Jos Van Immerseel celebrates his 70th birthday with three important releases punctuating the year's end at Alpha: a symphonic program (Janacek, Dvorak), a chamber music program (Schubert) and a set grouping re releases of his French music recordings. With his musicians and companions from Anima Eterna, he has created a veritable musical troupe, in turn students, orchestral players, soloists... Together, they seek the sound and style corresponding to their ideal, waiting months if necessary for the appropriate instrument to be ready before programming it. Happy Birthday, Mister Jos!

MOZART Serenades: in D, K 239, “Serenata notturna”; in G, K 525, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik.” Divertimento in B, K 287 • Patrick Cohën-Akenine (vn), cond; Les Folies Francaises • ALPHA 092 (71:10)


Les Folies Francaises is a group of 18 musicians here led by violinist Patrick Cohën-Akenine in three occasional works, two very famous, and one relatively neglected. Perhaps neglected is not the ideal word for the Divertimento in B, yet it has received infinitely fewer recordings than the “Serenata notturna” and the ever-popular “Eine kleine Nachtmusik.” I have all three in lovely recordings by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, several in distinguished recordings by Colin Davis, Eugen Jochum, and there are more modern recordings, equally charming, by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In fact, the choices are vast.


Les Folies Francaises offers early-music balances and transparency. The timpani are prominent in the opening march of the “Serenata notturna,” which was recorded in a resonant space that lets the drum sound unfold. The engineers were also alert to the conversational quality of this Serenade and of the other two pieces. We hear the solos strings separated, though not excessively, from the larger group in a way I find effective and even illuminating. The echo effects, or something like them, in “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” are especially well done. The performances are perky, clear, dance-like, and meant to charm rather than overwhelm. I never yearn for a larger group, or a more imposing sound. Without knowing for sure, one begins to believe that this was the way Mozart intended these pieces to be played.


FANFARE: Michael Ullman

The Lockenhaus International Chamber Music Festival is regarded as one of Austria’s most prestigious festivals: it was created by the violinist Gidon Kremer to offer a new vision of chamber music and the opportunity to create musical exchanges in an intimate setting. The cellist Nicolas Altstaedt succeeded Gidon Kremer in 2012 and now continues the spirit of the festival. For this first recording in partnership with Lockenhaus, he is joined by experienced partners, including the Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, the Hungarian violinist Barnabás Kelemen, the German pianist Alexander Lonquich – whose Schubert double album was recently released on Alpha (Alpha 433) – and the British violist Lawrence Power. Together they have selected two works, the Piano Quintet of Béla Bartók, a demanding composition, rarely performed even though it is considered an intensely personal work, and the String Trio of Sándor Veress, a former student of Bartók. Nicolas Altstaedt has joined Alpha for several recording projects that will illustrate the full range of his talents, in a highly eclectic range of music.

-----

REVIEW:

Bartók’s Piano Quintet summons Brahms and Strauss as obviously influences. I think it fair to say that Kelemen, Frang, Katalin Kokas, Altstaedt and Alexander Lonquich sell this lovable product of youthful creative excess more securely than any oft heir predecessors on disc. But what makes this CD unmissable is the Veress Trio, a masterpiece and a performance to match. I’ve already pencilled it in as a contender for next year’s Gramophone Awards.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

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

Today regarded as one of the most innovative and active Baroque ensembles on the international scene, Cappella Mediterranea has already made several distinguished recordings for the Ricercar label. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon will continue his diverse collaborations with Ricercar, but will also release several projects with Alpha Classics, beginning with this original program of music by one of his favorite composers, Claduio Monteverdi. On the occasion of a music theater piece performed at the Doge’s Palace in Venice which was centered on Poppea, whom her nurse Arnalta warns against the vices, Cappella Mediterranea recorded this anthology of arias and madrigals alternating between sins and virtues, performed by the singers who have made the ensemble’s reputation, including Francesca Aspromonte as Poppea, Mariana Flores in Si dolce e’l tormento among others, and the tenor Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro.

This creative program comes to us from German soprano Anna Prohaska. In this endeavor, Anna follows the queens of Egypt and Carthage, (Dido and Cleopatra), across first century Europe. The works featured on this release come from the biggest names in Baroque names, like Cavalli, Handel, Purcell, and Hasse, as well as lesser known composers such as Graupner and Castrovillari. These opera arias are all virtuosic and passionate, and Prohaska delivers them with a fervor that has solidified her reputation in the world of opera. This is the first in a series of releases that will be recorded by Anna Prohaska. For this release, she is joined by Il Giardino Armonico - one of today’s most accomplished Baroque ensembles. The ensemble is directed by Giovanni Antonini, who is also heard as a recorder soloist in some of these arias. Anna Prohaska is a leading star in her native Germany. She has sung on the world’s finest opera stages, including La Scala and Covent Garden.

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.

-----

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

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.

This programme of Neapolitan music, covering a vast historical span (from the Renaissance to the 20th century) is a 'manifesto' of the musical influences that have nurtured Marco Beasley. Guido Morini's arrangements, written especially for him, make the programme particularly appealing. In addition, it offers an original coherence by setting up 'bridges' between genres that are sometimes opposed from a musicological point of view but which have continued to provide food each other. For the first time, the musician explores the paths of crossover in the broadest sense and without complex: here, Marco Beasley confirms his nickname of 'the Baroque crooner' con brio. He also opens up new ways, proposing original orchestrations and making his a part of the colossal heritage that has influenced the modern cultures of the western world.

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.

Two years after releasing her album dedicated to Book I of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, C�line Frisch now presents the second volume of this musical landmark. Bach compiled Book II in 1744, twenty-two years after Book I. It took until 1801 for both volumes to be printed: from then until the present day they have inspired countless composers. After a series of recordings with the Ensemble Zimmermann she helped to found, C�line Frisch returns to the harpsichord recital, for a programme of this, her very favourite music. Through these preludes and fugues, she reminds us that far from being technical exercises, the Well- Tempered Clavier is a work of pure pleasure and constant renewed discovery. As Robert Schumann declared: 'You should frequently play the fugues of the great masters, particularly those of J.S. Bach. Make the Well-Tempered Clavier your daily bread.'

Alexei Lubimov is one of the most admired pianists of his generation, particularly for his exploration of rarely-played repertoire on period instruments. Together with his disciple, harpsichordist and pianist Olga Pashchenko, a rising star of the new generation, and accompanied by the musicians of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, they embark on a voyage of discovery into the music of Czech composer Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812), with world premiere recordings on period instruments of his Concerto for Two Pianos and Notturno concertant. A trailblazing early romantic composer, Dussek created an innovative piano music style marked by a harmonic richness and intense emotional expressivity. In 1845, Vaclav Tomasek wrote of him: “His fingers resembled a chorus of ten singers… His truly declamatory style of performance, especially of cantabile movements, remains an ideal for every artistic achievement that no pianist after him has yet attained.” Now, we have the chance to see Alexei Lubimov rise to the occasion.

-----

REVIEW:

The performances of the two chamber works are airy and athletic, making the best possible case for Dussek’s appealing music, with its roots in 18th-century classicism, but with occasional anticipations of the Romanticism to come.

– Guardian (UK)

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."

Alexis Kossenko returns to centre stage with a project focusing on works by the spectacularly prolific Georg Philipp Telemann. From them, Alexis Kossenko has chosen two concertos with orchestra: one for flute, the other for flute and violin, preceded by an overture. This program, perfectly composed to demonstrate the Baroque conductor’s maturing, rising talent, is also a showcase for his impressive qualities as flautist. It is also the occasion to again find Zefira Valova as Konzertmeister and soloist in one of the concertos.

The 'Eric Clapton of the lute' (BBC Magazine) comes back to the Alpha microphones, this time with the soprano Anna Reinhold. Here, Thomas Dunford applies his truly prodigious virtuosity to the eight Toccatas from the first book by Meister Kapsberger, giving us a veritable concert such as the composer himself might have proposed with, in counterpoint to the toccatas, a few of he loveliest airs by Caccini, Merula et al. The beauty of Anna Reinhold's voice (a young talent noticed especially in William Christie's 'Jardin des voix') has a freshness and energy that bring to mind the young performers at work in Alpha's earliest recordings. This goes to prove that there still remains much distance to cover in the discovery of Baroque art.

BACH Orchestral Suite No. 3. Harpsichord Concerto in F, BWV 1056. Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. Concerto in d for 3 Violins, BWV 1063 • Café Zimmermann (period instruments) • ALPHA 168 (58:31)


This is the fifth, and presumably penultimate, release in Café Zimmerman’s imaginative and possibly unprecedented presentation of Bach’s “concerts avec plusiers instrumnents,” better known to us as his Brandenburg Concertos . Bach assembled the set in a fruitless attempt to solicit patronage from the Margrave of Brandenburg, whose reward for neglecting these unparalleled masterpieces is to have his title (if not his name) remembered for all time. Café Zimmermann, a small, multinational period-instrument ensemble based in France, is raising Bach’s ante by releasing the Brandenburg s one per disc, along with most of the other concertos—some in reconstructions—and the orchestral suites.


I haven’t heard the first three discs in the series, but I did have the privilege of auditioning Volume 4 for Fanfare 33: 1. The present disc only reinforces my reaction to its predecessor, which was emphatically positive. The concertos are played in chamber fashion, as likely was the case at Leipzig’s Café Zimmermann, from which our heroes have taken their name, where Bach’s concerts with the Collegium Musicum took place. The ensemble is expanded modestly for the suite in order to balance the three trumpets with a fuller string sound. The performances combine sparkling virtuosity, infectious zest, and scrupulous attention to our latest understanding of Bach’s musical practice, and compare favorably with the very best versions available. They should put the names of Café Zimmermann’s founders and artistic leaders, violinist Pablo Valetti and harpsichordist Céline Frisch, in the minds of anyone who treasures this incomparable music.


It remains for the listener to decide whether Café Zimmermann’s release strategy is right for him or her. If the attraction is the Brandenburg s, should you have to buy all six discs to get them? Personally, I prefer homogeneous packages from which I can devise my own programs, and hunting for individual works in a mixed collection can be inconvenient (though I encounter that all the time with the cantatas). On the other hand, Café Zimmermann’s ready-made programs provide instant variety and satisfying listening experiences. Plus, you get all that wonderful music and all those amazing performances.


FANFARE: George Chien

Surely, no map could chart the fantastic voyage presented in this release. For while this odyssey takes us around a large part of the globe, via the music of Ireland and the British Isles, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, North Africa, Turkey, the Balkans, and Asia, it is largely an imaginary voyage, an interior journey made by the performers, inspired by their travel experiences and their passion for a geographical or temporal ‘elsewhere’. Music has the power of transporting us, in both senses; it can open the ear – and the mind – to other worlds, other cultures and customs; and it can exhilarate and transcend the senses. Here are recordings by iconic artists of the Alpha label such as le Poème Harmonique, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, and Cappella Mediterranea – all represented in this release.

Highlights include:

Traditional songs & dances of Naples, Ireland, The Balkans, The British Isles & North Africa on baroque instruments | Le poème harmonique plays music of French traditions | Cappella Mediterranea performs music from Spain, 16th-20th centuries | Doulce Mémoire performs music from the meeting points of Western and Middle Eastern cultures in the Renaissance | Andreas Staier leads performances of Bach cantatas

Past praise for previously released volumes included in this set:

Aux Marches du Palais / Le Poème Harmonique

The infectious La molièra qu’a nau escus, the rhythmic zest and mellow harmonies of the largely homophonic Le 31 du mois d’août, the pastoral delicacy of Réveillez-vous, belle endormie, are only a few of the standouts that required frequent use of the repeat button on my CD player. As for the 11 musicians who make up Le Poème Harmonique, they are vastly skilled, rhythmically disciplined, and theatrically vivid where required, as in the galvanizing a capella tarantelle, Sarremilhòque. (The music may be from France, but various patois are employed, as well.) This group is far from the “churchly” type that usually brings great delicacy and little passion to such music. One hopes we’ll hear more from them in the future.

-- Fanfare

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.

This recording has been reissued in the Essential Baroque Masterpieces collection with an exclusive interview of Skip Sempé:

"At this point of heritage, I think that the only thing one could really have inherited from Leonhardt is his musical conviction. Other than that, it is perhaps important to mention that it is France that has inherited much from Leonhardt, through his tradition and the subsequent creation a new generation of harpsichordists – some of whom studied with him and some of whom did not. In the 1960s and 70s, the French musical scene was extremely resistant to Leonhardt and to his approach, then, little by little, his approach eclipsed all previous influences in France, those of Landowska and the Ancien Régime. The direct result of this is that there are more fine harpsichordists in France than anywhere in the world. All this via Leonhardt, who began his career with Bach and finished it with Forqueray. This is somehow appropriate – even the finest harpsichords from his personal collection are now here with his old friends. And this very recording – as well as several others among Leonhardt’s last recordings – was made for a French label, largely due to the fact that Paris has become the centre of the harpsichord world.

I particularly miss him when I hear his fine organ playing. And when I play on his own harpsichords. Perhaps even more when I hear my friends and students play on them. Today, he is still extraordinarily present for me."

- Skip Sempé

Composed in 1824 by Hector Berlioz at the age of twenty-one and premiered at the church of Saint-Roch in Paris in 1825, the Messe solennelle has come down to us following an eventful history. After Berlioz declared that he had destroyed the score, the mass was considered lost until it was rediscovered in Antwerp in 1992. This remarkable work helps us both to appreciate the development of Berlioz's style- already revolutionary in his early years- and to understand what he owed to his contemporaries, notably Cherubini, whose monumental Requiem Herve Niquet has already recorded. Scored for three soloists, chorus, and orchestra, the work consists of thirteen movements, material from which Berlioz was to reuse in several later works, notably in the Scene aux champs of the Symphonie fantastique, which quotes the 'Gratias.' On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Berlioz's death, Herve Niquet, fascinated by this work- "There's nothing he doesn't know about dramaturgy and vocal style. At the age of twenty!"- decided to programme it (the concert at the famous Berlioz Festival of La Cote Saint-Andre was a memorable occasion) and record it in the Chapelle Royale of the Chateau de Versailles.

2018 Gramophone Magazine Recital Album of the Year

Delphine Galou is renowned and admired for her musicality and her appealing timbre. She has taken part in many productions of Baroque music and recordings of operas (notably by Vivaldi), but this is her first recital. It is a programme of sacred music, motets, cantatas and excerpts from oratorios, which in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were influenced by the increasingly fashionable genre of opera. From the famous ‘Agitata infido flatu’ from Vivaldi’s oratorio Juditha triumphans, here counterpointed by an aria from another setting of the story of Judith composed by Jommelli, to Stradella’s Lamentations and Porpora’s magnificent motet ‘In procella sine stella’, Delphine Galou covers a wide range of spiritual emotions. She is accompanied by the excellent Accademia Bizantina under its director and harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone. A concerto byGregori and a sinfonia by Caldara complete this release, which includes several world premiere recordings.

-----

REVIEW:

This is a treasure trove of rare music, and Galou is the perfect singer to introduce us to it, thanks to an agile and comfortable technique (hear the way she sails effortlessly through her full compass in a single phrase in the first aria of the Porpora). The orchestral playing is keen as mustard and filled with typically telling detail by director Ottavio Dantone. A lovely disc of discoveries.

– Gramophone

Julian Prégardien decided to record the Dichterliebe cycle after he came across the new Bärenreiter edition; he went on to explore the work in concerts with his constant accompanist, Eric Le Sage, inserting other works by Robert and also by Clara Schumann, whose bicentenary is celebrated in 2019. When Clara played the Dichterliebe in the 1860s, she used to slip extracts from Kreisleriana between the songs. Prégardien asked Eric Le Sage to record the same extracts on a Blüthner piano of 1856, the year of Robert’s death, and also include Romances composed by both Robert and Clara at a time when their future marriage was still uncertain. The sublime ballade Löwenbraut also forms part of the programme – a reminder of the young Robert’s anguish on Clara’s departure. At Julien’s suggestion, Sandrine Piau was invited to sing three duets: a simple Canon composed by Clara, and two duets by Robert, Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär, and the sublime In der Nacht. Four further songs complete the album: Sängers Trost, a short piece in belcanto style; Kurzes Erwachen, composed by Robert at the age of just eighteen; Aus den hebräischen Gesängen, a very melancholy song; an extract from the cycle Myrthen (Robert’s wedding present to Clara); and Mein Wagen rollet langsam, a song that was included in the composer’s first version of Dichterliebe.

Arguably more known for his operas, the Moravian composer Leos Janacek also wrote choral and instrumental works and Rikadla presents the chamber/choral aspects of Janacek's works unfolding essentially as a survey of his musical development with his early to mid then his astoundingly prolific creativity in the latter years of his life. The conductor Reinbert de Leeuw, with the Collegium Vocale Gent and Het Collectief ensemble present these choral works and instrumental pieces with performances of great poetic energy that contributes to a more rounded appreciation of the legacy of Janacek.

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 Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccatas, BWV 910-916, performed by Blandine Rannou.