The Brasil Guitar Duo’s Naxos recording of the first twelve Preludes and Fugues from The Well-Tempered Guitars (8.570778) gained 5 stars and high praise from Audiophile Audition: ‘Sonics are first rate, and the interplay of the two guitars is a delight’. A landmark in the guitar’s history and the most ambitious undertaking for two guitars ever conceived, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s tribute to J.S. Bach is equally a demonstration of his own melodic inventiveness, wit, vivacity, introspection and lyricism. The Elegiac Fugue, composed shortly before his death, is a fitting musical epitaph.

The Beatles songs on this “Best of” compilation are taken from the three best-selling Beatles Baroque CDs released between 2000 and 2006 by Montreal-based early music ensemble Les Boréades.

‘Surprising though it may seem, it was during a session in which Les Boréades were recording 17th century Italian music that the idea that become the Beatles Baroque was born. The atmosphere in the studio became somewhat giddy, and we were turning everything we had to record – a melodic turn of phrase here, a harmonic sequence there – into improvisations on Beatles’ songs. In short, it became impossible to finish the recording. “Let’s be serious,” I said, not very seriously. “We’ll record the Beatles later on.” And they held me to my word!’ - Johanne Goyette, Producer

At the age of 24, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux became the first Canadian to win the 1st Prize as well as the Special Prize for Lieder at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium. Winning this prestigious award opened the door to an immediate international career allowing her to perform in concert and on the operatic stage with many great orchestras, opera houses and conductors around the globe. Marie-Nicole Lemieux has triumphed in baroque and romantic works, and is exquisite in the French repertoire. Accompanied by pianist Daniel Blumenthal, this album features two favourite German cycles sung in Marie-Nicole’s own lively, loving way.

"Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux's voice - ample, voluptuous, satin-finished, almost without edges - reminds one of Titian's Flora or Rubens's Venus. It's an incredibly warm and enfolding voice, and Lemieux projects a sense of containment in her singing that suggests there's nothing impulsive about the passion that surfaces with such veracity, a passion evident even in the intake of her breath. In Lemieux's interpretation of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben, the ecstatic bride of the song cycle is no ingénue. We read her, instead, as a mature woman, surprised by the intensity of her feelings, perhaps, and all the more vulnerable for it."  - Elissa Poole, The Globe and Mail

"The young Québec contralto has never sounded finer than in this album of 25 Lieder by Robert Schumann. Lemieux's rich, expressive voice lends depth to these intensely nuanced, immediate-feeling interpretations. Daniel Blumenthal is an ideal accompanist on piano." - John Terauds, Toronto Star