We know Satie as a loner, but it is less well known that Satie had also been in love. He had a brief and stormy affair with the painter Suzanne Valadon. The portrait she made of him is on the cover of this album, as pianist Guillaume Coppola has conceived it as an intimate portrait of the composer, "one masked by a veil of modesty or provocation and which lies between antique and oriental inspiration, mystical phases, humour and cabaret". The miniature Bonjour Biqui and the motif of the Vexations possess rare allusions to Valadon and become commas between these chapters, as does Desespoir agreable, whose title alone seems to sum up Satie's life and work. This tribute is released to mark the centenary of Satie's death; whilst the famous Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes feature on the programme, the album also presents rare and infrequently recorded discoveries that testify to the richness of the works that the whimsical Satie had created.

The Simply Mozart adventure, dedicated to his last three symphonies, comes to an end with this third volume and the 39th symphony. The programme also includes the overture to Cosi fan tutte ("a statement of the opera in miniature", according to Julien Chauvin) and the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola. Composed one year after Mozart's second trip to Paris, the Sinfonia concertante was directly inspired by the Parisian practice of having several soloists enter into dialogue with the orchestra; this was very much in vogue at the end of the 18th century. "Mozart left his mark on us and on our hearts with it's second movement, one of the most poignant that he was ever to write," says Julien Chauvin; here his violin dialogues happily with the viola of Amihai Grosz, who has already made two recordings for Alpha Classics (ALPHA634 & 1013).

Thibault Noally and his ensemble here reaffirm their love for and expertise in Alessandro Scarlatti's music as they celebrate his anniversary year with his famous and yet mysterious Stabat mater, a work that displays Scarlatti's more intimate side. In Noally's own words, "this is an extreme example of his stylistic eclecticism. The piece juxtaposes duets in passionate counterpoint with arias in the Neapolitan style, echoes of what he heard around him, as if they formed part of a mosaic. There is no synthesis between the different musical languages; what is most mysterious is that the motets are the musical illustration of a text or an emotion, whilst the Stabat mater requires a completely different approach. The music is no longer directly related to the text. It's as if it had become a world in itself." Noally also presents two Mottetti sacri and a Sonata a quattro, all in the da chiesa style. His collaborators here are soprano Emmanuelle de Negri, a long-time colleague, and Paul Figuier, a highly promising countertenor.

Paavo Jarvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich present the second volume of their complete Mahler Symphonies, with his First Symphony, known as the "Titan" in reference to the eponymous novel by the poet Jean-Paul that Mahler greatly admired. Although he abandoned this title three years after the symphony's premiere in 1893, the symphony has, like many of Mahler's works, "a clearly programmatic character" according to Paavo Jarvi: "Mahler was a composer who was truly able to explore the inner world of human beings and to question what goes on inside us."

Although Israel in Egypt was first performed on 4 April 1739 in tripartite form, Handel probably first composed this oratorio without a complete text. Herve Niquet has chosen to record the version in two parts that Berlioz and the whole of the 19th century considered definitive, these being the Exodus and the Song of Moses. Produced just after the Covid pandemic, this recording also shows the joy of Le Concert Spirituel's singers and instrumentalists at making music together again: Herve Niquet says the final chorus "is a cry of happiness in unison" and sees an "almost palpable drama in these works: the two choruses face each other on either side of the orchestra and respond to each other in violent retaliations and monumental unisons. Their interweaving in diabolical movements is like a theatrical staging before our very eyes."

Accordionist Theo Ould describes this new album as "my most shameful - it's as if I hadn't let myself play Astor's music, not got my accordion out of the world of musical cliches, and concentrated on works that were more classical in style". Theo's vocation, however, nonetheless became evident when he heard Piazzolla's Libertango at the age of 6! This Frenchman from Marseille, 20 years later, now tackles this music with fervour, exaltation, tailor-made arrangements, and the complicity of the Bilitis quartet, alongside double bass player Blanche Strombon; the mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti also appears in a generous and beautiful Balada para un loco, Piazzolla's setting of a poem by Horacio Ferrer. Theo Ould is deeply involved with this music, sharing his passion with us and inviting us to join in Ferrer's Balada: "Crawl into this tender delirium that burns within me, put on this wig wovrn from larks - and fly! Fly with me now! Come along, fly, come!"

Jodie Devos is sorely missed. Aged just thirty-five, she died on 16 June 2024. Wishing to perpetuate her memory and her art, we have decided to publish this boxed set containing all of the recordings she made for Alpha Classics over a period of ten years: six albums that bear witness to the exacting standards, sensitivity, eclecticism and curiosity of this unusual soprano who was loved by all. Also included is a concert she gave at the Gaume Festival in August 2017; this deeply moving programme reveals another side of Jodie, notably her love of American music and song, from Gershwin to Michel Legrand. All profits from the sale of this boxed set, which includes all the texts from the original albums, will be donated to the Jodie Devos Fund, created in 2025 to perpetuate the transmission and promotion of the operatic art that she held so dear.

The French composer and organist Thierry Escaich composed his Te Deum pour Notre-Dame for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris; a hymn to the Cathedral's resurrection, it is a large-scale work for children's choir, two mixed choirs and orchestra. One hundred and eighty singers and instrumentalists gave the work it's first performance and recorded it in the prestigious building on 12 June 2025. Thierry Escaich was inspired by the Cathedral's thousand-year-old history and drew on many sources, beginning with the Bible but also including prestigious authors who had written about Notre-Dame such as Victor Hugo and Charles Peguy. According to Escaich himself, "this Te Deum is a journey from the destructive flames of the conflagration to the fire of redemption". Escaich, who has been a co-titular organist of the Cathedral since 2024, also presents examples of his famous art of improvisation on the Cathedral's organ between each movement of the Te Deum. The work won universal acclaim at it's first performance, with some journalists describing it as "the great French oratorio that we have been awaiting since the beginning of the 21st century" (Le Figaro).

Paavo Jarvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich present the second volume of their complete Mahler Symphonies, with his First Symphony, known as the "Titan" in reference to the eponymous novel by the poet Jean-Paul that Mahler greatly admired. Although he abandoned this title three years after the symphony's premiere in 1893, the symphony has, like many of Mahler's works, "a clearly programmatic character" according to Paavo Jarvi: "Mahler was a composer who was truly able to explore the inner world of human beings and to question what goes on inside us."

Feminine Voices celebrates the female voice and the Christmas season, with a kaleidoscopic selection made up of the Magnificat, Ave Maria and carols, each of which is more wonderful than the last. Eight female composers feature in the programme that Christopher Lowrey and the singers of the Altera ensemble have devised, with works by Hildegard von Bingen, Imogen Holst, Germaine Tailleferre, Cecilia McDowall, Joanna Marsh, Barbara Strozzi, Elizabeth Poston, and a world premiere by Kerensa Briggs. Male composers are also included, with works by John Rutter, who has written many Christmas carols, and Benjamin Britten's famous Ceremony of Carols, a work now generally performed by boys' choirs but which was originally written for the women of the Fleet Street Choir. The version recorded here is Britten's original: "seven Christmas carols for women's voices and harp! Very sweet and full of charm". Altera and the harpist LI Shan Tan perform this magical and spellbinding music with delight.

This recording is the first of a collaboration between Rene Jacobs, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Zurcher Sing-Akademie and Alpha Classics and will involve the release of four albums between 2025 and 2028; the first of these is the Missa Cellensis, then three albums devoted to Haydn's last six masses. Haydn was commissioned in 1766 to write a Missa Solemnis, the Latin term for a fully scored mass with trumpets and timpani; it is the third and largest of Haydn's fourteen masses. It was under this erroneous name that the 1766 Missa Cellensis remained known until 1975, when a fragment of the autograph score containing the title page, Kyrie I and Christe was found in Bucharest and revealed that Haydn had in fact composed two Miss� Cellenses. It is the first of these (1766) that is recorded here. Rene Jacobs puts all his expertise and enthusiasm at the service of this music that he loves so much, in collaboration with soloists with whom he works regularly, an orchestra that is also a longstanding partner, and the remarkable choir of the Sing-Akademie of Zurich.

Alain Altinoglu and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra have begun to record the complete symphonies of Shostakovich, starting with his Fourth and Fifth symphonies. Shostakovich dared to express human suffering, passion, fear and catastrophe in his music, but always asking the same nagging question: what is man? In this sense, these two symphonies open with a question - an idea of martyrdom that was to become one of the central ideas of his later symphonies and, of course, of his Lady MacBeth of Mzensk. Both symphonies are dated between 1935-1937 when Shostakovich was in his thirties; this was one of the darkest and most difficult phases of his life, marked as it was by the repercussions of some of his writings and the arrest of many people close to him, including members of his family.

Veronique Gens' talent as a storyteller needs no introduction; she is an eminent ambassador for French melodie and tragedie lyrique around the world. "Make us laugh! "says this sparkling programme, devised in collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane. 'Les Divas d'Offenbach' presents all the facets of the prolific Jacques Offenbach - operetta, opera-bouffe, fairy tales and opera-comique - his famous arias from La Belle Hel�ne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein and La Perichole, as well as previously unreleased works recorded here for the first time. There are sections from major works that were not included in the final version as well as rarities from incidental music such as Valeria, Le Roman comique, Genevi�ve de Brabant and La Boulang�re a des ecus, a work that is practically never performed today but which enjoyed great success in the 19th century. Gens' long-time collaborator Herve Niquet conducts the Choeur et Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire with style and passion.

Martin Helmchen embarks on a complete recording of Schubert's piano sonatas, with four double albums to be released between now and 2028, the bicentenary of the composer's death. He has waited until he was in his forties to embark on this adventure because, in his view, an artist needs maturity to meet the challenges posed by the radical contrasts in Schubert's sonatas: "constant virtuosity that is never needlessly complex, set against sober interiority, the exuberant joy of the Landler, and bouts of dramatic madness". Recording a complete body of work also meant studying the scores carefully and tackling the question of the movements left unfinished by the composer, should we stop at the precise point where Schubert stopped composing simply because Schubert either ran out of time or did not have enough money to buy music manuscript paper? Helmchen has chosen to complete these movements, inspired by the recordings and above all the analyses of the eminent pianist Paul Badura-Skoda. This first volume presents sonatas composed between 1815 (Schubert was 18) and 1825. The entire cycle has been recorded on a Bosendorfer piano at the Kronberg Academy.

This is the new recording we have been waiting for. Three years after Brahms (ALPHA792), the Belcea Quartet returns in a new formation: Suyeon Kang, their new second violin, joined the quartet in 2023. Today the Belcea Quartet presents a new recording of the Debussy Quartet - which they had previously recorded on their very first album 25 years ago - and two quartets by Karol Szymanowski, a composer they are particularly fond of and who possesses a unique and immediately identifiable musical language. The first quartet was composed in 1917 but the Russian Revolution intervened; it's premiere finally took place in 1924. Szymanowski - then a world-renowned composer and a leading figure in the reconstruction of musical life in the young Polish Republic - wrote his second quartet ten years after the first in 1927; it was premiered in Warsaw two years later.