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NEW RELEASES 2016 // 2 WWW.OUTHERE-MUSIC.COM

OUTHERE MUSIC HAS BECOME A KEY PLAYER ON THE INTERNATIONAL CLASSICAL SCENE OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS. NOW THE GROUP’S FLAGSHIP LABEL ALPHA MOVES TO A NEW LEVEL BY OPENING ITS CATALOGUE TO AN EVEN WIDER RANGE OF REPERTOIRES AND WELCOMING NEW ARTISTS OF INTERNATIONAL STATURE. RICERCAR, PHI, ARCANA, AEON, RAMÉE AND FUGA LIBERA, THE OTHER LABELS OF THE GROUP CONTINUE TO OFFER OUTSTANDING MUSICAL EXPERIENCE.

Alpha Classics

S 4

Ricercar 20 Fuga Libera

Arcana 29 Phi 35 RamĂŠe 38 Aeon 41 Instinct Collection

ALPHA CLASSICS

From the Renaissance to the music of the twenty-first century, with new or established talents, Alpha is committed to ambitious projects of the highest artistic standard that often stray far from the beaten track.

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Paris-based Alpha Classics is the principal label of the Franco-Belgian group Outhere Music. Building on its history of more than fifteen years and its reputation founded on early music, ALPHA acquired new momentum in 2015 by opening its catalogue to all repertories and welcoming important new artists from exceptionally diverse horizons: Anna Vinnitskaya, Véronique Gens, Hervé Niquet, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Georg Nigl, La Tempête, Nevermind, Jérémie Rhorer, Anna Prohaska, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Matthias Pintscher, and many more still to come, notably new talents, discovery and accompaniment of whom are a key priority for the label. Alongside all these new projects, ALPHA remains faithful to the artists who have made its history and its reputation: : Vincent Dumestre, Bruno Cocset, François Lazarevitch, Café Zimmermann and, more recently, Giovanni Antonini & Il Giardino Armonico for the famous Haydn 2032 complete recording… In order to create a stronger and more prominent label on the international scene, ALPHA now brings together all the artists who previously recorded under its name along with those who recorded for ZIG-ZAG TERRITOIRES, among them the Belcea Quartet, Nelson Goerner, Tedi Papavrami, Jos Van Immerseel... This merger will make for greater coherence among the 600 recordings in the existing catalogues (especially in the field of early music, the strong point of both labels) and the new releases.

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More than ever, ALPHA aims to establish long-term relationships with artists, to release projects that have come to artistic maturity, to give the fullest attention to the conditions of recording, editorial content, manufacturing and communication, whether its releases are physical or digital.

HAYDN2032 SYMPHONIES NOS 4, 42, 64 & ARIA «SOLO E PENSOSO» IL GIARDINO ARMONICO GIOVANNI ANTONINI FRANCESCA ASPROMONTE

Looking forward to the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Haydn in 2032, the Joseph Haydn Foundation of Basel has joined forces with the Alpha label to make a complete recording of the composer’s 107 symphonies. This ambitious project is placed under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini, who here presents the third volume, after two earlier releases that attracted great attention and received numerous awards, including the Echo Klassik Prize 2015 for the ‘best orchestral recording’ of the year. ALPHA 672 AUGUST 2016

1 CD

Since he sees the music of Haydn as ‘a kaleidoscope of human emotions’, Giovanni Antonini has decided to tackle the symphonies not in chronological order, but in thematically based programmes: the present volume gives us Haydn ‘the solitary’. The Italian conductor believes it is important to establish links between the symphonies and other works. For this recording, he has invited the magnificent soprano Francesca Aspromonte to perform the fine concert aria Solo e pensoso.

ALSO AVAILABLE ON VINYL! HAYDN2032 VOL. 3 – ‘SOLO E PENSOSO’

2 VINYL LPS + CD + DOWNLOAD CODE LIMITED EDITION NUMBERED FROM 1 TO 1000

ALPHA 673 AUGUST 2016

Here is a big first for the Haydn2032 series and for the Alpha label: volume 3 in the edition appears simultaneously on CD and on VINYL, in a luxury edition comprising two LPs in highquality pressings (180 gram vinyl) and a forty-page booklet with a sequence of photos by Bruno Barbey of the Magnum agency, the articles presenting the musical programme, and a new text by New York-based writer Lily Brett, who was once a music journalist specialising in rock and interviewed its biggest stars, from Jimi Hendrix to Mick Jagger. Here she presents a literary exercise on her relationship with music in general and classical music in particular. The LP package also includes the CD and a code for downloading the programme. Future volumes in the Haydn2032 edition will also be released on both CD and vinyl.

VINYL

QUATUOR VAN KUIJK (NEW SIGNING) MOZART STRING QUARTET IN E FLAT MAJOR K428, DIVERTIMENTO K136, STRING QUARTET IN C MAJOR K465, ‘DISSONANCE’

ALPHA 246 AUGUST 2016

Despite its Dutch-sounding name, the quartet founded by Nicolas Van Kuijk in 2012 is French. But its short career is already international. The Quatuor Van Kuijk won First Prize in the 2015 Wigmore Hall Competition and First Prize and Audience Award at the Trondheim International Chamber Competition, and its members have been named BBC New Generation Artists until 2017. It has also been distinguished by the Academy of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and it is in the framework of the latter’s partnership with Alpha Classics that it has recorded this programme. Mozart is obviously the ideal composer to forge a link between chamber music and opera, the raison d’être of the Aix Festival. This programme combines an impish divertimento by the youthful Mozart of 1772 with two mature quartets composed around 1782, including the famous ‘Dissonance’ Quartet with its eminently dramatic opening. Nowhere else in Mozart’s quartets do theatre and counterpoint form such a happy pairing. Praised by The Guardian for its ‘style, energy, and a sense of risk’, the QVK is one of the most promising chamber groups of the new generation. Alpha is proud to accompany it for several recording projects.

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‘IL ÉTAIT UNE FOIS’ ONCE UPON A TIME AN IMAGINARY OPERA FOCUSING ON FAIRYTALES REVISITED BY THE ROMANTIC ERA

JODIE DEVOS CAROLINE MENG QUATUOR GIARDINI

ALPHA 244 AUGUST 2016

Romanticism replaced the element of mythological fantasy in Baroque opera with fairytale fantasy. The fairytale is omnipresent on the French stage, whether in spoken theatre, ballet or opera. It is no coincidence that Cinderella and Bluebeard so appealed to nineteenth-century composers . . . This project, initiated by the Palazzetto Bru Zane, is constructed like a ‘universal’ fairytale inspired by Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, Hop-o’-My-Thumb and others, as set to music by French composers of the Romantic era. It alternates between famous composers (Offenbach, Massenet, Chausson . . . and Rossini, here sung in French) and others who are still little-known (Viardot, Silver, Serpette, De Rillé, Isouard). Conceived by Alexandre Dratwicki and transcribed by him for piano quartet and two singers, a soprano and a mezzo, this imaginary opera is splendidly performed by Jodie Devos and Caroline Meng – who, at one point in the story, having sung a queen, dons breeches to play a prince. For her part, the soprano, who ends up as the winsome princess of Massenet and Offenbach, must first endure the torments of uncertain love.

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JÉRÉMIE RHORER (NEW SIGNING)

MOZART

LE CERCLE DE L’HARMONIE, JÉRÉMIE RHORER (RECORDED AT THE THÉÂTRE DES CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES, PARIS)

ALPHA 242 AUGUST 2016

The conductor Jérémie Rhorer is today regarded as one of the finest interpreters of the music of Mozart in general and his operas in particular. After conducting Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2015, he performed it again at a memorable concert at the Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées in Paris in September of that year with his orchestra, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie. It is this exceptional event, captured in a live recording conveying all the dramatic intensity of the opera, that we present today. ‘In Die Entführung, Mozart presents a completely unprecedented vision of the singspiel, with highly developed ensembles and musical continuity at a time when contemporary spectators were expecting the standard alternation between spoken and sung sections’, says Jérémie Rhorer in the interview that accompanies the discs. That musical dramaturgy lies at the centre of this interpretation, which is served by an outstandingly homogeneous cast. This recording launches a series of recordings of concerts at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and a collaboration between Alpha Classics and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, who will continue to place their excellence at the service of the great masterpieces of Mozart – and of other composers: watch this space!

2 CDS

With: Jane Archibald (Konstanze), Norman Reinhardt (Belmonte), Mischa Schelomianski (Osmin), David Portillo (Pedrillo), Rachele Gilmore (Blonde), Christoph Quest (Bassa Selim), Ensemble Aedes

JUSTIN TAYLOR (NEW SIGNING) THE FORQUERAY FAMILY, PORTRAIT(S) JUSTIN TAYLOR, RUCKERS-HEMSCH

HARPSICHORD 1636-1763 / ANTHONY SIDEY

ALPHA 247 SEPTEMBER 2016

Justin Taylor, the winner of the 2015 edition of the celebrated harpsichord competition of the Musica Antiqua Festival in Bruges (which has honoured some of the world’s finest players, including Scott Ross, Christophe Rousset, Pierre Hantaï, Benjamin Alard, and more recently Jean Rondeau), has recorded for Alpha Classics a programme of music by the Forqueray family: Antoine, Michel, Jean-Baptiste, Nicolas-Gilles . . . Those are just some of the first names of a great dynasty of French composers, gambists and organists. Antoine Forqueray, born in 1672, obtained the highly coveted position of Musicien de la Chambre du Roi. He subsequently had, shall we say, a complicated relationship with his son Jean-Baptiste, born in 1699 . . . Envious of the boy’s talent for the viol, Antoine had him imprisoned when he was just sixteen years old!

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The recital, as well as painting a musical portrait of this unique family, also offers a chance to reflect on the issue of transcription. In fact, the suites performed here on the harpsichord were originally written for viola da gamba. The passage from one instrument to another, from one sound-world to another, sheds new light on the music and allows us to grasp its full originality.

BELCEA QUARTET // BRAHMS STRING QUARTETS NO.1 IN C MINOR OP.51 NO.1 / NO.2 IN A MINOR, OP.51 NO.2 / NO.3 IN B FLAT MAJOR, OP.67 PIANO QUINTET IN F MINOR, OP.34

BELCEA QUARTET TILL FELLNER

ALPHA 248 SEPTEMBER 2016

More than twelve years after its initial incursion into the music of Brahms, the Belcea Quartet now presents an eagerly awaited complete recording of his string quartets. A powerful style and a sense of musical architecture are the two qualities most often attributed to the Belcea, which is now one of the top international quartets. And those characteristics blossom to the full in Brahms. For the Piano Quintet, its members are joined by Till Fellner. This Austrian former student of Alfred Brendel is one of today’s most respected pianists, combining grace, rigour and musical intelligence. In September 2016 the Belcea Quartet will embark on a tour that will take it to the United States and most countries in Europe.

2 CDS

To coincide with the release of this new Brahms set, Alpha Classics will also reissue the complete Beethoven quartets (8 CD set, ALPHA 262).

ANNA PROHASKA (NEW SIGNING) SERPENT & FIRE ARIAS FOR DIDO & CLEOPATRA

ANNA PROHASKA IL GIARDINO ARMONICO GIOVANNI ANTONINI

ALPHA 250 SEPTEMBER 2016

The German soprano Anna Prohaska joins Alpha Classics for several recording projects. Her first recital brings together two superb African queens – Dido and Cleopatra – and follows them all over Europe during the first century of opera, from the 1640s to 1740. A firework display of arias, virtuosic and tragic by turns, written by the leading personalities of Baroque music (Cavalli, Handel, Purcell, Hasse) and composers still awaiting rediscovery such as Sartorio, Graupner and the Venetian Castrovillari. For this programme built like a tragedy around the queens of Egypt and Carthage, whom she interprets with the passion and fervour that have made her reputation, Anna Prohaska is accompanied by one of today’s finest Baroque ensembles, Il Giardino Armonico; under the inspired guidance of their director Giovanni Antonini (who is also a dazzling recorder soloist in some of the arias), they keep us on the edge of our seats from start to finish.

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A top star in Germany, Anna Prohaska also sings on the world’s leading operatic stages, from La Scala to Covent Garden by way of Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg.

ALPHA COLLECTION II: 14 MORE TITLES REISSUED 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.

COLLECTION RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 2016

ALPHA 314

ALPHA 315

ALPHA 316

ALPHA 317

ALPHA 318

ALPHA 319

ALPHA 320

ALPHA 327

ALPHA 322

ALPHA 323

ALPHA 324

ALPHA 325

VENEZIA STRAVAGANTISSIMA CAPRICCIO STRAVAGANTE RENAISSANCE ORCHESTRA SKIP SEMPE

ALPHA 326 10

OLIVIER CAVÉ RECORDS THREE MOZART CONCERTOS W. A. MOZART

OLIVIER CAVÉ DIVERTISSEMENT RINALDO ALESSANDRINI

ALPHA 243 SEPTEMBER 2016

Olivier Cavé has already made several acclaimed discs for Aeon (Clementi, Haydn, Bach, Scarlatti). This student of Nelson Goerner, Maria Tipo and Aldo Ciccolini invariably impresses listeners with the refinement of his playing. Today he presents a programme of three piano concertos with a conductor whose ventures into Mozart are always crowned with success: Rinaldo Alessandrini. They met at a concert in Toulouse and decided to record these masterpieces. Rinaldo Alessandrini has formed an orchestra for the occasion, which he has christened ‘Divertissement’, and together they will embark on a European tour focusing on this programme and symphonies by Mozart at the time of the CD’s release.

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This programme follows an interesting path from Mozart’s youth to his maturity, a path that runs through three concertos, from no.5, composed when he was seventeen, to no.25, written the same year as Le nozze di Figaro, by way of the joyful and and subtle Concerto no.13, which he composed in 1783. All three are stylishly and nimbly performed here by the soloist and an orchestra containing a majority of Italian musicians.

RESOUND BEETHOVEN VOL.4 BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES NO. 3 & 4

ORCHESTER WIENER AKADEMIE MARTIN HASELBÖCK

The Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck continue their Resound Beethoven series. The aim of this series is to record the complete Beethoven symphonies on period instruments in the venues where they were first performed, scrupulously respecting the layout of the orchestra used 200 years ago, and in this case also the position of the chorus, which was placed in front of the orchestra. ALPHA 474 SEPTEMBER 2016

Volume 4 is devoted to the Symphony No. 3 Eroica and Symphony No.4.

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The recording took place in May 2016 in the Eroica Saal at the Palais Lobkowitz, where each symphony was premiered in 1804 and 1807, in private performances. Laura Aikin, soprano ; Michaela Selinger, alto ; Steve Davislim, tenor ; José Antonio López, bass Chorus Sine Nomine

‘THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS’ MONTEVERDI ‘I SETTE PECCATI CAPITALI’

CAPPELLA MEDITERRANEA LEONARDO GARCÍA ALARCÓN

©Jean-Baptiste Millot

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 García Alarcón will of course continue his richly diverse collaboration with Ricercar (notably with the Chœur de Chambre de Namur and the Millennium Orchestra), but he will also release several projects on Alpha Classics, starting with an original programme of music by one of his favourite composers, Monteverdi. On the occasion of a music theatre piece centred on Poppea, whom her nurse Arnalta warns against the vices – a production directed by Olivier Lexa and performed at the Doge’s Palace in Venice – 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 é’l tormento among others, and the tenor Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro. Here is an opportunity to rediscover the great masterpieces of Monteverdi in a new context: L’incoronazione di Poppea, Il ritorno d’Ulisse, Orfeo, the madrigals, and even an excerpt from the Selva morale.

ALPHA 249 OCTOBER 2016

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Mariana Flores, Francesca Aspromonte, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Mathias Vidal

ALCINA & TAMERLANO

HANDEL

LES TALENS LYRIQUES CHRISTOPHE ROUSSET PIERRE AUDI, STAGE DIRECTOR DIRECTED BY STÉPHAN AUBÉ & MYRIAM HOYER FILMED AT THE THÉÂTRE DE LA MONNAIE, BRUSSELS, IN 2015

ALPHA 715 OCTOBER 2016

This Handelian diptych, the brainchild of the director Pierre Audi, was conceived in a style of great purity, right down to the costumes, the décors and the sumptuous chiaroscuro lighting. In order to replicate this aesthetic, reminiscent of Renaissance paintings, with the greatest possible fidelity, the performances, filmed in high resolution, are released on BLU RAY only. Christophe Rousset and his orchestra convey exceptional fervour in this music, here served by the finest Handelian voices imaginable, foremost among them Sandrine Piau, who enjoyed a genuine triumph in the stage production. Nor can one forget the dramatic performance of Jeremy Ovenden in Tamerlano, or the beauty of the voices of Ann Hallenberg, Sophie Karthäuser, Delphine Galou and the countertenor Christophe Dumaux. ‘With the audacity of its extremely tight plot, its small orchestra given the role of a dramatic mainspring, its innovative forms and structures, and above all the figure of Bajazet, the father, who hovers above the work like an implacable prophet of doom . . . Tamerlano may well be situated among the incontestable masterpieces of the “divine Saxon”. . . . In Alcina, Handel gives us one of his most dramatically accomplished scores, in which each character follows a wholly individual trajectory, and the different “stages” of love are delicately handled.’ – Christophe Rousset

2 BLU-RAY DISCS

CELLO STORIES

Cello StorieS

THE CELLO IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

LES BASSES RÉUNIES BRUNO COCSET

une histoire du violoncelle aux xvii e & xviii e siècles the cello in the 17th & 18th centuries

Bruno CoCSet

‘This set of five discs is an invitation to a rather special journey: through what you hear, and what you read too, you will traverse, guided by the cello, not one history but several histories. With these Cello Stories, our intention is to show you how an instrument and its repertoire have taken shape whilst retaining the imprint and memory of diverse origins. I have selected the musical programme from my recordings for Alpha – some of them previously unreleased – to complement the text by Marc Vanscheeuwijck and numerous contemporary illustrations.’ Bruno Cocset

leS BaSSeS réunieS text by marc vanscheeuwijck

ALPHA 890 OCTOBER 2016

CD 1 The origins (Bonizzi, Degli Antoni, Frescobaldi, Galli, Ortiz, Vitali) CD 2 Italy – France (Barrière, Marcello, Vivaldi) CD 3 Johann Sebastian Bach 1 CD 4 Johann Sebastian Bach 2 CD 5 From Geminiani to Boccherini

5 CDS + BOOK OF 170 PAGES

VENETIAN SOLEMN MASS FOR THE BIRTH OF LOUIS XIV

GIOVANNI ROVETTA (1596-1668) MISSA PER LA NASCITA DEL GRAN DELPHIN (1638)

GALILEI CONSORT BENJAMIN CHÉNIER

©JM Manaï

In 1638 Louis-Dieudonné, destined to become King of France under the name of Louis XIV, was born at last. Louis XIII instructed his ambassadors to celebrate the event with pomp and circumstance. In Venice, whose commercial vitality gave it a dominant role in Europe, four days of festivities were organised in honour of the French Dauphin, culminating in the performance at San Giorgio Maggiore of a solemn mass specially composed by Giovanni Rovetta, Monteverdi’s deputy maestro di cappella at San Marco, who was to succeed him in 1644 and become one of the leading musicians in Venice.

ALPHA 965 OCTOBER 2016

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That mass, never sung again since its first performance, was reconstructed by Benjamin Chénier in 2015 for the tercentenary of the death of Louis XIV. It is a grandiose, typically Venetian work, with all the splendour appropriate to the spirit of La Serenissima Repubblica. The Galilei Consort, founded by the violinist Benjamin Chénier, is principally dedicated to the reconstruction of musical practices and works of seventeenth-century Italy. Such practices emerged from the humanist movement, and are personified by Vincenzo Galilei, father of the famous Galileo, who advocated a return to the Greek conception of music with primary importance accorded to the meaning of the text. 13

PINTSCHER CONDUCTS PINTSCHER SONGS FROM SOLOMON’S GARDEN, FOR BARITONE AND ORCHESTRA (2009) BERESHIT IN A BEGINNING (2012)

Alpha Classics continues its collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and presents a programme devoted to compositions by its conductor and artistic director, Matthias Pintscher.

ALPHA 218 OCTOBER 2016

bereshit, ‘in a beginning’ in Hebrew, is a piece on the subject of divine creation. The architecture of the work refers to the idea of the growth of the elements out of nothingness to their finished state: the colours, the harmonies are therefore always redefined by what precedes and follows them.

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Songs from Solomon’s garden – still in a highly spiritual dimension – explores amorous passion through the shir ha shirim (Song of Songs). The poetic density of this text is underlined here, with the only repeated phrase of the work taking on a quasi-incantatory signification: ‘she-cholat ahava ani’ (for I am sick of love).

TWO REQUIEMS IN MEMORY OF LOUIS XVI & MARIE-ANTOINETTE LUIGI CHERUBINI (1760 - 1842) REQUIEM IN C MINOR FOR CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA (1817) CHARLES-HENRI PLANTADE (1764 - 1839) MESSE DES MORTS IN D MINOR FOR CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA (1823): FIRST MODERN PERFORMANCE ©Julien Mignot

LE CONCERT SPIRITUEL HERVÉ NIQUET

ALPHA 251 OCTOBER 2016

In 1817, two years after the restoration of the monarchy by Louis XVIII, the French court attended a performance of Cherubini’s Requiem in memory of Louis XVI; a few years later, in 1823, the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Marie-Antoinette provided the occasion for giving Charles-Henri Plantade’s Messe des morts in her memory. Berlioz had just arrived in Paris, and Napoleon had recently died in exile on the island of Saint Helena.

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In 2015, the two works were presented in a single concert at Versailles Palace. While Cherubini’s Requiem, scored for mixed choir and orchestra, but without soloists, is well known, Charles-Henri Plantade’s setting, which shares the same formal characteristics, is a complete discovery. It provides a striking transitional stage between the models of the Ancien Régime and early Romanticism, and displays a wealth of invention reminiscent of Méhul, Cherubini and even Rossini. This is the first recording of the work, which was revived on the initiative of the Palazzetto Bru Zane. A noted specialist in French music and large-scale sacred forms, Hervé Niquet brings out the full strength of these two works, recorded in the Chapelle Royale at Versailles, which further enrich the Alpha/Château de Versailles collection. 14

TOBIAS FELDMANN (NEW SIGNING) POLYCHROME RAVEL, PROKOFIEV, STRAUSS SONATAS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO

TOBIAS FELDMANN BORIS KUSNEZOW

ALPHA 253 OCTOBER 2016

Polychromy. A simple concept that defines the very essence of this recording, in which colour is omnipresent and takes on diverse and nuanced forms. The choice of works in itself forms at once a harmony and a contrast of shades and sonorities: this album offers the virtuosic and lyrical Violin Sonata no.2 in D major op.94bis of Sergei Prokofiev, the Sonate posthume of Maurice Ravel, and the Violin Sonata in E flat major op.18 of Richard Strauss, the pièce de résistance of the programme. Tobias Feldmann, a prizewinner at the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Competition, invites us on this musical journey with his vividly coloured and expressive violinistic language, supported with finesse by his partner Boris Kusnezow. Skilfully combining virtuosity and elegance, their expert fingers create an alchemy whose extreme precision enables these works to yield up all their poetry and refinement, revealing the specific colour of each of them.

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Alpha Classics is proud to support the career development of these young yet already seasoned artists.

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN SCHUBERT, NÖRMIGER, DOWLAND, GESUALDO, KURTAG, HOLLIGER

PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA THE SAINT PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

ALPHA 265 OCTOBER 2016

« With the wonderful Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra we are presently exploring Schuberts quatuor „Death and the maiden“. Of course we have to include Schubert’s earlier song with the same title on the poem of Matthias Claudius. This song belongs to the medieval tradition of the dance of death. Therefore we also play „Toden Tanz“ (with poor me dancing), an ancient death dance written up by the German organ player August Nörmiger (1560-1613). Schubert’s song and the slow movement of his quatuor use the solemn rhythm of a Pavan, so we also play one of Dowland’s Pavans from „Seven Teares“. Add to this „Moro lasso“ a madrigal about death by the famous Renaissance composer (and murderer!) Gesualdo. In between we also refresh our ears with other unsettling works by modern composers like György Kurtag and Heinz Holliger. »

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Patricia Kopatchinskaja

REINOUD VAN MECHELEN (NEW SIGNING) BACH «ERBARME DICH» (EXCERPTS FROM CANTATAS BY J. S. BACH)

©Senne Van Der Ven

REINOUD VAN MECHELEN A NOCTE TEMPORIS : ANNA BESSON, BENJAMIN ALARD, RONAN KERNOA

ALPHA 252 NOVEMBER 2016

The young tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen, whose career is currently in full flower, appears as a guest soloist with today’s leading conductors of Baroque music. He has decided to devote his first solo album to a composer whom he interprets with elegance and contagious joy: Johann Sebastian Bach. The title ‘Erbarme dich’ naturally evokes for music lovers the celebrated alto aria from the St Matthew Passion; but it is also the incipit of a sorrowful, sensuous aria for tenor and flute from the Cantata BWV 55. In fact, a substantial corpus of cantatas written by the Kantor in Leipzig between 1724 and 1726 feature a close dialogue between tenor voice and flute. Bach excels in this art of discourse and enjoys underlining or contradicting the text by sketching with the flute lines full of exacerbated vocality. This art of interweaving voices attracted Reinoud Van Mechelen and the flautist Anna Besson, who have chosen, along with the organist and harpsichordist Benjamin Alard, to structure their programme around Bach arias featuring obbligato organ and traverso. This album marks the birth of the ensemble founded by Reinoud Van Mechelen, A Nocte Temporis, and the start of his collaboration with Alpha, which will extend over several years.

1 CD

THE ANGEL AND THE DEVIL TARTINI: SONATA ‘IL TRILLO DEL DIAVOLO’ LOCATELLI: SONATA OP. 6 NO.12 VITALI: CIACONNA IN G MINOR LECLAIR: SONATA OP.9 NO.8

©Pressiana Petia

CHOUCHANE SIRANOSSIAN JOS VAN IMMERSEEL

ALPHA 255 NOVEMBER 2016

After a year of celebrations of his seventieth birthday, including several recordings of orchestral music, Jos Van Immerseel returns to chamber music and the accompaniment of young talents, two absolute priorities for him. In Chouchane Siranossian he has found a worthy partner, as gifted on the modern violin as she is on the Baroque instrument, a pupil of Tibor Varga, then of Zakhar Bron, as well as a disciple of Reinhard Goebel, whose first recording, on the Oehms label, attracted great attention (winning a ‘Diapason Découverte’). Here it is the Baroque violinist who engages in dialogue with the harpsichord of Jos Van Immerseel in a Franco-Italian programme juxtaposing the music of the ‘Angel’ Leclair and the ‘Devil’ Locatelli, not forgetting Tartini’s famous ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata . . . Indeed, all this music is ‘devilishly’ difficult to play, but the Franco-Armenian violinist shows perfect mastery of it, combined with great inventiveness.

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THE FIRST RECORDING OF THE COMPOSER ERIC MONTALBETTI

ERIC MONTALBETTI SOLOS ‘A PERSONAL DIARY IN MUSIC’

FRANÇOIS-FRÉDÉRIC GUY TEDI PAPAVRAMI MARC COPPEY NICOLAS BALDEYROU JEAN-LOUIS CAPEZZALI DAVID GUERRIER

ALPHA 263 NOVEMBER 2016

This album of ‘solos’ for various different instruments constitutes the composer’s ‘personal diary’ over some twenty-five years. Eric Montalbetti, who was artistic director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France from 1996 to 2014, long kept his music a secret, composing for himself, as if he were keeping a diary. Yet he had been composing since the age of eleven, while also learning the piano and the organ. He was taught by Paul Méfano and Michaël Levinas, and attended masterclasses with George Benjamin and Magnus Lindberg. In 1990 he received prizes from the Sacem and the Menuhin Foundation for his Violin Sonata.

1 CD

He seeks in music a language capable of expressing our most varied emotions: vital energy, interrogation, anxiety, mourning, rage, hope, prayer, love, gratitude. Trois études après Kandinsky for piano, Esprit tendre for oboe (a tribute to Helen and Elliott Carter), the Sonata for solo violin in four movements, a Suite for cello, five Formants for solo clarinet, and La Prière de l’Ange gardien for solo horn make up this programme, which is performed by some of the finest soloists on the current French scene.

OLIVIER FORTIN TELEMANN ‘THE MUSICAL THEATRE OF TELEMANN’ OVERTURES, CONCERTOS & SUITES

OLIVIER FORTIN ENSEMBLE MASQUES

©David Samyn

‘Tremendous fun!’, ‘Scintillating!’, wrote the journalists of Diapason and Classica about the most recent recording of Olivier Fortin and his ensemble, devoted to the rarely heard Romanus Weichlein, which received every honour from the French musical press (Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica, FFFF Télérama). ALPHA 256 NOVEMBER 2016

This year, the Canadian harpsichordist and his loyal band have decided to record Telemann, the 250th anniversary of whose death will be commemorated in 2017.

1 CD

Two anonymous musicians from the city of Hamburg wrote in 1728 that ‘Handel [composes] music’ but Telemann composes ‘music and affects’. The overture-suites by Telemann presented on this recording are written in a ‘mimetic’ style: Les Nations, the Concerto Polonois, La Bizarre and the Burlesque de Quixotte explore a vast range of subjects and, even more than all his other works, reveal a man of the theatre, widely read, curious, a humorist and a shrewd observer of the physical and political world around him. 17

THE NEW RECORDING OF CAFÉ ZIMMERMANN CPE BACH ARIAS, SYMPHONIES & SONATAS

©Benjamin Harte

RUPERT CHARLESWORTH CAFE ZIMMERMANN

ALPHA 257 NOVEMBER 2016

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is the most famous of the sons of J. S. Bach. His magisterial œuvre contains, notably, a large number of concertos for various instruments and keyboard pieces. But the composer also excelled at vocal music, thus continuing in the family tradition by composing, among other genres, sacred and secular cantatas and songs. His works respect the rules of Baroque style while also hinting at the dawn of the Classical style subsequently represented by Haydn and Mozart.

1 CD

Café Zimmermann has been including the music of C. P. E. Bach in its programmes for years, notably in a recording (ALPHA 107) that marked a turning point in the discography. A Leipzig newspaper wrote of the ensemble’s interpretation of works by Emanuel Bach: ‘Anyone who has heard the sensational Café Zimmermann in this music, the brilliant, ardent spirit of their playing, their profusion of colours . . . will want to hear more of this composer.’ Here is a further opportunity to do so, in partnership with the English tenor Rupert Charlesworth, who recorded his first album in 2015 (‘Nocturnes’, ZZT 355).

GIOVANNI ANTONINI & IL GIARDINO ARMONICO HONOUR TELEMANN! SUITE, SONATA, CONCERTOS FOR RECORDER AND CHALUMEAUX

IL GIARDINO ARMONICO GIOVANNI ANTONINI

The year 2017 will mark the 250th anniversary of the death of Georg Philipp Telemann, one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque era. Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico have taken this opportunity to pay tribute to his eclecticism in a programme juxtaposing works that move constantly between French and Italian stylistic traditions.

ALPHA 245 (CD) ALPHA 254 (DOUBLE LP SET) NOVEMBER 2016

On this disc, Giovanni Antonini not only directs the ensemble, but also returns to the recorder, his own instrument of choice (as it was the composer’s), and performs the Suite in A minor, the Concerto in C major and the Concerto da camera in G minor. We will also discover a curiosity, a sonata for chalumeaux. This instrument of folk origins is comparable to the clarinet, and Telemann was the first composer to show an interest in it. Like volume 3 of the Haydn2032 Edition, this programme will be released on both CD and LP, thus asserting the common desire of the Alpha label and the Milanese ensemble to make these new recordings available to lovers of vinyl, who are more and more numerous. 18

ACTUS TRAGICUS J. S. BACH CANTATES BWV 106 ‘GOTTES ZEIT IST DIE ALLERBESTE ZEIT’ (ACTUS TRAGICUS), BWV 150 ‘NACH DIR, HERR, VERLANGET MICH’, BWV 12 ‘WEINEN, KLAGEN, SORGEN, ZAGEN’, BWV 131 ‘AUS DER TIEFEN RUFE ICH, HERR, ZU DIR’

©Robert Buckland

VOX LUMINIS LIONEL MEUNIER

ALPHA 258 NOVEMBER 2016

The year ends in fine style with a programme of cantatas by J. S. Bach performed by Vox Luminis. The Belgian group directed by the bass Lionel Meunier is now acknowledged as belonging among the world’s elite vocal ensembles, especially for its interpretations of German Baroque sacred music. Its recording of works by the ancestors of J. S. Bach on Ricercar (RIC 347) won many awards. Vox Luminis now tackles Johann Sebastian himself, in a programme of cantatas composed in 1707/1708, which are thus among the composer’s earliest. Notable among them is the poignant cantata ‘Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit’ (God’s time is the best of all times) BWV 106, also known as the ‘Actus tragicus’, which was composed for a funeral ceremony. Bach was therefore just twenty-two years old when he wrote this cantata, which opens with a deeply moving dialogue for recorders and continues with the equally fervent chorus ‘Gottes Zeit . . .’.

1 CD

RICERCAR

RICERCAR was founded by Jérôme Lejeune in 1980 and the label swiftly became one of the major players in the rediscovery of early music.

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Each RICERCAR recording documents a moment in the history of music, one that can be experienced not only by listening but also by reading informative liner notes written with the general public in mind. RICERCAR’s aim has always been to seek out and make available unusual and unpublished works, although they have also recorded certain well-known works when new musicological discoveries have inspired their artists to a new style of performance or interpretation. Each recording is made with the greatest respect possible for the history and origins of the work concerned; this goes from the use of the most authentic sources possible for the score to the choice of the musicians and the instruments that are most suited to the particular type of repertoire. RICERCAR’s recordings are produced by Jérôme Lejeune, its artistic director, who takes meticulous care that there is always a perfect symbiosis between the players themselves and the space in which the recording is made; this including the choice of natural acoustics according to their character and their suitably to the repertoire being recorded. RICERCAR fully respects the acoustic of its recording space and the particular timbres of its voices and the instruments: it has never used any form of sound filtration or artificial reverberation.

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RICERCAR is supported by the Ministère des Arts de la Scène du Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles.

JOHANN JOSEPH FUX JOHANN CASPAR KERLL KAISER REQUIEM (FUX) MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS (KERLL)

VOX LUMINIS SCORPIO COLLECTIF L’ACHÉRON

RIC 368 AUGUST 2016

This recording presents two Austrian requiems of totally different character. Johann Joseph Fux wrote his Requiem in 1720 for the funeral of Eleonora Magdalena , widow of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. Composed by a musician reputed for his theoretical skill, it impresses with the quality of the polyphonic writing combined with a very rich instrumental fabric comprising cornetts, trombones and bassoon in addition to violins, instruments also benefiting from concertante interventions. This requiem was played on numerous occasions for official ceremonies, including again for the funeral of Karl VI in 1740. On the other hand, Johann Caspar Kerll’s version is presented in a much more intimist way. To tell the truth, we do not know for what circumstances it was written. It is scored for an ensemble of five voices backed up by a quartet of viols. In a more archaic style, its intense emotion is doubtless influenced by the music of his Roman master, Giacomo Carissimi.

1 CD

MUSIC AT THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV THE RICERCAR HISTORY OF EARLY MUSIC After the Musical Europe of the Renaissance (RIC 106), this journey through the history of early music, marked out by Jérôme Lejeune, arrives at the Baroque era. Here, after Italy in Monteverdi’s time (RIC 107), we have music in France under the reign of Louis XIV. MUSIC AT THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV

RIC 108 SEPTEMBER 2016

French music of the Grand Siècle has its roots in the polyphonic tradition of the Renaissance. During the reign of Louis XIV, the longest in the history of France (72 years), French music imposed itself as an important alternative to the Italian style, which seemed to conquer the rest of Europe quite quickly. Courtly music imposed its models in the capital, and provincial cities tried to keep pace with the means at their disposal. With the court’s institutions (La Chapelle, L’Écurie, La Chambre du Roi, the XXIV Violins or the Académie royale), France created models that would prolong Louis XIV’s Century during the Age of Enlightenment. The suite, the ouverture, the tragédie en musique, the grand motet and solo motets stand out as powerful identities of French music.

8 CDS

ROLAND DE LASSUS CANTICUM CANTICORUM

CHŒUR DE CHAMBRE DE NAMUR CLEMATIS LEONARDO GARCÍA ALARCÓN

RIC 370 SEPTEMBER 2016

At the height of the Renaissance, the music of Orlande de Lassus frequently combines the emotion of secular music with sacred compositions. With their erotic connotations, the texts of The Song of Songs are an ideal source for bringing together sacred and profane feelings. Based on his most famous song, Lassus wrote one of his unitary masses: Suzanne un jour. Along with the Magnificat that he composed on De Rore’s madrigal Ancor che col partire, here are two religious compositions of which the themes are borrowed from evocations of amorous turmoil.

1 CD

JOHANN BERNHARD BACH 4 OUVERTURES

L’ACHÉRON FRANÇOIS JOUBERT-CAILLET

Johann Bernhard Bach (1676-1749) is a somewhat ill-known member of the family, but known by his first cousin once removed, Johann Sebastian. A disciple of Pachelbel, he was in the service of the court of Eisenach and left us only instrumental music. His four Ouvertures for orchestra constitute the obvious link between French music of the Grand Siècle and the compositions that Johann Sebastian would write in Weimar and Cöthen. A missing link to be (re)discovered. RIC 373 OCTOBER 2016

1 CD

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART THE VIENNA CONCERT – 23 MARCH 1783

MILLENIUM ORCHESTRA JODIE DEVOS SEBASTIAN WIENAND LEONARDO GARCÍA ALARCÓN

RIC 361 OCTOBER 2016

On 23 March 1783, an important concert took place in Vienna, playing a considerable role for Mozart’s reputation in the imperial capital, where he had resided since 1781. It is obvious that Mozart wanted to be heard in both what he had composed prior to 1781, as well as in his more recent works. From the Salzburg repertoire, he borrowed the ‘Haffner’ Symphony. To this he added the long concertant movement for wind instruments from the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade. Here we also find two piano concertos (one from Salzburg, and the latest, doubtless composed for the occasion), several arias from earlier operas (Lucio Silla, Idomeneo) or again, recently written. Although he played his concertos, he also improvised keyboard variations and even a fugue (because the emperor was in attendance)… An historic concert to be rediscovered, as if you were there!

1 CD

PHILIPPE VERDELOT SYLVESTRO GANASSI MADRIGALI DIMINUITI

DOULCE MÉMOIRE DENIS RAISIN DADRE

RIC 371 NOVEMBER 2016

In 1535 Sylvestro Ganassi published in Venice the first treatise developing the technique of the art of ornamentation at an unprecedented level of rhythmic complexity and virtuosity. Playing the recorder, the instrument to which Ganassi devoted his work, Denis Raisin Dadre applies the rules of the treatise to the repertoire that Ganassi practiced, frottole and, above all, the madrigals of Philippe Verdelot. With the ornaments, the music proves to be a living art that practices a constant rhythmic shift, the exuberant virtuosity of improvisations and a ‘swing’ that would be typical of jazz in the 20th century.

1 CD

GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI

SELECTED ORGAN WORKS

BERNARD FOCCROULLE

ORGAN WORKS

Although Girolamo Frescobaldi’s organ works draw on the polyphonic tradition of the Renaissance, few virtuosos of the early 17th century tackled with as much originality the expressive movement that opened the way for what we consider ‘Baroque music’. He transposed for the keyboard this sense of the affect and virtuosity that, in the sphere of opera, overturned all the conventions of vocal music. He recommended flexible playing, freed of any overly strict constraints, insisting on the fact that the musician must play ‘con affetti cantabili’ (with the affects of singing).

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BERNARD FOCCROULLE RIC 372 NOVEMBER 2016

1 CD

FUGA LIBERA With a repertoire stretching from late baroque to contemporary music, and supported by eminent actors of the European musical life Fuga Libera’s catalogue presents a growing collection of publications mixing classical music with other music genres.

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Fuga Libera was founded in 2004. With its catalogue of more than 80 titles, it is one of Belgium’s most lively and active labels. The catalogue reaches from the baroque to the romantic repertoire. Fuga Libera invests in the future by profiling itself explicitly as a platform for young musicians. Creative and durable collaborations with musicians who are at the beginning of their professional careers, as well as with musicians who already developed an international reputation form the heart and the soul of the label. Through an open dialogue with partners such as festivals, concert halls, and music schools Fuga Libera plays an important role in the development of musical talent. Moreover Fuga Libera is a platform for experiment, where different musicians can meet each other, exchange musical ideas, and develop new musical alliances. Fuga Libera has become a digital-only label since fall 2014. While conserving the criteria of musical and editorial quality that have made the label’s reputation, the new direction taken by Fuga Libera looks resolutely towards the future. This new challenge is firmly rooted in projects of excellence which invite the public to discover that new technologies and quality are perfectly compatible elements.

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FLOR PEETERS, PROSPER VAN EECHAUTE, GODFRIED DEVREESE, MARCEL POOT, PETER CABUS, … THE FLEMISH SONATINA IN THE 20TH CENTURY

DANIEL BLUMENTHAL

If throughout its history, Flanders has seen some of the most beautiful musical works of all times composed within its boundaries, the 20th century is no exception to the rule. Between 1930 and 1960, a vast quantity of sonatinas for piano were composed, these being commissioned or encouraged by music schools and publishers with the student in mind. These works, though essentially intended for pedagogical use, present a definite musical interest. It is through this prism that Daniel Blumenthal, renowned musician and pedagogue, makes us discover, in a manner combining tranquil ease and poetic purity, a varied mosaic of this repertoire by Flemish composers of the last century - such as Flor Peeters, Prosper Van Eechaute, Godfried Devreese, Marcel Poor, Peter Cabus...

FUG 733 SEPTEMBER 2016

3 CDS

An exploration of little-known but fascinating works to discover absolutely!

FRANZ LISZT ROBERT SCHUMANN ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG JOHANNES BRAHMS THE WAR OF THE ROMANTICS

JAN MICHIELS

FUG 737 OCTOBER 2016

If Franz Liszt’s music was described as Zukunftsmusik (music of the future) by his friends, it is because it was resolutely innovative. The composer not only proposed a renewal of genres and forms but initiated a veritable trend of thought towards a new poetics: Liszt created the symphonic poem genre and programme music. Inversely, the partisans of Johannes Brahms turned the word Zukunftsmusik into Unmusik (non-music) since, for them, Liszt’s music ran counter to the very essence of abstract music, which was intrinsically sufficient unto itself.

1 CD

After the success of Lost in Venice with Prometheus, Jan Michiels invites us here to relive from the inside this ‘war of the Romantics’ between progressives and conservatives, through refined, intelligent readings of works by Liszt (Gretchen, S. 513 and the Sonata in B minor, S. 178), Brahms (Variations on a Theme by R. Schumann, Op. 9), and Schumann (Fünf Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133). But the pianist also offers us a reconciliation: Schönberg’s Kammersymphonie No.1, Op. 9, in its transcription for solo piano, combines ‘traditional’ work on the motif with a form based on Liszt’s strokes of inspiration. Music-loving friends, welcome to the battlefield! 28

ARCANA Founded in 1992 by the legendary Michel Bernstein, Arcana is devoted to the exploration of lesser-known composers from the Medieval to the beginning of the twentieth-century mostly focusing on Italian repertoire and interpreters.

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Hidden, secret, mysterious… the word Arcana, from Latin arcanus, clearly summarizes the mission of the label: to broaden our knowledge of the repertoire and unearth what is still concealed and forgotten within it, from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, distinguishing masterpieces form trivial works, and involving some of the biggest names on the historically informed performance. But Arcana has also succeeded in making an important contribution to the standard repertoire, particularly Viennese, most notably the first complete recording on period instruments of Joseph Haydn’s string quartets (performed by Festetics Quartet) and Franz Schubert’s piano sonatas (Paul Badura-Skoda). Often based on ground-breaking research; each release is meticulously studied, the liner notes feature contributions of leading experts in each field. Not to mention the sound quality, one of the trade-marks of the label founded by Michel Bernstein. Since the beginning, Arcana has also shown a clear focus on both Italy, with its huge and multifaceted musical heritage (yet to be explored and discovered), and the Italian performers: Fabio Biondi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Bonizzoni yesterday; La Reverdie, Ensemble Zefiro, Gaetano Nasillo and an impressive line-up of new talents from the younger generation, today.

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ARCANGELO CORELLI SONATE A VIOLINO E VIOLONE O CEMBALO, OPERA QUINTA

ENRICO GATTI GAETANO NASILLO GUIDO MORINI

A 397 AUGUST 2016

In September 2016 the Italian Ensemble Aurora celebrates its 30th anniversary: the very first concert of the group, founded and lead by the violinist Enrico Gatti, took place in Bologna at the beginning of September 1986, then the ensemble went to Fusignano (Ravenna), Arcangelo Corelli’s birthplace, where an international symposium on the composer was being held. Since the very beginning, besides exploring the Italian 17th- and 18th-century repertoire in its entirety, Gatti has been particularly attracted by Arcangelo Corelli’s music, for its perfect elegance and nobility, and, in fact, it was on Corelli’s trio sonatas that the ensemble based its studies in order to obtain a perfect balance between rigorous preparation and interpretative fancy. The ensemble has recorded all of Corelli’s chamber music, and Gatti’s commitment has been rewarded by many international prizes and by the honorary citizenship of Fusignano. Enrico Gatti has dedicated a large part of his discography to Corelli’s works: all his recordings (Opp.III, IV, V, VI) have been recognized with a Diapason d’Or, and Op.III won the 1998 Diapason d’Or of the Year. In particular, also thanks to the warm and deep sound of his violin, inspired by the imitation of human voice, and to perfect synergy with the friends and colleagues Gaetano Nasillo (cello) and Guido Morini (harpsichord), Gatti’s recording of Corelli’s Sonatas Op. V (Diapason d’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Choice of Amadeus) represents a milestone and a model for many performers and passionate listeners, and for this reason Arcana is re-releasing it for this particularly special occasion.

RE-RELEASE 2 CDS

ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI MISSA DEFUNCTORUM

ODHECATON PAOLO DA COL

This recording is a discovery of Alessandro Scarlatti’s heretofore unknown sacred music, where Renaissance tradition meets Baroque sensibility for a unique and compelling recording. At the core of Odhecaton’s latest offering is the Missa defunctorum for four voices and basso continuo. It is in this magnificent score – recorded for the first time using the critical edition of Luca Della Libera – that primarily contrapuntal writing gives way to Scarlatti’s stylistic choices of great expressivity and rhetorical force, such as in the case of the astonishing Lacrimosa. The Miserere is also recorded for the first time. Written for nine voices for the Sistine Chapel, the score follows Allegri’s model only outwardly; Scarlatti, in fact, moves steadily away from it through his harmonic originality, formal richness, and expressivity. The Magnificat displays a unique synthesis of the Palestrinian model and the expressive language of the eighteenth century. In this score, Scarlatti exploits the great wealth and variety of the Marian text, particularly in the relationship between words and the emotional and descriptive spheres.

A 393 AUGUST 2016

1 CD

KNIGHTS, MAIDS AND MIRACLES MUSIC OF FANTASTIC MIDDLE AGES

LA REVERDIE

In August 1986 two pairs of young sisters (Claudia and Livia Caffagni, Elisabetta and Ella de Mircovich) founded the ensemble laReverdie. The name, derived from a poetic genre that celebrates the return of Spring, reveals perhaps the principal trait of a group that, for 30 years now, has captivated audiences and critics alike for the variety in its approach to the vast and varied musical repertoire of Middle Ages and early Renaissance. To mark this anniversary, Arcana brings together in a single 5-CD box-set all the themed projects that, over the years, laReverdie has devoted to various aspects of Medieval culture. From the image of femininity to courtly love, from the music in Medieval thought to the symbolism of light and darkness, each theme developed in this musical collection – an excellent introduction to Medieval music – explores specific repertoires from different points of view, either geographical or literary and philosophical. A journey of discovery that, by virtue of the issues addressed and the freshness of their approach, gives the listener the idea that music in Middle Ages is a fantastic kaleidoscope of sounds and words which reflect the spirit of the time. The history of Europe itself resounds in this anthology of music between 13th and 15th centuries; Latin and vernacular poetry, as well as monody and polyphony, voices and instruments feature a colourful and bright artistic landscape.

A 399 SEPTEMBER 2016

5 CDS

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH OUVERTURES

ZEFIRO ALFREDO BERNARDINI

Like many German composers of his time, Johann Sebastian Bach also devoted himself to the French style with its characteristic dances and rhythmic ouvertures. His regular contact from an early age with French musicians and dance masters living in Germany made him very familiar and competent with the typical features of French music. Among the results of this interest are his orchestral ouvertures, of which BWV 1066, 1068 and 1069 with large scoring are presented in this recording. German composers occasionally liked to experiment freely with both the French and Italian styles, with the aim to originate that “gemischter Stil” (mixed style) that was so praised by Quantz and others. As an example of a free adaptation of an overture, Bach’s first chorus from Cantata BWV 110 adopts the first movement of the Orchestral Suite BWV 1069 with the addition of a 4-parts choir. Other of his cantatas begin with a chorus in overture form, and it is very likely that they are also his own arrangements of previous instrumental versions which are lost, as happened with many of his Cöthen works. On the basis of this conjecture, Zefiro has included in this recording the reconstruction of instrumental overtures based on the opening choruses of Bach Cantatas BWV 119 and 194.

A 400 OCTOBER 2016

1 CD

VENETIAN CHAMBER DUETS ANTONIO LOTTI, AGOSTINO STEFFANI GIOVANNI BONONCINI

SARA MINGARDO FRANCESCA BILIOTTI LORIANA CASTELLANO LISA CASTRIGNANÒ GIORGIA CINCIRIPI LEA DESANDRE SILVIA FRIGATO LUCIA NAPOLI CENACOLO MUSICALE

A 401 NOVEMBER 2016

In the Baroque period, the duetto da camera, usually conceived for two equal voices and continuo, was an important form of vocal chamber music, of which innumerable examples are found in the works of composers associated with Venice, the leading protagonist in the history of this genre. Venetian Sara Mingardo is joined by a large group of young, talented solo female voices (Silva Frigato, Lea Desandre…) in this amazing project, where masterpieces by the leading composers of the time have been entrusted to the voices best suited to highlight the respective particular musical content. Included in this recording are several previously unpublished and unperformed works, which have been newly transcribed and edited by the harpsichordist Edward Smith. At the heart of the programme, Sara Mingardo leaves her colleagues for a moment to appear as soloist in Fuggi pur, o crudele by Francesco Lucio, a splendid and typical lamento recorded here for the first time and destined to become a big hit.

1 CD

FERNANDO SOR FLORILEGIUM. GUITAR WORKS

FRANCESCO ROMANO, CHITARRA LUIS PANORMO 1835 (CONSERVATORIO DI MUSICA, FIRENZE)

Francesco Romano, lute and guitarist of the ensemble Gli Incogniti since its founding, devotes this album to Fernando Sor (1778-1839), the most important composer for guitar of the Classical Era, his style strongly influenced by the great composers of his time, especially Mozart. The extraordinary quality of his deep inspiration and sensitivity excels in his compositions of modest dimensions that contain a true poetic world. A significant selection of his works, including Variations on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9, Six arias from Die Zauberflöte, the Fantasia, Op. 7 and a selection of his etudes and other short masterpieces are played on a marvellous original guitar of 1835 made by Luis Panormo, one of the Fernando Sor’s recommended luthiers, from the collection of the Conservatorio di Musica in Florence.

AD 004 DECEMBER 2016

1 CD - DIGITAL ALBUM

IL LIUTO NAPOLETANO 16TH-CENTURY MUSIC FROM THE BARBARINO LUTE BOOK & THE SIENA LUTE BOOK

PAUL KIEFFER, 7-COURSE TENOR LUTE GRANT TOMLINSON [VANCOUVER 2014], AFTER VENDELIO VENERE [PADUA C. 1584]

Over 100 years after the Inventione et usu musicae (c.1481) by Johannes Tinctoris and the visits of famed lutenists Conrad Paumann and Pietrobono de Burzellis, the city of Naples remained a strong centre of instrumental music, especially known for its lute players. Scipione Cerreto’s 1601 list of «outsanding lute players of the city of Naples» included fifteen players, four of whom left pieces for the lute. After Francesco da Milano visited the city in 1536 to print his lute book, the leading figure to emerge in the next generation was the enigmatic knight Fabrizio Dentice (born c.1540), a top-notch lutenist of «excessive self-esteem» yet «prodigious facility». Along with his fellow Neapolitans Giulio Severino and Francesco Cardone, he produced a unique style of lute music, far removed from that of central and northern Italy. A couple of large lute manuscripts that portray the sophisticated and uniquely dense style of lute playing from this beautiful southern city – a style unheard by modern ears until now – have recently come to light.

AD 005 DECEMBER 2016

1 CD - DIGITAL ALBUM

PHI

Philippe Herreweghe assumes the artistic direction of this catalogue which holds exclusive rights for his recordings with Collegium Vocale Gent, l’Orchestre des ChampsElysées and deFilharmonie.

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Philippe Herreweghe takes responsibility for the artistic direction of the label Phi which holds exclusive rights over his recordings with Collegium Vocale Gent and l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. By creating this collection, Philippe Herreweghe wanted to freely materialize the fruits of a long career of musical research and experiences. Outhere Music enthusiastically supports him in this endeavour. The output covers important romantic choral works, Flemish polyphony, the great Bach and a smattering of recording produced by Philippe’s friends and disciples, all to great press and public acclaim.

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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN QUINTET FOR PIANO AND WINDS, OP. 16 STRING QUARTET, OP. 130

EDDING QUARTET NORTHERNLIGHT

LPH 023 SEPTEMBER 2016

The pairing of the two works on this album is unique in that one comes from the dawn, the other from the dusk of Ludwig van Beethoven’s career. Indeed, whereas the composer wrote the Quintet for winds and piano, Op. 16 when he was only 26 – the talented young man also excelled as a successful pianist –, he did not finish his String Quartet Op. 130 until a year before his death. The direct comparison of these two works on the same disc intelligently sheds light on the fantastic distance the composer covered between these two points in time.

1 CD

Two years after the success of their Schubert album, very warmly received by the press and public alike, the Edding Quartet and Northernlight felicitously join together once again on the same album to give new readings of these masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Having become major interpreters of the Classical and Romantic repertoires, the two ensembles offer expert performances, refined and precise, of two of the German composer’s finest scores. A disc for all listeners!

CARLO GESUALDO ‘O DOLCE MIO TESORO’ SESTO LIBRO DI MADRIGALI

COLLEGIUM VOCALE GENT PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE

A personality has who provoked considerable controversy over the centuries, Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), aristocrat, musician and murderer of his first wife, is no less a composer whose music is marked by subtlety and refinement. His innovative Sixth Book of Madrigals, written two years before his death, exploits all harmonic, chromatic, and textural possibilities to meet the texts’ expressive requirements and proves to be a veritable masterpiece of the genre. LPH 024 NOVEMBER 2016

1 CD

After a first disc devoted to the Italian composer’s sacred works, the Tenebrae Responsoria, Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent invite us to (re)discover his secular music for the 450th anniversary of his birth. In masterful fashion, they propose a delicate, expressive reading of this complex music, doing justice to the modernity of the musical language of the Prince of Venosa. The acoustics of the church in the little Tuscan village of Asciano, where the programme was recorded in 2015, provides an ideal sound setting for this music.

RAMÉE

RAMÉE creates albums as complete objets d’art, because they believe the ear’s pleasure is intimately tied together with that of the eye and the hand. A collection for connaisseurs!

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The RAMÉE label was founded in 2004 by Rainer Arndt, and has established itself as a greatly respected label on the Early Music scene. Many releases from its limited catalogue have been highly acclaimed by public and press alike, several receiving numerous awards. Each year sees the production of only six to eight recordings, featuring »hand-picked«, quality repertoire seldom or never-before recorded, or more well-known works in new and exceptional interpretations. The small company maintains extremely high standards not only in the aural aspect of the recording itself, but also in the musicological, literary, graphic and tactile quality of the jacket and liner notes. RAMÉE creates cds as complete objets d’art, because they believe the ear’s pleasure is intimately tied together with that of the eye and the hand. A collection for connaisseurs!

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JOHANN CHRISTOPH PEPUSCH VENUS & ADONIS

CIARA HENDRICK PHILIPPA HYDE RICHARD EDGAR-WILSON THE HARMONIOUS SOCIETY OF TICKLE-FIDDLE GENTLEMEN ROBERT RAWSON

RAM 1502 SEPTEMBER 2016

Johann Christoph Pepusch’s (1667 – 1752) English-language masque Venus and Adonis premiered at London’s Theatre Royal on 12 March 1715 — inspired by the operas of composers like Bononcini and A. Scarlatti, it was the most substantial effort of the period to ‘reconcile Musick to the English Tongue.’ As part of the battle for supremacy amongst London’s theatres, Pepusch recruited ‘a select Band of the best Masters of Instrumental Musick’ and two of the city’s leading singers, the ‘Italian lady’ Margarita de l’Epine (c. 1680 – 1746) en travesti as Adonis and the contralto Jane Barbier (d.1757) and Venus. The work bristles with Italian virtuosity and dynamism and unlike most English-language dramatic music at the time, Venus and Adonis makes ample use of dramatic recitative (secco, arioso and accompagnato). A clear model for Handel’s later Acis and Galatea, this world-premiere recording of Pepusch’s wonderful masque reestablishes the work as a milestone in the history of English opera.

1 CD

AEON

A the cutting edge of contemporary and medieval music.

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As the present catalogue attests, our record label, ĂŚon, from Notre Dame Mass by Machaut to Patterns In A Chromatic Field by Morton Feldman, is characterized by our love of music and our passion for musical creation. Founded by Kaisa and Damien Pousset in 2001, the catalogue is including today more than 120 albums. Our label is patiently pursuing an editorial approach based on developing two complementary collections: one, strictly contemporary, devoted to monographs on 20th- and 21st-century composers; the other, open to a broader repertoire, mainly medieval music, and based on the singularity of selected artists, thoroughly involved with the life of the label.

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DER GEOGRAPH . BIRWA . LES VOIX HUMAINES . DAS DORNRÖSCHEN WDR SINFONIEORCHESTER & CHOR KÖLN ENSEMBLE RECHERCHE ARDITTI QUARTET

AECD 1652 OCTOBER 2016

Marked by the experiments of Luigi Nono or Helmut Lachenmann, and by his practice of 17th- and 18th-century music, the French composer Brice Pauset is pursuing an original path, marked by his rhetorical questioning of earlier forms of music. This is music in tune with our own culture and, at times, would transmit its evidences. The vocal issue remains central, even in Brice Pauset’s catalogue: ‘The voice as an instrument,’ he writes, ‘the voice as identity (and it then literally becomes human), and finally, the voice as an instrument of identity. It is only at this moment that the musical and political can carry on a dialogue, and that music can attempt to express its time.’

2 CDS

An album of great intensity served by first-rate performers!

JÉRÔME COMBIER GONE

ENSEMBLE CAIRN

AECD 1651 OCTOBER 2016

There are certain types of music that affirm and triumph. Others suggest a distance, a gentle journey towards far-off lands. Jérôme Combier is of this race of vagabonds. His music plunges the listener into a deep, rarefied atmosphere, dense with multiple, ghostly apparitions that set the imagination free. Here and there, a line of shadows interferes between the real voices, as if coming out of nowhere. Straight away, Combier’s music does away with the references of pitches, the distinction between sounds, breaths and friction, gone into more deeply with the electronics and closely connected to rainfalls of sand, murmurs of the wind… The electronics have this function, eroding the sonority borne by the instruments, diluting harmonies and scales in gentle saturations, sounds loaded with grain. The works brought together in this album, performed by the nec plus ultra of the music of our time, immerse us in a diaphanous glow.

1 CD

A rare disc, of the highest quality!

STRANGE FRUIT FABRIZIO CASSOL OUMOU SANGARE • MARIE DAULNE • DAVID LINX • BABA SISSOKO • CLARON MCFADDEN • KRIS DANE • MELISSA GIVENS • LA CHORALINE

Strange Fruit is a project of the Protean composer-saxophonist Fabrizio Cassol, which takes the form of a concept album that could be described as ‘World Opera’. This songbook was elaborated over a period of more than four years, in the company of a group of renowned singers who wrote or co-wrote each piece in their own, very different expressive and stylistic traditions. The title, Strange Fruit, refers to the song of the same name, majestically embodied by Billie Holiday, which remains an essential musical masterpiece as well as a humanistic symbol. On the album we find an inspired version of the original, dating from before ‘Lady Day’ along with another, a sort of colourful fresco inspired by her interpretation as well as by Bach chorales or Malian men’s choruses, and accompanied by the heavenly voices of the forty girls of La Choraline.

OUT 660 OCTOBER 2016

1 CD

The association between Strange Fruit and Some Days, a poem by James Baldwin and a major piece of inner feeling, doubt and the possibility of a salutary catharsis, creates an axis, a ‘mirror of sense’, around which are woven the other themes such as spirituality (‘Sehet Jesus’, ‘If Jesus...’), passionate love (‘Soukora’), the call to gather and freedom (‘Didadi horns’), poverty, abandon, child neglect (‘Les enfants de la rue’), dreams and self-questioning (‘I can’t sleep tonight’), celebration and respect for elders (‘Farka’). The album, originally released on the prestigious Blue Note label (2012), was produced by the pianist Eric Legnini.

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