Resound brings Beethoven’s symphonies and concertos back into the concert halls in which they were performed during the composer’s lifetime. Four of the six venues for the premieres of the nine symphonies still survive, as do the eight Viennese halls and theatres in which Beethoven’s orchestral works were played during his lifetime. 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 7 is devoted to the Fourth Symphony, and the Piano Concerto No.4 in G major op.58, first performed in 1807. The recording took place in the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna, in the venue of their premiere in March 1807. The concerto is performed by the Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch, who was also heard on the previous volume.

Joël Grare, percussionist and tireless seeker of offbeat sounds and instruments, here presents his third album for Alpha: ‘Footprints beneath the snow: first sounds of innocence, cowbells and jingle-bells, sounds swallowed up by the mountain’… Through his compositions and inspirational influences, he follows a dizzying emotional Alpine path, along with his amazing instruments: drums, balafon, melodica, sanza, cowbells of all sizes, Japanese drums, trompiki, rainstick, thunder sheet – and his famous ‘clavicloche’. He writes: “One early afternoon in January 1986 I visited the Devouassoud workshop in Chamonix, manufacturer of the jingle bells and tongued cowbells that adorn the animals’ necks, filling the mountainside with their chimes… I added these new treasures to my percussion set, not realizing that these newbies arranged among my cymbals would eventually become an instrument in their own right… Totally unlike church bells, whose pitches are pre-calculated when casting them, the pitch of cowbells is only approximate. The low-pitched bells are called “dull”, and the high-pitched ones “bright” – you need only a few cowbell notes to identify a particular herd. When trying to assemble a full tuned set, you might test several hundred cowbells and pick out just a few… To collect a chromatic set of three-and-a-half octaves took me a good twenty years!”

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.

With this recording of chamber music composed by Beethoven at three key moments in his life, Alpha begins a collaboration with the WDR of Cologne and its various ensembles. Here a group of chamber musicians from the symphony orchestra presents the string quintets op.29 (1801) and op.104 (1817), thus linking Beethoven’s exuberant early period with that of the worry, discouragement and anguish caused by the conflict over custody of his nephew Karl. The album comes to a majestic conclusion with the Fugue, op.137 (1817).

The practice of composing for two keyboard instruments, very common in the illustrious Bach family, naturally achieved its apotheosis with Johann Sebastian, whose three concertos for two harpsichords are performed here by Olivier Fortin and Emmanuel Frankenberg with the Ensemble Masques. These works, particularly the concertos in C minor, are among the composer’s most admired. They suggest a conception of the concerto specific to Bach: rather than a dialogue between several individual entities, the piece presents a subtle intertwining of melodic lines and blurs the distinction between solo and tutti parts by making them respond to and quote each other, thus illustrating the principle of harmony dear to the composer. Finally, the recording on two harpsichords of the Prelude and Fugue BWV 552, originally composed for organ, is in keeping with the nineteenth-century tradition of transposing Bach’s works with the aim of giving their refined polyphony greater clarity.

For his first release on Alpha, the clarinetist and conductor Jörg Widmann celebrates the music of a composer who wrote some of the finest pieces ever devoted to his instrument: Carl Maria von Weber. With the ensemble of which he is principal conductor, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, he has recorded the Clarinet Quintet (in its version with string ensemble) and the Concertino, composed in 1811 and 1815 respectively, along with the ever-popular Overture to Der Freischütz. The pianist Denis Kozhukhin joins Widmann to perform the Grand Duo concertant. This album is the first in a series of recordings that will also give us a chance to meet Jörg Widmann in his role as one of the most active composers of his generation.

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.

Anna Prohaska asked Wolfgang Katschner and the Lautten Compagney at the outset of the coronavirus crisis whether they shouldn’t spontaneously organize a musical get-together in this period. This has now resulted in Redemption. This is a sequence of music selected solely from Bach cantatas, compiled in keeping with the aforenamed conceptual association. Redemption has multiple meanings, for instance: can music give us consolation in times of sickness and crisis; can it open up emotional and contemplative spaces for us; is it redemptive for us as musicians to be the “instruments” in engendering music and therefore spirituality? Besides Anna as soloist and three other singers, Redemption features a larger group of musicians – around twenty instrumentalists. These musicians serve a dual role: they expertly accompany the arias that Anna sings and they also represent the concept of human interaction and a shared collective experience which has been missing during these times.