Herve Niquet brings together two posthumous tributes to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette for the first time, with Charles-Henri Plantade's Requiem making its recording debut.

Both this work and the Cherubini Requiem cast fascinating reflections on the music of the past as well as offering intimations of the future. The Cherubini is monumental in conception, symphonic in style, befitting its commissioned purpose.

Niquet brings fresh artistry and specifically French authority honed over decades with Le Concert Spirituel to both works.

Paavo Järvi inaugurates his new contract as conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich with a programme devoted to Messiaen. Alpha Classics will accompany this extremely promising combination: "I’ve always admired French music very much. (...) I think Messiaen is the most original voice, someone absolutely unique. You need only listen for three seconds to a work by Messiaen to be sure that it is by him. His style is so clear, so unmistakable. In his two early works Les Offrandes oubliées and Le Tombeau resplendissant, religion and mysticism play an important role. If you listen carefully, you will notice how a harmony is continually transformed, so that you can never predict what sound will come next. But Messiaen’s harmonic language is not experimental: it produces an inevitable meaning, and you get the feeling that the chord sequence can be that way and no other. Music is a language of its own; music begins where words leave off."

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REVIEWS:

Järvi has the full measure of L'Ascension. He sustains momentum and tension through some tricky, slow metronome marks and draws a sumptuously appointed weight of sound from the Tonhalle strings.

This is the first recording to do full justice to Le tombeau resplendissant. The piece emerges not as an inferior sequel to Les offrandes oubliées but as a powerful and deeply personal symphonic poem in its own right, precociously establishing Messiaen’s orchestral voice for all the evident debts to Franck in form, Scriabin in harmony and Berlioz in orchestration – hardly negligible models to follow.

– Gramophone

The Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich is finest form, providing focused playing of remarkable clarity of texture and expressive phrasing. Overall, Järvi’s requirement for accuracy and attention to detail has commendable integrity, essential in this music.

– MusicWeb International

Supporting new talents is in Alpha's DNA. Here is the very first recording of the Italian pianist Filippo Gorini, who was recently awarded First Prize in the Telekom-Beethoven Competition in Bonn. He has also won the same competition's Audience Prize twice over. At just twenty years of age, he has already played in such prestigious venues as the Berlin Konzaerthaus, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Die Glocke in Bremen, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Moscow Conservatory. Strongly supported by Alfred Brendel, with whom he studies, he has chosen to tackle a monument of the piano repertory, the Diabelli Variations, a work whose interpretation he has matured through frequent performance, notably at the Beethoven Competition where it was the key item in his winning programme. And, appropriately, it is at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn that he made this first albu, the start of a highly promising recording career.

In a world like ours, shaped by centrifugal forces, even a monumental corpus like Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas can appear in a new light. Chronological examination of its genesis reveals fascinating parallels. – The Sonatas op.2 were published in the last year of the French Revolution. – The ensuing wave of political migration reached Vienna and also affected Elector Maximilian Franz, who was not only the brother of Marie Antoinette and Emperor Joseph II but had also been Beethoven’s employer in Bonn. – Beethoven gave compositional form to the triumph and downfall of a tyrant who brought war to Europe and occupied Vienna. – After the international peace conference of 1815, he vigorously embarked on writing modernistic late works in opposition to the emerging police state and its postmodern entertainment culture.

Konstantin Lifschitz applies strict criteria in order to realize the groundbreaking compositional dynamics of these works. He shows his musical independence by supplementing the cycle of sonatas with the Allegretto WoO 53, and still has much to tell us about it, defying past and present fashions. The fact that he recorded the massive cycle live on eight consecutive days also makes this set a monument in its own right.

The Orpheus myth was as important for the birth of opera in France as it had been in Italy. In 1684, Charpentier composed a work for three voices, Orphée descendant aux Enfers. With this piece, remarkable for its style and concision, he showed how well he had assimilated Carissimi’s art. It is a dramatic scene, similar to the ‘sacred histories’ of the Roman master. The text, by an unknown author, narrates Orpheus’ quest for his beloved in the Underworld. The hero’s haute-contre gives him an elegiac timbre – this was the vocal register in which Charpentier, himself a singer, excelled. In 1687 he created his second illustration of the myth, La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers. In its two acts can be discerned the outline of a possible complete opera – the manuscript has reached us shorn of the third act in which Orpheus would presumably have lost Eurydice before being devoured by the Maenads. While La Descente d’Orphée has already been recorded several times, the Orphée of 1684 is a rarity and a magnificent discovery. In these two roles that might have been written for him, Reinoud van Mechelen is at the peak of his artistry, while his ensemble A Nocte Temporis and Lionel Meunier’s group Vox Luminis blend in perfect symbiosis.

This repertoire finds its roots in Scottish 17th century manuscripts. Rob Mackillop is THE specialist of this repertoire; he transmits all its beauty both as researcher at Edinburgh University and as reputed interpreter in traditional music circles. It was at his invitation that Alpha went over to Grovesraine Manor near Edinburgh to render an intimate practice of the Scottish traditional repertoire for two instruments, a practice no longer alive today. The acoustic magic of the manor’s sitting room is captured by Hugues Deschaux and lets us plunge into the mysteries of ancient Scotland, between melancholy and joyful dance.

Tracklisting:
1. The Lass of Peaty's Mill 1:45
2. Love Is the Cause of My Mourning 2:45
3. Mary Scott 2:47
4. The Last Time I came O'er the Moor 2:26
5. Fy Gar Rub Her O'er Wi' Strae 0:52
6. My dearie if thou die 1:50
7. Bonnie Nannie 0:49
8. The Duke of Lorains March 2:13
9. A Port 2:01
10. Lady Lie Nier Me 1:56
11. My Lady Binnis Lilt 1:09
12. I Long for the Virginitie 0:58
13. Lady Lothians Lilt 1:14
14. The Canaries 0:51
15. Jenny I Told You 1:47
16. Rhona's Tune 2:03
17. Maggie I Must Love Thee 7:27
18. Courante and Double 2:11
19. New Hilland Ladie 5:03
20. When Cold Storms Is Past 1:26
21. Women's Work Will Never Be Done 1:18
22. Angloise': Coming Through the Rye 1:11
23. Scots Tune I: Peggy, I Must Love Thee 1:35
24. Scots Tune II 1:09
25. Scots Tune III 1:52
26. Young Phaon 1:49
27. Montrosse Lynes 1:55
28. La Cloche 0:57
29. The Gilliflower 2:10
30. Scots Tune I 2:06
31. Scots Tune II 1:45
32. Sweet Willie 1:33
33. Oh Ye Bonny Christ Church Bells 1:32
34. When She Came In, She Bobbed 3:39
35. Auld Lang Syne 3:17

Leonardo Garc�a Alarc�n writes: "The memories of my childhood in Argentina always bring me back to the singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat, synonymous with shared family moments... Serrat's poetry and music around a barbecue in Argentina; "De vez en cuando la vida" made me cry as it has made millions of people cry in Latin America, Spain and elsewhere... Joan Manuel Serrat is part of our life, he is our Jacques Brel!... Or, if we project ourselves back to the sixteenth century, he is in a sense our little Camerata Fiorentina, that movement of Italian poets and musicians in Florence. Serrat has allowed the whole of Latin America and Spain to reappropriate the works of it's poets... He has also been synonymous with freedom and the struggle against dictatorial regimes. His song "Mediterraneo" is one of the emblematic pieces of his career. It is almost a hymn that has special resonance nowadays... I asked my good friend Quito Gato to arrange these songs for our ensemble, Cappella Mediterranea. The orchestration retains typical seventeenth-century instruments: recorders, cornett, violins, viola da gamba, cellos, lutes, harp, harpsichord, organ, with some percussion and a double bass. These period instruments allow us to travel back in time and compare Serrat's romances with the Ensaladas of Mateo Flecha (1481-1553), the polyphony of Guillaume Dufay, and a composition by Juan Cabanilles that recalls a Bach Passion. The Xacaras, a satirical genre from the Spanish Golden Age dialogues with Serrat's works, as does the M�sica callada of the Catalan composer Frederic Mompou, transcribed here for the harp."

After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue and Pink collections (a total of 56 reissues), which brought the pearls from the Baroque catalogues of the house labels back into the spotlight, here are fourteen new titles offering a chance to rediscover more Baroque treasures and rarities. Like the last series, this fifth installment also opens up to the Classical (Mozart) or Renaissance (Dufay) repertories – recordings that are an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. This series’ reissues are performed by the finest musicians in the field; most of these recordings received one or more awards on their first release. The albums come with proper booklets, including notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from many different backgrounds illustrate the covers of the series with their works: this time the main theme is the color white. The present album features Dietrich Buxtehude’s Ciaccona: Il Monde Che Gira performed by Maria Cristina Kiehr, Victor Torres, and Stylus Phantasticus.

Alpha Productions pursues it's collaboration with conductor Martin Haselb�ck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie in a disc devoted to Liszts transcriptions of works by Schubert. The Viennese conductor, a reputed Lisztian, sets great store by performance on period instruments (or faithful copies) as well as performance in venues full of history and of which the composer was fond. This volume, in the continuity of the Sound of Weimar series, initiated in 2011 by Martin Haselb�ck, was thus recorded in Raiding, Franz Liszts birthplace. Music lovers who have appreciated the fantastic piano transcriptions of orchestral works recorded by Yuri Martynov for Outhere, will henceforth be able to discover transcriptions for orchestra of Schubert piano works.

Soprano Jodie Devos, who has signed with Alpha for several recordings, here pays homage to Offenbach, whose bicentenary of his birth is celebrated in 2019. This programme shows Offenbach’s fascination with the vocal fireworks of coloratura divas. This kind of ‘lyric coloratura’ or ‘soprano leggero’ voice runs like a thread through most of the composer’s oeuvre, from his first pieces for two or three soloists to those grand frescoes of his maturity, La Vie parisienne, Robinson Crusoe, and Orphee aux Enfers. The coloratura soprano also adorns Offenbach’s less frivolous operettas (such as Fantasio), as well as his only serious opera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, in which the role of the doll (with only one aria, but what an aria!) is among the most famous in the entire French repertoire. Concocted collaboratively with Alexandre Dratwicki and the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this recorded programme- tailor-made for Jodie Devos- presents innumerable rarities from Mesdames de la Halle, Boule-de-Neige, Un mari a la porte, Le Roi Carotte, Le Voyage dans la lune, and Vert-Vert. In the famous duet, Oiseaux dans la charmille, she is joined by up and coming mezzo-soprano Adele Charvet.

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REVIEW:

The main thing to say about Devos – and her thoroughly idiomatic partner-in-frolic, Laurent Campellone – is that she (and this is a huge compliment) delivers all that is required of her, and more, with the apparent ease of one who knows how important it is to conceal the difficulty. The real kicker with this album is the way in which number after number springs its surprises. The vocal pyrotechnics are artfully designed to make one’s jaw hit the floor.

– Gramophone

'The senses reign, and Reason now is dead' (Petrarch). Giovanni Antonini, flautist and founder of the legendary Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, enjoys musical voyages, the discursiveness of music. He begins with an anonymous 16th century pavane, La Morte della Ragione (The Death of Reason), which he believes refers to In Praise of Folly, in which it's author Erasmus distinguishes between two forms of madness: 'a sweet illusion of the spirit,' and a negative form, 'one that the vengeful Furies conjure up from hell... ' This succession of 'musical pictures' leads us to the threshold of the baroque era, starting out with the Puzzle Canon by John Dunstable (1390- ca.1453), whose manuscript is an enigma, via the 'bizarre' style of Alexander Agricola (1446- ca.1506) and his obsessive, ostinato rhythm - almost an anticipation of minimalist music... to the improvisatory freedom of the Galliard Battaglia de Scheidt (1587-1654), a battle piece involving a great many diminutions or 'divisions', a common technique of improvisation in the Renaissance... This grand instrumental musical fresco of time and space is a kind of self-portrait of Giovanni Antonini and his longstanding musical colleagues.

14 distinct titles introduce this exciting new series uniting the finest Alpha and ZZT Baroque recordings. Discover - or rediscover - universally known works as well as world premiere recordings of rarities. Newly conducted artist interviews allow for fresh perspectives on their recordings. All releases, digipak in format with trilingual booklets, feature photographs by great (Magnum Cooperative) contemporary artists adorning the covers and a strong 'queen of colors' scheme, bringing to mind gods, kings, warriors, the devil, life, violence and death... Themes omnipresent in Baroque art!

Missa votive is among a handful of liturgical works composed late in the life of Jan Dismas Zelenka, the Bohemian musician who arrived at the Dresden court in or about 1710 as a violone player in the celebrated Hofkapelle of August II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. Throughout the 1720s, and whilst still employed as a performing musician, Zelenka composed constantly, mostly producing music for the recently established Catholic court church in Dresden. After the death of Dresden Kapellmeister Johann David Heinichen Zelenka became responsible for the direction of music in this royal chapel, a task at which he worked untiringly with neither appropriate title nor remuneration. The Missa votive draws attention to the health of the composer who had experienced at least two major bouts of illness during the 1730s. The autograph inscription on the cover of the score reads ‘Vota mea Domino reddam. Psal: 115. Versu 5…’ The fifth verse of Psalm 115 is ‘Vota mea Domino reddam coram omni populo ejus’ (I will pay my vows to the Lord, before all his people). Another Latin note at the end of the score states that the mass was composed in fulfillment of a vow. The work is one of the great masses created by Zelenka during the final years of his life.

Sarah Willis is a tireless ambassador for her instrument, the French horn, which she champions around the world. A horn player with the famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2001, she launched what was soon to become a famous TV programme, 'Sarah's Music,' for Deutsche Welle in 2014, interviewing personalities ranging from Gustavo Dudamel to Wynton Marsalis. The award-winning programme presents music with warmth and in all it's diversity. Sarah's other passion as born when she arrived in Cuba to give a horn masterclass. The music and the musicians she met there had a huge impact on her. Since then she has returned regularly and founded the Havana Horns, an ensemble of Cuban horn players who were featured in a 'Sarah's Music' episode. With 'Mozart y Mambo,' Sarah has created an album combining the music of one of the most famous classical music composers, W.A. Mozart and traditional Cuban music. "Mozart would have been a good Cuban" she was told in Havana, and this is what inspired her to create this project. With the Havana Lyceum Orchestra and it's exuberant conductor Jose Antonio Mendez Padron, she presents works for French horn and orchestra by W. A. Mozart (the Concerto No. 3 K. 447 and the Concert Rondo K. 371) alongside a 'Rondo alla Mambo' (inspired by the Concerto No. 3 K. 447) a 'Sarahnade Mambo,' a Cuban 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,' and other treats. A number of well-known local musicians take part in this recording, which also pays tribute to Cuban repertoire with two songs including 'Dos Gardenias,' made famous by Ibrahim Ferrer and the Buena Vista Social Club.

Classical Music