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Discography · 2025 · CD

Army of Generals, Vol. 3: Shakespeare & Ovid in Mannheim

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Release: 5 September 2025

This album features Georg Joseph Vogler’s Hamlet Symphony (1778) and Christian Cannabich’s Ceyx et Alcyone (1762–63)—two musical dramas deeply rooted in the expressive ideals of the Enlightenment. Vogler’s Hamlet unfolds as a compact music-drama, tracing the arc of the Danish prince’s grief, ghostly visions, feigned madness, vengeance, and spiraling melancholy in the stormy idiom of Sturm und Drang. In the narrative ballet Ceyx et Alcyone, Cannabich evokes the mythic pathos of Ovid’s Metamorphoses with mystical dances, a central tempest scene, and richly textured orchestral colour. João Luís Veloso Paixão narrates both works, interweaving French texts adapted from Raymond and Charles de Massac’s Ovid and Antoine Houdar de La Motte’s Alcione (1706), enhancing the dramatic impact through a melodramatic format.

Co-directed by Anders Muskens from the harpsichord and concertmaster Rachael Beesley, these albums represent a bold revival of the theatrical and expressive ideals of the Mannheim court. With period instruments, rhetorical flair, and dramatic narration, Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester reclaims these neglected masterworks—offering a resonant tribute to Carl Theodor’s visionary cultural legacy.

This project was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, and Forschungszentrum HOF | MUSIK | STADT. More information will follow soon on the release.

Tracklist

  1. Hamlet Symphony (1778)
  2. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): Overture
  3. Narration: "Tandis le Roy Ceyx troublé des infortunes"
  4. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 1. Un poco Adagio et Maestoso
  5. Narration: "Mais las ! quelle nouvelle?"
  6. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 2. Un poco Adagio ma expressioso
  7. Narration: "Je te jure, ô mon bien, par les feux de mon père"
  8. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 3. Allegro
  9. Narration: "Ayant des son départ sous un espoir trompeur"
  10. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 4. Largo
  11. Narration: "O Toi, qui de l'Hymen défends les sacrez nœuds"
  12. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 5. March maestoso
  13. Narration: "Reine des Dieux, exauce nos souhaits"
  14. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 6. Marque
  15. Narration: "Commence leurs plaisirs, & termine leurs peines"
  16. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 7. Largo
  17. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 8. Passepied I
  18. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 9. Passepied II
  19. Narration: "Reine des Dieux, exauce nos souhaits"
  20. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 10. Andantino
  21. Narration: "Or Junon pour un mort se sent importuner"
  22. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 11. Un poco adagio Allegro
  23. Narration: "Quel bruit! Quels terribles éclats!"
  24. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 12. Presto
  25. Narration: "Dès la pointe du jour elle sort, & arrive"
  26. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 13. Largo – Presto – Andante – Allegro
  27. Narration: "Le vaisseau cependant s'est ecarté du port"
  28. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 14. Allegro – Adagio – Allegro – Narration – Andante
  29. Narration: "C’en est fait, je ne crains plus d'obstacle"
  30. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 15. Allegro
  31. Narration: "Je viens vous affranchir de la Parque cruelle"
  32. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 16. Andantino
  33. Narration: "Les Alcions naissants vont être aux yeux du monde"
  34. Ceyx et Alcyone (1762): 17. Chaconne