Born in Budapest in 1975 and based in Germany, composer M�rton Ill�s studied with Detlev M�ller-Siemens and Wolfgang Rihm. In 2020, he composed the violin concerto Vont-t�r for Patricia Kopatchinskaja, a long-time partner who performs his music with total commitment. "She gives the impression that music can be tactile, truly three-dimensional, to the point that you could almost touch it, that each gesture has it's own colour, temperature, smell, taste," says Ill�s. S�rt-t�r, "space filled with tears," is a cello concerto: "I make it moan, scream or even roar hysterically in order to draw out the vocal qualities capable of communicating human pain." In Nicolas Altstaedt, "I found the ideal performer, who grasps the dark drama of this subject with existential intuition and makes it resonate with primitive force." Rajzok I consists of tuning the strings of 24 instruments to different quarter-tone intervals. A very unusual and fascinating total scordatura. In Three Sketches, electronic music blends with the sound of the violin, multiplying the sensations and sound textures. Fascinated by the human psyche and the processes that take place in the human body, Ill�s develops music that lives, speaks, and breathes.

After a 'spellbinding' album for Alpha devoted to her American roots (Alpha1071), pianist Claire Huangci now celebrates female composers, acknowledging: 'The realities these women faced are difficult to imagine for any modern woman in the field.' Clara Wieck (who became Schumann after her marriage to Robert in 1840) was a mother of eight and the main breadwinner, constantly on tour. Fanny Hensel composed largely in private. Often publishing under her brother's name. Amy Beach's career was practically silenced during her marriage; only upon her husband's death did she return to the stage. Florence Price faced both racial and gender discrimination and later raised two children alone. Across the centuries, the voices of these women reach us thanks to musicians like Claire: 'In their music, we don't just hear history. We hear transformation. Heroines is my way of listening back-and adding my voice to theirs.'

This new recording from March 2024 of Jean-Baptiste Lully's musical tragedy, premiered in Saint-Germain-en-Laye 348 years earlier, is the result of the most recent historical, musicological and organological research. The instructions in the 1676 libretto regarding the orchestra's layout, the number and distribution of musicians, and the instrumental colours, particularly of the wind instruments, have been scrupulously followed by Alexis Kossenko and Beno�t Dratwicki, artistic director of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. The choice of soloists was as close as possible to the characteristics of the singers who performed the work when it was first created, as much is known about their vocal and theatrical qualities. This has resulted in a first-rate vocal ensemble, including Mathias Vidal, V�ronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, Tassis Christoyannis, Hasnaa Bennani, El�onore Pancrazi, Adrien Fournaison, David Witczak... as well as the Pages and Chantres du CMBV (bringing together children and adults) and Les Ambassadeurs - La Grande �curie, all experts in this repertoire.

Explore the power and depth of Shostakovich's cello concertos with Alexander Kniazev and Kazuki Yamada. Kniazev's profound understanding of Shostakovich's music brings out the intricate layers of anguish, irony, and resilience that define the composer's voice. Yamada's energetic and insightful conducting adds a vivid dimension to the orchestral textures. Together, they deliver a recording that captures the dark intensity and emotional richness of Shostakovich's music, offering a compelling listening experience.

The Leonkoro Quartet, founded in 2019 and winner of multiple prestigious awards in 2022 - nine prizes at the Wigmore Hall International Competition, including first prize, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, Jurgen Ponto Foundation Music Prize, first prize at the Bordeaux Competition - joins Alpha Classics for several recordings. First stop: Vienna and it's influence on the musical landscape of the early 20th century. Berg completed his Suite lyrique on 5 October 1926: combining theatricality and rigorous architecture, free atonality and dodecaphonism, this suite expresses the composer's passionate love for Hanna Fuchs at that time. Erwin Schulhoff, born in Prague in 1894, was discovered by Dvorak and studied in Vienna from the age of 12; he dedicated his Five Pieces to Darius Milhaud, as he also studied in Paris with Debussy around 1913, ultimately dying in a prison camp in Bavaria in 1942. In his Opus 5, described by Glenn Gould as 'sensual' expressionism, Webern mourns the death of his mother on 7 September 1906.

The fourteenth volume of the Haydn2032 edition is entitled L'Imperiale, after the nickname given to Symphony No. 53 in the nineteenth century. This was perhaps Haydn's most famous symphony during his lifetime. Premiered in the theatre at Eszterhaza Palace in 1778, it was published in London around 1781, and it's melodious Andante was arranged more than thirty times for various instruments between 1783 and 1820. It made a decisive contribution to Haydn's success, opening the way for him to perform in England. Symphony No. 54, whose entertaining, theatrical style is a perfectly match for the atmosphere of the legendary court festivities given at Eszterhaza around 1775, completes this programme along with No. 33, one of his first festive works with trumpets, composed c.1761. In his introductory text, Giovanni Antonini revels in the 'capricious', whimsical character of certain passages in the last movement of Symphony No. 53; he also offers an alternative finale of the work at the end of the album.

This album celebrates Antonio Vivaldi's compositions for a particular vocal register, the alto, and for soloists from three different instrumental families: strings, woodwinds (the transverse flute) and brass (the horn). It includes the now famous arias from Orlando furioso and La verit� in cimento, the violin concerto RV241, brought back from Venice in 1717 by Johann Georg Pisendel, a leading violinist, pupil and friend of Vivaldi, a flute concerto, not to mention his sacred vocal music, much of which is written for solo voice. A broad and eclectic panorama, a veritable 'best of' the Venetian composer, conceived by the musicians of Cafe Zimmermann, who have been playing Vivaldi's music with passion since it's creation more than 25 years ago (as evidenced by it's rich discography at Alpha), and the French countertenor Paul-Antoine Benos-Djian, 'enchanting in Vivaldi', writes Diapason, which praises his 'penetrating artistry' and 'unique personality'.

Founded ten years ago, Ensemble Ouranos is now one of the best French wind quintets in the world. For this new recording, their first for Alpha Classics, Mathilde, Arnaud, Amaury, Philibert, Rafael and Nicolas have brought together composers and works that are particularly close to their hearts: Le Tombeau de Couperin glorifies the French wind school, and Shostakovich is their passion, so recording this transcription (by David Walter) of the famous quartet for the first time was at the top of their wish list. The two works have one thing in common: homage, since Ravel composed in tribute to his friends who died in the war, and Shostakovich to the victims of the Second World War. Another tribute - a lighter one - is paid to summer with Barber's superb Summer Music, the only original piece for wind quintet on this album. Added to this are�Ravel's famous Pavane and an arrangement by Nicolas Ramez of the poignant Elegy from Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk

For his second recital, Giorgi Gigashvili chose Prokofiev, a composer he has been playing intensively for ten years. Nicknamed the 'War Sonatas', these three masterpieces are, for him, "battles in themselves", sonatas to which one gives "heart and soul": "There is something almost inhuman in the writing. Sometimes it felt like Prokofiev wasn't asking me to play the piano, but to wrestle with it." The very personal title of the album - With all my breath and all my blood - reflects the voice of this young Georgian pianist, who has experienced the recent history of his country with great pain: "This music became the place where I poured my rage." His distinguished guest is his compatriot and friend Lisa Batiashvili, with whom he recorded a transcription for violin and piano of the famous "Dance of the Knights" from Romeo and Juliet, as well as a new work written especially for the duo by Josef Bardanashvili: To Giya, a tribute to Giya Kancheli.

French soprano Julie Roset is one of the rising stars of the younger generation. Winner of both the Operalia First Prize in 2023 and the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition in 2022, Julie Roset was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique Classique in the Revelation Lyrique category in 2025. This is her first recital and the start of a multi-project collaboration with the Alpha Classics label. With pianist Susan Manoff, she has devised a highly personal programme of French melodies that showcase her vocal qualities as a coloratura soprano and her mischievous, sparkling personality. It includes well-known melodists such as Debussy and Poulenc, as well as works by rarer composers such as Isabelle Aboulker, Mel Bonis and Louis Beydts.

An internationally renowned oboist, Victor Aviat was a soloist with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado, and Ivan Fischer's Budapest Festival Orchestra for 20 years. He also studied piano, composition, and conducting. His first work as a composer was performed by the Orchestre National de France under the baton of Emmanuel Krivine (his stepfather) in 2019. Victor Aviat died on 1 May 2025 in Berlin following a sudden illness. This double album pays tribute to this multi-talented artist. Victor was also a painter and author of poems, which he set to music and performed himself. This portrait presents a double programme, with pieces for oboe and piano by Robert Schumann (recorded in 2024 with pianist Kim Barbier) and his 17 songs... The booklet accompanying this double album includes an illustration for each song as well as some of his paintings and a text he wrote 'to young musicians'. Like his self-portrait, with his face half submerged in darkness, Victor Aviat's songs offer us glimpses of his inner life and feelings through allusions and clues. To keep alive the memory of Victor Aviat, both as an artist and as a man.

Joseph Haydn gave lessons in singing, keyboard instruments, theory, and composition throughout his life. His pupils included Ignaz Pleyel, Sigismund Neukomm, and the Pole Franciszek (Franz) Lessel. In October 1805, the latter received from his teacher the autograph score of his Symphony No. 56, dating from 1774. This symphony forms a pair with Symphony No. 55, known as 'The Schoolmaster', dating from the same year. Both are included in this eighteenth volume of the Haydn2032 series, along with Symphony No. 29 (1765), "whose finale Presto sounds as if a swarm of naughty children had just escaped from a strict teacher," writes Christian Moritz-Bauer. Giovanni Antonini and the Kammerorchester Basel also recorded the finale of Lessel's Fifth Symphony in G minor, the only movement that has survived from his complete orchestral works, which include five other symphonies.

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.