Although Giuseppe Tartini was taught the first rudiments of music at the College of the Padri dell Scuole Pie in Capodistria, and may have received lessons in counterpoint from the Franciscan Bohuslav Cernohorsky in Assisi, many elements give the impression that the boy had an education that was anything but ‘academic,’ and that the future ‘maestro delle nazioni’ largely taught himself. However, there does exist a declared model for the music of Tartini, at least for a certain period: that of Corelli. His output seems dominated initially by the influence of his great predecessor in terms of both language and structure. The reference to folk music in his music is also obvious. Another interesting element in the sonatas presented on this release is the presence of mottoes of varying length placed next to the incipits of certain movements, and often written in a ciphered cuneiform alphabet invented by the composer. These are poetic quotations, mostly drawn from the works of Metastasio, although not all of them have been identified. At the end of this recording is one of Tartini’s very rare vocal pieces, the last composition copied into MS 1888/1. The poem Solitario bosco ombroso, based on a clearly Petrarchan model and on the classical antecedents of Tibullus and Propertius, was published for the first time by the poet Paolo Rolli in London in 1727, in a musical setting by Rolli himself.

Classical Music

The Elias Quartet has already recorded a complete cycle of Beethoven quartets at Wigmore Hall that was extremely well received by the critics. Now Sara Bitlloch, Donald Grant, Martin Saving and Marie Bitlloch present on Alpha an album devoted to Schumann: ‘We have always had a special affection for Robert Schumann’s Third Quartet. It’s one of the first works we played together. Since then we have often come back to it, as if to a splendid and familiar region that we think we know thoroughly, but which yields up new secrets with each visit. The Second Quartet, on the other hand, was a much later and more complicated discovery for us. The writing is so personal, so unidiomatic for the instruments, so full of nuances, that to begin with we found it hard to come up with a unanimous voice for this work. The enthusiasm of the first movement can easily turn into anxiety if you push it a bit too far. In the slow movement, the texture is sometimes so bare that to convey its tenderness you have to sustain it with great fervour. The capricious Scherzo is bristling with rhythmic pitfalls and requires a diabolical mastery of the instruments, while the Finale is an endless explosion of joy!’

-----

REVIEWS:

The Elias Quartet, whose penetration of Beethoven’s works is second to none, take Schumann’s anxiety fully into account, without in any way trying to make these later works comparable. A pity they couldn’t record all three.

– BBC Music Magazine

It’s not that their performances are so much leisurely as they are elastic. The music breathes in their hands; and even when they stretch a phrase as if to feel its emotional weight, it still sounds natural and right. The A major Quartet is, to my ears, the jewel of the set, and the Elias play it with profound tenderness.

– Gramophone

Last disc of the complete works for piano and piano and chamber music, this recording comes as the peak of a series which confirmed Eric Lesage as THE specialist of the Schumann repertoire. The harvest of outstanding reviews, for his recordings as much as for his very numerous concerts (several world tours), promises a brilliant future for this latest reference. This ultimate recording of the complete works for and with the piano by Schumann, the pure Saxon of the East, ends by the alpha and omega of his pianistic creation, such as glimpsed and heard in the West, in Rhineland. It thus opens on the Rhine, in Mannheim, with the charming Variations on the name 'Abegg" of 1830 and closes in Düsseldorf with the mysterious variations, called Geistervariationen, composed and copied out in February 1854, just before and right after his attempted suicide in the Rhine, leading to his permanent internment in Endenich (Bonn), facing the sacred river of the Germans...

Eric Lesage continues the flamboyant exploration of Robert Schumann's solo piano repertoire, all of them cornerstones of 19th century musical history. This momentous endeavour receives more and more critical acclaim and is recorded in optimal conditions (the outstanding acoustics of La Chaux-de-Fonds and brilliant sound by Jean-Marc Laisné). The complete recording of these works will come to an end by 2010 (the anniversary of Schumann's birth) and so crown its festivities.

Quatuor Van Kuijk writes of their new release: “When we approach a composer, we like to immerse ourselves in his or her early works, in order to understand the evolution of the person behind the score. It was quite naturally that the idea emerged of coupling a youthful quartet, no.10, composed at the age of sixteen, with a masterpiece by the mature Schubert, the “Death and the Maiden” Quartet no.14. As in the case of Mozart on our first recording, we wanted to present two different atmospheres with two quartets by the same composer. This journey through time sheds a new light on the later works, because the process of getting to know the young Franz Schubert naturally means deepening our knowledge of his language, but also allows us to refine our appropriation of the style, sound and articulation specific to him. In Quartet no.10, we tried to achieve purity in our playing, a crystalline sound that allows the music to unfold in the most fluid and natural way, keeping in mind the intimacy of the family living room for which these pages were written. In no.14, more tormented, brusquer, more intense, we attempt to pay homage to the work’s symphonic dimension, and to its most sombre, most violent asperities. Two sides to one man: the bright and dark faces of Schubert.” Quatuor Van Kuijk

-----

REVIEW:

The surface finish of these performances is astonishing. Their unanimity, tonal blend, and intonation are close to flawless, and they play with a fearlessness that can sometimes come across as audacity.

The quartet does on occasion disregard dynamic markings and gradations, and they also have a tendency to pounce on a sudden forte, holding back before they leap, to the point that it becomes a distracting affectation.

Yet, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Quatuor Van Kuijk are a brilliant young ensemble of enormous promise.

– Gramophone

Although the turn of the twentieth century marked the golden age of French song, the genre was generally accompanied on the piano and only rarely orchestrated by its composers. But Camille Saint-Saëns, a great lover of poetry, was also a champion of the orchestrated mélodie and the French coloristic style. He also wanted to counterbalance the overwhelming popularity of operatic arias in concert programmes. An immense admirer of Victor Hugo, Saint-Saëns set many of his poems to music, including L'Enlèvement, Rêverie, and Le Pas d'armes du Roi Jean, regarded as one of his masterpieces. Exoticism and a certain sense of the supernatural run through such songs as Danse macabre, one of the most popular pieces of classical music, but always heard nowadays either in its version for orchestra alone or performed by a singer with piano accompaniment. Of the twenty-five mélodies with orchestra listed in the catalogue of Saint-Saëns, nineteen are recorded here, all of them for the first time! With interpreters of the calibre of Yann Beuron and Tassis Christoyannis, the words are perfectly served here and the composer’s coloristic talents heard from the very first bars. This release of world premiere recordings is a genuine event that enables us to rediscover a whole segment of the history of vocal music, a renaissance made possible by the Fondation Bru Zane.

After a first disc devoted to Schmelzer, enthusiastically hailed by the critics ('Editor's Choice' Gramophone, 'Choc' of Classica), the ensemble Masques, conducted by Olivier Fortin, returns to Alpha with a programme combining works by Muffat, Kerll and Pachelbel along with those of a composer who has remained largely unknown and totally forgotten: Romanus Weichlein (1652-1706). Benedictine monk, prefect and official composer of the Benedictine abbey of S�ben, Romanus Weichlein left several collections of sonatas and masses as well as large chaconnes, magnificent works in the tradition of his compatriots Biber, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky� and Georg Muffat. In this new program, Masques presents both ensemble pieces and others for solo or two harpsichords (the second harpsichord being played by Skip Semp�), always featuring the expressiveness, eloquence and profound interpretation for which it is known.

With the present release, the Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck continue the Resound Beethoven series, performed on period instruments and scrupulously respecting the orchestral layout of 200 years ago. Volume 6 is devoted to the Eighth Symphony, premiered in 1814, and the Piano Concerto in D major op.61a, first performed in 1808. Beethoven made this piano arrangement of his Violin Concerto at the request of fellow composer and music publisher Muzio Clementi, who wished to publish it in London. The recording featured here took place in the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Old University) in Vienna, where many important works by Beethoven received their first performance. The Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch, well known for his authentic interpretations of Beethoven’s music, is the soloist in this rarely performed concerto.

The fruitful partnership between the Alpha label, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and the Palazzetto Bru Zane continues with this set of chamber music by Anton Reicha, performed by the musicians of the Chapel, young talents of an exceptionally high standard, ready and willing to take up the challenge of this music. A key figure of the early nineteenth century, this Czech composer who became a naturalised French citizen did not leave his contemporaries indifferent. Both his music and his theoretical writings set zealous partisans against fierce detractors. This three-part album, assembling pieces from different genres and periods, gives an insight into the richness of the composer’s extremely prolific output of chamber music, whose originality can still fascinate us nearly two centuries after his death: it illustrates the diversity of the instrumental genres he tackled (sonatas, fugues, études and variations for piano; piano trio, string quartet, string quintet) and a compositional art characterised at once by perfect mastery – as one would expect from someone trained by Haydn in Vienna between 1802 and 1808 – and by the greatest originality.

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 Rapha�l 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. In addition to the 13 titles shown below, the album FIRENZE 161 by LE POEME HARMONIQUE, VINCENT DUMESTRE, will also be reissued.

Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, guided by François Lazarevitch’s virtuoso flute, have already led us along the roads of Ireland and Scotland, notably the High Road to Kilkenny, a great success in 2016. This time, they venture into England with an essentially secular programme devoted to Henry Purcell (1659-95), varying the mood by alternating between instrumental dances and songs performed by the English countertenor Tim Mead, including ‘O Solitude’ and ‘What power art thou’. While Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien have chosen these celebrated pieces for pleasure above all, with this English programme they also fill in a new piece in their jigsaw map of the United Kingdom. At the same time, they demonstrate the musical porosity of Ireland, Scotland and England – and the atypical colors of the small string ensemble complemented by two flutes, a harp and harpsichord/lute continuo further underline the fact. The common thread, dear to Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, is that of folk music lying at the heart of art music, in a mixture of origins, practices and repertories. We can easily recognize ‘Scotch and Irish tunes’ that Purcell incorporates in his overtures, jigs, hornpipes and chaconnes. The countertenor Tim Mead punctuates the dances with songs composed for the operatic or dramatic stage or for chamber performance.

Vox Luminis already boasts an impressive discography, orientated mainly towards sacred music and German repertoire (its album devoted to music by Heinrich Schütz won the Gramophone ‘Best Recording of the Year’ Award in 2013). Now this ensemble, founded nearly fifteen years ago by Lionel Meunier, has scaled one of the summits of English music: the legend of King Arthur and his mentor the wizard Merlin inspired one of Henry Purcell’s most popular successes, King Arthur, a semi-opera on which Purcell lavished all his exuberant musical and theatrical inventiveness. In this revelatory new reading, the Vox Luminis vocal sound always perfectly matches the mix of choruses and highly characterized vocal solos. Prior to recording, the group presented the work in many semi-staged concerts, notably in Britain, where this Franco-Belgian ensemble has enjoyed enormous success, becoming one of the most respected European ambassadors for baroque music-making.

-----

REVIEW:

This King Arthur is a giddy triumph for its artists. Blazing their way through the score, the performers set a new benchmark, delivering a production that’s equally gutsy and gorgeous. Dance meters swing, and grand choruses are crisp and alluring. Amorous ensembles ooze passion, with guest soprano Sophie Junker irresistible as Cupid. Director Lionel Meunier is the real star, with a soaring vision of Purcell’s music in a class of its own.

– BBC Music Magazine

Vox Luminis harvest the fruits of Purcell and Dryden’s collaborative imagination with affectionate lucidity. The band never sounds as small as it actually is. The playing has admirable finesse. The Saxons’ heathen sacrifices in Act 1 flow with unerring pacing and harmonic shaping. It has been decades since a recording of any of Purcell’s operas has been as enjoyable as this.

– Gramophone

Alpha Classics continues its collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and presents a programme devoted to compositions by its conductor and artistic director, Matthias Pintscher. bereshit, ‘in a beginning’ in Hebrew, is a piece on the subject of divine creation. The architecture of the work refers to the idea of the growth of the elements out of nothingness to their finished state: the colours, the harmonies are therefore always redefined by what precedes and follows them. Songs from Solomon’s garden – still in a highly spiritual dimension – explores amorous passion through the shir ha shirim (Song of Songs). The poetic density of this text is underlined here, with the only repeated phrase of the work taking on a quasi-incantatory signification: ‘she-cholat ahava ani’ (for I am sick of love).

This album is a live recording from a November 2014 performance of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in honor of composer Peter Eotvos who was then celebrating his seventieth birthday.; These three concertos are world premiere recordings.; DoReMi is performed here by Midori, it's dedicatee. Following DoReMi is Eotvos' Cello Concerto Grosso, and Speaking Drums.; All three of these works show a compositional genius in Peter Eotvos, and the theatrical performances by the musicians, particularly in Speaking Drums, provide an invaluable listening experience.