Printed in Nuremberg in 1694, Erlebach’s Six Sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and basso continuo, marked by both French and Italian influences, are among his few instrumental pieces to have survived. They are performed here by the Stylus Phantasticus ensemble, joined by the baritone Victor Torres for several expressive arias focusing on the theme of the ‘volatile destiny of the human being’. After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink and White collections (a total of sixty reissues) which gave a new lease of life to the pearls of the Baroque catalogues from our house labels, here are fourteen new titles which offer a chance to discover other treasures, whether Baroque or dating from an earlier or later era. Like the most recent series, this sixth instalment opens out onto the Classical repertory (Mozart by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini) and the Renaissance (Févin by Doulce Mémoire and Denis Raisin Dadre); recordings that are an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. Fourteen reissues performed by the leading musicians in the field, most of which received one or more awards on their original release. Proper booklets accompany the discs, with notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from all over the world have been selected to illustrate the covers, this time with the guiding thread of the color green, a symbol of nature, fertility . . . and hope!

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Trio Sonatas for organ, masterpieces in their intrinsic poetic power, were composed between 1723 and 1725, in his early days as Kantor in Leipzig. They are performed here by Benjamin Alard, First Prize winner in the organ section of the Freiburg Bach Competition. After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink and White collections (a total of sixty reissues) which gave a new lease of life to the pearls of the Baroque catalogues from our house labels, here are fourteen new titles which offer a chance to discover other treasures, whether Baroque or dating from an earlier or later era. Like the most recent series, this sixth instalment opens out onto the Classical repertory (Mozart by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini) and the Renaissance (Févin by Doulce Mémoire and Denis Raisin Dadre); recordings that are an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. Fourteen reissues performed by the leading musicians in the field, most of which received one or more awards on their original release. Proper booklets accompany the discs, with notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from all over the world have been selected to illustrate the covers, this time with the guiding thread of the color green, a symbol of nature, fertility...and hope!

The violinist Amandine Beyer interprets Bach’s famous Sonatas and Partitas, veritable bravura pieces that push back the limits of the instrument, at the intersection between the German solo tradition and the Italian concerto. After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink and White collections (a total of sixty reissues) which gave a new lease of life to the pearls of the Baroque catalogues from our house labels, here are fourteen new titles which offer a chance to discover other treasures, whether Baroque or dating from an earlier or later era. Like the most recent series, this sixth instalment opens out onto the Classical repertory (Mozart by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini) and the Renaissance (Févin by Doulce Mémoire and Denis Raisin Dadre); recordings that are an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. Fourteen reissues performed by the leading musicians in the field, most of which received one or more awards on their original release. Proper booklets accompany the discs, with notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from all over the world have been selected to illustrate the covers, this time with the guiding thread of the color green, a symbol of nature, fertility...and hope!

This recording was made under the direction of Reinbert de Leeuw in December 2019, two months before his death. A few weeks before that, he had called Thomas Dieltjens, artistic director of Het Collectief, to tell him: ‘Since our concert in mid-July 2019, ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ has constantly been on my mind. I am totally fascinated by it and discover new things in it every day. It would be a dream if we could record this music with the exceptional cast of musicians and soloist singers of the Saintes festival, and preferably the sooner the better.” Words failed, as can be gathered from the many concert reviews they received. Mahler’s ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ is already so much more than just music, it encompasses life as a whole, from early birth till death. Reinbert de Leeuw made of this masterpiece an exceptionally refined arrangement for 15 instrumentalists and 2 soloists. How Reinbert manages to render the full force of Mahler’s original score in his arrangement is unparalleled. There is the addition of the harp, some percussion, a contrabassoon and a bass clarinet. With the harmonium as an essential link between cords, winds, percussion and piano. One lacks ears to feel the richness of Reinbert’s arrangement. This is pure musical delight.

This recording of Mozart’s Requiem, made by Teodor Currentzis in 2011, attracted great attention and soon became a benchmark in the work's discography! In its incredible ardour and sweeping inspiration, it demonstrates the full talent and interpretative freedom of the Greek-born Russian conductor, who has since become a major player on the international musical scene. At the head of his period-instrument orchestra music Aeterna, the Perm Opera Chorus and a line-up of soloists in total osmosis with his conception–Simone Kermes (soprano), Stephanie Houtzeel (alto), Markus Brutscher (tenor) and Arnaud Richard (bass)- Currentzis chose to present the complete version of the Requiem, as completed by Mozart’s pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

Pierre Henry, a supreme innovator in the field of sound aesthetics, opened the gates to many other musical universes through the applications of his technological research. Fascinated by Beethoven from an early age, he composed a "Tenth Symphony": "It's not the one Beethoven made sketches for," he said. "Nor is it a synthesis of the nine. It is essentially a combinatorial work. It's also a tribute to the man who hoped to exceed the limits of the orchestra. Perhaps a way of painting my portrait (our portrait) through this music and the influence it has had on mine. It is a dreamlike, logical and respectful trajectory through what these symphonies contain and suggest. The work deliberately uses as "raw material" only notes, groups or motifs from the nine symphonies." There are three electroacoustic versions, but it is the unpublished symphonic version that is presented here. It was premiered in November 2019 at the Cite de la Musique in the Philharmonie de Paris, by three orchestras, two choirs, and three conductors: the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris, the Choeur de Radio France and Le Jeune Choer de Paris under the direction of Pascal Rophe, Bruno Mantovani and Marzena Diakun.

In the post-Renaissance period, the lamento established a place for itself in both vocal and instrumental music. This grief-stricken utterance in the face of death – one’s own imminent demise, that of a loved one, a lamentation that may be either sacred or secular. The present release from Café Zimmerman presents 9 lamentos from composers such as Bach, Bernhard, Biber, Schmelzer, and more. Founded in 1999, Café Zimmermann is one of the leading Baroque ensembles in France and in the rest of Europe. Led by violinist Pablo Valetti and harpsichordist Céline Frisch, the ensemble brings together soloists who are eager to bring back to life the artistic atmosphere conveyed by Gottfried Zimmermann’s establishment in 18th century Leipzig. Café Zimmermann collaborated with artists such as Emöke Barath, Giuliano Carmignola, Rupert Charlesworth, Lorenzo Coppola, Maarten Engeltjes, Damien Guillon, Kristina Hammarström, Christian Immler, Roberta Invernizzi, Sophie Karthäuser, Gustav Leonhardt, Lenneke Ruiten, Carolyn Sampson, Andreas Staier, Dominique Visse, as well as the choirs Les Elements, Aedes, Vox Luminis and Accentus.

'72 Angels is a large-scale work for mixed choir and saxophone quartet. It is structured as seventy-two prelude-evocations and an epilogue. Each prelude sets to music one of the seventy- two names derived from an esoteric interpretation of Exodus 14:19-21. Angelic beings, spiritual guides, higher energies or messengers are a common theme throughout many belief systems in human history. My intention in 72 Angels was to focus on what the religious, spiritual, esoteric and mythological traditions of different cultures have in common. I would like to focus on what unites us through shared connections. These seventy-two evocations celebrate all angels in their multifaceted variations... My hope is that every listener or musician will adopt his or her own personal interpretation' - Lera Auerbach. The voices of the Netherlands Chamber Choir, directed by Peter Dijkstra, bring these angels to life here, accompanied by the Rasch�r Saxophone Quartet.

A few years after the success of her album crossing Baroque music with folk, Love I Obey, the Franco-American singer Rosemary Standley visits Schubert, this time with the complicity of the Ensemble Contraste: “We all have a few notes of Schubert buried deep inside us,” say the artists, who have got together around his music and brought it to an original sound texture, the result of their varied influences- classical, pop, jazz, folk. They have picked some of the best-known lieder and universally loved instrumental pieces, incorporating in them rhythms from other countries and instruments unusual in this repertory: the jazz trumpet of Airelle Besson, the guitar of Kevin Seddiki, the percussion of Jean-Luc Di Fraja join forces with the viola of Arnaud Thorette, the piano, cello and double bass of Ensemble Contraste- not forgetting the exceptional participation of the soprano Sandrine Piau, who joins Rosemary Standley for several duets. The arrangements are by Johan Fariot.

After the resounding success of Volume 1 (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica, FFFF Télérama), the project to record the complete Sibelius symphonies continues with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, whose career as a conductor is entering top gear: he has just been appointed Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. At the turn of the twentieth century, as Finland struggled to free itself from Russian rule, Sibelius and his wife faced several domestic dramas, including the loss of one of their daughters, Kirsti, to typhoid fever. The Second Symphony, written in the brilliant key of D major, seems to be marked by the events of the composer’s private life, but many of his contemporaries nevertheless saw it as a political manifesto! In 1898, Sibelius composed the incidental music for Adolf Paul’s play King Christian II, the story of the downfall of a king of Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) in the sixteenth century. The suite derived from it was successfully performed in several European cities.

Following on from the success of the Red and Yellow series (a total of twenty-eight reissues), which have restored to the limelight the treasures of the label’s Baroque music catalogues, here are fourteen new titles offering a chance to renew acquaintance with further gems of the Baroque as well as a number of rarities. This third series also expands to embrace the Classical repertory (Mozart, Haydn etc.) and other cultures, notably those of the East, in recordings that form an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. The fourteen reissues are performed by the leading musicians in the relevant repertory; most of these discs received one or more press distinctions on their first release. They are accompanied by full booklets, with articles in three languages (English, French, German) and richly illustrated chronologies. A wide range of photographers have provided the cover illustrations for the series, this time with the colour blue as the unifying thread.

Night, sleep and dreams are the subjects of this unusual programme, devoted to works by Bach and Britten, and put together by the lutnist Edin Karamazov. (Alpha)

The second instalment of Bach’s music for instrumental ensemble interpreted by Café Zimmermann brings the same fresh, vivid and coherent approach as the previous album. Beyond the formal variety they exhibit, Bach instils in all these works a tremendous feeling of musical ‘irrigation’: whether in a concerto movement or a dance, it is life itself that invades the music.

After several recordings on Ricercar and a first disc on Alpha, Actus Tragicus, containing early Bach cantatas, 'of staggering profundity, purity and beauty' (ffff Telerama), Lionel Meunier and his ensemble Vox Luminis devote this new project to two showpieces by Handel and Bach. Of these two composers born in 1685, the first travelled to Italy in 1707 and made a powerful impression in Rome with the creation of his Dixit Dominus, while the second produced one of his finest compositional tours de force in the Magnificat of 1723/32-35. Two works from the core repertoire of the Belgian ensemble, here fielding combined vocal and instrumental forces, which is perfectly versed in the style and expression of Baroque rhetoric. Vox Luminis is a Belgian early music ensemble created in 2004 by it's artistic director Lionel Meunier. Today, the ensemble performs over 60 concerts a year, appearing on stages in Belgium, across Europe and around the world. The size and composition of the group depends on the repertoire being performed but the core of soloists, mostly from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, is joined by a continuo and additional (orchestral) instrument performers. It's repertoire is essentially Italian, English and German and spans from the 16th to the 18th century. Since it's inception, the ensemble is defined by it's unity and seduces as much through the personality of each timbre as it does through the colour and the uniformity of the voices. It is more than a fixed repertoire, the ensemble members wholeheartedly communicate their passion for early music and love for the audience.

The fourth volume of the Haydn2032 project thrusts into the limelight one of the most important stock characters in the theatre of sounds and words, the Kapellmeister, and explores some glamorous and (in)glorious moments in the career of Maestro Haydn. It features three symphonies by the ‘Shakespeare of Music’ – one of which is even associated with an actual play. This bears the title ‘Sinfonia in C. per la commedia intitolata Il distratto’ (the name of the play soon became the symphony’s nickname) and consists of an overture, four entr’actes, and a finale to be played at the end of the performance. Also on this disc is a large-scale buffo scene by his colleague Cimarosa. Il maestro di cappella is a witty and ironic parody, in which a member of the ‘old school’ of musicians tries to improve the ensemble playing of his orchestra. To his chagrin, the players do react, but in extremely undisciplined fashion: they are distracted, make false entries and disagree musically...

The French tenor Julien Behr is one of today's rising vocal stars. Voted 'Revelation artiste lyrique de l'Adami' in 2009, he has become famous for his Mozart roles. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently wrote of his performance as 'lively, with a fine timbre', while Forumopera added: 'Julien Behr's Fenton is superb: though the French tenor has hitherto been especially appreciated as a Mozartian, here he confirms his aptitude for nineteenth-century repertory.' And it is the French Romantic repertory composed between 1800 and 1900 that the tenor has chosen for his first recital album. A wide variety of works make up this programme devised by the Palazzetto Bru Zane and Alexandre Dratwicki, who writes: "Nothing is more difficult for a tenor than "finding his voice" in this imbroglio of genres and institutions... Already much admired for his charismatic vocal style and personality, the tenor Julien Behr is now the hero of a recital that revisits this repertory in all it's variety, ranging from tenderness to heroism, from joy to melancholy." The programme features Ambroise Thomas, Bizet and his famous La Jolie Fille de Perth, Cinq-Mars by Gounod, Benjamin Godard, Andre Messager and his splendid Fortuni, Delibes and Le Chevalier Jean by Victorin Joncieres among others. French versions of two extremely well-known numbers by Franz Lehar from The Merry Widow and The Land of Smiles complete this panorama magnificently supported by the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Lyon and conducted by another rising star, Pierre Bleuse.

The only winner to take home both the First Prize and two special jury prizes at the Rostropovich Competition, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker is one of an elite number of cellists who are truly making their mark on the world of classical music.; This is her very first sonata recording, and she is joined by pianist Martin Helmchen for these performances of Brahms’ sonatas.; With playing which has been described as “moving and instinctively beautiful” (Die Zeit) Marie-Elisabeth provides a charming programme in this recording.

In 1855 the organ world in Germany discovered Franz Liszt's performance of his most famous transcriptions on the organ of Merseburg. Yves Rechsteiner recaptures the magic atmosphere of these concerts.

The Faust Symphony undoubtedly constitutes one of the principal works of Liszt’s Weimar period, if not indeed his orchestral masterpiece. Liszt had become acquainted with Goethe’s poem Faust in 1830, in the French translation of Gérard de Nerval. He began composing the work in the 1840s, after a visit to the Goethe House in Weimar. Its first performance was arranged for September 1857, to mark the centenary of Grand Duke Carl August and the erection of a statue to Goethe and Schiller. On this occasion Liszt rounded the work off by adding a tenor solo and chorus at the end. The premiere took place on 5 September. This musical transposition of the poem is performed here by Orchester Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselböck, and follows their recording of Liszt’s transcriptions of works by Schubert, released in 2015 (Alpha 471). In parallel with this, the Viennese period-instrument orchestra is also continuing its Resound Beethoven project, the recording of the complete symphonies at the venues of their first performances.

The Voce Quartet's first two recordings, devoted to Schubert and then Beethoven, were released to praise from critics such as Telerama and The Strad. This eclectic, innovative quartet is now celebrating it's tenth anniversary by tackling string quintets of Mozart and Brahms. The Brahms quintet, both brilliant and highly moving, recalls some of the composer's best-known themes. Violist Lise Berthaud is called upon to round out the quintet.

Jos Van Immerseel returns to chamber music and the accompaniment of young talents, two absolute priorities for him. In Chouchane Siranossian he has found a worthy partner, as gifted on the modern violin as she is on the Baroque instrument, a pupil of Tibor Varga, then of Zakhar Bron, as well as a disciple of Reinhard Goebel, whose first recording, on the Oehms label, attracted great attention (winning a ‘Diapason Découverte’). Here it is the Baroque violinist who engages in dialogue with the harpsichord of Jos Van Immerseel in a Franco-Italian program juxtaposing the music of the ‘Angel’ Leclair and the ‘Devil’ Locatelli, not forgetting Tartini’s famous ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata . . . Indeed, all this music is ‘devilishly’ difficult to play, but the Franco-Armenian violinist shows perfect mastery of it, combined with great inventiveness.

During a scant ten weeks in the summer of 1788, Mozart wrote three outstanding symphonies, highly innovative in their complexity and length. He was thirty-two and living in Vienna, a city which had offered him numerous opportunities in the past. Musically, it had provided a platform combining excellent musicians and enthusiastic audiences. In more personal terms, it was the place where he had freed himself from the emotional pressure exerted by his father Leopold and his former employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg. However, Viennese audiences were no longer interested in his masterful modernist compositions. When Mozart composed these, his last three symphonies, he was thought of as a ‘dissonance hunter.’ In this symphonic ‘trilogy,’ Mozart illuminates all aspects of human expression, quite independently of his personal situation. Each work presents a different character. No. 39 in E flat major contains numerous elements reminiscent of chamber music, while no. 40 in G minor makes clear references to opera. No. 41 in C major includes formal elements from Baroque music (overture, concerto, fugue). Its synthesis of sonata form and fugue was, and still is, a tour de force that could only have been written by Mozart.

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REVIEW:

These are exciting, distinctive readings that don't make the music into something that it is not. Tempos, while decidedly brisk, do not seem rushed, even in the slow movements. The sense of excitement thus produced feels real, not artificially forced upon the music. The readings are full of ideas that seem inevitable.

– Fanfare

Aaron Pilsan is only twenty-five years old, but he already has a busy career to his credit, with a solo album devoted to Beethoven and Schubert - very well received by the critics - and another of duo repertory with the cellist Kian Soltani. A student of Lars Vogt, he has also received guidance from András Schiff - Bach has always been at the center of their work together. The young Austrian pianist has been fascinated since childhood by The Well-Tempered Clavier, ‘that musical journey on which Bach embarks with us in Book One: from the seemingly simple and joyful triad of the famous Prelude in C major to the final fugue, of a complexity almost worthy of Schoenberg, on a subject that already includes the twelve semitones of the chromatic scale . . . Ever since I became interested in Bach’s music, I have never ceased to ask myself how to make the modern grand piano - which has a rich fundamental sound but a reduced volume of harmonics compared to the harpsichord - produce an essentially “well-tempered” impression on the listener... But for me it was not a question of instrumental history, but of interpretation.'

The Niquet, Shirley & Dino trio was formed on the occasion of Purcell's King Arthur, a show that marked the lyric stage and the world of the DVD. Five years later, their complicity has been further reinforced, and they present a work close to Herv� Niquet's heart: Boismortier's Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse. This opera-ballet, written for Carnival and first performed in Paris in 1743, occupies a particular place in Herv� Niquet's career since it was the first work played by Le Concert Spirituel 27 years ago: 'In addition to being composed by a genius of the Enlightenment, this comic opera is a gem of music, wit and humour,' says he. The wit of the famous Benizio couple is felicitously expressed in this story of which they have rewritten the comedy scenes, which had disappeared: 'From this succession of episodes, one more incongruous than the next, from this incredible accumulation of remarkably constructed gags (Niquet as Don Quichotte, Corinne Benizio/Shirley in a hilarious cantadora number, accompanied by Herv� Niquet with castanets, Gilles/Dino singing - not too badly! - a courtly air with harpsichord whilst the hysterical Duchess bellows in the wings), ensues a perfectly mad show' (ResMusica). The whole thing with all the necessary strictness in reproducing the music... Worth noting: the performance of the singer-actors and the splendid costumes and sets. A total spectacle filmed at the Royal Opera of the Ch�teau de Versailles. Bonus: a 52-minute documentary on the behind-the-scenes preparation of the production. 'First of all, we must hail the remarkable writing and dramaturgical work that is marvellously faithful to the work's off-beat universe. In phase with the reading of Shirley and Dino, the prize goes to the orchestra and dynamic, lively and invigorating conducting. Decidedly, Niquet has no rivals for transmitting his boundless love for this Poulenc of the Enlightenment.'

For several years now, the guitarist and lutenist Björn Colell and the Baroque violinist Georg Kallweit, Konzertmeister of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, have formed a noted duo called Ombra e Luce: "With only two musicians and two instruments, we aspire to a perfect rapport and a permanent dialogue. We have access to a rich repertory of original pieces from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries for violin and lute/theorbo: this was a widespread combination, essentially before 1700. We work a great deal on tone colours and nuances, spontaneity and improvisatory playing – a flexible and sensual interpretation of the works we perform, giving full value to chiaroscuro: ombra e luce! We are convinced that, played in this way, our “early music” can speak directly to the hearts even of listeners who are hearing it for the first time. This new recording, “Passagio”, is the result of our recent musical journeys. Setting out from Italy to go farther north, we have virtually and musically crossed the Alps with our instruments. The works on this recording shed a different light on the music of the courts of Modena, Bologna and Venice."