www.outhere-music.com
The independent music group Outhere Music produces around one hundred recordings every year, ranging from early music to contemporary, by way of jazz and world music. These are released all over the world in both physical and digital form. Outhere Music’s success is founded on the consolidation and articulation of labels with a strong individual identity.
The group’s philosophy gives pride to place to the quality of its relationship with the artists, meticulous attention to the realisation of each project, and its openness to new forms of diffusion and relations with the public.
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Table of content
Alpha p.4 Ricercar p.22 Phi p.26 Arcana p.28 Aeon p.30 Fuga Libera p.31 Ramée p.34 Collection Instinct p.36
All the information included in this document (titles, release dates, covers, etc...) is subject to change.
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v
Alpha 206
ˇ K ˇ E K dvoSinrfonÁiett a ÁC
JAN
‘Sym pho
ny from
the new
world’
uggE Er NA br AN IMA ET N IM ME rS EE L JoS vA
v
Leoš Janácek - Antonin Dvorák v
v
Janácek Sinfonietta // Dvorák Symphonie n°9 “From the New World” Anima Eterna Jos Van Immerseel, conductor & fortepiano
Happy Birthday, Mister Jos!
Release 08/2
4
015
Jos Van Immerseel is celebrating his 70th birthday with three important releases that will punctuate the end of the year at Alpha: a symphonic programme (Janacek, Dvorak), a chamber music programme (Schubert) and a set grouping the rereleases of his recordings of French music. These anthologies will once again demonstrate everything the pianofortist brings to the interpretation of the symphonic and chamber repertoires. With his musicians and companions from Anima Eterna, he has created a veritable musical troupe, in turn students, orchestral players, soloists... Together, they carefully select the most appropriate instrument to interpret a given piece, prepared to wait several months if necessary for the instrument to be ready before programming it. And together, they seek the sound and style corresponding to their ideal. The autumn of 2015 will therefore be placed under the magic of Jos’s fortepiano, the original colours of the brass section in Janacek’s Sinfonietta, the magnificent voices of Thomas Bauer and his schoolmates...
Alpha 710 &
713
ay
-R DVD & Blu
Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Indes Galantes Les Talens Lyriques Christophe Rousset, conductor Laura Scozzi, stage director Olivier Simonnet, director Amel Brahim Djelloul, Benoît Arnould, Eugénie Warnier
Release 08/2
015
For the launch of its DVD collection, Alpha is joining forces with Christophe Rousset’s Les Talens Lyriques in Rameau’s opera-ballet Les Indes galantes, his most famous work, here performed in its 1750 ‘Toulouse’ version. Particularly rich both on the musical level and in atmosphere, scrutinizing love ‘in far-off lands’ (Turkey, Peru, Persia and America), it responds to the infatuation with exoticism that tinged all the arts of the century. Rameau’s dance music is always quite suggestive, evocative of a movement or a pictorial atmosphere. As for the staging, Laura Scozzi brings her contemporary vision to these countries and travels. Filmed at the Bordeaux National Opera, this production marked the Rameau celebrations in 2014 and was unanimously hailed by the international press: ‘In creating an extraordinarily amusing and vigorous staging, Laura Scozzi evokes or fustigates some of the dramas and obscurantisms of our era with as much pertinence as humour. [...] It takes the presence and stature of a Christophe Rousset to impose the music and singing in face of the tempest of images generated by the staging.’ Raphaël de Gubernatis, Le Nouvel Observateur ‘One of the glories of 18th-century music [...]. A cast [...] well nigh perfect.’ Tim Ashkey, The Guardian
5
Alpha Collection Release 09/2015
At a time of gathering momentum, ALPHA is rereleasing 14 seminal recordings in a collection called, quite simply, ALPHA COLLECTION. This series brings together the finest Baroque recordings from the Alpha and ZZT catalogues: discs singled out for honours, emblematic artists of music from that period, recordings that marked the discography... This is also the occasion to discover or rediscover universally known works as well as world premiere recordings of rarities. In the framework of these rereleases, the performers have been interviewed and bear witness to their view of the work and their recording several years later, and their fascinating remarks are taken up in the booklets (all trilingual: French, English, German). Concerning the presentation of the discs, we have opted for handsome digipacks, the covers illustrated with photographs by great contemporary artists (all at Magnum) with a dominant colour as a guiding line: for this first series, we have chosen the queen of colours, that of the gods, kings, warriors, the devil, life, violence and death... Themes omnipresent in Baroque art! J.S Bach - Goldberg Variations - Céline Frisch - Café Zimmermann (2 CDs) J.S. Bach - Brandeburg Concertos - Café Zimmermann (2 CDs) CPE Bach - Concerti A Flauto Traverso Obligato - Alexi Kossenko - Arte Dei Suonatori J.S. Bach - Missae Breves BWV 234 & 235 - Ensemble Pygmalion - Raphaël Pichon J.S. Bach - Cello Suites - Bruno Cocset (2 CDs) Love Is Strange - Works for Lute Consort - Le Poème Harmonique - Vincent Dumestre Monteverdi Marazzoli - Combattimenti - Le Poème Harmonique - Vincent Dumestre Nobody’s Jig - 17th Century Dances from the British Isles - Les Witches Rameau - Harpsichord Pieces - Blandine Rannou (2 CDs) Pergolesi - Stabat Mater - Musica Napoletana per la Festa delle VerGine dei sette dolori - Le Poème Harmonique Vincent Dumestre Valentini - Concerti Grossi, op.7 - Ensemble 415 - Chiara Banchini Vivaldi - Concertos for four violins, op.3 - Ensemble 415 - Chiara Banchini Vivaldi - Cello sonatas - Bruno Cocset - Les Basses réunies Vivaldi - The Four Seasons & Other Concertos, op.8 - Gli Incogniti - Amandine Beyer
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Dmitri Shostakovich ANNA VINNITSKAYA (new signing artist)
Alpha 203
Piano Concertos Concerto for piano, trumpet and strings, op.35 Concerto for piano and orchestre op.102 Anna Vinnitskaya, piano Kremerata Baltica Winds of Staatskapelle Dresden Omer Meir Wellber, conductor
Release 09/2
015
Anna Vinnitskaya has now joined Alpha Classics. Her first recording for the label is devoted to one of her repertories of choice: the concertos of Shostakovich. ‘When I performed the Second Piano Concerto for the first time at the age of eleven, his music seemed very optimistic to me. Only later did I understand everything else that is concealed behind the “façade” of Shostakovich’s music.’ [The Russian pianist reveals two facets of the composer’s music on this disc by juxtaposing the First Piano Concerto in C minor op. 35, an ‘insolent’ composition with a kaleidoscope of atmospheres and stylistic registers (Russian Romanticism, American jazz, neoclassicism) that constantly surprise the listener, and the more traditional Concerto in F major, which radiates youthful high spirits.] A pupil of Sergey Ossipenko at the Serge Rachmaninoff Conservatory, then of the great Evgeni Koroliov at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg, Anna Vinnitskaya won the Leonard Bernstein Prize, but it was her First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2007 that launched her career. For this recording, Anna Vinnitskaya is surrounded by partners of the front rank: the famous Kremerata Baltica, regarded as one of the most creative ensembles on today’s musical scene, and the prestigious wind players of the Staatskapelle Dresden. ‘Anna Vinnitskaya displays a dazzling, indeed Olympian technique, combined with a particularly bold taste for differentiating sonic textures....Stubborn, virtuosic, possessive and possessed, Anna Vinnitskaya is a musician who never cheats. That was bound to bring her luck.’ Marie-Aude Roux, Le Monde, 2009.
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Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach - Johann Gottlieb Graun - Ludwig Christian Hesse
Alpha 202
Sans Souci, Viola da Gamba Sonatas
Lucile Boulanger, viola da gamba Arnaud De Pasquale, fortepiano, tangent piano
For this second recording in duo, Lucile Boulanger and Arnaud de Pasquale propose a journey to 18th-century Germany, in the marvellous setting of the Sans Souci palace where Frederick II of Prussia had established his court.
Release 09/2
015
This disc, reflecting the extraordinary conjuncture experienced by the court of Berlin under Frederick II, brings together some of the virtuosic works for viola da gamba and fortepiano by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Johann Gottlieb Graun or Ludwig Christian Hesse and attesting to the results of fruitful collaborations between the composers at that court.
Muffat - Weichlein - Kerll - Pachelbel - Böhm Kuhnau
Alpha 212
Romanus Weichlein op.1, 1695
Ensemble Masques Olivier Fortin, conductor & harpsichord
Release 09/2
015
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 Säben, 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 Vejvanovský and Georg Muffat. In this new programme, Masques presents both ensemble pieces and others for solo or two harpsichords (the second harpsichord being played by Skip Sempé), always featuring the expressiveness, eloquence and profound interpretation for which it is known.
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Franz Schubert - Franz Liszt
Alpha 471
The Sound of Weimar Schubert/Liszt: Marches, Wanderer-Fantasie Liszt: La Nuit, Les Morts, Vexilla Regis Wiener Akademie Orchester Martin Haselböck, conductor
Release 09/2
015
Alpha Productions pursues its collaboration with conductor Martin Haselböck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie in a disc devoted to Liszt’s 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 Haselböck, was thus recorded in Raiding, Franz Liszt’s 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.
Alban Berg - Arnold Schonberg - Anton Webern
Alpha 209
B ERG G SCHÖN B ER N WEB ERsic cham ber
mu
ARTET BE LCEA QU
Berg: Lyric Suite Webern: 5 Sätze op5 Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (with Maxim Rysanov viola & Antonio Meneses cello) Belcea Quartet
With a complete recording of the Beethoven quartets that caused a stir and enchanted concert halls everywhere, the Belcea Quartet is henceforth considered one of the finest quartets in the world. ‘The principle characteristic of their playing is [...] intensity,’ wrote BBC Music Magazine in 2013.
Release 10/2
015
With this new recording, the Quartet tackles another summit of chamber music: the Second Viennese School. With their passion and technical abilities, this breathtaking music, which drastically changed the history of music, rings out in all its force and mystery.
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Cœur
Alpha 213
Airs de Cour du XVIIe siècle: Cléreau, Costeley, Le Roy, Le Blanc... Cœ u r
Air s de Co
ur du XVi i
e
sièCle
ue Harmon iq Le Poèm e nt Du me stre VinCe
Release 10/2
015
Le Poème Harmonique Vincent Dumestre, conductor Marc Mauillon, baritone Claire Lefilliâtre, soprano Serge Goubioud, tenor Bruno Le Levreur, countertenor
In this new release, Vincent Dumestre’s Le Poème Harmonique once again immerses us in the France of the second half of the 16th century, which witnessed the emergence of new centres of artistic activity. These ‘bourgeois’ societies were initiated by patron princes concerned with building their prestige through the arts and letters just as much as by arms. At the same time, refined circles held by cultivated women enabled them to rub shoulders with the leading poets of the time, as well as musicians sensitive to humanist research, all profiting from a context propitious to the invention of new artistic forms and practices. The new, more lyrical poetry, inspired by both antiquity and contemporary Italian models, was matched, in particular, by the courtly air, a new musical genre perfectly adapted to the humanist ideals of sobriety and intelligibility of the text. Through this music, still insufficiently known, this programme invites us to discover a refined poetic and musical universe, witness to a French Renaissance at its apogee, with works by composers such as Pierre Cléreau, Guillaume Costeley, Adrian Le Roy, and Didier Le Blanc. As usual, Vincent Dumestre, uncontested master of these repertoires, has surrounded himself with the finest singers and instrumentalists, a loyal troupe that exhumes unusual musical treasures, letting us share in them.
Duparc - Hahn - Chausson VÉRONIQUE GENS (new signing artist)
Alpha 215
La chanson bien douce
Véronique Gens, soprano Susan Manoff, piano
015 Release 10/2
10
Alpha is very proud to welcome this grande dame of lyric art. A great Mozartian, she also excels in Gluck, Berlioz and Offenbach and has sung with the greatest, from Claudio Abbado to Marc Minkowski or Frans Brüggens. Her rich discography features numerous repertoires but, up until now, it included only one recording of mélodies, whereas she is unanimously recognized as one of the world’s most eminent ambassadresses of the French art song. With her accomplice Susan Manoff, a connoisseur of vocal music and a tremendously sensitive pianist, she has assembled this programme devoted to songs she loves, mixing a few wellknown gems and others, quite rare, such as this superb Néère, from Reynaldo Hahn’s Muses latines.
5 CDs Alpha 225
D E B USSY B E R LIOZ POU LE NC RAVE L
UggE ER NA BR AN IMA ET N IM ME RS EE L JOS VA
Berlioz - Ravel - Ravel/Mussorgsky - Debussy Poulenc (re-release in a boxed set) Musique Française
Anima Eterna Jos Van Immerseel, conductor
Release 10/2
015
5 CDs Alpha 226
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, Carnaval romain (FFFF Télérama, Gramophone Editor’s Choice) Debussy La Mer, Images, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (FFFF Télérama, 4 Etoiles Classica) Ravel Bolero, Concerto pour la main gauche, Rapsodie espagnole, La Valse (FFFF Télérama) Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition, Ma Mère l’Oye (Gramophone Editor’s Choice) Poulenc Concert Champêtre, Concerto pour deux pianos, Suite française (FFFF Télérama, 5 de Diapason)
Dmitri Shostakovich (re-release in a boxed set) Complete String Quartet Quatuor Danel
Known for the intensity and profundity of its interpretations, the Danel Quartet has imposed itself on the international classical scene (Diapason d’or, ‘Choc’ of Le Monde de la Musique, BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Month...) in large, founding cycles of the string quartet from Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert to Weinberg.
Release 10/2
015
Russian composers occupy a place of choice in the Danel’s repertoire, and the complete Shostakovich quartets were recorded in 2005. Alpha Classics is now rereleasing this set, one of the interpretations of reference of the composer: ‘What a shock, what a monument! The Borodins have found their successors. The Danels take up the torch, carrying it even higher, thanks to their sonority. This is not just one more excellent complete set, it is literally radical and exclusive, the reference in the Shostakovich Quartet cycle.’ Christophe Huss, ClassicsToday
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5 CDs Alpha 228
Gabriel Fauré
Intégrale de la musique de chambre Eric Le Sage, piano Daishin Kashimoto, violin François Salque, cello Lise Berthaud, alto Quatuor Ébène Alexandre Tharaud, piano Emmanuel Pahud, flute Paul Meyer, clarinet
Release 10/2
015
CD1 : Romance, Première Sonate op.109, Elégie, Deuxième Sonate op.117, Sérénade, Papillon, Berceuse, Trio op.120 CD2 : Quatuor n°1 en ut mineur op.15, Quatuor n°2 en sol mineur op.45 CD3 : Premier Quintette op.89, Deuxième Quintette op.115 CD4 : Dolly op.56, Masques et bergamasques op.112, Souvenirs de Bayreuth, Fantaisie op.79, Sicilienne op.78, Après un Rêve CD5 : Sonate n°1 op.13, Sonate n°2 op.18 , Berceuse op.16 , Romance op.28, Andante op.75
Jean Barrière
Alpha 220
Sonates pour violoncelle, vol 2 Brunot Cocset, cello Guido Balestracci & Les Basses Réunies
Release 10/2
12
015
Following on from the album released in 2001 and honoured by numerous distinctions (‘Or’ of Diapaon, ‘Choc’ of Classica), Bruno Cocset and Les Basses Réunies devote a new recording to Jean Barrière, allowing us to discover six other sonatas - some of which are taken from his Fifth Book - played on the pardessus by the Italian gambist Guido Balestracci. The two harpsichord pieces from the Sixth Book, constituting this programme, are interpreted by Bertrand Cuiller. Bruno Cocset and Les Basses Réunies have contributed considerably to the rediscovery of Jean Barrière, who has become essential in the repertoire of cellists and Baroque instrumental music.
2 CDs Alpha 217
BARTÓK LIG ETI EN SE MB LE
EM PORAIN
INTERCONT
György Ligeti - Bela Bartók
Bartók - Sonates pour 2 pianos et percussions & Contrastes Ligeti - Concertos pour violon, violoncelle, piano Ensemble Intercontemporain Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Release 10/2
015
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Johannes Brahms
Alpha 214
String Quintets
Quatuor Voce Lise Berthaud, viola
Release 10/2
015
After its first two recordings, devoted to Schubert then Beethoven, highly praised and recommended by the critics (both ffff in Télérama, recommended by The Strad...), this eclectic, innovative quartet is now celebrating its tenth anniversary by tackling the string quintets of Mozart and Brahms. These two scores, representative of the culmination of a career in the case of Brahms and, for Mozart, the end of a life, are sustained by vigorous inspiration and frothing energy. Whereas the Brahms Quintet, both brilliant and highly moving, recalls some of his best-known themes (including that of the Sextet, Op. 18, used by Louis Malle in his film The Lovers), Mozart jotted down on paper the four movements of a work that speaks intensely about him, in the diversity of its moods and the complexity of its writing. Named ‘Rising Star’ for the last season by the European Chamber Hall Organisation, the Voce Quartet has performed in venues the world over. For this project, it calls on Lise Berthaud, one of the most brilliant French violists, to round out the quintet.
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TAKE TWO
Alpha 211
Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, Giuseppe Giamberti, Heinz Holliger, Winchester Troper, John Cage, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Manuel de Falla, Mauricio Sotelo, Orlando Gibbons, Guillaume de Machaut, Claude Vivier, Johann Sebastian Bach...
PATR ICIA IN S KAJA H TC PA KO TAKE 2
015 Release 10/2
Patricia Kopathinskaja, violin Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, electronics and turntables Anthony Romaniuk ,cembalo Reto Bieri, ocarina & clarinet Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol Pablo Marquez, guitar
Duets from thousand years of musical history for young people from 0-100 years. «Consider everything an experiment.(...)One shouldn‘t go to the woods looking for something, but rather to see what is there. (...)Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating» (John Cage) Over the past few years, Patricia Kopatchinskaja has exploded the norms of the classical violin. Her highly personal – even extreme – interpretations of the great classics leave no one indifferent and fascinate the public, which adores her generosity and commitment on the concert platform, her taste for new musical creations and pieces from off the beaten track. Now the barefoot violinist invites us to join her in a unique musical experience that mixes composers of the seventeenth (and even the eleventh!) century with living composers, a clarinettist playing the ocarina, an improvisatory harpsichordist, an electro musician, a toy piano . . . Here is Patricia Kopatchinskaja totally at liberty, playing, singing, dialoguing with her musician friends, but also with her daughter Alice, in a CD-book that tells the story of this utterly crazy recording with the help of a rich selection of photos by Marco Borggreve. ‘Free imagination, without constraints or rules’: the word ‘Fantasy’ finds its ideal musical illustration with Take Two! Alice: Music is like a story but without words. You can paint your own pictures in your head... well, there is also boring music. Pat: What is boring music for you ? Alice: If it sounds like this: wäh wäh wäh wäh wäh wäh Pat: And what is interesting music? Alice: If it sounds like this: pam pam pam pam
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Hanns Eisler / Sergei Prokofiev
Alpha 210
Bridges Hollywood songbook & Transcriptions
Guillaume de Chassy, piano & transcriptions Laurent Naouri, baritone Thomas Savy, clarinets Arnault Cuisinier, double bass
015 Release 10/2
Guillaume de Chassy, Arnault Cuisinier and Thomas Savy have long made up a trio exploring original paths between jazz and classical. Laurent Naouri, the well-known baritone so impressive in numerous, famous operatic roles, is a passionate aficionado of jazz in general and of Broadway songs in particular. ‘In a parallel life,’ says Guillaume de Chassy about him, ‘he turns out to be a fantastic crooner.’ This album was born from their meeting. Naouri sings Hanns Eisler’s marvellous Hollywood Songbook, composed in 1943 on poems by his companion in exile in Los Angeles, Bertolt Brecht. The trio accompanies the singer and improvises bridges between the songs. In complement, De Chassy dares Prokofiev: ‘For a long time I’ve wanted to transcribe for voice themes by Prokofiev originally written for piano or violin, but of which the evidence makes them naturally vocal.’ He adapted texts by Russian poets (Tsvetaeva, Chulkov, Lermontov, Pushkin and Esenin) to excerpts from the Violin Concerto No.1 (1917), Piano Concerto No.2 (1923) and the Piano Sonata No.6 (1939). ‘So we reversed the usual process, which consists of adapting the music to the text. ‘I don’t know if Prokofiev liked jazz, but it so happens that the harmonies colouring his themes are very inspiring vehicles for improvisation. So I proceeded as on Cole Porter songs: a theme, followed by an improvisation on the harmonic sequence, followed by a final theme.’ Hanns Eisler : Hollywood Songbook (extracts) Texts : Bertolt Brecht Sergei Prokofiev : Transcriptions Russian poems adapted by Lydie Pravikoff from piano concerto N°2/4, text : Marina Tsvetaieva & Georgy Tchoulkov from violin concerto N°1/1, text : Alexandre Pouchkine from piano sonata n°6/2, text : popular nursery rhyme from violin concerto N°1/3, text : Mikhaïl Lermontov from piano concerto N°2/1, text : Sergueï Essénine
15
4 CDs Alpha 216
E ADDir E RTI ’ U BKun Ke SCH st, ich Dan ‘Du holDe
UggE ER NA BR AN IMA ET N IM ME RS EE L JOS VA
Release 11/2
015
Franz Schubert A Schubertiade
Anima Eterna Jos Van Immerseel, conductor & fortepiano
4 CD’s, 17 musicians, 32 master pieces: these are the main ingredients of Schubertiade - a compilation of vocal and instrumental chamber music by Schubert, hand-picked and assembled by Jos van Immerseel to form the soundtrack to 4 imaginary Schubertian salons. An ode to the master of Ständchen and Forellenquintett, this recording is also a celebration of Anima Eterna Brugge’s maestro, who, over the past 25 years, has led the orchestra to many happy encounters with his favorite composer. CD1 : Ständchen D920. Im Walde D708. Gretchen am Spinnrade D118. Die junge Nonne D828. Forellenquintett D667. CD2 : Nachtgesang im Walde D913. Impromptu opus 90/1 D899. Du liebst mich nicht D756. Adagio «Notturno» D897. Es L’incanto degli occhi D902/1. Il traditor deluso D902/2. Il modo di prender moglie D902/3. Divertissement à la Hongroise D818. CD3 : Der Wanderer D489. Violinsonate D408. Nacht und Traüme D82. Fantasie D940. Der König in Thule D367. La pastorella D513. Du bist die Ruh D776. An Silvia D891. Andante (Trio in Es) D929/2. Der Taubenpost D965. Der Tod und das Mädchen D531 CD4 : Der Hirt auf dem Felsen D965. Gondelfahrer D809. Allegro (Lebensstürme) D947. Meeres Stille D216. Auf der Bruck D853. Der Zwerg D771. Sonate (Arpeggione) D821. An die Musik D547. Jos van Immerseel, fortepiano & artistic direction Claire Chevallier, fortepiano Yeree Suh, soprano Marianne Beate Kielland, alto Thomas Bauer, baritone David Erler, Klaus Wenk, Thomas Bauer, Joachim Höchbauer, Schubertiade Quartett Bayerischer Wald Midori Seiler (V), Martina Forni (Al), Stefano Veggetti (Vc), Beltane Ruiz (CB) Lisa Shklyaver, clarinet Anneke Scott,Martin Mürner,Helen MacDougall, Jörg Schultess, horns
16
Frédéric Chopin
Alpha 224
24 Preludes (Polonaise op.44, Berceuse op.57, Barcarolle op.60) Nelson Goerner, piano
015 Release 11/2
2 CDs Alpha 221
After Debussy and Schumann, Nelson Goerner comes back to the composer who revealed him to the great audience of recorded music: Chopin. His first Chopin recordings won him high praise and countless distinctions (3 Diapasons d’Or!): ‘Everything he touches seems «right,»’ wrote Gramophone in a recent issue. Nicknamed ‘the great poet of the piano’, he now attacks Chopin’s 24 Preludes, which he chose to record live, in a single go, in Poland where he is particularly appreciated and considered an essential pillar of the Chopin Institute. As a complement, Nelson Goerner opts for a work more rarely recorded: Mendelssohn’s Fantasia, Op. 28.
Johann Sebastian Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I Céline Frisch, harpsichord
Release 11/2
015
After the success of her Goldberg Variations and a disc devoted to Rameau’s harpsichord pieces, Céline Frisch, harpsichordist and co-founder of the Café Zimmermann ensemble, returns to the recital with a programme devoted entirely to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. For this recording, Céline Frisch draws on her ‘bedside’ music. She thus reminds us that, beyond an exercise for advancing his technique (and we are well familiar with Bach’s strictness in this art), The Well-Tempered Clavier is also a work of pure pleasure, like a constant rediscovery: a landscape that one never tires of admiring.
17
Antonio Vivaldi HERVÉ NIQUET (new signing artist)
Alpha 222
Gloria, Magnificat
Concert Spirituel Hervé Niquet, conductor
Release 11/2
015
Since 1987, the year he founded Le Concert Spirituel, Herve Niquet has been a major figure in musical life, but he is also an actor in a class of his own. Major because it is thanks to his love of French music, the grands motets, large forms, and works both known and less known, that we have discovered or rediscovered treasures by Campra, Boismortier, Charpentier, Lully, Handel, Striggio, Offenbach, Grétry... Major because he is respected and loved by a great number of singers and stage directors with whom he has collaborated... And in a class of his own because he has an uncommon (or even unique, in the current musical landscape!) capacity for sharing his music directly with the audience. Alpha is delighted to welcome this great, ‘total’ artist to begin a long-term collaboration and release the fruit of his latest research, his wishes, his discoveries and his follies. In addition to the Don Quichotte concocted with his accomplices Shirley & Dino (see p.19), the festivities begin in Venice, with Vivaldi’s deservedly famous Gloria and Magnificat, but in a version that we are not accustomed to hearing: ‘We have lots of things to discover in these works that we thought we knew,’ says an enthusiastic Hervé Niquet. ‘We propose a version of this «sausage» that is never heard. It’s the original version, the one that Vivaldi had written for the Ospedale in Venice.’ The Ospedale della Pietà is the orphanage where Vivaldi was hired in 1703 as a violin teacher then later, maestro de’ concerti. Being a girls’ orphanage, the original version of the Gloria was written for two women’s choirs and two small orchestras, forces that could take their place in the organ loft of the establishment’s church. ‘Afterwards, to make some money, he created a version for four mixed voices,’ relates Hervé Niquet. It is this version, with tenors and basses, that is well known. In the original version, ‘with the tenor lines sung by the sopranos, the melodic line is completely different. We don’t recognize it. And the solos sung in chapel by the six altos together, sounds completely different. In this version, there is fantastic work on the women’s voices. We have been performing this on tour for four years, and there is no habit, no routine. Every reprise, every «refresher» is absolutely fascinating. A nice feeling, nice sentiments, this is jubilant music. Vivaldi is, after all, a very good composer...’ (Source: Ouest France)
18
Alpha 705
DVD
Monteverdi
Vespro della beata vergine John Eliott Gardiner, conductor Monteverdi Choir
Release 11/2
015
In 1610, Monteverdi gave his Vespers for the Virgin in Mantua before conquering the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice. This was the first great sacred masterpiece of the Baroque. Following the brilliant Orfeo (1607), the Vespers borrow its opening fanfare and positioned Monteverdi as the leading composer of his time. J. E. Gardiner founded the Monteverdi Choir, one of the world’s finest choruses, specifically for this work, which he conducted for the first time in 1964 and subsequently recorded twice. With the present recording, where the image ideally accompanies the music, J. E. Gardiner wanted to make more perceptible the spatialisation that characterized Venetian music, by using the specific architecture and different levels of the Chapelle Royale at Versailles.
v
Leoš Janácek
Alpha 219
v
ŘRíkadla
Collegium Vocale Gent Het Collectief Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor
Release 11/2
015
Even though the international reputation of Leos Janacek was first and foremost built round his operas, it would be regrettable to neglect his choral and instrumental works in which the Moravian composer gave us some of the most beautiful pages of his art. Slavic soul - of that there is no doubt -, he charms with his unique stylistic originality, nurtured on popular culture and folklore. Under the sure, inspired conducting of Reinbert de Leeuw, the Collegium Vocale Gent and Het Collectief ensemble combine choral works and purely instrumental music: From Potulný šílenec (The Wandering Madman) to the Piano Sonata ‘1.X.1905’, arranged by the Dutch conductor for thirteen instruments, by way of the famous Ríkadla or Elegie na smrt dcery Olgy (Elegy on the Death of my Daughter Olga), Reinbert de Leeuw transmits naturally his love of the composer and inspires his musicians with an infectious poetic energy.
19
3 CDs Alpha 960
Jean-Marie Leclair Scylla et Glaucus
Les Nouveaux Caractères Sébastien D’Hérin, conductor Emöke Barath, Scylla Anders J. Dahlin, Glaucus
Release 12/2
015
Jean-Marie Leclair, a pure product of the 18th century, was at the crossroads of styles, cultivating a virtuosic art combining melodies à la française and Italian virtuosity stemming from Corelli and Vivaldi. He was 49 when he undertook his first (and only) lyric tragedy: Scylla et Glaucus. In the greatest French tradition, this work combines sumptuous numbers of sentimental outpourings with frightening scenes of fury and terror, in which the orchestra, with forceful passages, plays a dazzling role. A veritable masterpiece, revealing the obvious influence of Rameau, Scylla et Glaucus left a strong mark on French opera. First performed at the Académie Royale de Musique in 1746, this opera, which had a run of 17 performances and enjoyed great success, was only rediscovered in the 1980s (by John Eliot Gardiner in Lyon). For this re-creation, recorded at the Royal Opera and featuring in the Alpha/ Château de Versailles collection, Sébastien d’Hérin, a connoisseur of Rameau and that era, has surrounded himself with top-notch performers, including the promising amorous duo of Anders Dahlin and Emöke Barath, for a resurrection of what the great musicologist Cuthbert Girdlestone considered ‘probably, along with those of Rameau et Gluck, the finest French opera of the century’.
Bach
Alpha 229
Plucked Unplucked Edouard Ferlet, piano & compositions Violaine Cochard, harpsichord
Release 12/2
20
015
Edouard Ferlet is a jazz pianist featuring a refined swing. His album Think Bach, a first incursion into the world of the Cantor, was a total success: from Télérama (ffff) to Jazz Magazine, everyone was charmed by his approach and the quality of his piano (‘incredibly well turned out and beautiful,’ wrote Stéphane Friédérich in Pianiste)... Unclassifiable and unpredictable, as he defines himself, the pianist-composer is in the habit of combining jazz with the most varied forms: classical music, theatre, film scores, performances and musical readings with authors such as Nancy Huston... In the continuity of the Think Bach project, Arièle Butaux provoked an unexpected duo on French radio, centred on Baroque music and improvisation, a magical, timeless face-to-face between Edouard Ferlet and harpsichordist Violaine Cochard. Considered one of the finest ambassadresses of her instrument and also a great lover of Bach, she recorded, on an exceptional instrument, an album that drew considerable attention. This disc is the result of that meeting of struck strings and plucked strings. Side by side, each at his or her own instrument, the two musicians carry on a dialogue about Bach’s music, between original text and improvisations...
Alpha 711
DVD
Don Quichotte
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier Le Concert Spirituel Hervé Niquet, conductor Shirley & Dino, stage director Louise Narboni, director François-Nicolas Geslot, Don Quichotte Marc Labonnette, Sancho Panza Chantal Santon Jeffery, Altisidore, The Queen of Japan Gilles Benizio, The Duke, The Japanese
Release 12/2
015
The Niquet, Shirley & Dino trio was formed on the occasion of Purcell’s King Arthur, a show that marked the lyric stage and the world of the DVD. Five years later, their complicity has been further reinforced, and they present a work close to Hervé Niquet’s heart: Boismortier’s Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse. This opera-ballet, written for Carnival and first performed in Paris in 1743, occupies a particular place in Hervé Niquet’s career since it was the first work played by Le Concert Spirituel 27 years ago: ‘In addition to being composed by a genius of the Enlightenment, this comic opera is a gem of music, wit and humour,’ says he. The wit of the famous Benizio couple is felicitously expressed in this story of which they have rewritten the comedy scenes, which had disappeared: ‘From this succession of episodes, one more incongruous than the next, from this incredible accumulation of remarkably constructed gags (Niquet as Don Quichotte, Corinne Benizio/Shirley in a hilarious cantadora number, accompanied by Hervé Niquet with castanets, Gilles/Dino singing - not too badly! - a courtly air with harpsichord whilst the hysterical Duchess bellows in the wings), ensues a perfectly mad show’ (ResMusica). The whole thing with all the necessary strictness in reproducing the music... Worth noting: the performance of the singer-actors and the splendid costumes and sets. A total spectacle filmed at the Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles. Bonus: a 52-minute documentary on the behind-the-scenes preparation of the production. ‘First of all, we must hail the remarkable writing and dramaturgical work that is marvellously faithful to the work’s off-beat universe [...] In phase with the reading of Shirley and Dino, the prize goes to the orchestra and dynamic, lively and invigorating conducting. Decidedly, Niquet has no rivals for transmitting his boundless love for this Poulenc of the Enlightenment.’ Diapason
21
8 CDs RIC 351
RICERCAR - LES PLEIADES Guillaume Lekeu Les fleurs pâles du Souvenir Complete works
Release 08/2
015
Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege & Pierre Bartholomée, direction Chœur Symphonique de Namur Trio Grumiaux, Quatuor Camerata, Domus Philippe Hirschhorn & Philippe Koch, violin Luc Dewez & Marie Hallynck, cello Luc Devos & Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, piano Bernard Foccroulle, organ Greta De Reyghere & Philippe Huttenlocher, voice
In 1994, RICERCAR released a boxed set bringing together nearly all the works of Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894), this prodigious Belgian composer who died prematurely at the age of 24. Admirer of Beethoven and Wagner, disciple of Franck, and protégé of Ysaÿe, Lekeu had, in his last compositions, opened a new way that was neither French nor Germanic. It is to this journey that this new edition invites you, starting with the earliest works, written at 15, to the masterpieces of 1893. On this occasion, Jérôme Lejeune has completely revised and expanded the introductory text, which proposes a chronological analysis of the works. Listening to the compositions in this order helps to understand the way the composer’s talent developed, and the quotations from his abundant correspondence give an even better idea of the state of mind of this fascinating, highly moving young man who had put this simple phrase as an epigraph to his Adagio for quartet and string orchestra: ‘The pale flowers of memory...’
RICERCAR DIGITAL Romantic Heroines from the Revolution to the Empire
RIC 150
R. KREUTZER, J. - B. LEMOYNE, É. N. MÉHUL, G. SPONTINI, G.W. GLUCK: operas arias L. - F. HÉROLD: Symphony n° 2 Jennifer Borghi, mezzo-soprano Les Agrémens Guy Van Waas
015 Release 09/2
22
‘There is no French music between Rameau and Berlioz.’ This assertion is still made by a number of music lovers and even a few otherwise knowledgeable musicologists, but the would-be truth must now be tempered by the increasingly enthusiastic rediscovery of an entire chapter in the history of French music between 1770 and 1830. Here is a superb illustration of that in the fields of opera and the symphony.
RIC 359
DIGIBOOK
2 CDs
I O CAVALL FRANCESC OF ES IN O RO QUE HER ETIAN BA THE VEN
Heroines of the Venetian Baroque Mariana Flores & Anna Reinhold, sopranos Cappella Mediterranea & Leonardo García Alarcón
—
NA FLORES MARIAIN HOLD ANNA RE
ANEA MEDITERR CAPPELLA GARCĺA ALARCÓN LEONARDO
015 Release 09/2
Ds
RIC 107
Francesco Cavalli
Book + 8 C
The opening of Venice’s first opera house, the Teatro di San Cassiano, in 1637, was one of the major events in the history of opera. The protagonists of these new operas henceforth represented all the social categories making up this public and who, in fact, had to be able to find themselves onstage. The gods were no longer the only ones to lay down the law, challenged by the Vices and Virtues who preached in the Prologues. The new heroes are kings, emperors, dictators, courtesans, as well as nurses, valets, soldiers, philosopher, and, above all, lovers. Whoever they might be, we find them sympathetic or antipathetic; all are glorified, all are ridiculed. With his 27 existing operas, Francesco Cavalli gives us a fascinating version of this theatre of life. A single main thread runs through the excerpts drawn from each of them by Leonardo García Alarcón: the expression of human passions. They are all there, from ingenuousness to ecstasy, joy to anger, passionate love (and its erotic, sensual expression) to despair. This fascinating programme represents a new contribution to the knowledge of Cavalli’s operas and allows for unveiling part of the mystery still surrounding his works.
HISTORY OF EARLY MUSIC
It is to a veritable History of Music that RICERCAR invites us. After Music in Europe at the Time of the Renaissance (RIC 106), this second volume takes us into the ‘early Italian Baroque’.
Le Temps de Monteverdi
Release 09/2
015
The period covered by this volume takes us from the Florentine cameratas and the invention of opera to the generation of Monteverdi’s heirs, when the formal freedom of the early 17th century began to yield to the first traces of formalism. This path covers practically a century, from La Pellegrina, performed in Florence in 1589, up to Francesco Cavalli’s last operas at the beginning of the 1670s. During this whole period that witnessed the birth of accompanied monody, opera and oratorio, virtuosity and the sonata, sacred and profane were mixed, and this is also apparent in artistic representations such as the Nativity by Caravaggio illustrating the cover. In his text, Jérôme Lejeune also nuances this music’s belonging to the Baroque aesthetic...
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Samuel Scheidt
RIC 360
Ludi Musici (1621)
L’Achéron François Joubert-Caillet, direction
Release 10/2
RIC 363
DIGIBOOK
015
2 CDs
Samuel Scheidt was one of the most complete composers of his generation. Organist, he composed sacred music and instrumental music that is at a crossroads, combining the Lutheran polyphonic tradition and all the influences of Italian music and the style of Monteverdi. The dances and fantasies contained in his Ludi Musici (1621) do not avoid this mixture of styles, being both the legacy of late-Renaissance models and the reflection of the new virtuosity initiated by the Italians. These pieces are indeed intended for viola da gamba, which still enjoyed considerable success in Germany at that time.
Jean-Philippe Rameau Le Temple de la Gloire
Judith Van Wanroij, Katia Velletaz, Chantal Santon, Mathias Vidal, Alain Buet Les Agrémens, Le Chœur de Chambre de Namur & Guy Van Waas
Release 11/2
24
015
Le Temple de la Gloire is the sole opera on a libretto by Voltaire to have been performed in the 18th century, at Versailles before the court then at the Paris Opera. The philosopher twists the commission he received – to celebrate the military victory of Louis XV at Fontenoy (1745) –, transforming the temple of Glory into one of Public Happiness. He wanted to reform French opera by giving it less love and more spectacle. Rameau seconded him brilliantly and, with a good-sized orchestra, composed some of his most original, most powerful pieces, even if it meant reintroducing a bit of love and lyricism in the second version of 1746 for the Paris audience.
COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS
RIC 362
Following the two volumes of the Guide des Instruments, RICERCAR goes further into the knowledge of several instruments and their specific repertoire.
The French Romantic Ophicleide
Works by Jules Demersseman, Hyacinthe Klos, Mikhail Glinka, Antoine Simon, Heinrich Kummer.
Release 12/2
015
Trio Ænea Patrick Wibart, ophicléide Lucie Sansen, piano Adrien Ramon, valve cornet
It was in 1817 that the instrument maker Halary invented this instrument whose low register prefigures the tuba. Integrated into the orchestra by Berlioz, the ophicleide was also used in church to accompany the plainchant and quite present in military bands. But it also benefitted from a solo repertoire in the concerto genre as well as in chamber music. Patrick Wibart impresses with his total mastery of the instrument and the flexibility of his playing. To be discovered imperatively.
25
Cantigas de Santa Maria
LPH 017
Hana Blažíková, leader, soprano & harp Barbora Kabátková, soprano & harp Margit Übellacker, dulce melos Martin Novák, percussions
015 Release 09/2
The Cantigas de Santa Maria come from the imposing collection of the court of Alfonso X el Sabio, which offers us one of the most precious sources of mediaeval Spanish music. The Cantigas take us to the end of the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula and to the very heart of the culture where Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions mingle. These songs are interesting not only for their absolutely unique musical language but also for their Portuguese and Galician texts in which are combined poetry, popular stories and hymns, most of them praising miracles of the Virgin Mary. Starting from illuminated manuscripts that give us an idea of the instruments used at the king’s court, the ensemble Tiburtina performs these works like a dialogue between two women’s voices, enriching it with two harps, a dulce melos and percussion. Whether using the whole consort or putting the instruments aside, this subtle interpretation has its source in plainchant and the music of the troubadours, with a touch of Arabizing ornaments and improvisation.
2 CDs LPH 018 Die Schöpfung Rosen Joseph Haydn • olf Schmitt – Rud
ilian amer – Maxim mps-Elysées Christina Landsh – hestre des Cha ale Gent Orc Collegium Voc
Philippe Herre
weghe
Release 10/2
26
015
Joseph Haydn
Die Schöpfung, Hob. XXI:2 Christina Landshamer, soprano Maximilian Schmitt, tenor Rudolf Rosen, bass Collegium Vocale Gent - Orchestre des Champs-Élysées Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
After his years in London and the discovery of Handel’s Messiah, which had profoundly moved him, Joseph Haydn embarked on writing a large-scale religious work. For this very devout composer, this veritable act of faith would torment him for two years and from it would come an oratorio of penetrating intensity. After enjoying immediate success in Vienna, Die Schöpfung (The Creation) conquered the whole of Europe in less than a year. With this work, a few months after the release of Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), Philippe Herreweghe continues the exploration of Haydn’s vocal works, accompanied by soloists Christina Landshamer, Maximilian Schmitt and Rudolf Rosen. Thanks to the complicity of two of his favourite ensembles – the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées – and the extraordinary palette of colours and timbres that he succeeds in inspiring once again, he transports us with refinement and intelligence into the Viennese master’s inner universe.
2 CDs LPH 019 s. 1, 3 & 4 • Symphonies No Franz Schubert Philharmonic Royal Flemish
weghe Philippe Herre
Release 11/2
015
Franz Schubert Symphonies Nos. 1, 3 & 4
Royal Flemish Philharmonic Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
Although Franz Schubert’s earliest symphonies are sometimes considered youthful works of a composer still learning his trade, they nonetheless attest to a genius of symphonic construction such as few musicians could boast at, respectively, 16 (Symphony No. 1), 18 (Symphony No. 3) or 19 years of age (Symphony No. 4). Despite these promising beginnings, Schubert would be only sporadically published during his lifetime – approximately one tenth of his total output and primarily his lieder –, and his symphonic works would not be printed until sixty years after his death. Here, Philippe Herreweghe and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic pay a superb tribute to these works of the composer that are less well known and rarely recorded, in interpretations of refinement, precision and sensitivity.
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2 CDs A 388
Girolamo Frescobaldi The First Book of Toccatas
Rinaldo Alessandrini, harpsichord & organ
Release 08/2
015
On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the publication of Primo Libro di Toccate (1615), Arcana is proud to make this reference recording of Girolamo Frescobaldi’s most popular work available again. Here, Rinaldo Alessandrini shows to full advantage his well-known skills as keyboard virtuoso as well as his familiarity with the madrigal repertoire of the time, so important for a proper approach to this revolutionary book, whose basic elements are the affetti and where rhetoric became the interpretive key. Two period Italian instruments are used here, making it possible to rediscover the colours appropriate to Frescobaldi’s music: a harpsichord attributed to Celestini – the latest research apparently proves that it is not by this builder and that its construction dates from around 1650 – preserved in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague; and the restored organ (c.1630), in the church of S. Maria del Carmine in Brescia.
Alessandro Stradella
A 389
San Giovanni Crisostomo. An Oratorio for 5 voices & b.c. Ensemble Mare Nostrum Andrea De Carlo Arianna Vendittelli (Eudosia), soprano Matteo Bellotto (Crisostomo), bass Filippo Mineccia (Inviato di Roma), alto Luca Cervoni (Teofilo), tenor Nora Tabbush (Consigliere), soprano
015 Release 09/2
28
The reputation of San Giovanni Battista, by far Alessandro Stradella’s best-known and most recorded work by, has so far overshadowed the rest of his surviving oratorio output, amounting to a total of six works. Unlike the most representative masterwork, San Giovanni Crisostomo – here released for the first time – was conceived for more intimate resources and yet perfectly expresses the modernity of the oratorio genre as it appeared in the second half of the 17th century. Sacred and moral themes are combined with political, social, and sometimes erotic ones, and the subject, libretto, and music interact on multiple levels with surprising boldness and freedom. Stradella masterfully presents the eternal conflict between lust for power and the vanity of life through a wide variety of expressive solutions and the refined dramatic and psychological characterization of the two protagonists, Saint John Chrysostom and Eudosia.
Ondas
A 390
Martin Codax, Cantigas de Amigo VivaBiancaLuna Biffi, voice & viola d’arco Pierre Hamon, medieval flutes
Release 10/2
015
Galicia, second half of the 13th century. For her second recording on Arcana, VivaBiancaLuna Biffi has come up with a remarkable programme centred on the seven Cantigas de Amigo by Martín Codax, one of the earliest cases in monodic music where the speaker is a woman. In this actual song cycle, the protagonist talks to the waves of the sea, both obstacle and messenger, asking for her lover. Singing to the viol, VivaBiancaLuna Biffi gives voice to human feeling, whilst Pierre Hamon provides evocative interludes on his unparalleled mediaeval flutes, making the waves become sounds, emotions, and words beyond words.
Harmonie & Turcherie
A 391
Gaetano & Giuseppe Donizetti, Joseph & Michael Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Spohr, Witt Zefiro Alfredo Bernardini
Release 11/2
015
Harmonie & Turcherie: around the year 1800, Western music was undergoing a merging of two phenomena. On one hand was the success of a particular ensemble of wind instruments, boosted by the foundation of the royal and imperial Harmonie by Emperor Joseph himself in Vienna in 1782, the core of its repertoire being arrangements of famous opera arias; on the other, the vogue for orientalism, reflected in different expressions of the arts: painting, sculpture, architecture and music. The typical octet of the Harmonie, consisting of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, was therefore reinforced by louder wind instruments such as trumpets, trombones, a contrabassoon or a cimbasso, as well as an array of percussion instruments – together, they could evoke the military bands of the highly feared Janissaries. That sound fascinated the most eminent composers of the time, including Haydn (Joseph and his younger brother Michael), Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti (Gaetano and his elder brother Giuseppe, active at the Ottoman court), Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Spohr, all of whom wrote small, little-known masterpieces for this particular band. Zefiro presents us with a varied programme by these composers, alternating Turkish marches with chamber works in a more operatic and deeper vein, thus revealing the versatility and colours of period wind instruments.
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Séverine Ballon
AECD 1647
Solitude
Liza Lim Mauro Lanza Rebecca Saunders James Dillon Thierry Blondeau
015 Release 09/2
30
The supernatural drifts of the compositions brought together in this recording, served by the power and playing technique of Séverine Ballon, reveal unexpected facets of expressiveness in the contemporary cello. Fully engaged in the renewal of its repertoire, Séverine Ballon especially favours conversing and working with the composers, in the intimacy of the ‘sound factory’. Having initiated numerous creations to which this recital admirably bears witness, here she offers us a tailormade programme in the heart of the compositional process. Once again, what could have been likened to risk-taking allows Séverine Ballon to affirm, forcefully and with conviction, her artistic identity, her commitment and her very particular place in the world of the contemporary cello.
Alexander Scriabin - Nikolai Medtner
FUG 725
Piano Sonatas
Katja Avdeeva, piano
Russian soul without a doubt. Here, pianist Katja Avdeeva takes us onto the ideal ground for demonstrating her art and profoundly expressing the sensitive poetry of her illustrious compatriots Alexander Scrabin and Nikolai Medtner.
Release 08/2
015
These two contemporaries had in common devoting practically all their musical production to the piano. Already marking Scriabin’s stylistic evolution towards modernity, the Sonata No.3 ‘États d’âme’ opens this programme and then invites us to fly off ‘to the star, symbol of happiness’, represented, according to the composer, by the sublime Fourth Sonata. Making us travel with refinement, the extraordinary palette of colours that the pianist displays intimately plunges lovers of Russian music in the inner world of the master of modernity. Under the fingers of this great artist of today, you will also (re)discover two sonatas by Nikolai Medtner, nine years younger than Scriabin.
Claude Debussy - Gabriel Fauré - Philippe Gaubert - George Enescu - Charles Koechlin
FUG 726
Le Temps retrouvé
Toon Fret, flute Veronika Iltchenko, piano
015 Release 09/2
After the October 2014 release of their second album, Die Welt von Gestern, devoted to Romantic and modern Austro-German music, Fuga Libera now proposes the rediscovery of the first opus by the eloquent Toon Fret and the delicate Veronika Iltchenko. Le Temps retrouvé offers you a rich, sensitive reading of sonorities from the French Belle Époque, travelling through a musical mosaic of a dynamism and character unique to that fascinating chapter in the history of music. Between Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Philippe Gaubert, George Enescu and Charles Koechlin, immerse yourself in this colourful repertoire for transverse flute and piano. In the opinion of France Musique,’A truly successful disc, thanks to these two artists: Toon Fret, always pertinent and poetic, with a bewitching, silky sonority, and then the pianist Veronika Iltchenko who accompanies gently without ever crushing him’.
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31
Ô-Celli
FUG 727
Have you ever imagined eight cellos leading you in an energetic round through a colourful, energetic repertoire? Ô-Celli sweeps us away with a programme centred on dance, combining highly diverse influences with the discovery of rearranged works from the major repertoire and original pieces dedicated to this ensemble.
Release 10/2
015
Stemming from the obvious, contagious passion of eight cellists, all chamber players and, for the most part, members of major symphony orchestras – including the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de Lille –, here the octet takes up the wager of proposing original arrangements with mixed accents, thereby inviting us on a ‘custom-made’ journey organized round works by Strauss, Stravinsky, Borodin and the inevitable Astor Piazzolla, whilst honouring two talented young composers of our time: Harold Noben and Oriol Cruixent. Let yourself be tempted: Ô-Celli is going dancing!
Gabriel Pierné - Louis Vierne
FUG 728
French Resonance
Elsa Grether, violin François Dumont, piano
Release 11/2
32
015
Two years after the success of her album Poème mystique, very warmly received by the press and public and which obtained in particular the highest ratings from the specialized magazines (5 Diapasons and four stars from Classica), the brilliant violinist Elsa Grether returns, this time accompanied by pianist François Dumont. Balanced and expressive, the duo forms an alchemy that blends mastery and spontaneity, the extreme precision giving the music the possibility of revealing itself with refinement and delicacy. Their intimate programme highlights two masterpieces of Fin-de-siècle French music, too rarely performed: Louis Vierne’s Sonata for Violon and Piano, Op. 23, and Gabriel Pierné’s Sonata in D minor, Op. 36. Let yourself be charmed by these talented musicians in the discovery of music that is almost secretive and exquisitely refined: a moment of pure serenity awaits you.
Leclair - Forqueray - Pancrace Royer - Barrière - Bodin de Boismortier
FUG 729
The Salon of Scylla and Glaucus
Les Nouveaux Caractères Sébastien d’Hérin, conductor
Release 11/2
015
Centred on the overture of Jean-Marie Leclair’s opera Scylla et Glaucus, arranged for trio sonata by the composer himself, this album constitutes the instrumental counterpart of the composer’s only vocal work, the performance of which, by Les Nouveaux Caractères, will be released at the same time on the Alpha label. With this opus, the ensemble, already well experienced in the performance of operas and musical forms of theatrical inspiration on period instruments, offers us a delicate, sensitive journey into instrumental music under Louis XV. These sonatas and character pieces for violin and continuo or for two violins without bass by the same Leclair, are coupled with works by leading composers of the time: Antoine Forqueray, Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, and Jean-Baptiste Barrière. A disc subtly combining dynamism and refinement of interpretation, not to be missed!
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Dialogues
RAM 1407
Suites pour deux violes de gambe de Marin Marais (1656-1728) Mieneke van der Velden, viola da gamba Wieland Kuijken, viola da gamba Fred Jacobs, theorbo
A noteworthy fact: Marais, in his five books of Pièces de viole, published only two suites for two viols and continuo. Aside from the two suites for three viols (Book IV), all the other pieces are intended for the solo instrument with accompaniment of harpsichord, theorbo or a second viol in different combinations.
Release 08/2
015
These two particular suites are both found in Book I (1686). The addition of a second solo viol reinforces the character of the various parts: especially in the slow sections, Marais ideally emphasizes the sound of the two viols with long sostenuto lines and poignant dissonances. The Tombeau pour Mr. Meliton constitutes the absolute height of this. After Mieneke van der Velden’s recordings Hommages and Images, Dialogues completes the picture of the imposing sound world of Marin Marais’s music, magnified by the collaboration with the master Wieland Kuijken.
Pierre Danican Philidor
RAM 1405
Suittes à deux flûtes traversières seules Marie-Céline Labbé, traverso Marion Treupel-Franck, traverso
015 Release 08/2
34
For this second recording devoted to French Baroque music for two solo transverse lutes, Marie-Céline Labbé and Marion Treupel-Franck perform the six suites by Pierre Danican Philidor (1681-1731), pieces taken from the three collections published by the composer in Paris in 1717 and 1718. Written in a highly original style in which one senses the spirit of freedom blowing over Versailles and France during the regency of the Duke d’Orléans, these short suites, in addition to the principal dances in vogue at the court of Versailles in the early 18th century, each comprise a fugue. A few brunettes by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1667-1737) round out the programme. The brunette, a little rustic song with an evocative title, was a musical genre quite popular in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The selection proposed here will enable the listener to discover another facet of the work of Montéclair, the composer who was the object of the two flautists’ first recording (double-CD Ramée RAM 1102).
2 CDs RAM 1404
Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations Pascal Dubreuil, harpsichord
Release 10/2
015
The Goldberg Variations followed the three parts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s ClavierÜbung. The title page presents the work as a ‘Keyboard exercise consisting of an Aria with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals...’ Forkel, in his biography of the composer, relates that these variations were composed at the request of the Count von Keyserlingk so that his harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, might play a few of them during the insomnias that often disturbed the Count’s nights. But no concrete element has come down to us to verify Forkel’s remarks. The exceptional virtuosity required by this work also leads one to think that it was perhaps a sort of response to Domenico Scarlatti’s publication of 30 of his Essercizi in 1738, which also exploit, but to a lesser degree, aspects of keyboard technique not yet in common use at the time. These technical aspects as well as the sublime eloquence, the genius of the counterpoint and the inexhaustible variety of the variations combine to make this one of the summits of the genre. With his captivating interpretation, Pascal Dubreuil completes the release of the four parts of the Clavier-Übung for Ramée (CÜ1 RAM 0804, CÜ2 RAM 1002, CÜ3 RAM 1305).
35
The Scarlatti Book
OUT 658
Aka Moon Fabrizio Cassol, alto saxophone Michel Hatzigeorgiou, bass Stéphane Galland, drums Guest: Fabian Fiorini, piano
The essential jazz trio Aka Moon offers a refreshing approach to jazz and to ethnic musical genres such as funk and rock with a highly distinctive sound. In their richly filled career they have worked with dozens of artists from different backgrounds in numerous projects.
Release 10/2
015
Never afraid of new musical encounters, the band devoted its new album to the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). The latter offers in its vast repertoire of sonatas a unique musical material, fascinating in its rhythmic and harmonic eccentricities, creating an ideal ground to extract a suitable substance to the musical language for Aka Moon accompanied in this adventure by the pianist Fabian Fiorini. With Scarlatti each sonata is a strange and particular sound object, concealing popular, Arabic and Mediterranean colours, offering opportunities for transformation that sometimes tend to the Balkan influences. Performing this baroque music in another time and space gives to the contemporary interpretations very much room for improvisation. Built on an almost cinematic drama experience, this creation takes its audience on an imaginary journey with a lot of surprises.
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