Accent celebrates the 50th anniversary of La Petite Bande among others with this reissue of Kuijken's famous cycle of Mozart's Da Ponte Operas (as 9-CD-set).
La Petite Bande was founded in 1972 by Sigiswald Kuijken at the request of the record company Harmonia Mundi (Germany) in order to record Lully's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, under the direction of Gustav Leonhardt. The orchestra takes its name and constitution from Lully's own orchestra at the court of Louis XIV. All its members are internationally renowned specialists in the early music field.
Although originally La Petite Bande (LPB) was not meant to become a permanent orchestra, the success of the recordings was such that they began to give concerts regularly. Having initially concentrated mainly on French music, the orchestra's repertoire has expanded over the years to include music by the Italian masters and that of Bach, Handel, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart and others. There is a strong relationship between La Petite Bande/Sigiswald Kuijken and the Belgian label Accent that is documented in more than 30 recordings issued over the last 30 years.
In 1972, with the encouragement of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Gustav Leonhardt, Sigiswald Kuijken founded the Baroque orchestra La Petite Bande, which since then has given innumerable concerts throughout Europe, Australia, South America, China and Japan, and has made many recordings for a number of labels (including Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Seon, Virgin, Accent, Denon, Hyperion, Challenge, ...). Since 1998, Sigiswald Kuijken occasionally conducts "modern" symphonic orchestras in romantic programs (Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn). In 2018, Sigiswald was awarded a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by Rema.
Artists
Le nozze di Figaro: Hubert Claessens (Figaro), Christiane Oelze (Susanna), Werner van Mechelen (Conte Almaviva), Patrizia Bicciré (Contessa Almaviva), Monica Groop (Cherubino), Béatrice Cramoix (Marcellina)
Così fan tutte: Soile Isokoski (Fiordiligi), Monica Groop (Dorabella), Nancy Argenta (Despina), Markus Schäfer (Ferrando), Per Vollestad (Guglielmo), Hubert Claessens (Don Alfonso)
Don Giovanni: Werner van Mechelen (Don Giovanni), Elena Vink (Donna Anna), Markus Schäfer (Don Ottavio), Christina Högman (Donna Elvira), Hubert Claessens (Leoporello), Harry van der Kamp (Il Commendatore), Nanco de Vries (Masetto), Nancy Argenta (Zerlina)
Choeur de chambre de Namur, La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
