiday concerts, semester-end performances—and, for some, many, many productions of Messiah. For alto, mezzo-soprano, and countertenor soloists, this involves the preparation of showpiece arias from Handel’s oratorio including “But who may abide,” with all of its glory and challenges. The piece appears in Part I of Messiah, and alternates between a pensive, more lyrical, larghetto “But who may abide when he appeareth” section, and a dramatic, coloratura-filled, prestissimo “For he is like a refiner’s fire” section. The contrast between the two sections perfectly encapsulates two very different…

The Year on Record

By Félix-Antoine Hamel on 10 November 2025 CD and Book Reviews, La Scena Online, Scena Jazz

Our picks for some of 2025’s best releases. The Birdsong Project Presents: Birdly Serenade David Murray Quartet: David Murray (tenor sax, bass clarinet), Marta Sanchez (piano), Luke Stewart (bass), Russell Carter (drums); Ekep Nkwelle (guest vocalist); Francesca Cinelli (spoken word). Impulse! 7591592 (LP); 00602475915911 (CD), April 25, 2025 At 70 years old, David Murray has slowed down his recording activities somewhat, but he remains true to his virile style, evoking swing-era tenors as well as some freer stylists of the “fire music” period. Following in the footsteps of Messiaen and Dolphy, Murray (with the help of his partner/manager Francesca Cinelli)…

New Releases (Oct. 2025)

By Wah Keung Chan on 24 October 2025 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music

This section is an advertising supplement. To announce here, contact [email protected] For Electric Guitar Tim Brady, guitar People Places Records Release: Oct. 20, 2025 Following the breakout success of Brady’s 100 Guitars at the Brisbane Festival in Australia this past September, the Montreal composer/guitarist has released an ambitious new double CD of solo electric guitar music on People Places Records. The music ranges from quietly introspective to fiery virtuosity, and comes 40 years after his first solo album, dR.E.aM.s. Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Op. 5, Nos. 1 & 2 Keiran Campbell, cello; Sezi Seskir, fortepiano SSKC2025 Release: Oct. 31,…

CD Review | Mozart: L’enlèvement du sérail, Florie Valiquette

By Pascal Blanchet on 7 October 2025 CD and Book Reviews

Mozart: L’enlèvement du sérail Florie Valiquette (Constance), Matthias Vidal (Belmont), Gwendoline Blondeel (Blondine), Enguerrand de Hys (Pédrille), Nicolas Brooymans (Osmin). Chœur et Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal; Gaétan Jarry, conductor Château de Versailles Spectacles, 2025 Montreal audiences are well acquainted with soprano Florie Valiquette. A 2010 graduate of the University of Montreal, she played the role of Maria in The Sound of Music in more than a hundred performances, then joined Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier Lyrique from 2013 to 2015. Having proven herself in several roles with the company, she moved to Europe, where she has enjoyed a successful career performing…