This production shows for the first time in two centuries Molière and Lully's comédie-ballet in its original and unabridged 1670-version, with the sung and danced interludes interwoven into the action, recreating the atmosphere of unbridled hilarity, which is the hallmark of comédie-ballet.

After the success of the first fourteen reissues, which restored to the limelight some of the gems of the early music repertory in the catalogues of our labels, here are fourteen new titles to allow listeners to renew acquaintance with further treasures of the Renaissance and Baroque (and even a journey through time thanks to Raphaël Imbert’s album Bach Coltrane), performed by some of the leading interpreters of the genre; most of these discs won one or more awards on their first release. As with the first series, the artists have been asked to contribute to the booklets, in which, with a few years’ hindsight, they talk about their conception of the works and how they went about recording them. The photographers of the Magnum agency illustrate the covers of the series with their work; this time the common design element is the colour yellow.

This recording, Déesses Outragées (offended Goddesses) presents the destinies of women in love, betrayed, abandoned or despairing. Agnès Mellon brings out all the fire and passion of these works.

We know very little about Ruiz Samaniego, Kapellmeister in Saragossa during the second half of the 18th century. However, he left an abundant music production, including some villancicos. These polyphonic vocal works of theatrical origin have been adopted by the Church to celebrate their main feasts. Sung in Spanish, not in Latin, they are built on a religious thematic, mostly in the form of dialogues and they frequently use musical elements of popular origin. Very little explored, the Spanish Baroque vocal music is a world of many rich artistic treasures that cry to be rediscovered. The villancicos of Ruiz Samaniego are undoubtedly part of these treasures, as witnesses of an artistic universe specific to Spain, in which spirituality and sensuality are irremediably fused.

During the 18th century, the manufacture of harpsichords reached its climax; very soon after, a victim of changing tastes, the harpsichord abandoned its dominance to the pianoforte, seen as an incarnation of progress. Jacques Duphly, then, wrote the final pages of French harpsichord history, in works where nobility vies with eloquence. Born in 1715 (the year of Louis XIV’s death) and buried in July 1789 (just before the Revolution), he represents the perfect summary of an art form that once radiated throughrout Europe.

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DUPHLY La Forqueray. Médée . Allemandes: en do; en ré. Courante La Boucon . Rondeaux. La Millettina. La Pothoüin . Chaconne. Courante. La Vanlo. Les Grâces. La de Belombre. La Félix • Elisabeth Joyé (hpd) • ALPHA 150 (75:00)


The grandson of one celebrated organist and trained by another, following his father’s death in 1742, Duphly speedily abandoned his appointments in the same profession in his native Rouen. He moved to Paris and chose a very different musical career, concentrating exclusively upon the harpsichord and private tutoring. He proved very successful, suggesting through numerous dedications and musical portraits his relationships with the highest artistic circles and musical patrons among the upper nobility. He seems to have been especially noted for his playing. D’Aquin de Château-Lyon wrote that Duphly “has a certain light touch, and a certain gentleness, which, with the addition of ornaments, renders the character of his pieces marvelously,” and Rousseau later quoted Duphly in his Musical Dictionary on the matter of fingering: “This perfection is generally achieved by a soft, light, regular touch.” Further elaboration results in what, in hindsight, would be some of the same goals of the French piano school of the 19th century, but that’s a matter for some other review. Suffice it to say that if Rousseau isn’t just placing his words in another’s mouth (which he did on more than one occasion), then Duphly emphasized clarity, proper ornamentation, and evenness of touch, even in those works of his that included rapid scales, figurations, and arpeggiated passages.


I mention these points because Elizabeth Joyé’s performances bring them to mind. While some other fine harpsichordists, such as Skip Sempé (Paradizo 0007) and Mitzi Meyerson (MDG 6005 1068), have produced fiery and virtuosic renditions of such pieces as La Millettina and the Rameau-like La de Belombre , Joyé is more measured in pace. Yet her version of these works lacks nothing for spirit, because she doesn’t rely solely upon excitement, as Sempé does; nor does she allow lengthy pauses to hang poised in midair between pairs of furious gallops. Though it may seem a bit simplistic to observe this, Joyé substitutes the exhilaration of the music itself for the excitement of a performance that draws attention away from the music. She allows us to focus instead on the irregular thematic rhythms and on how well Duphly’s harmonic accompaniments suit them.


At more moderate tempos, the rhythmic variety and passing harmonies of the Chaconne establish themselves fully without overwhelming the amiability of the piece. La Félix struts magnificently, and the melancholy lyricism of the Courante La Boucon makes itself felt without losing the gentle, forward flow of its 6/8 beat. Les Grâces is the slowest thing on the album and the most difficult to perform in several respects, given the importance of the notes inégales and an inflected but still metrical pacing. I find that John Paul (Lyrichord 8053), in his otherwise excellent survey of Duphly’s complete harpsichord music, loses the pacing here, as he does in La Pothoüin , but Joyé finds it unerringly.


La Félix also showcases the unusually fine, deep bass of the harpsichord used on this album, which is located in the Château d’Assas. Many images, both color and black and white, are devoted to it in the liner notes; and much attention is paid in a small but fine essay to its painted interior, depicting Apollo, Pan, and Midas. However, nothing is passed along about the instrument itself, its approximate age, any previous or recent restorations, the number and size of registers, the quality of its original materials, the casing, the tuning, etc.


The sound is close and moderately dry, and attractive liner notes are provided. Definitely recommended.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Ensemble Nevermind made a good impression via the Alpha Classics label with their Conversations album, and this Telemann programme also surpasses expectations for range and sheer variety of musical content, showing how canny 18th century masters were in making the most out of small chamber ensembles.

Telemann’s influence as a composer spread throughout Europe in the first half of the 18th century in no small part due to distribution of his chamber music from his own publishing house. This quality of this work reached the attention of flautist and composer Michael Blavet, and an invitation went out to Germany for Telemann to join in the salons and Concerts Spirituel that represented the height of musical fashion in the French capital at the time.

The quartet format heard in this stylish recording might well have been cooked up between Blavet and Telemann, but whatever its origins the combination of flute, violin, viola da gamba or cello and harpsichord ticks all the boxes for contrast of timbre and flexibility when it comes to applying pretty much any compositional technique of the period. Concerto movements can be found, as in the Prélude to the Quatuor no. 4, variations appear in Quatuor no. 6, which opens with a French overture, and dance forms of various kinds that are disguised under French expression markings such as Coulant or tempo indications such as Vite.

Pieces intended for the consumption of elite concertgoers might be expected to be somewhat superficial, and while there is goodly entertainment to be had throughout, there are plenty of movements and passages which affect the emotions more strikingly that you might have anticipated. The solemn ecclesiastical origins of the Fuguette that opens this programme makes it a case in point, and while all too brief the fourth movement Largo from the Concerto No. 1 can compete with Telemann’s contemporary, J.S. Bach. Contrast is all, and hardly anything here lingers beyond a five minute duration. More substantial movements, such as the Prélude to Quatuor No. 6, have their contrasting sections, with improvisatory playing adding spice to slower tempi, and little rhythmic tricks adding spice to the faster sections, played with improvisatory flair by Nevermind’s expert musicians.

Recorded closely but with an excellent refinement of balance that blends the harpsichord with the other instruments, this is a production for long-term delight. The Sonate in F major TWV 43:F1 may be a world premiere recording, the present version being one adapted from an original scored for four strings and continuo. Documentation about the instruments played is included in the booklet, and all sound very nice indeed, the transverse flute played with sweet nuance by Anna Besson, who interestingly swaps for a piccolo in the Vite of Quatuor No. 4. For Telemann fans and those intrigued by what happens when German baroque meets French fashion, this is a must.

– MusicWeb International (Dominy Clements)

As eldest son of Louis XIV, Louis of France, nicknamed le Grand Dauphin, was marked out to become king of France at his father's death. He was therefore given the education of a monarch, as this would have been conceived in the 17th century: running the affairs of the kingdom required knowledge of diplomatic and commercial relations, but also the acquisition of the external manifestations the Sun King had resorted to so skilfully, subjecting architecture, drama, painting and music to the requirements of his government. Just like his father, the Dauphin surrounded himself with chosen personalities, amongst whom the composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Removed from an official position at court by the talent and the intrigues of Lully, he was not allowed to write for the opera, for which the "Surintendant de la musique" had obtained a royal privilege. He therefore concentrated his creative activity primarily on sacred music, giving it the "Italian style" expressivity he had learned in Rome, where he had studied with Carrissimi. This religious lyricism deploys itself in the motets composed for Monseigneur's religious services. The later would remain Dauphin for eternity since he died in 1711, four years before his father.

Bruno Helstroffer writes of his new release: "It's a logbook, the one I've never really kept. My years of blues/rock and early music mingle here; the thousands of kilometers travelled with that theorbo of mine, the cities and the countryside, the railways, the skies, the scents, the lights; but above all, the music of the people. 'Partite variate sopra quest'aria francese detta l'alemana' is a tablature by Piccinini of an aria also called La Monica. In North America in the late nineteenth century, railroad hoboes carved their vagabond pseudonym along the tracks, which they called their 'moniker'... 'Corrente VI sopra l'alemana,' by the same composer, is the energetic counterpart to the noble and meditative allemande. 'Like a Belfry' is taken from a dream... Rosemary Standley has set her words to the melody and sings them. J. H. Kapsberger's 'Toccata nona' is associated here with Perivoli Blue. Perivoli is a village in the south of the island of Corfu. 'Thanks Toumani' expresses my fascination with Mandingo music. Bellerofonte Castaldi's 'Arpeggiata a mio modo' was one of my first challenges on the theorbo. Erik Satie's 'Gnossienne no.1' arrived under my fingers without warning and made a place for itself here by fitting in so naturally that I couldn't say no to it. This is the piece chosen by my photographer friend Richard Dumas to make the video clip of the album. With Kapsberger's 'Bergamasca,' a dance from Bergamo in Italy, the theorbo becomes a festive and agile instrument. 'A Tea with Bach' is an arrangement of the Minuet from Bach's Cello Suite no.1. The 'Toccata Undicesima' serves as the introduction to an improvisation: Vos luths. And invokes India."

'I want to move and be moved. Everything about music is moving'; these are the words in which Wolfgang Rihm once stated his musical credo. His chamber opera Jakob Lenz has in the meantime become one of the most frequently performed works in the 20thcentury German opera repertoire. Based on Georg B�chner's novella about the poet Jakob Lenz's unavoidable decline into madness, Wolfgang Rihm builds a highly charged atmosphere that leads us compellingly to a dramatic denouement. As a result of the wealth of musical styles - ranging from spoken text through Sprechgesang and recitative to fully elaborated coloratura - and of harmonic techniques - atonality, widened tonality and pure tonality - this work is sometimes compared to Berg's Wozzeck. After K�t'a Kabanov� and La Traviata, Andrea Breth is returning to La Monnaie for a radical interpretation of this deeply moving work. After a first recording published by Alpha, dedicated to the Bach family, Georg Nigl is amazing in the main role.

Haydn2032, the ambitious project of recording the complete symphonies of Haydn, has been placed from the start under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini, with two ensembles, Il Giardino Armonico, which made the first four volumes, and the Kammerochester Basel, to which this fifth volume and the next two are assigned. Another characteristic of the edition is that each time Haydn is set in perspective with another composer; here it is Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-92): ‘Kraus was the first man of genius that I met. Why did he have to die? It is an irreparable loss for our art. The Symphony in C minor he wrote in Vienna specially for me is a work which will be considered a masterpiece in every century’, said Haydn in 1797. Though he long remained forgotten after his death, Kraus made an active contribution to the movement of poetic renewal called ‘Sturm und Drang’ or ‘Geniezeit’ (time of genius) because such artists as the young Goethe broke free of all tradition to follow their hearts alone. When Haydn called Kraus homme de genie, in French, he probably had this context in mind. The two composers had met in Vienna in 1783.

For more than a century, from the last Valois kings to the early years of the reign of Louis XIV, the air de cour was truly the emblematic genre of French secular music. The term bears witness to the influence on and transformation by worldly and literate circles of vocal genres of popular origin such as the vaudeville, combined with Italian influences (the villanella), based on the principles of a simple strophic musical setting that facilitated understanding of the poetic text. Three composers dominated the production of airs de cour in the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII, bringing the genre to it's peak: Pierre Gu�dron (1565-1620), Antoine Boesset (1587-1643) and �tienne Moulini� (1599-1676). To mark the twentieth anniversary of his ensemble, Vincent Dumestre has chosen to celebrate the air de cour by bringing together excerpts from his five recordings devoted to the genre. A book accompanies this double album, including an article written by Thomas Leconte of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, a rich array of illustrations and an article on the historical context by Alexandre Maral, Curator General at the Mus�e National du Ch�teau de Versailles.

Classical Music

Georg Philipp Telemann, one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque era. Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico have taken this opportunity to pay tribute to his eclecticism in a programme juxtaposing works that move constantly between French and Italian stylistic traditions. On this disc, Giovanni Antonini not only directs the ensemble, but also returns to the recorder, his own instrument of choice (as it was the composer’s), and performs the Suite in A minor, the Concerto in C major and the Concerto da camera in G minor. We will also discover a curiosity, a sonata for chalumeaux. This instrument of folk origins is comparable to the clarinet, and Telemann was the first composer to show an interest in it.

With the participation of: Tindaro Capuano, Enrico Onofri.

This production of Francesco Cavalli’s Il Giasone was filmed in January 2017 at the Grand Théâtre of Geneva. It forms a part of the ‘Cavalli tetralogy’ of the past few years, conducted by the man who has become Cavalli’s great ambassador: Leonardo Garcia Alarcón. Il Giasone, Dramma musicale, in a Prologue and Three Acts, first performed on 5 January 1649, alternates the tragic with the comic, with no concern for fidelity to the mythological legend of Jason and Medea. Francesco Cavalli’s opera, composed for the carnival season in Venice, presents a mosaic of contrasted episodes, rich in musical emotions. His music here attains a remarkable degree of evocative power, with la musica having the upper hand over la dramma. Il Giasone represents the subtle equilibrium between lyricism and narrative. The comic, the tragic, and the supernatural all meet and mingle, and Cavalli’s Lamenti – forming the climax of the work – are particularly unequalled,. Resolutely burlesque and zany, Serena Singaglia’s production celebrates the opera’s sensuality. Le Temps commented: ‘In the pit, the Cappella Mediterranea with Garcia Alarcón pursue a sense of musical flux with delicacy, lightness and quick-footedness, ideally responding to the score’s demands. With an instrumental sound that is both round and sprightly, they succeed in capturing the ludic dimension of the work, its melodic freshness, and its harmonic tensions. Drama and rapture are artfully fused together.”

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REVIEW:

The top-notch cast really savor the score’s lyricism, balancing all the cross-dressing camp with something disarmingly heartfelt. Dominique Visse is an irrepressible Delfa, taking ‘her’ pleasure wherever possible, and there are fine cameos from the veteran tenor Raúl Giménez as the cuckolded Egeo (cruelly styled as Peter Ustinov’s Poirot in Death on the Nile), Willard White’s Oreste and Migran Agadzhanyan as a nervily energetic Demo.

– Gramophone

Haydn2032, the ambitious project of recording the complete symphonies of Haydn, has been placed from the start under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini, with two ensembles, Il Giardino Armonico, which made the first four volumes, and the Kammerochester Basel, to which this fifth volume and the next two are assigned. Another characteristic of the edition is that each time Haydn is set in perspective with another composer; here it is Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-92): ‘Kraus was the first man of genius that I met. Why did he have to die? It is an irreparable loss for our art. The Symphony in C minor he wrote in Vienna specially for me is a work which will be considered a masterpiece in every century’, said Haydn in 1797. Though he long remained forgotten after his death, Kraus made an active contribution to the movement of poetic renewal called ‘Sturm und Drang’ or ‘Geniezeit’ (time of genius) because such artists as the young Goethe broke free of all tradition to follow their hearts alone. When Haydn called Kraus homme de genie, in French, he probably had this context in mind. The two composers had met in Vienna in 1783.

Two centuries of organ music at the Chapelle Royale, Versailles . . . The recently restored organ of the chapel bears witness to the glorious past of this historic site and the magnificence of the royal liturgy. This project, entrusted to the four resident organists of the instrument, presents a rich panorama of the composers who had the privilege of entering the Versailles organ loft, from the Couperin dynasty to Balbastre. It forms part of a new series produced by Alpha with the Château de Versailles, which will present the fruits of the latest research into the organ repertory in a sumptuous edition.

Born in Venice around 1670, Caldara gave Barcelona the first opera ever heard in Catalonia, Il pi� bel nome (1708), commissioned by his patron, the future Emperor Charles VI, before eventually settling in Vienna in the latter's service in 1716. A prolific composer with three thousand works to his credit, Caldara died in the Austrian capital in 1736 - in the K�rtnerstrasse, like Vivaldi five years later, and in a similar state of destitution. The genre, born in the wake of the Counter-Reformation and illustrated notably by the Roman composers Carissimi and Landi, was initially sung in Latin and performed in pious confraternities. But La Maddalena is an oratorio volgare, that is, sung in Italian. The protagonists of La Maddalena, six in number, are split between Earth and Heaven. They are Martha, Mary Magdalene and a Pharisee on the one hand; Jesus, Earthly Love and Divine Love on the other. They divide among them thirty-three arias and ensembles, in a sequence alternating recitative and aria.

In spite of the immense success he enjoyed in his lifetime, Sigismund Neukomm (born in Salzburg in 1778, died in Paris in 1858 at the age of eighty) is practically forgotten nowadays. Yet he left a catalogue of nearly two thousand works, including fifty masses and a number of oratorios and motets. Neukomm spent twenty years in the service of Prince Talleyrand, who commissioned him to write a requiem mass in memory of Louis XVI, guillotined in Paris on 21 January 1793. This was the second mass of the fifty he was eventually to compose, several of which were dedicated to monarchs. The Requiem was given at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna on 21 January 1815 by more than three hundred singers divided into two choirs. Neukomm conducted one of them, while the other was directed by his friend Salieri. As part of their joint series of recordings, the Château de Versailles and Alpha continue their rediscovery of repertory that has marked the history of France and of music. Here Jean-Claude Malgoire conducts this unpublished Requiem. This is the first appearance in the Alpha catalogue of this pioneering figure from the golden age of the exploration of Baroque performing practice.

Chouchane Siranossian is a rising star of the baroque and classical violin, Jakob Lehmann a virtuoso violinist and orchestral director who frequently conducts Anima Eterna. Together, they embody what the Bruges orchestra and its founder, Jos van Immerseel, have decided to call the ‘Next Generation Anima Eterna’… Today they are presenting Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in its original version. "We wanted to take a look into Mendelssohn’s workshop. He struggled with his self-diagnosed ‘revision disease’ and always strove to work hard on himself and his creations" says Jakob Lehmann. Chouchane Siranossian continues, "It was a fascinating experience for me to discover historical research and its implementation on period instruments in collaboration with Anima Eterna Brugge. In my interpretation, I used exclusively the fingerings, bowings and other performance markings of Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim, both of whom rehearsed the work with the composer." This recording is rounded off with the Octet, also in its original version, which is longer and has many alterations in instrumentation, harmony and articulation.

The musicians featured on this new release write: “For some years now we have been interested in the experiments of composers on the frontiers of Baroque musical language. The music of the sons of Bach and especially of Carl Philipp Emanuel has already come to fascinate us, and we had the same urge to discover and let ourselves be surprised when we decided to tackle Geminiani. To immerse ourselves in his op.7 was an exciting process, questioning our experience of Baroque music and rousing the enthusiasm of all the musicians of Café Zimmermann.” (Celine Frisch, harpsichord) “WHAT?!” was the first stunned reaction of the musicians after reading through Geminiani’s Concertos op.7. A composition that is invariably controversial, at once surprising and familiar. Then it was a new discovery with each concerto, with different textures and styles from one movement to the other. This music led us along unexpected paths from the church to the theatre, from Italy to France, from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth.” (Pablo Valetti, violin) “Geminiani’s music reflects my state of mind, one foot in the seventeenth century and the other in the eighteenth. The rhetoric and architecture it employs are still compatible with the Baroque. But the choice and exploration of emotions are already very new, similar to the way we feel today. This state of inner contradiction was probably not always understood by Geminiani’s contemporaries, but it is exactly what we look for and admire nowadays.” (Petr Skalka, cello)

After two earlier Dvorák releases, the Trios nos.3 and 4 (Dumky) and the two Piano Quartets, Omri Epstein, Mathieu van Bellen and Ori Epstein are joined by one of their teachers at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, the violist Miguel da Silva (founder member of the famous Quatuor Ysaÿe) and the violinist Maria Milstein, who was also an artist in residence at the Music Chapel from 2011 to 2014. Together they continue this recording of the Czech composer’s complete chamber music with keyboard, this time in the two Piano Quintets and the Bagatelles. There is an obvious close rapport between these musicians, who share with us their passion for this repertory and their enjoyment of playing together. A gap of fifteen years separates Dvorák’s two Piano Quintets, which have few features in common except a shared home key: the First marks the debut of a youthful composer, while the Second shows him at the peak of his art. The Bagatelles, originally scored for two violins, cello and harmonium, are among his best-known short pieces.

Classical Music

"• World première recording! • With a first-rate cast, this new production from Alpha brings to light a major work of the French operatic heritage. • Pyrrhus by Pancrace Royer (also noted for his very fine – and virtuosic – harpsichord music) was first performed early in the reign of Louis XV. • Features the twenty-one tragédies lyriques on the subject of the Trojan War that were performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) between 1687 and 1730. • 2 CD Set"

This new release of early Irish music follows the success of Francois Lazarevitch’s earlier release, For ever Fortune, early music from Scotland. The repertoire here consists of old airs, dances, songs in Gaelic, and instrumental works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Lazarevitch performs here with Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, as well as with American tenor Robert Getchell.