Il Caravaggio is an ensemble founded and conducted by Camille Delaforge, bringing together a new generation of musicians playing period instruments; the ensemble will celebrate it's tenth anniversary in 2027. They are joining Alpha Classics for several recording projects, starting with this programme centred on three sacred works by Purcell (The Witch of Endor), Ferrandini (Il Pianto di Maria) and Charpentier (Le Reniement de Saint-Pierre): 'I was 17, I'd just started playing the harpsichord and I discovered the final chorus of Le Reniement de Saint-Pierre. A world of profound humanity opened up before me. I did not yet understand the codes of this music, but I already I sensed that a key was turning, unlocking the door to an intensely emotional space,' says Camille Delaforge. She continues: these works 'all depict a similar spiritual journey; that of a person faced with abandonment: Mary's grief, Peter's remorse and Saul's terror in the face of the invisible in Purcell" With leading singers, Camille Delaforge and Il Caravaggio perform these sacred stories with great passion; stories that have stood the test of time and still move us today. With leading singers, Camille Delaforge and Il Caravaggio perform these sacred stories with great passion; stories that have stood the test of time and still move us today.

The full range of Ernest Bloch's music for violin and piano can be heard on this album, which journeys from his fiery early works to one of his last compositions. Both violin sonatas explore personal themes. The First, in it's barbarism, alludes to the First World War, while the Second, subtitled Poeme mystique, was inspired by a dream and is suffused with lyrical episodes from Gregorian chant. The melancholy and ecstasy evoked in Baal Shem derive from Hebrew music, including pre-existing synagogal melodies. The economy of the neo-Baroque Suite No. 1 for Solo Violin reveals a more reserved but no less inventive side of Bloch's violin writing.

With it's wonderfully poetic and sensual score, 'Rusalka' is Antonin Dvorak's most beloved opera, filled with musical effects that evoke the beauty and magic of a world inhabited by nymphs and water sprites. Jaroslav Kvapil's libretto is based on a famously tragic children's fairy tale, but in this acclaimed reinvention by directors Philipp Stolzl and Philipp M. Krenn Rusalka is depicted as a young woman from the dark fringes of society. She trades her power of speech to live in Hollywood at the side of a handsome movie star but is doomed to remain an outsider and a lost soul.

Anna Fedorova presents the late keyboard works of Brahms. 'These works feel as if he is speaking to us in a more private voice than ever before. The music is deeply personal, full of tenderness, nostalgia, love, and quiet reflection' says Fedorova. 'His lifelong bond with Clara Schumann remained a central part of his inner world. She was among the first to see these manuscripts, and her presence seems to quietly accompany them.' Op. 117 are three sets of melodies without words. Of Op. 118, Clara wrote: 'It is simply marvellous how your inner self seems to bubble, shine and whisper, constantly imbued with the grandeur and depth of your ideas!' With Op. 119, the keyboard seems once again to contain an entire orchestra, just like the early works that the young Brahms had presented to Robert Schumann forty years earlier.

An illuminating introduction to the musical riches of the wider Scriabin family, unrivalled in the catalogue, presenting many unfamiliar names and unknown pieces within the noble lineage of the Russian piano tradition. In a generous 85-minute survey, the pianist Matteo Cardelli presents piano music composed over a period of exactly 150 years by musicians who are all related (either by blood or by marriage) to Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915). Scriabin took his first lessons at the piano with his mother, who had studied with the renowned pedagogue Theodor Leschetitzky at the conservatoire in St Petersburg. This chronologically ordered recital presents some of the striking pieces from his adolescence, including a pair of fugues and a more elaborate Fantasy in A minor, The most extensive piece on the album is the little-known 'Symphonic Allegro' which Scriabin wrote in 1896, possibly as the first movement of a never-completed symphony, and which Leonid Sabaneyev then transcribed (after the composer's death) as a Poeme en forme d'une sonate. Julian was the sixth of Scriabin's seven children, born in 1908 to his mistress Tatiana Shlotzer; Paul de Schlozer was Tatiana's uncle. Julian drowned in the Dnieper river at the age of just 11;the maturity of those few compositions he left is all the more remarkable: the Prelude Op.2 is the longest and most complex of them, alternating a hypnotic, suspended harmonic sequence with a tumultuous Presto, and thus evoking the same fantastical world created by his father in later compositions such as the Fifth Piano Sonata. Also born to Tatiana was Marina, the last of Scriabin's children, in 1911. Living until 1998, she composed this rigorously ordered, atonal set of theme and variations at some point in the 1940s. Daniel Lazarus was Scriabin's grandson, born to his fifth child Ariadna, and his set of Six Pieces reflect the turbulent era of their composition in the early 1920s, evoking styles from Schubert to Prokofiev. Robert Cornman married Ariadna's eldest daughter, Tatiana-Myriam; his Sonata brevis owes something to Copland. Their son - and thus Scriabin's great-grandson - is Julian Cornman, born in 1953, whose Rondeau adopts a neo-Baroque language with a sidelong glance at musical history. In this way, Matteo Cardelli takes the listener on a musical journey through the Scriabin, de Schloezer, Lazarus and Cornman families, from Romantic piano studies based on Liszt's models to the current postmodern era, through the complex and tragic history of the 20th century and up to the present day.

A conversation between the piano compositions of Lili Boulanger and her teacher Gabriel Faure. Lili Boulanger's lesser-known dreamy Preludes (never published) and Marche gaie (recently discovered), along with her popular 3 Morceaux and her more serious Theme and Variations, are mirrored by Faure's masterpiece Theme and Variations, as well as his lesser-known, melodic, and enchanting Pieces breves.

With this historic CD series, Tactus and Federico Maria Sardelli - leading Modo Antiquo - produced the first complete recording of Antonio Vivaldi's Cantatas for soprano. Having appeared only sporadically on the recording scene, the Cantatas constitute a very important group of works within Vivaldi's output. Dedicated exclusively to female voices, the Cantatas are divided - as in the Ryom catalogue - into cantatas for soprano and continuo, cantatas for alto and continuo, cantatas for soprano and instruments, and cantatas for alto and instruments. The first complete recording of Vivaldi's Soprano Cantatas is undertaken by Modo Antiquo with full respect for the original texts and the performance practices of the era. For the performance, the original manuscripts were used wherever possible, usefully supplemented by consultation of the complete critical edition by Francesco Degrada and the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, published by Ricordi. The four CDs are here gathered in a single box set on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Tactus's activity.

A comprehensive introduction to a foundational figure of early Romantic music: modern recordings of all the concertos and solo piano music by 'the father of the nocturne', the Irish pianist and composer John Field. Frederic Chopin was only the most celebrated of many pianist-composers to pay warm tribute to the musician who, more than any other, invented the genre which became synonymous with musical Romanticism. His exquisite tone-poetry on the page, as well as the brilliant imagination of his playing, proposed a new way of addressing the piano, and responded to the rapid advance in the instrument's technology during the first decades of the 19th century. Where Beethoven had sought to stretch and challenge and conquer the piano, Field drew from it a more intimate style which mirrored the cantabile and legato of Italian singing. Born in Dublin in 1782, Field received his earliest lessons in music from Tommaso Giordani, and then continued his studies in London with another Italian immigrant across the Channel, Muzio Clementi. While Field went on to achieve celebrity as a pianist across Europe before settling in St Petersburg, and dying of alcoholism in 1837, he left a legacy of music for his instrument which gradually fell from prominence. During the last half century, and the early-music revival's focus on this pivotal era in music history, Field has been re-assessed. This comprehensive collection presents Field as a major figure of early Romanticism: a witty virtuoso in the concertos, a master of form in the sonatas and nocturnes, and above all a mind which could translate impressions into notes, especially from the natural world. These recordings were enthusiastically welcomed for their detailed precision and sympathy with Field's idiom. 'The performances and recorded sound here are very fine... a lovely, leisurely listening experience.' (Restani's cycle of the concertos, reviewed by Fanfare). 'Tyler Hay relates to John Field's Nocturnes much as Claudio Arrau did to those of Chopin.' (Classics Today).

Cesar Guerra-Peixe (1914-1993) was a Brazilian composer, violinist, and musicologist whose work reflects a deep engagement with both European classical traditions and the rich diversity of Brazilian folk music. Initially influenced by modernist and serialist techniques, Guerra-Peixe later shifted toward a nationalist style, incorporating rhythms, melodies, and structures derived from regional traditions across Brazil. This transition marked a significant phase in his career, as he sought to create a distinctly Brazilian voice within the concert music tradition. Although Guerra-Peixe is not primarily known as a guitar composer, his contributions to the instrument are notable for their craftsmanship and cultural authenticity. His complete works for solo guitar are relatively few compared to major guitar composers, yet they hold an important place in the Brazilian guitar repertoire. These pieces reflect his ethnomusicological interests, often drawing on northeastern Brazilian musical idioms, such as baiao, maracatu, and frevo. Through these influences, Guerra-Peixe infused his guitar music with rhythmic vitality and expressive nuance. His guitar works demonstrate a clear understanding of the instrument's technical and expressive possibilities. Rather than treating the guitar merely as a harmonic accompaniment, he explores it's capacity for polyphony, timbral contrast, and rhythmic complexity. The writing is idiomatic, making effective use of open strings, varied articulations, and dynamic contrasts, while remaining accessible to skilled performers. Played with great feeling for the idiom by Flavio Nati, one of Italy's foremost guitarists, winner of the Golden Guitar. He played in Carnegie Hall New York as soloist in the guitar concerto of Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

What happens when the illustrious brass sections of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic come together? The answer: The Philharmonic Brass. Making it's debut in Vienna's Musikverein in April 2023 the group will come together for recording, tours and education work. Comprising some of the best-known faces in the brass world from Berlin, Vienna and their friends, the group includes Sarah Willis, horn, Matthias Hofs, trumpet, or Paul Halwax, tuba. In February 2025, a new chapter began with the release of their first album on Supreme Classics: Italiana! Conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti includes virtuoso arrangements of some of the best-known music including Verdi's Sinfonia di Nabucco, Rossini: Guillaume Tell - Overture and many more. We can now look forward to the ensemble's very first vinyl release and this exceptional album in an audiophile pressing by the renowned record manufacturer Pallas.

This album centres on Ravel: Ravel the composer with Ma Mere l'Oye - originally a suite for piano four hands composed in 1910, orchestrated the following year to become a ballet and Ravel the arranger with Mussorgsky's famous Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as his orchestration of Schumann's Carnival, an embryonic project begun in 1914 for the great Nijinsky, who would ultimately never dance it. Only four excerpts were transcribed, and they were not published until 1975, on the centenary of Ravel's birth. Joseph Swensen, conducting the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, brings them back to life and infuses this colourful programme with his passion and infectious enthusiasm.

Among Teatro alla Scala's most unforgettable productions, this La forza del destino is a performance of striking musical energy, with Riccardo Chailly conducting an exceptional cast of opera stars. Anna Netrebko (Leonora), confirms her absolute dominance of the Verdian repertoire, showcasing 'beautiful floating high notes and enviable fiato' (OperaWire). Brian Jagde (Don Alvaro) and Ludovic Tezier (Don Carlo), give impeccable performances of great emotional depth and timbral richness. Joining forces, Stage Director Leo Muscato and Set Designer Federica Parolini deliver a reinterpretation of Verdi's classic in a modern key. On a set that impresses for both beauty and functionality, the scenes are set across different eras, reminding us that war is always part of humans' fate. 'The undisputed star of the evening is Anna Netrebko. She elevates Donna Leonora with her distinctive, dark, velvety timbre, impeccable high notes, and acting presence.' (Orpheus Magazine)

There are projects that spring from a hunch and which, driven by conviction and hard work, eventually come to seem entirely natural. The 'Messes Breves' project is a bold initiative that brings together works rarely performed together, breathing new life into pieces that are all too seldom heard in concert or on record. To bring together on the same recording the Missa brevis in D minor of Mozart, the Orgelmesse of Haydn and the Missa brevis of Fabian Fiorini, a work commissioned especially for this project, manifests the desire to abandon a well-worn track and promote a repertory that is as demanding as it is profoundly alive. This condensed form, rich in emotion, encourages spiritual reflection, aesthetic appreciation and a deep connection with the timeless tradition of sacred music.

This box set from the third cello session of the Queen Elisabeth Competition brings together the 12 prize-winners who offered audiences exceptional musical moments throughout the competition. It opens with the concertos performed by the first four laureates. As tradition dictates, the programme begins with Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto performed by First Prize winner Ettore Pagano, followed by Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto performed by Second Prize winner Tae-Yeon Kim. These are followed by Barber's Cello Concerto performed by Third Prize winner Leland Ko and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto performed by Fourth Prize winner alvaro Lozano Cames. A full disc of chamber music extends the journey, ranging from Josef Suk to Kaija Saariaho, and featuring Harold Noben's compulsory work alongside other highlights from the competition. The programme then returns to the orchestral repertoire with concertos by Anton Kraft and Leopold Hofmann, before concluding with Four Odes to the Tidings of Flowers by Fang Man, the compulsory work of the final round. Beyond the prize list itself, this album reflects the richness of an edition marked by the broadening of repertoire, the curiosity of it's performers, and the extraordinary diversity of musical personalities gathered in Brussels. A vivid testament to the art of cello playing today.

In this album two Swiss musicians - the cellist Andreas Graf and pianist Evelyne Grandy - transform what is essentially a song recital into a programme of lyrical miniatures for cello and piano. They thread their own arrangements of melodies by five fellow Swiss composers through some unfamiliar versions of well-known tunes, casting some long-standing favourites in new light and setting them alongside new delicacies.

The works for piano and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) represent a distinctive part of his output and reflect his evolving musical style during the early twentieth century. Although Stravinsky is widely known for his revolutionary ballets such as The Rite of Spring, his compositions featuring piano and orchestra demonstrate his interest in rhythm, clarity, and neoclassical form. The most significant of these works is the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (1923-24). Unlike the traditional Romantic concerto that pairs the piano with a full symphony orchestra, Stravinsky scored this piece for piano and a large ensemble of winds, brass, timpani, and double basses. The absence of strings creates a bright, sharp sound that highlights the percussive nature of the piano. Stravinsky himself often performed the solo part, and the concerto reflects his own technical abilities as a pianist. Structurally, the work follows a clear three-movement design-Largo, Allegro, and Largo-blending Baroque inspiration with modern rhythmic vitality. Another important composition is the Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (1928-29). Written again for Stravinsky's own performances, this piece is lighter and more playful than the earlier concerto. It consists of three continuous sections and features brilliant piano passages combined with lively orchestral textures. The title 'Capriccio' suggests a free and imaginative character, which is evident in the work's energetic rhythms and witty musical gestures. The orchestration includes a full orchestra, producing a richer sound than the wind-dominated concerto. Also presented are a selection of shorter works for piano solo: Tango, Ragtime, Circus Polka, Piano Rag Music, Valse pour les enfants: quasi-popular music, infused with Stravinsky's unique rhythms, dissonances and wit. Giuseppe Andaloro (Palermo, 1982) is one of the most acclaimed Italian pianists of his generation. Winner of prestigious international competitions - including the Ferruccio Busoni (Bolzano). He has performed in some of the world's leading venues: Teatro alla Scala and Sala Verdi in Milan, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Konzerthaus Berlin, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Royal Festival Hall in London, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, Esplanade in Singapore, Concert Hall in Hong Kong. He has appeared at renowned festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, George Enescu Festival, Ravello Festival, and Beirut Al Bustan. As soloist, he has collaborated with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Tokyo), under the direction of conductors like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gianandrea Noseda, and Andrew Parrott.

Ernst von Dohnanyi was one of the most versatile and influential musicians of his time but his works are now seldom played. A gap which Capriccio want to fill now with this already eight recording of his late romantical, sensual music, deeply rooted in the Austro-German classical tradition. His Symphony No. 2 is a colossal work, lasting around an hour and calling for an extraordinarily large orchestra. The composition coincided with his departure from war-torn Hungary during World War II. Ruralia Hungarica, written in 1923 and arranged for orchestra in the following year, makes use of familiar Hungarian folk-melodies, some of them known abroad through their appearance in the work of other Hungarian composers.

All music on this album is composed and arranged by Clara Ponty and inspired by the famous works of George Frideric Handel and additional arrangements by Pierre Doursout and Gladsome Passacaille by Johan Halvorsen and Clara Ponty. The album is co- produced by Clara Ponty and Pierre Doursout. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Julien Basseres. Clara Ponty is a classically trained pianist, singer, and composer with an eclectic body of work presented across six albums. Daughter of Jean-Luc Ponty, a pioneer and undisputed master of violin in the arena of jazz and rock, Clara's diverse background, including exposure to a broad world of music from an early age, along with residences in different countries and cultures, is the source of inspiration for the development of her wide-ranging output. All works are inspired by wellknown Suites, Minuets and of course one of his most famous works: Water Music. Clara Ponty revived the music in her own way and gave it all her own twist: 1. Sweet Gigue; Inspired by Handel's Suite in E Minor-Gigue G.162, 2. Sarabande Reimagined; Inspired by Handel's Suite in D minor-Sarabande G.110, 3. Baroque Andante; Inspired by Handel's Suite in D Minor-Presto G.117 and more to discover! 'I want to give new life to this exceptional music. My hope is that this album will be perceived as a bridge, proving that classical music is not a niche genre, but a universal emotion.' - Clara Ponty - When Baroque Meets Modernity: Composer-Pianist Clara Ponty unveils her album 'Handel Reimagined' - How can we breathe new contemporary life into the legacy of George Frideric Handel? With her new album 'Handel Reimagined, ' pianist and composer Clara Ponty offers a bold and intimate reinterpretation of the Baroque repertoire. Born out of the isolation of lockdown and a prestigious invitation to the city of Halle in Germany (Handel's birthplace), this opus breaks down the boundaries between eras, making classical music accessible to all generations. - Handel Reimagined - All works are inspired by well-known Suites, Minuets and of course one of his most famous works: Water Music. Clara Ponty revived the music in her own way and gave it all her own twist.

Among Teatro alla Scala's most unforgettable productions, this La forza del destino is a performance of striking musical energy, with Riccardo Chailly conducting an exceptional cast of opera stars. Anna Netrebko (Leonora), confirms her absolute dominance of the Verdian repertoire, showcasing 'beautiful floating high notes and enviable fiato' (OperaWire). Brian Jagde (Don Alvaro) and Ludovic Tezier (Don Carlo), give impeccable performances of great emotional depth and timbral richness. Joining forces, Stage Director Leo Muscato and Set Designer Federica Parolini deliver a reinterpretation of Verdi's classic in a modern key. On a set that impresses for both beauty and functionality, the scenes are set across different eras, reminding us that war is always part of humans' fate. 'The undisputed star of the evening is Anna Netrebko. She elevates Donna Leonora with her distinctive, dark, velvety timbre, impeccable high notes, and acting presence.' (Orpheus Magazine)