Michael Spyres is a singer who challenges and reshapes perceptions – as his albums BariTenor and Contra-Tenor have shown. Now, preparing for his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in Summer 2024, he searches In the Shadows to reveal more about Wagner and the origins of his music dramas. “Wagner evokes a varying spectrum of emotions – awe, ecstasy, even trepidation,” explains Spyres. “This album endeavours to illuminate the composers who languish in the shadows, who formed the foundation of Wagner’s compositions and sculpted the framework of vocal writing for the Wagnerian tenor.”

This pre-classical programme is dedicated to Anna de Amicis, the famous soprano who first created the role of Giunia in Mozart's Lucio Silla. Besides works by the young Mozart the programme comprises arias by N. Jommelli, JC Bach, C.W. Gluck and others.

It was around 1825 that Louise Bertin, pupil of Reicha and friend of Berlioz, tackled the subject of Faust with all the energy and confidence of a young woman of twenty. She entirely exceeded the public's expectations and won over the critics with her daring. Colourful orchestration, charming cantabiles, vigorous choruses - everything seemed to promise the work would enter the repertory. But the closure of the Theatre-Italien after just three performances in 1831 decided otherwise, and the score languished in the vaults of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France for 190 years.

With Thésée, Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques continue their tour of Lully's operas, in which they have become specialists. Lully's third musical tragedy, and one of the least recorded, Thésée recounts the hero's youth, long before his battle with the Minotaur or his intrigues with Ariadne and Phèdre. The story takes the listener on a journey through a series of changing settings - from the underworld to the island of paradise, from Versailles to Athens - supported by the incredible vocal eloquence of Lully's music, underpinned by a constant and hitherto unrivalled tension.

Christophe Rousset propose sa version de L’Art de la fugue de Bach, et s’attèle ainsi enfin à l’œuvre la plus mystérieuse du maître allemand, construction phénoménale et inachevée dont l’instrumentation a déchaîné les débats musicologiques des derniers siècles. L’interprète révèle, derrière la prouesse de ce manuel de composition, toute la virtuosité qu’elle exige du claviériste qui lui donne chair. Un voyage méditatif au cœur du traité de composition le plus éthéré jamais écrit.

After two recordings devoted to the harpsichord pieces of Savoyard composer Pancrace Royer, Christophe Rousset, this time conducting, turns to the composer's orchestral suites. Taken from Royer's operatic works and (with the exception of a live version of Pyrrhus) never previously recorded, these choreographic pieces reveal a new facet of the composer. The brilliance and virtuosity of his harpsichord compositions are well known; here we discover his gift for refinement and lyricism.

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques make a foray into the Romantic repertoire with this tribute to Pauline Viardot, who was not only the most influential singer of the nineteenth century, but also a pedagogue and composer, whose gifts, personality and incomparable aura made her one of the leading figures of French Romanticism. Together the mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti and Christophe Rousset retrace Pauline Viardot’s versatile career and, taking up her great roles, present a musical portrait of a unique performer, who was unanimously acclaimed by the audiences of her time.

Christophe Rousset's performances as a harpsichordist had soon attracted the attention of the international press as well as record companies. Lighting this orchestra in fire with his enthusiasm as a conductor and researcher, he was soon among the front runners of Baroque, acclaimed in the world. Through this recording Christophe Rousset has attempted to restore the virility of Jacques Duphy's compositions as well as the severity of some features, the sincerity of the composer’s gesture, all this greatly inspired by the beautiful sound of the Kroll harpsichord, kindly made available to us by its owner and restorer Marc Ducornet.

Composed in 1771 to a libretto by Metastasio tracing the well-known biblical story of Judith and Holofernes, La Betulia liberata was Mozart’s first oratorio. Often described as a stroke of genius, this recording by Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset, with Sandrine Piau, Amanda Forsythe and Teresa Iervolino, shows the dramatic intensity of which he was already capable at the age of just fifteen and the influence of his early experiences with opera.

Armand-Louis Couperin – François Couperin ("le Grand") was his father's cousin – was regarded as one of the finest musicians of his time, and his compositions, though little known today, provide us with precious evidence of the brilliance of the French harpsichord school and the skills of one of its most virtuosic representatives. Sensuous and very original, his Pièces de clavecin are played here by Christophe Rousset on a period instrument by Goujon, now in the Musée de la musique in Paris.