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THE OUTHERE MUSIC GROUP IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS OF CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC. IT IS HOME TO THE LEGENDARY ALPHA CLASSICS AND LINN RECORDS LABELS AND TO SEVERAL MORE SPECIALIZED LABELS SUCH AS ARCANA, FUGA LIBERA, OUTNOTE, PHI, RAMÉE AND RICERCAR. BECAUSE OUTHERE HAS AN UNRELENTING PASSION FOR QUALITY AND INNOVATION, IT HAS BECOME A MUST-JOIN GROUP FOR THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS OF THE MUSICAL WORLD.

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ALPHA CLASSICS From one season to the next, from one eclecticism to the next, from one world to the next, from one Bach to the next: Bach (J. S.) with Café Zimmermann, Chouchane Siranossian and Leonardo García Alarcón, Filippo Gorini, Tedi Papavrami... and Bach (C.P.E) with Nevermind. Feel-good? That’s very much the feeling you’ll get from the Chemirani family’s folk-flavoured love songs. The members of Le Consort, for their part, go on an escapade to Venice with Vivaldi and Reali. On the lagoon, they will meet Vincent Dumestre and Eva Zaïcik for a Nisi Dominus by Vivaldi that will take your breath away. And in another trip that ranges even farther afield, Anna Prohaska and La Folia celebrate ‘life in death’... In Saint-Saëns Year, Astrig Siranossian and Nabil Shehata pay tribute to the composer, while Alex Vizorek revisits the bestiary of The Carnival of the Animals with the Orchestre National de Lille, Duo Jatekok and Lucie Leguay. Other highlights: the release of the tenth volume in the Haydn2032 series, under the direction of Giovanni Antonini. The first album by two ‘musical sisters’, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta. The eagerly awaited return of Véronique Gens to Baroque recitals. The second part of Reinoud Van Mechelen’s Haute-Contre series. The conclusion of the Tchaikovsky cycle with Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. Two ‘Claudes’ signed two of the world’s key operas three centuries apart: Debussy and Monteverdi. Here are L’Orfeo and Pelléas et Mélisande, served by first-rate performers. Helmchen, Prégardien, Tetzlaff, Le Sage, Pahud, Meyer, Altstaedt, Kelemen, Lonquich, Dunford, Cohen... As we wait to meet them again on the concert platform, this exceptional clutch of virtuosos makes us love Schubert, Dvořák; Buxtehude and Nino Rota even more. Finally, Alpha is delighted to welcome Les Kapsber’girls, and also Julien Chauvin with his Concert de la Loge, Olympic champions of eighteenthcentury music, for a new adventure that begins with a Mozart cycle.

HAYDN2032 VOL. 10 LES HEURES DU JOUR HAYDN SYMPHONIES NOS. 6, 7 & 8 "MORNING", "NOON" AND "EVENING"

MOZART SERENATA NOTTURNA K239 IL GIARDINO ARMONICO GIOVANNI ANTONINI

ALPHA686

1 CD

9 JULY 2021

The HAYDN2032 series celebrates the release of the tenth volume in the complete cycle of Haydn’s 107 symphonies. Entitled ‘The Times of Day’, this programme is devoted to Symphonies nos. 6, 7 and 8, whose individual names translate as ‘Morning’, ‘Noon’ and ‘Evening’. Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, who commissioned the works, is said to have wanted to show his guests that his orchestra was of excellent quality and that ‘his’ Haydn was highly inventive. Giovanni Antonini’s orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico, once again rises to the challenge! This triptych following the sun’s course is extended into the night by the work of another composer: Mozart’s Serenade in D major, nicknamed Serenata notturna, probably written for a masked ball at Salzburg Town Hall in February 1776. Jérôme Sessini of the Magnum agency, who has won awards for his work on the cartel wars in Mexico and the opioid crisis in the United States, took the photographs featured in this volume.

MOZART Y MAMBO, THE MOVIE

SARAH WILLIS HORN After the resounding success of the album Mozart y Mambo (ALPHA578), this DVD/BD presents a recording of a concert in Havana and a documentary following in the footsteps of Sarah Willis in Cuba, with the now celebrated Rondo alla mambo, backstage footage, a ‘making-of’ and other extras. The concert combines the music of Mozart with traditional Cuban repertoire. The world’s most famous lady horn player is accompanied by the Havana Lyceum Orchestra and its ebullient conductor José Antonio Méndez Padrón, with the complicity of the musicians of The Sarahbanda and The Havana Horns. Released in a DVD and Blu Ray package enriched by seven bonus features.

ALPHA741

1 DVD+1 BLU-RAY

9 JULY 2021

HANDEL ORGAN CONCERTOS OP. 4 & 7 MARTIN HASELBÖCK JEREMY JOSEPH ORCHESTER WIENER AKADEMIE

ALPHA742

2 CDs

9 JULY 2021

Handel is best known to the wider public for his large-scale choral and orchestral works, but his organ music is equally precious. It was the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels who, diverting him from a career in the law, spotted his exceptional abilities on the instrument. By the age of seventeen, Handel was already the resident organist at the Domkirche in Halle, and he was later to defeat Domenico Scarlatti in a contest of virtuosity during his time in Rome. Martin Haselböck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie have recorded the Organ Concertos opp.4 and 7 in the prestigious Vienna Musikverein, worldfamous for its acoustics. Haselböck plays on the hall’s imposing Rieger organ in what is one of its very first recordings. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the fourth organ in the Musikverein since the hall opened in 1870. With its considerable dimensions – much larger than the organs Handel used to play on – the instrument offers a tonal palette rich in contrasts.

NINO ROTA CHAMBER MUSIC {COLLECTION SALON DE MUSIQUE}

DAISHIN KASHIMOTO VIOLIN // EMMANUEL PAHUD FLUTE ÉRIC LE SAGE PIANO // AURÉLIEN PASCAL CELLO PAUL MEYER CLARINET // FRANÇOIS MEYER OBOE GILBERT AUDIN BASSOON // BENOÎT DE BARSONY HORN

ALPHA746 9 JULY 2021

1 CD

Nino Rota was not only the man who wrote film scores for Fellini (La strada etc), René Clément and King Vidor. He was also a twentieth-century great composer. A child prodigy, he studied in America with Fritz Reiner, crossed paths with Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky and many others. Éric Le Sage, Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Daishin Kashimoto, Aurélien Pascal and their partners from the Salon de Provence festival pay tribute to his music with the Piccola Offerta Musicale (Little Musical Offering), composed in 1943 at the age of twenty-two, alongside a Nonet and a Trio for flute, violin and piano, both written in the late 1950s. The Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (1973) comes from Rota’s last creative period and has all the characteristics of his mature works.

ENIGMA FORTUNA COMPLETE WORKS BY ANTONIO ZACARA DA TERAMO (1355-1416)

LA FONTE MUSICA MICHELE PASOTTI

ALPHA640

4 CDs

27 AUGUST 2021

In this recording entitled Enigma Fortuna, the ensemble La Fonte Musica, directed by Michele Pasotti, aims to shed light on the mysterious and eccentric personality of Antonio Zacara da Teramo (1355-1416). A contemporary of Boccaccio, Donatello and Brunelleschi, this composer from the Abruzzi region could almost be likened to a sort of musical Hieronymus Bosch, for the texts he set to music conjure up a ‘topsy-turvy universe’ where the obscene, the imaginary and the grotesque go hand in hand. In his ballata Amor ne tossa he writes ‘Let him understand me who can, for I understand myself’, foreshadowing the proud egotism of the Romantic artists who were to come 400 years after him. With this four-CD set presenting the world premiere of Zacara’s complete works, La Fonte Musica offers us an initial approach to understanding his music. And thereby, through the timeless character of art, to understanding a so-called ‘renascent’ era that seems as ‘topsy-turvy’ as our own.

BUXTEHUDE TRIO SONATAS OP. 2 ARCANGELO SOPHIE GENT JONATHAN MANSON THOMAS DUNFORD JONATHAN COHEN

ALPHA738 27 AUGUST 2021

1 CD

The sonata concertata form is perfectly illustrated in these trios by Dietrich Buxtehude which, according to Peter Wollny constitute ‘a landmark in the history of the sonata’. They provide a better understanding of a composer who has owed his fame chiefly associated to his cantatas and organ works, and to the admiration of the young Johann Sebastian Bach, who walked 400 kilometres to hear him play. After recording Buxtehude’s first set of chamber sonatas (ALPHA367), the musicians of Arcangelo (Sophie Gent, Jonathan Manson, Thomas Dunford and Jonathan Cohen) now revive the pieces from the second collection, published in 1696. It shows the multiple European influences (Baltic, Italian, German, French) that flourished in Lübeck, the north German city where Buxtehude worked as organist of the Marienkirche, but also in Hamburg, where the music was type set.

PASSION LULLY, CHARPENTIER, DESMARETS VÉRONIQUE GENS SOPRANO CHŒUR LES CHANTRES DU CENTRE DE MUSIQUE BAROQUE DE VERSAILLES OLIVIER SCHNEEBELI COND. ENSEMBLE LES SURPRISES LOUIS-NOËL BESTION DE CAMBOULAS

ALPHA747

1 CD

27 AUGUST 2021

This programme marks the eagerly awaited return of Véronique Gens to Baroque music and Lully, in which she made a name for herself at the start of her career. It presents airs from Atys, Persée, Alceste, Proserpine, Le Triomphe de l’Amour and other works by Louis XIV’s famous composer, but also several by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Médée), Henry Desmarets and Pascal Collasse. Whether well known, rare or in some cases even unpublished, all of them present roles for powerful women whose love is unrequited: dark passions, bitter laments, jealousy, vengeance, the type of dramatic characters that Véronique Gens embodies with all the charisma that has made her reputation. This recording is also the result of an encounter with the youthful ensemble Les Surprises, founded and directed by Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas. Together they conceived this programme, which mingles airs, dances and choruses, in collaboration with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

SAINT-SAËNS LE CARNAVAL DES ANIMAUX & DANSE MACABRE

POULENC CONCERTO POUR DEUX PIANOS EN RÉ MINEUR ALEX VIZOREK TEXT & SPEAKER DUO JATEKOK PIANOS ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE LILLE LUCIE LEGUAY ALSO AVAILABLE ON VINYL - ALPHA773 (1 LP) SAINT-SAËNS: LE CARNAVAL DES ANIMAUX & DANSE MACABRE

ALPHA749 27 AUGUST 2021

1 CD

Alex Vizorek revisits Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals. The French composer never imagined that his bestiary would become one of the most famous works in musical history, a staple repertory piece on a par with Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The Belgian comedian and actor has rewritten the text of this ‘grand zoological fantasy’, which he narrates here alongside Duo Jatekok and the Orchestre National de Lille under the direction of Lucie Leguay. The work’s ‘crazy and poetic drollery’ takes in the ‘Royal March of the Lion’, the ‘Hens and Cocks’, the mysterious ‘Hemiones’, the motley procession of ‘Turtles’, ‘Elephant’ and ‘Kangaroos’, the famous ‘Aquarium’ which gave the Cannes Festival its signature tune, and of course the celebrated ‘Swan’. ‘When human beings keep their distance, animals are happy’, concludes Alex Vizorek. To mark the centenary of Saint-Saëns’s death in 1921, Duo Jatekok also presents another of his biggest hits, the Danse macabre, in its version for four hands. Naïri Badal and Adélaïde Panaget, the orchestra and Lucie Leguay bring this colourful parade to a close with Poulenc’s flamboyant Concerto for Two Pianos, premiered at the Tenth Venice Biennale in 1932.

BACH THE ART OF FUGUE FILIPPO GORINI PIANO

ALPHA755

2 CDs

The Italian pianist Filippo Gorini took advantage of the world health crisis to immerse himself in The Art of Fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach’s unfinished mystical masterpiece: ‘The view that it should be seen solely as a theoretical marvel is misguided: as the counterpoints and canons evolve in formal complexity, so does their emotional tension, until the heartbreaking mystery of the unfinished Fuga XIV’, says the young pianist, winner of a Borletti-Buitoni Foundation prize in 2020, whose first two albums for Alpha have been very well received (Diapason d’Or, 5 Stars in BBC Music Magazine etc.). In parallel with the release of the disc, Filippo Gorini will launch a website (www. TheArtOfFugueExplored.com), with a documentary series featuring conversations with personalities, films about Bach’s work and more. The young pianist has even gone so far as to write poems and haikus about the work: ‘We pray in trepidation, / When the blessed night is here...’

27 AUGUST 2021

ANIMA ETERNA JOS VAN IMMERSEEL BOXED SET [7 CDS]

LISZT, ORFF, RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, J. STRAUSS, TCHAIKOVSKY, JANÁČEK, GERSHWIN After a boxed set devoted to nineteenth-century French music (Alpha, 2015) and another containing Beethoven’s symphonies and overtures (Alpha, 2018), Jos Van Immerseel and his period-instrument ensemble Anima Eterna present an anthology of seven CDs including recordings of major nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers of many nationalities. Whether it is Liszt with his symphonic poems, Orff with his Carmina Burana or Gershwin with his Rhapsody in Blue, all of them seem to be driven by a deep-seated urge to push back the formal limits of orchestral music by confronting it with other traditions and musical horizons, thus giving it a universal resonance. ALPHA654

7 CDs

10 SEPTEMBER 2021

SCHUBERT SCHWANENGESANG D 957 STREICHQUINTETT D 956 JULIAN PRÉGARDIEN TENOR MARTIN HELMCHEN PIANO CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF, FLORIAN DONDERER RACHEL ROBERTS VIOLA TANJA TETZLAFF CELLO MARIE-ELISABETH HECKER CELLO

ALPHA748

2 CDs

10 SEPTEMBER 2021

VIOLIN

Here are two works composed by Schubert at the very end of his short life. Schwanengesang (Swansong) was written in Vienna in the autumn of 1828. He died on 19 November at the age of thirty-one, and Die Taubenpost (Pigeon post), which closes the collection, is said to be his very last composition. The fourteen songs, by turns light-hearted, sombre and melancholy, are settings of poems by Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gabriel Seidl. In the summer of the same year he composed his String Quintet in C major, scored for two cellos, which was not premiered until 1850, at the Vienna Musikverein. The power and orchestral dimensions of the work make it a pinnacle of nineteenth-century chamber music. We could not have dreamt of a finer line-up of musicians to record these two Schubert monuments. Fanny Mendelssohn’s Schwanenlied (also to words by Heinrich Heine) completes the programme, along with Felix Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words no.1 for solo piano, composed a year after Schubert’s death and Schubert’s own setting of an unrelated Schwanengesang (D 744, on a poem by Johann Senn).

DEBUSSY PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE STANISLAS DE BARBEYRAC CHIARA SKERATH ALEXANDRE DUHAMEL JÉRÔME VARNIER JANINA BAECHL

ORCHESTRE NATIONAL BORDEAUX AQUITAINE PIERRE DUMOUSSAUD COND.

ALPHA752 10 SEPTEMBER 2021

2 CDs

The Covid pandemic caused the cancellation of the performances of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, which approached Alpha in order to make an audio recording of this masterpiece. So here is that unexpected but highly anticipated new version, with an exceptional cast and a young conductor, Pierre Dumoussaud, whose calling card it is fast becoming, since he has already conducted it in many houses. ‘His conducting calls for nothing but praise, striking a fine balance between analytical clarity and theatrical life, while at the same time bringing out the extraordinary modernity of this intoxicating music’, wrote Christian Merlin in Le Figaro of one of his staged performances. The ‘disarming sincerity’ of Pelléas (Stanislas de Barbeyrac), the ‘constant emotion’ of Mélisande (Chiara Skerath), the ‘bitingly intense singing’ of Golaud (Alexandre Duhamel) – these are some of the comments elicited by the 2018 performances in the staging of Philippe Béziat and Florent Siaud, the intended revival of which this year was prevented by the health emergency. The album cover features a photo from that memorable production.

JÉLIOTE, HAUTE-CONTRE DE RAMEAU REINOUD VAN MECHELEN A NOCTE TEMPORIS

ALPHA753

1 CD

Reinoud Van Mechelen and his ensemble A Nocte Temporis continue their ‘Haute-Contre Trilogy’ with Rameau’s favourite singer, Pierre de Jéliote, probably the finest haute-contre in history. (Reminder: this is a high tenor voice, not to be confused with the countertenor!) Rameau wrote an enormous amount of music for Jéliote, who was not only a singer but also a guitarist, a cellist and even a composer. The album pays tribute to this native of the Béarn region, who was born in 1713 and died at the ripe old age of eighty-four, with a selection of airs by Rameau (from Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Platée, Castor et Pollux, Les Boréades) but also by Dauvergne, Colin de Blamont, Mondonville, Rebel and Francoeur. Though some are well known, others are much more rarely performed today.

10 SEPTEMBER 2021

BACH SONATAS & PARTITAS

TEDI PAPAVRAMI VIOLIN

ALPHA756 10 SEPTEMBER 2021

2 CDs

‘One does not create by adding, but by subtracting’, said the film director Robert Bresson, quoted by Jacques Drillon in the booklet that accompanies this new recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Tedi Papavrami, seventeen years after a first version that already made quite an impact on the discography. Tedi Papavrami decided to start working on them again when he was in lockdown, and these pieces – which, in truth, he had never stopped playing – gave him new sensations: ‘something more alive, more sparkling appeared to me’... A more refined vision too: ‘Unquestionably, Tedi Papavrami did not want to be left behind. He too has become radicalised. He has dispensed with vibrato, aside from a few rare and delightful exceptions, and has renounced the emphatic basses, the brilliant high notes, and all the grandstanding effects that violinists usually indulge in, and which have characterised the most renowned interpretations, so much so that they are considered to be immutable “traditions”. Clearly, he has chosen to resort solely to phrasing and sonority in order to achieve expression’, says Jacques Drillon.

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER NEMETON

ENSEMBLE INTERCONTEMPORAIN

ALPHA769

2 CDs

10 SEPTEMBER 2021

‘Going all the way back to the Celts and the Druids, the term nemeton designates a place where forces and energies are crystallised, generally clearings where solemn or ritual actions were performed. The best-known nemeton is certainly Stonehenge. The architectural marvel of Chartres Cathedral is built on a nemeton. In composing this piece for solo percussion, I wanted to depict a “place” of this kind by means of sound. I’m utterly fascinated by the instrumentarium of this work, consisting chiefly of metal, wood and skin instruments that don’t have their own “specific” resonance. The trajectories between the different tones condition and define the energy charge, rather as if two beings, in the mad hope of an encounter, were rushing towards each other’, writes Matthias Pintscher as an introduction to one of the pieces in this monograph of works composed between 2000 and 2018: it also includes his violin concerto Mar’eh, the concerto for piano and ensemble Nur, Beyond for flute, Verzeichnete Spur, Lieder und Schneebilder, Celestial Object I & II and Occultation.

MONTEVERDI L’ORFEO VALERIO CONTALDO MARIANA FLORES GIUSEPPINA BRIDELLI ANA QUINTANS ALEJANDRO MEERAPFEL SALVO VITALE CHŒUR DE CHAMBRE DE NAMUR CAPPELLA MEDITERRANEA

LEONARDO GARCÍA ALARCÓN

ALPHA720 24 SEPTEMBER 2021

2 CDs

Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is naturally an iconic work for Leonardo García Alarcón. The Argentinian conductor has performed and matured his interpretation of Monteverdi’s masterpiece throughout his life. Together with his group of soloists, the Namur Chamber Choir and the Cappella Mediterranea ensemble, he now presents his vision of L’Orfeo: Monteverdi’s opera is as much the apotheosis of the Renaissance as a testimony to the nascent Baroque style. This is what strikes us when we listen to this new recording, which so eloquently emphasises the contrasts between sometimes nostalgic glances towards the past and the most innovative expressions of operatic language. The printed score, published two years after the premiere in Mantua in 1607, offers contrasts too: is it the snapshot of a specific performance or a ‘blueprint’ intended for future performers? In fact, it is both, and that is where we find the tricky questions that must be answered by those who open this precious document; Leonardo García Alarcón does so here in a manner at once respectful, inventive and theatrical. 12

HÂL BALLADES AMOUREUSES MARYAM CHEMIRANI VOICE SYLVAIN BAROU FLUTE BIJAN CHEMIRANI SAZ KEYVAN CHEMIRANI SANTUR, ZARB

ALPHA754

1 CD

24 SEPTEMBER 2021

The talented Chemirani family - Keyvan, Bijan and Maryam - have recorded an album called Hâl (pronounced ‘Hol’), which explores the intersection of Iranian, Indian and Irish music. Subtitled ‘Love ballads’, it features love poems with texts sung in English or Persian. The ‘hâl’ corresponds to the moment when one lets oneself go, that ecstatic state between awakening and self-forgetfulness… Keyvan, a zarb and percussion virtuoso, and Bijan, an expert on the saz lute and also a percussionist, are known from the highly regarded Trio Chemirani, formed with their father. This album introduces their sister Maryam, a singer but also a nurse, who followed in the footsteps of Mother Teresa in India, then worked in the Alpes de Haute Provence. Keyvan devised this programme especially for her, inspired both by her voice which is ‘warm and deeply generous’ and her compassionate spirit which imbues her performance with added emotion. The incredible flute player Sylvain Barou, their brother in music, completes the ensemble.

C.P.E. BACH QUARTETS & SONATAS

NEVERMIND

ALPHA759

1 CD

For their third album on Alpha, the musicians of Nevermind – Anna Besson (flute), Louis Creac’h (viola), Robin Pharo (viola da gamba) and Jean Rondeau (harpsichord) – explore the riches of a little-played repertory, the quartets and sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. It was in 1788, the year of his death, that Emanuel composed his three quartets for keyboard, flute and viola. These astonishing works were commissioned by a talented lady musician living in Berlin, where J. S. Bach’s second son had begun his career. That post, however, had not yet allowed him fully to emancipate his compositional talent: his relations with King Frederick II were stormy, since the latter sought to promote the style galant, while the young virtuoso keyboardist advocated a more emotional and tormented musical idiom, oriented towards Empfindsamkeit. It was only in Hamburg, where he succeeded his godfather Telemann, that he was finally able to reveal the full extent of his avant-gardism.

24 SEPTEMBER 2021

CON BRIO WIDMANN, STRAUSS, BEETHOVEN IRISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA JÖRG WIDMANN

ALPHA767

Here we meet Jörg Widmann as soloist, conductor and composer. With his piece Con brio, premiered in 2008, he pays a vibrant tribute to Beethoven in general and his Seventh Symphony in particular. At the head of the excellent Irish Chamber Orchestra, of which he is principal conductor, he has also recorded the aforementioned Symphony no.7, which occupies a special place among the most grandiose works of Beethoven; he himself considered the second movement to be one of his finest compositions! He wrote this symphony in 1812, when deafness was beginning to take its toll on him, the Napoleonic Wars were raging in Russia, and he met Goethe. Richard Strauss was in his twilight years when he composed his last instrumental work, the DuettConcertino for clarinet and bassoon with string orchestra and harp, in 1947.

1 CD

24 SEPTEMBER 2021

NO TIME FOR CHAMBER MUSIC MUSIC BY/ INSPIRED BY GUSTAV MAHLER

COLLECTIF 9

ALPHA770 24 SEPTEMBER 2021

1 CD

Collectif 9 is a Montreal-based string ensemble whose main focus is an original exploration of the classical repertoire, including transcriptions for chamber ensemble of large-scale works. Alpha is starting a collaboration with this innovative group and now presents its very first album, recorded in 2018 and consisting of music by (and inspired by) Gustav Mahler: ‘No Time for Chamber Music’, a nod to Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, inspired in its turn by Mahler’s Second Symphony. Mahler himself often quoted his own works, and his rich instrumental textures have provided a source of inspiration for composers and arrangers alike. The programme begins with two works drawn from his First Symphony: Comme un bruit de la nature (Like a sound of Nature) and L’Enterrement du chasseur (The hunter’s burial), inspired by a woodcut by the nineteenth-century artist Moritz von Schwind in which the animals mourn the death of the hunter. The ensemble’s double bass player, Thibault Bertin-Maghit, made the arrangements, while Philippe Hersant has written a Fantaisie based on fragments from a number of works by Mahler.

VIVALDI NISI DOMINUS

Jean-Baptiste Millot

EVA ZAÏCIK DEBORAH CACHET BENOÎT-JOSEPH MEIER FRANCISCO MANALICH VIRGILE ANCELY

ALPHA724

1 CD

8 OCTOBER 2021

LE POÈME HARMONIQUE VINCENT DUMESTRE

In the seventeenth century, the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice took in young orphan girls who received advanced musical instruction. The concerts given there attracted visitors from all over the world, curious to hear these divine voices which remained invisible, since the girls performed hidden behind the grilles of the chapel gallery. Vivaldi became Maestro de’ Concerti of the Pietà in 1714, and it was his pupils who performed his famous Nisi Dominus. Today they are succeeded by the mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik, who brings out the full poignancy of the aria ‘Cum dederit’. Another motet by Vivaldi, Invicti bellate, also composed for the Pietà, features in this programme planned and conducted by Vincent Dumestre. He invites us on a musical journey centred on the figure of woman and on divine praise, with composers awaiting discovery such as Serafino Razzi (1534-1619) and Soto de Langa (1531-1611).

DUO PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA VIOLIN SOL GABETTA CELLO

ALPHA757 8 OCTOBER 2021

1 CD

This album celebrates a musical rapport that has lasted for twenty years and, above all, a true friendship: ‘We’re like two sisters, on stage and in life’, as Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta like to say. In parallel with their dazzling solo careers, they have frequently got together for concerts in trio or double concerto formation.* But they have conceived their new recording for a rather rare combination, the violin-cello duo – with the aim of choosing pieces they found interesting either stylistically or for the way they use the instruments. The programme includes the Duo written by Zoltán Kodály in 1914, which was not premiered until 1924, two years after Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for violin and cello, along with a few forays into the Baroque period (Leclair, Scarlatti, Bach) and, of course, works by twenty-first-century composers to whom the two soloists are very close: Jörg Widmann, Francisco Coll and Julien-François Zbinden are on the itinerary of this introspective journey into the generous world of two total artists. * like the one written for them by Francisco Coll, recently released on ALPHA580

SAINT-SAËNS CELLO CONCERTO NO .1 BACCHANALE SYMPHONY NO. 1 OP.2

ASTRIG SIRANOSSIAN CELLO PHILHARMONIE SÜDWESTFALEN NABIL SHEHATA

ALPHA764

1 CD

8 OCTOBER 2021

The year 2021 marks the centenary of the death of Camille Saint-Saëns, the French pianist, organist, critic and great Romantic composer. The cellist Astrig Siranossian, whose tribute album to Nadia Boulanger (Dear Mademoiselle, ALPHA635) recently attracted considerable attention, plays the first of his two cello concertos, composed in 1872, notable for the fact that it comprises a single movement in three sections, and for the thunderous irruption of the cello right at the start. She is accompanied by the Philharmonie Südwestfalen and its conductor Nabil Shehata, who is also an eminent double bass player – the principal of the Berlin Philharmonic in the 2000s – and deeply committed to Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, of which Astrig is also a member. The tribute continues with Saint-Saëns’s Symphony no.1 (one of five he wrote), composed when he was only eighteen. The famous Bacchanale, an oriental-flavoured dance from Act Three of his opera Samson et Dalila, completes the programme.

THE IMAGINARY MUSIC BOOK OF J. S. BACH CAFÉ ZIMMERMANN

ALPHA766 8 OCTOBER 2021

1 CD

Johann Sebastian Bach has made the reputation of Café Zimmermann ever since the ensemble was formed in 1999. This new recording presents the music of the Leipzig Kantor from a different angle, that of the notebooks in which musicians wrote down pieces and movements they particularly liked. This recording brings together works composed by Bach in the late 1740s which may be described as intimate in character, including the famous trio sonata from his Musical Offering. The Baroque idiom of this ‘experimental’ sonata is contextualised by the innovative style developed by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel in one of his own trio sonatas. A number of arias by J. S. Bach are also presented here with exclusively instrumental forces. Under the direction of violinist Pablo Valetti and harpsichordist Céline Frisch, the ensemble even ventures into Mozartian territory with the Aria and Fugue K404a, taken from two pieces by Bach that Mozart himself had annotated and arranged in his own musical notebook. Finally, a chorale that Bach was particularly fond of, a threepart fugue played here by harpsichord and flute. Carl Philipp Emanuel had it printed at the end of his father’s musical testament, The Art of Fugue: ‘Before thy throne I now appear’.

TCHAIKOVSKY COMPLETE SYMPHONIES

TONHALLE-ORCHESTER ZÜRICH PAAVO JÄRVI

ALPHA778

5 CDs

8 OCTOBER 2021

Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich have put the finishing touches to their complete recording of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies. Assembled here are the six famous works, coupled with the Capriccio Italien, Romeo and Juliet, the Waltz and Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, the Festival Coronation March and Francesca da Rimini. Following international press acclaim for the first two volumes (Diapason d’Or, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik etc.), we have decided to release the complete set at once to mark the reopening of the orchestra’s concert hall, the prestigious Tonhalle. Situated on the shores of Lake Zurich and inaugurated by Brahms in 1895, this hall, renowned worldwide for its acoustics, is now reborn after several years of renovation. In this exceptional setting, there is no doubt that Paavo Järvi and the TonhalleOrchester will write a new chapter in international musical life!

NOËL ÉTERNEL MAÎTRISE DE RADIO FRANCE SOFI JEANNIN MAÎTRISE NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS HENRI CHALET YVES CASTAGNET ORGAN

ALPHA422 22 OCTOBER 2021

2 CDs

Ever since that first angelic night, Christmas has been celebrated in song. In the baroque period, many composers such as Charpentier have composed original masterpieces based on simple folk tunes. Here in a special double CD edition are baroque carols from the choir of La Maîtrise de Radio France, with Les Musiciens de Saint Julien, as well as the best-known French Christmas carols (Les anges dans nos campagnes, Venez divin messie...) from the Maîtrises of Radio France and Notre-Dame de Paris. The two internationally renowned children’s choirs combine to celebrate the Nativity and share with us these timeless songs.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE IN DEATH

Marco Borggreve

ANNA PROHASKA SOPRANO LA FOLIA BAROCKORCHESTER ROBIN PETER MÜLLER

ALPHA745

1 CD

22 OCTOBER 2021

Constantly in search of eclectic and meaningful programmes, the soprano Anna Prohaska here celebrates ‘life in death’. An ambitious programme, conceived with Robin Peter Müller and his ensemble La Folia, which takes us on a journey across the centuries and through many different countries, with French chansons of the Middle Ages (including one by Guillaume de Machaut), seventeenth-century Italian pieces by Luigi Rossi, Francesco Cavalli and Barbara Strozzi, German composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Dietrich Buxtehude, Christoph Graupner, Franz Tunder) and the English luminaries Henry Purcell... plus John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A musical and spiritual quest that even takes in a detour to North America with a universally known song by Leonard Cohen.

VOUS AVEZ DIT BRUNETTES ? LES KAPSBER'GIRLS

ALPHA761

1 CD

Les Kapsber’girls, an ensemble of four singers and instrumentalists directed by the lutenist Albane Imbs, has already released its debut album (Che fai tù?, released on Muso) which received several awards. The group now joins Alpha for several recordings, starting with Vous avez dit Brunettes? – ‘brunettes’ being the name of the chansons that lovers crooned in each others’ ears by the Bassin d’Apollon or among the groves of the Petit Trianon at Versailles Palace, undeniably light in character yet powerfully authentic. Seventeenth-century France was home to a host of artists whose talent served the nobility and the bourgeoisie, who were extremely partial to these airs. Performing them as vocal solos or duets with lute or viol, Les Kapsber’girls bring back to life, more than three centuries later, these works published by Ballard & Fils, printers to the Sun King, alongside such little-known composers as Julie Pinel and Giuseppe Saggione.

22 OCTOBER 2021

MOZART VIOLIN CONCERTO N°3 SYMPHONY "JUPITER" N°41

Franck Juery

JULIEN CHAUVIN LE CONCERT DE LA LOGE

ALPHA776

1 CD

22 OCTOBER 2021

Julien Chauvin and Le Concert de la Loge join Alpha and launch a new cycle devoted to Mozart. This project is a natural continuation of Julien Chauvin’s work of rediscovery focusing on the interpretation of the music of Haydn and his contemporaries in Paris in the late eighteenth century. The first recording assembles the majestic and grandiose Symphony no.41 in C major, known as the Jupiter, the Violin Concerto no.3 in G major and the Overture to Le nozze di Figaro. Julien Chauvin is, of course, the soloist in the violin concerto and, with his Concert de la Loge (which is no longer ‘Olympique’, since the French National Olympic Sports Committee forced the ensemble to amputate its name in 2016, despite the fact that it dates from...1782), they embark on a Mozartian marathon that promises to be electrifying!

ARIETTES OUBLIÉES

‘You have understood nothing of my simplicity’, wrote Paul Verlaine in Child Wife. And that is precisely what Julien Joubert’s music seems to whisper to us with each note.The composer and pianist works regularly with the Maîtrise de Radio France, which has premiered many of his works. Here he has set two cycles by the great nineteenth-century poet to music for this recording (Ariettes oubliées and Aquarelles, for mixed choir). An ambitious programme, yet accessible to everyone, in all simplicity.

JULIEN JOUBERT ENSEMBLE ROMANCES SANS PAROLES MARIE-NOËLLE MAERTEN

ALPHA723

1 CD

12 NOVEMBER 2021

BACH BEFORE BACH CHOUCHANE SIRANOSSIAN VIOLIN BALÁZS MÁTÉ CELLO LEONARDO GARCÍA ALARCÓN

ALPHA758

In the Europe of the first half of the seventeenth century, instrumental music became a source of sonic and expressive experimentation. Influenced by vocal rhetoric, composers sought to replace words with a new musical language. The virtuosity of the instrumentalists developed, as did invention, improvisation and the search for surprising sonorities. Along with the organ or the harpsichord, the violin was the instrument of choice for experimenting with these new techniques. Italian and German composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries such as Farina, Schmelzer, Mealli, Buxtehude, Biber, Pisendel and Bach vied with each other in imaginativeness... The violinist Chouchane Siranossian and the harpsichordist Leonardo García Alarcón – both loyal Alpha Classics artists – have chosen to explore this repertory, here including Bach’s sonatas BWV 1019, 1021 and 1023 among other pieces.

1 CD

12 NOVEMBER 2021

MITTELEUROPA AT THE ROOTS OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN MUSIC

ENSEMBLE CONTRASTE

ALPHA763 12 NOVEMBER 2021

1 CD

At the dawn of the twentieth century, European composers, wishing to break with certain Romantic and scholarly habits, investigated the fabulous musical treasure trove of oral and popular traditions beyond the borders of their respective countries. Hence creative geniuses like Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel found novel inspirations that were to prefigure a musical age, in contrast with the dark history of the century. Béla Bartók travelled through central Europe collecting thousands of folk themes, in a tradition continued by the Hungarian composer and clarinettist Béla Kovács. And Ernest Bloch movingly introduced into his music the Hebrew themes so dear to him. Steeped in this history at once intimate and overarching, made up of journeys and tragic ruptures, the American composer John Williams has more recently recalled in his music the beautiful poetry of timeless folklore, as in the Sephardic song Morenika, sung in Ladino. To perform these pieces, the violist Arnaud Thorette and the pianist Johan Farjot have surrounded themselves with wonderful artists: Sarah and Deborah Nemtanu, violin - Karine Deshayes, mezzo-soprano Pierre Génisson, clarinet - Antoine Pierlot, cello.

SPECCHIO VENEZIANO REALI / VIVALDI

LE CONSORT Specchio veneziano or the Venetian mirror – this programme compares and contrasts two composers from the city of the Doges: on the one hand the celebrated Vivaldi, on the other a virtual unknown, Giovanni Battista Reali, who was born there in 1681, three years after Vivaldi, and died in 1751, ten years after his illustrious colleague. A violinist himself, he composed trio sonatas, including a very spectacular Folia, which Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Sophie de Bardonnèche, Hanna Salzenstein and Justin Taylor juxtapose with Vivaldi’s Folia, alongside other highly virtuosic pieces, many of them complete rediscoveries, since half of this programme has never been recorded before. ALPHA771 12 NOVEMBER 2021

1 CD

ARCANA Masterpieces – After the Sonatas and Partitas, Mario Brunello continues his trilogy devoted to the interpretation of Bach’s masterpieces for violin on the violoncello piccolo. In this second volume, he tackles the other great collection, the Sei Suonate a cembalo certato e violino solo. Another essential masterpiece, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, is presented in a new light in Giulio Prandi’s third recording for Arcana, using the recent critical edition of the Rossini Foundation of Pesaro, with a first-class vocal ensemble led by Sandrine Piau and three rare period instruments played by three specialists, including Francesco Corti. With volume 7 of the Stradella Project, the catalogue of the Bolognese composer’s operas is further enriched by a littleknown title, Amare e fingere, rediscovered in 2018, which places Stradella’s Roman works in a new perspective. Anniversaries – For the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death, the Odhecaton ensemble offers a chance to rediscover the Italian career of Josquin Desprez, divided between Leonardo da Vinci’s Milan and the recently inaugurated Sistine Chapel. The talented young tenor Riccardo Pisani is joined by Ensemble Arte Musica, directed by Francesco Cera, to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Francesco Rasi, the first interpreter of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and a key figure in the birth of opera, with the first recording dedicated to his works. Roots – Katarina Livljanić and Ensemble Dialogos unveil one of the greatest secrets of medieval music, the Winchester Troper, one of the earliest and most incredible sources of musical polyphony compiled in the early eleventh century, more than two hundred years before the first manuscripts of the famous Notre-Dame School. Homage – The complete recordings of Enrico Gatti for Arcana are presented in a special boxed set, richly illustrated and enriched by an original text by the violinist, which recounts twenty years of research and exploration of the seventeenth-century repertory.

IMITATING THE HUMAN VOICE THE COMPLETE ARCANA RECORDINGS

Dario Ghiselli, 1994

ENRICO GATTI VIOLIN ENSEMBLE AURORA

A206

13 CDs

27 AUGUST 2021

‘This collection of recordings contains the fruits of my research into new sound aesthetics carried out with various travelling companions who, over the years, have collaborated with me in Ensemble Aurora, from 1995 to 2016. We have explored various facets of the repertory of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, devoting ourselves chiefly – but not solely – to Italian music. We have always used exceptional original instruments or copies of excellent workmanship; we have always gone to record in historical locations with particularly interesting and diverse acoustics, all this to bring to you and share with you our love for refinement and for a sincere and natural imitation of the human voice and its warm overtones’. - Enrico Gatti

JOSQUIN DESPREZ IN ITALIA ODHECATON PAOLO DA COL COND. THE GESUALDO SIX

A489 27 AUGUST 2021

1 CD

During the sixteenth century in Italy, the motto ‘i galli cantano’ (the Gauls are singing) circulated, acknowledging the supremacy of the Franco-Flemish ‘transalpine’ musicians who were summoned to the peninsula to serve princes and prelates in the techniques of composing and performing vocal polyphony. Josquin Desprez, ‘Giosquino’ to the Italians, was the emblematic figure: in addition to France, he was in the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza in both Milan and Rome (1484, 1498) and of the papal (1489-95) and Este chapels (1503-4). On the fifth centenary of the composer’s death (1521), the Odhecaton ensemble proposes to retrace Josquin’s Italian itinerary with the Missa Hercules dux Ferrariæ, composed for the Duke of Ferrara Ercole I d’Este, and a selection of motets commissioned by Italian patrons. The contribution of The Gesualdo Six in the more solemn pieces brings the vocal ensemble to twentytwo singers, a number that is close to the forces of the Rome and Ferrara chapels and yields new sonic results in our quest to recreate how polyphony sounded in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH SIX SONATAS FOR VIOLONCELLO PICCOLO AND HARPSICHORD BRUNELLO BACH SERIES, VOL. 2

MARIO BRUNELLO PICCOLO CELLO ROBERTO LOREGGIAN HARPSICHORD AND ORGAN FRANCESCO GALLIGIONI CELLO AND VIOLA DA GAMBA

A490

2 CDs

10 SEPTEMBER 2021

After mastering the Sonatas and Partitas, Mario Brunello continues his trilogy devoted to reinterpreting Bach’s violin masterpieces on the violoncello piccolo. In this second volume he tackles the other great collection, the Sei Suonate a cembalo certato e violino solo (Six sonatas for concertato harpsichord and solo violin). Conceived in three parts, like sonatas for two treble instruments and continuo, these famous pieces appear transfigured here in a kaleidoscope of colours in which the violoncello piccolo intertwines with the keyboard, alternately harpsichord and organ, and with the bass doubled in turn by viola da gamba and cello – an accompaniment specifically suggested by one of the surviving copies of the sonatas. ‘A reinterpretation with an amber hue, in search of the intimate and human characteristics that are revealed almost unexpectedly in the slow movements and the expressiveness of the fugato themes in the fast movements, where Bach shows unparalleled virtuosity in distributing the voices’. - Mario Brunello

SWITHUN! DEMONS AND MIRACLES FROM WINCHESTER AROUND 1000

DIALOGOS KATARINA LIVLJANIĆ COND.

A491 24 SEPTEMBER 2021

1 CD

Open the door onto one of the best-kept secrets of medieval music… It is the music from the Winchester Troper, one of the earliest, and most stunning sources of medieval polyphonic music, written in the first decades of the eleventh century, more than two centuries before the manuscripts of NotreDame polyphony. Without the existence of this repertory, our vision of music history would have been entirely different, and much poorer. Ensemble Dialogos offers a musical creation, placing the polyphonic music of tenth- and eleventh-century Winchester in a dialogue with virtuosic improvisations, while telling the story of a man haunted by visionary and terrifying dreams, as he tries to escape from three raging naked Furies, and finally finds salvation through Saint Swithun, a medieval Anglo-Saxon Superman. As you prepare to discover an unknown musical repertory from medieval England, you will be drawn into a stunning story about demons, dreams and miraculous healing, wondering whether the music you are listening to is archaic or incredibly modern …

GIOACHINO ROSSINI PETITE MESSE SOLENNELLE CORO GHISLIERI GIULIO PRANDI COND. SANDRINE PIAU SOPRANO JOSÈ MARIA LO MONACO ALTO EDGARDO ROCHA TENOR CHRISTIAN SENN BASS FRANCESCO CORTI FIRST PIANO CRISTIANO GAUDIO SECOND PIANO DANIEL PERER HARMONIUM

A494

1 CD

8 OCTOBER 2021

This is the third recording to represent Giulio Prandi’s interpretative research on the great Italian choral repertory, after the special and successful releases of works by Jommelli and Pergolesi, cornerstones of the golden age of the Neapolitan school. Faced with the challenge posed by Rossini’s essential masterpiece, Prandi has chosen an original and courageous path, following deep reflection. The new critical edition of the Rossini Foundation of Pesaro is used here for the first time in a recording studio; three rare instruments roughly contemporary with the work – pianos by Érard and Pleyel, a Débain harmonium – have been selected to ensure an authentic, vital, luminous sound, guaranteed by the artistry of the keyboardist and professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Francesco Corti; four illustrious soloists have been engaged: Sandrine Piau, José Maria Lo Monaco, Edgardo Rocha and Christian Senn. Finally, the fundamental contribution of the Coro Ghislieri, an acknowledged world-class ensemble in early repertory, sets the seal on a recording of rare merit.

FRANCESCO RASI LA CETRA DI SETTE CORDE RICCARDO PISANI TENOR ENSEMBLE ARTE MUSICA FRANCESCO CERA COND.

A492 22 OCTOBER 2021

1 CD

The first monographic recording entirely dedicated to Francesco Rasi is released for the 400th anniversary of his death (30 November 1621). The first interpreter of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, an astonishing tenor and poet with a life studded with triumphs, constant travels, debts and murders, this native of Arezzo was fought over by all the courts of Italy and Europe. The pieces, on texts by Petrarch, Guarini, Chiabrera and Rasi himself – including ten world premieres – are taken from the Vaghezze di Musica (1608) and the Madrigali (1610). Tenor soloist Riccardo Pisani explores their extraordinary poetic and musical power, in a kaleidoscope of affects divided into seven ‘strings of the lyre’. He is accompanied by the Ensemble Arte Musica, directed by harpsichordist Francesco Cera. The two artists have been collaborating for years on rediscovering the Italian vocal repertory of the seventeenth century, as witnessed by the recent success of their set of Frescobaldi CDs, released on Arcana.

THE STRADELLA PROJECT VOL. 7 AMARE E FINGERE AN OPERA IN THREE ACTS ENSEMBLE MARE NOSTRUM ANDREA DE CARLO COND. JOSÉ MARIA LO MONACO MEZZO PAOLA VALENTINA MOLINARI SOPRANO SILVIA FRIGATO SOPRANO MAURO BORGIONI BARITONE LUCA CERVONI TENOR CHIARA BRUNELLO ALTO A493 12 NOVEMBER 2021

2 CDs

The discovery of the inventory of an extraordinary collection of music from the late seventeenth century has made it possible to track down a previously unknown work by Stradella: Amare e fingere (Loving and feigning), performed in Siena in 1676. Love, jealousy, dissimulation, false identities, intrigue, festive celebrations and duels form the ingredients of this opera, whose libretto, probably attributable to Giovanni Filippo Apolloni, is inspired by a Spanish comedy of the time. The action, set in a fairytale ‘Arabian countryside’, is triggered by love affairs between characters who appear to be of different rank, and which are therefore prohibited by social conventions. In a crescendo of tension, the plot is resolved in the final scene, when the true identities of the characters, all of royal rank, are revealed, leading to the classic happy ending. Along with Doriclea, also recently rediscovered, Amare e fingere, the seventh recording of the Stradella Project, sheds new light on its composer’s Roman operatic output.

FUGA LIBERA Founded in 2004, the Fuga Libera label surprises listeners with original and invariably astonishing projects. For his final recording Patrick Davin returned to the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, of which he was musical director until 2018, to explore the symphonic repertoire of Léon Boëllmann. The early music specialists of Ensemble Céladon present Hieros, a journey through time, entirely a cappella, that clouds our certainties and raises important questions. For their first album together, Sylvia Huang and Éliane Reyes form a duo with a close rapport. In Lointain passé, they declare their love for two Belgian composers, Eugène Ysaÿe and Guillaume Lekeu. To mark Saint-Saëns year, the youthful Trio Zadig is back in force on Fuga Libera with a disc that aims to explore a little-known area of his chamber music. Bernard Foccroulle returns with a new album covering a period of around thirty years during which he played a wide repertory for organ in a series of concerts and premieres. The cherry on the cake is a wholly new piece with the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton. Sjaella is the vocal ensemble of the moment to discover! Six talented and effervescent female singers who are not afraid of anything and demonstrate as much in a programme entitled Origins, ranging from seventieth-century repertory to contemporary pieces. The protean virtuoso accordionist João Barradas presents his first ‘classical’ solo album. Bach on the accordion seems utterly natural under his fingers. Arianna Savall, Petter Udland Johansen and their ensemble Hirundo Maris blaze new trails with a project entitled Music and Poetry selected from the great works of nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers. The young Icelandic baritone Andri Björn Róbertson has recorded in his homeland a repertory ‘come in from the cold’: Schumann and Thorsteinson (also known as the Icelandic Schumann!). The Russian pianist Alexander Zuev has embarked on the great adventure of recording the complete piano works of Stravinsky, uniquely including piano transcriptions and arrangements by the composer that have never been recorded before.

LÉON BOËLLMANN SYMPHONIE EN FA MAJEUR VARIATIONS SYMPHONIQUES QUATRE PIÈCES BRÈVES ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE MULHOUSE PATRICK DAVIN COND. HENRI DEMARQUETTE CELLO

FUG780

1 CD

9 JULY 2021

Léon Boëllmann’s Suite gothique, with its suave Prière à Notre-Dame and its spirited Toccata, rapidly became a beloved war-horse of organists throughout the world and gained the composer great renown. The Suite’s fame, however, caused other works by Boëllmann — who had been born in the same year as Debussy and who died in the same year as Brahms — to be forgotten. Patrick Davin chose to present Boëllmann’s symphonic works on this recording, the last he was to make before his untimely death.

HIEROS ENSEMBLE CÉLADON PAULIN BÜNDGEN

ΙΕΡΟΣ | HIEROS (in ancient Greek: sacred), performed by the vocal trio of Ensemble Céladon, opens up a musical reflection by alternating medieval music with contemporary composition. With this first disc sung entirely a cappella, the ensemble, led by Paulin Bündgen, examines the definition of the ‘sacred’ and its evolution through the centuries. From the thirteenth-century conductus of the School of Notre-Dame to the six works of Jean-Philippe Goude, how has this sentiment, which inhabited and guided the artists of the Middle Ages, evolved? What meaning and place does our modern world give it? As is often the case, the answer becomes tangible when formulated in music. FUG767

1 CD

27 AUGUST 2021

LOINTAIN PASSÉ YSAŸE, LEKEU SYLVIA HUANG VIOLIN ÉLIANE REYES PIANO

FUG779 10 SEPTEMBER 2021

1 CD

Violinist Sylvia Huang, a prizewinner at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2019, and Éliane Reyes, the renowned virtuoso pianist, present a new disc bubbling with elegance and femininity. Linked by a keen musical rapport and an irrepressible friendship, they declare their love for Belgian Romantic music, embodied by two emblematic composers: Eugène Ysaÿe, a natural musical companion whom every violinist has encountered or dreamt about, and Guillaume Lekeu, a dazzling musical genius taken from us all too soon. This recording reveals some skilfully chosen gems by Ysaÿe, including two unpublished early pieces, the Mazurka de concert and the Grande Valse de concert (the latter a world premiere). Lekeu is represented by the sublime Sonata for piano and violin, dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe; the musicians had the opportunity to consult, with an almost fervent enthusiasm, the original manuscript in Verviers, the birthplace of both the composer and Éliane Reyes. A radiant disc, overwhelming in its sincerity.

ORPHEUS HOMMAGE À SAINT-SAËNS TRIO ZADIG To mark Saint-Saëns Year, Trio Zadig invites us to admire two essential facets of his art: composition and transcription. Pieces arranged for piano trio – Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concerts 1 and 5 and Liszt’s Orpheus – frame Saint-Saëns’s own Trio No. 2 op. 92. This programme gives us the impression of travelling through time and space, between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, between Hungary and France... It is a chance to discover or rediscover the compositional skills, sense of form and dialogue, thematic inventiveness and rich harmonies of Saint-Saëns. True to its penchant for seldom-frequented repertory, Trio Zadig, imitating the Voltairean hero from whom it takes its name, continues its adventure in the world of chamber music. FUG788 10 SEPTEMBER 2021

TRENTE ANNÉES DE CRÉATION POUR ORGUE (1991-2021) HARVEY, DUSAPIN, HOSOKAWA, JOLAS, LACÔTE, FOCCROULLE

BERNARD FOCCROULLE ORGAN

P. Victor

SONIA WIEDER-ATHERTON CELLO YOANN TARDIVEL ORGAN

FUG789

1 CD

24 SEPTEMBER 2021

During the years in which Bernard Foccroulle was successively director of the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, he never ceased to devote himself to his instrument, the organ, regularly making recordings, giving numerous concerts and several premieres. The compositions on this recording range over that thirty-year cycle, from the 1991 premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Fantasia in Strasbourg to that of Betsy Jolas’s Musique d’autres jours, a piece combining organ with cello that was premiered in Paris in February 2021 during the Présences Festival. His collaboration with the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton also resulted in a new composition by Bernard Foccroulle for this organ-cello duo!

ORIGINS SJAELLA

FUG784 8 OCTOBER 2021

1 CD

Out of the ether, into existence. The initial point. The beginning. The everrecurring origin. Between minimalism and picturesque arias arise light, time, and all life. In Origins, the female vocal ensemble Sjaella focuses on natural cycles that have surrounded us since the dawn of time. In every era, people have experienced the changes in the seasons, the gentle rhythm of day and night, the individual flow of the body, and the transience of rebirth. All of these themes are presented as a unit, which forms a cycle of key concepts from the origin of life to a post-apocalyptic vacuum. The music contrasts and combines new arrangements of English songs of the seventeenth century, some of them from Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, with contemporary pieces, including those in the American Minimalist style, such as David Lang’s Evening, Morning, Day. By including mainly commissioned works, the album shows Sjaella’s close collaboration with renowned international composers such as Paola Prestini, singer-songwriter Shara Nova and former King’s Singers member Philip Lawson.

DEBUT JOÃO BARRADAS ACCORDION

FUG786

2 CDs

João Barradas records his first classical album with music by composers as different as J. S. Bach, Luciano Berio, Yann Robin, D. Scarlatti, J. P. Sweelinck and Astor Piazzolla. Barradas became the first accordionist to receive the ECHO Rising Star distinction from the European Concert Hall Organization. This double album comprises the entirety of the programme recently presented in concert halls as diverse as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Paris and Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York. The accordionist has won some of the most prestigious international accordion competitions, including the World Accordion Trophy (CMA), which he has won twice, the Coupe Mondiale of Accordion (CIA), the International Castelfidardo Contest and the Okud Istra International Competition. This recording is made in collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Casa da Música Porto and the Luxembourg Philharmonie.

8 OCTOBER 2021

MUSIQUE ET POÉSIE HIRUNDO MARIS ARIANNA SAVALL PETTER UDLAND JOHANSEN Hirundo Maris has constantly explored new musical worlds and forms of expression since it was founded in 2009 under the direction of Arianna Savall and Petter Udland Johansen. They are now taking a completely different path with this new project for the label Fuga Libera, which is devoted to a great and wonderful song tradition, the nineteenth- and twentieth-century art song, featuring composers such as Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Fauré, Debussy, Mompou, Toldrà, García Lorca, de Falla and Grieg – all of whom were so significant for this chamber music genre.

FUG772 22 OCTOBER 2021

1 CD

"The love of poetry and music that we (Arianna Savall and Petter Udland Johansen) share is something that we invariably explore in all our projects with Hirundo Maris. It was very important for us to do this in our own personal way, and to bring to the music our own personal sound and love. That is why we arranged all of the music anew so that it would integrate with the musical universe of Hirundo Maris. You will hear a great love and respect for this music made by these fantastic composers in the spirit of Hirundo Maris, with music coming from the sunny Mediterranean and reaching to frosty Scandinavia."

SCHUMANN LIEDERKREISE OP. 24 ET OP. 39

ÁRNI THORSTEINSON SONGS ANDRI BJÖRN RÓBERTSON BARITONE ÁSTRÍÐUR ALDA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR

FUG787

1 CD

22 OCTOBER 2021

PIANO

Icelandic baritone Andri Björn Róbertson has recorded Schumann’s Liederkreise op. 24 and op. 39 paired with seven songs by his countryman Árni Thorsteinson (1870-1962). 1840 is considered Robert Schumann’s Liederjahr (Year of Song) in reference to his nearly exclusive devotion to song composition from 1840 to 1841. The two cycles op.24 and op.39 were composed and published in 1840. Árni Thorsteinson is probably Iceland’s most beloved song composer and this programme includes some of the nation’s absolute favourites. Thorsteinson is also fondly called the ‘Icelandic Schumann’. In the early 1900s he started to compose songs for both solo voice and chorus to the words of well-known Icelandic poets. His twelve songs published in 1907 are a national treasure. Iceland’s energy and landscape were key influences in making this record. Escaping into the wilderness and the surrounding mystery and natural poetry are ingredients as important as the two soloists. This is why a venue in Iceland was chosen for the recording sessions.

STRAVINSKY THE COMPLETE PIANO SOLOS & TRANSCRIPTIONS ALEXEY ZUEV

FUG777 12 NOVEMBER 2021

5 CDs

"Every recording of Stravinsky’s ‘complete works for solo piano’ is a considerable achievement. However, this latest 5-CD cycle with Russian pianist Alexey Zuev is a cause for special celebration for it also includes all of Stravinsky’s piano transcriptions and arrangements, many of which have never before been recorded – indeed, until now, some have remained completely unknown. This project, therefore, represents a significant milestone in Stravinsky recording history. Alexey Zuev and Outhere Music are to be congratulated for bringing every corner of Stravinsky’s pianistic catalogue into the wider musical conversation, and for making the case most convincingly that all of this solo repertoire, whether original or transcribed, deserves to be performed and appreciated as part of this great composer’s innovative canon of piano works. With the generous support of the Stravinsky Family Fund (Moscow & Venice) this ambitious and historic project is a most welcome addition to the recording library. It is a particularly imaginative contribution to the worldwide commemorations marking the fiftieth anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s death (1971-2021)." © 2021: Dr. Graham Griffiths, DPhil (Oxford), BMus (Edinburgh)

LINN RECORDS Dazzling lyric soprano Lucy Crowe makes her Linn recital debut with a spellbinding programme of lieder by Richard Strauss, Berg and Schoenberg. She is joined by her long-term professional partner, pianist Anna Tilbrook. An exhilarating performance of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony marks Robin Ticciati’s sixth album with the DSO Berlin. The work’s thematic unity, archlike melodic lines, rich orchestral colours and expansive structure still inspire awe. Karen Cargill and Simon Lepper return to fin-de-siècle Europe for a recital of songs by the ‘crème de la crème’ of late nineteenth-century French speaking composers. Duo Pleyel offers a delicious and hearty musical feast with the complete original works for piano four-hands by the unjustly neglected Bohemian composer Jan Ladislav Dussek. Dunedin Consort’s eagerly awaited new album explores the timely themes of consolation and salvation in three of Bach’s finest cantatas directed by John Butt. Comprising Cecilia Bernardini, Keiko Shichijo and Marcus van den Munckhof, newly formed Trio Marie Soldat performs two masterpieces of the genre by Beethoven and Schubert. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood offers a compelling new contribution to the trumpet repertoire with four Classical-style sonatas ‘after’ Mozart created by Timothy Jones. Cappella Nova’s latest album Consecration comprises world premiere recordings in a programme specially curated by Sir James MacMillan. Fitzwilliam String Quartet rounds off 2021 with a towering pinnacle of Western music repertoire: Schubert’s String Quartet in G major, D. 887.

LONGING LIEDER BY STRAUSS, BERG & SCHOENBERG

LUCY CROWE ANNA TILBROOK

CKD656

Lucy Crowe makes her Linn recital debut with a programme of lieder by Berg, Richard Strauss and Schoenberg, which perfectly highlights why she is known as one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation. Lucy is joined by pianist Anna Tilbrook, with whom she has forged a near symbiotic connection over a twenty-year professional partnership, comprising numerous performances at Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, London, and Carnegie Hall, New York. The programme encompasses both the beginning and end of Strauss’s prodigious songwriting career with five songs from his first published set Acht Gedichte aus Letzte Blätter plus his posthumously published swansong of sublime beauty, Vier letzte Lieder. Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder are landmark compositions which invoke the late Romantic world of Strauss; they sit alongside Vier Lieder by Berg’s mentor Schoenberg, whose post-Wagnerian chromaticism points to the composer’s later style. Following their Wigmore Hall performance in June 2020 The Guardian stated: ‘Berg’s Seven Early Songs … suits Crowe uncommonly well, with her exquisite tone, fastidious sense of line, and understated but telling way with words.’

1 CD

27 AUGUST 2021

RACHMANINOV SYMPHONY NO. 2

Jörg Brüggermann - Ostkreuz

ROBIN TICCIATI DEUTSCHES SYMPHONIE-ORCHESTER BERLIN

CKD653 10 SEPTEMBER 2021

1 CD

Following acclaimed performances on tour in Japan and South Korea, Robin Ticciati and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin have recorded one of Rachmaninov’s best-known works. In contrast with the disastrous reception of the First Symphony and the ensuing three-year compositional hiatus, the Second Symphony was a resounding success when it was premiered by the composer in 1908. Its thematic unity, archlike melodic lines, rich orchestral colours and expansive structure still inspire awe, particularly when performed by musicians of the DSO’s calibre. The score is presented in its original unabridged version which reveals Rachmaninov’s regained confidence in his power to compose and his true symphonic achievement. This exhilarating performance marks Ticciati’s sixth album with the DSO.

JAN LADISLAV DUSSEK COMPLETE ORIGINAL WORKS FOR PIANO FOUR-HANDS

DUO PLEYEL

CKD642

1 CD

24 SEPTEMBER 2021

Duo Pleyel releases its second album on Linn, following its ‘winning performances’ (BBC Music Magazine) of Schubert. Richard Egarr and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya perform the complete original works for piano four-hands by the unjustly neglected composer Jan Ladislav Dussek. Born into a Bohemian musical family, Jan Ladislav led a colourful life, both personally and as a virtuoso. He was a much sought-after teacher and helped push forward the development of the piano. Before his death in 1812 (perhaps helped by a fondness for strong drink and rich food) he enjoyed the company of the great and the good from all walks of life and travelled widely throughout Europe. His somewhat roguish character led to him having to flee for his safety on at least two occasions. Once from Russia, where he was accused of participating in a plot against the Empress, and again from London, where a joint publishing venture (with his father-in-law and a certain Lorenzo Da Ponte) went bankrupt. Despite these dubious personal flaws, Dussek was an acclaimed and hugely important composer and pianist during his lifetime. Duo Pleyel offers you a delicious and hearty musical feast – it is time for Dussek to be back on the world’s musical menu.

FLEUR DE MON ÂME KAREN CARGILL SIMON LEPPER

CKD652 24 SEPTEMBER 2021

1 CD

Following their Linn debut, a ‘breathtaking album of songs by Gustav and Alma Mahler’ (The Herald), Karen Cargill and Simon Lepper return to fin-de-siècle Europe for a recital of songs by the ‘crème de la crème’ of late nineteenthcentury French speaking composers. Entitled Fleur de mon âme, the album embraces the sensual soundworld of Hahn, Debussy, Chausson, Jongen and Duparc. The album opens with À Chloris which recalls the elegance of the seventeenth century before borrowing from the poetry of Ancient Greece in Chansons de Bilitis and setting sail on a calm sea with Chausson’s Sérénade italienne. Guest soloists from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra add orchestral colour to Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle and Calmes, aux quais déserts by lesser-known Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. The compelling romanticism of Duparc’s songs complete this bouquet of soul-searching French mélodies.

BACH ICH HABE GENUG CANTATAS BWV 82, 32 & 106 DUNEDIN CONSORT JOHN BUTT

CKD672

1 CD

8 OCTOBER 2021

John Butt directs Dunedin Consort, one of the world’s leading Baroque ensembles, in this collection of three of Bach’s finest cantatas. Together, they explore the timely themes of consolation and salvation. Having previously received exceptional critical acclaim for recordings of Bach’s Mass in B minor (which was named a Benchmark Recording by BBC Music Magazine) and John Passion (nominated for both a 2014 ICMA and a 2013 Gramophone Award), Dunedin Consort now cements its impressive Bachian credentials with these three cantatas. Bass Matthew Brook takes centre stage in the melancholic yet optimistic Ich habe genug, with soprano Joanne Lunn joining him to portray the searching dialogue of Jesus and the Soul in the profoundly beautiful Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen. Known as 'Actus Tragicus', the early cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit is an altogether grander affair. Likely intended for a funeral, it stands out in Bach’s output both for its sublime choruses and its unusual instrumentation – notably the two oscillating recorders in the introduction, which set the tone for one of Bach’s most heartfelt and quietly uplifting cantatas.

BEETHOVEN PIANO TRIO, OP. 70, NO. 2

SCHUBERT PIANO TRIO, OP. 100 TRIO MARIE SOLDAT

CKD631 22 OCTOBER 2021

1 CD

Newly formed Trio Marie Soldat releases its eagerly awaited debut album on Linn. Comprising violinist Cecilia Bernardini, fortepianist Keiko Shichijo and cellist Marcus van den Munckhof, the Dutch trio takes its name from Marie Soldat-Roeger, a pupil of Joseph Joachim and celebrated violinist who formed perhaps the first all-women chamber group in 1887 known as the Soldat Quartet. The programme includes two E flat major masterpieces of the genre, fittingly performed on period instruments. Mellow in tone and richly textured, Beethoven’s Op. 70 No. 2 belongs to the composer’s so-called ‘middle period’. Composed in 1808 at the end of a particularly creative phase which saw a flurry of expansive works, the trio looks back at Beethoven’s one-time teacher Haydn. Trio Marie Soldat rounds off its recital with an enticing account of what is perhaps the pinnacle of the trio repertoire, Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2. Although later revised by the composer himself, the Trio gives a rare chance to hear the longer, seldom performed premiere edition.

SIR JAMES MACMILLAN CONSECRATION CAPPELLA NOVA ALAN TAVENER

CKD633

1 CD

Cappella Nova has a longstanding reputation of championing contemporary music, and its latest album Consecration is no exception. Comprising world premiere recordings in a programme specially curated by Sir James MacMillan, it includes a very personal selection of the composer’s recent choral works. The sequence of five Culham Motets, written for the consecration of the Chapel of Christ the Redeemer at Culham Court on 9 December 2015, show MacMillan at his transcendently numinous best in an emotional and technical tour de force, setting texts of visionary and mystic ceremonial power. Consecration also includes MacMillan’s well-beloved St Anne’s Mass along with a fascinating collection of works written for family occasions: the weddings of two of his children and his father’s Requiem Mass. This is the fourth instalment of Cappella Nova’s celebrated MacMillan series on Linn.

12 NOVEMBER 2021

FOUR TRUMPET SONATAS AFTER MOZART CREATED BY TIMOTHY JONES

JONATHAN FREEMAN-ATTWOOD ANNA SZAŁUCKA

CKD668 12 NOVEMBER 2021

1 CD

Conceived by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Mozart scholar Timothy Jones, this programme of four sonatas ‘by’ and ‘after’ Mozart represents a belated apology to the composer on behalf of all trumpet players. Had the trumpet developed into a chromatic solo instrument in the 1770s and 80s – like the oboe or flute – Mozart might have been inspired to write great music for the instrument. Following eight recordings for Linn of similarly re-imagined trumpet and piano music from Monteverdi to Richard Strauss, this recital is a compelling new contribution to the trumpet repertoire with four Classical-style sonatas, drawing on varied styles and periods in Mozart’s music. It exhibits canvases from the Salzburgian church sonata to the strutting swagger of a 21-year-old pianist-composer in Munich and two large mid- and late-sonatas from the golden Viennese years. Accompanying Freeman-Attwood is the multi-awardwinning Polish pianist Anna Szałucka.

SCHUBERT LATE STRING QUARTETS G MAJOR & C MINOR 'QUARTETTSATZ'

FITZWILLIAM STRING QUARTET

CKD673 12 NOVEMBER 2021

1 CD

Having celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2019, it is perhaps remarkable that the Fitzwilliam String Quartet has not already recorded this towering pinnacle of Western music repertoire: Schubert’s String Quartet in G major, D. 887. This revelatory recording on period instruments proves it was well worth the wait! The work’s idiomatic grandeur and overall complexity coupled with its everchanging tonalities and otherworldly atmosphere call for the sort of stamina that is the privilege of a limited few. The Fitzwilliams rise admirably to the challenge, demonstrating the characteristic expertise which has defined their recordings over many decades. Inexplicably left unfinished, the C minor ‘Quartettsatz’ rounds off the programme. This chiseled, and yet formally unorthodox, single movement is presented here with its Andante second movement completed by leading Schubert scholar Brian Newbould.

LINN DIGITAL RELEASES

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC BICENTENARY SERIES JAMES ORFORD ORGAN ARIEL LANYI PIANO ROBERTS BALANAS VIOLIN MARGERITA BALANAS CELLO

CKD661-664

4 VOLs

9 JULY & 2 DECEMBER 2021

As the Royal Academy of Music approaches its Bicentenary in 2022, Linn’s Bicentenary Series continues with four new debut albums from the exceptional recipients of the Academy’s 2019/20 Bicentenary Scholarships scheme. Violinist Roberts Balanas (who can count Sir Elton John amongst his fans) performs highly original transcriptions of contemporary music using inventive techniques; Margarita Balanas performs the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 in its nonet arrangement; and pianist Ariel Lanyi performs Schubert's Moments Musicaux D. 780 and Sonata D. 850. The fourth recording is by organist James Orford and is particularly notable because James continues the series of transcriptions of Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico which was left incomplete by its previous author, none other than Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s arrangements were among the earliest and most significant transcriptions of Vivaldi’s music and James completes the series with his own extraordinary new transcriptions. The recording is made on the wonderful organs in London’s Dutch Church and St John’s, Smith Square and Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark

OUTNOTE RECORDS The Outnote label continues its search for the best in current jazz. Jazz that is innovative and open, especially to other forms of music. The American-Iraqi trumpeter Amir ElSaffar offers us a second album with his ‘expanded’ group, Rivers of Sound. A journey between contemporary jazz and the tradition of the Iraqi Māqams in XXL size: an absolutely unique encounter in sound. The legendary guitarist Philip Catherine surrounded himself with the cream of Belgian jazz musicians for his seventy-fifth birthday, celebrated live at a concert event in the legendary Studio 4 in Flagey (Brussels). That timeless evening produced an album that is set to make history, echoing the best moments of his career. Carlos Cippelletti is a young piano prodigy whose music combines his Spanish and Cuban roots with the latest trends in jazz. Brilliant and subtle compositions, performed by renowned musicians who accompany him on this enthralling initial venture into the recording studio. N∆BOU represents the renewal of the jazz scene. As trombonist and composer, Nabou Claerhout constantly searches for a new and personal aesthetic. Along with a quartet of equally curious and innovative musicians, she has created a sound as exhilarating as it is original, alternating between intimate and groovy passages.

THE OTHER SHORE

Michael Crommet

AMIR ELSAFFAR TRUMPET RIVERS OF SOUND

OTN640

1 CD

27 AUGUST 2021

Iraqi-American trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer Amir ElSaffar is a visionary and a pioneer of cross-cultural musical exploration. His six-piece Two Rivers Ensemble, formed in 2006, was among the first projects to combine jazz with Iraqi Māqams. In 2015, ElSaffar expanded the group to form the 17 member Rivers of Sound. The orchestra’s 2017 release Not Two (New Amsterdam) was described by the New York Times as ‘an arresting debut album... full of momentum, but not in the way of a single moving thing. Instead, it seems to flow and spill across bounds’ and Pitchfork Magazine called it ‘... a towering statement of purpose—wise to many traditions, even while it remains accessible to anyone.’ With The Other Shore, Rivers of Sound’s second release, ElSaffar expands the group’s musical palette, exploring new territories, with complex rhythmic cells and microtonal melodies melding together in lush improvised textures created by the unique timbres of instruments and chemistry between the all-star musicians that make up this orchestra. Featured musicians include Fabrizio Cassol (alto saxophone), Nasheet Waits (drums), Miles Okazaki (guitar), Zafer Tawil (oud, percussion), Tareq Abboushi (buzuq), John Escreet (piano), and Ole Mathisen (tenor saxophone).

75 LIVE AT FLAGEY

PHILIP CATHERINE

OTN636 10 SEPTEMBER 2021

1 CD

Philip Catherine is one of those musicians who, throughout a prolific career, has developed a unique and authentic sound. He only needs to play a single note to be instantly recognised. He is certainly one of the greats of Belgian and European jazz. The relationship between Philip and Flagey began almost twenty years ago. It was therefore only natural that the institution should organise a concert to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday. Given carte blanche, he decided to propose a surprising line-up: two pianists, two drummers, a trumpet player, and of course a guitar, played by himself. The selection of pieces is just as original: he revisits the numbers that appeared on his very first recording, as well as more recent works and some cover versions. Listening to the album, one is struck by the youthful spirit that immediately makes us forget the generation to which he belongs. Here is Philip Catherine in all his authenticity, endearing, unpretentious, generous, witty and inspiring. A past master in the art of refined emotion.

HYBRID/C CARLOS CIPPELLETTI AFRO-CUBAN JAZZ SEPTET + GUESTS HYBRID/C is a musical and cultural fusion project with a common element, namely Afro-Cuban music and jazz. Jazz serves as a vehicle on this journey to the roots of Cuban music and Afro-Cuban culture from a modern musical perspective. Born in Spain to a Cuban father and French mother, Carlos Cippelletti’s compositions reflect his various identities. Jazz, Cuban folklore, neo-soul and classical music combine to create a sound all its own. This album collects the traditional Afro-Cuban jazz sextet format, (trumpet, tenor sax, piano, double bass, congas / batá drums and drums) including a seventh element in the shape of electronics and synthesisers, creating a point of union between tradition and modernity. HYBRID/C shows how, regardless of our roots and our ages, beauty always prevails, and reunites us through the most universal language we know, music. OTN642

1 CD

24 SEPTEMBER 2021

YOU KNOW NABOU NABOU CLAERHOUT TROMBONE TRUI AMERLINCK BASS MATHIAS VERCAMMEN DRUMS ROELAND CELUS GUITAR ALSO AVAILABLE ON VINYL - OTN693 (1LP)

OTN643 8 OCTOBER 2021

1 CD

With an original line-up of trombone, electric guitar, double bass and drums, N∆BOU is a breath of fresh air on the Belgian jazz scene. On the trombone, bandleader and composer Nabou Claerhout is looking for a sound all her own: by means of all sorts of effects, she creates a dreamy musical framework with a strong atmospheric and melancholic resonance. The group’s debut EP ‘Hubert’ – for which Claerhout was nominated for the Sabam For Culture ‘Jazz Composer 2019’ prize – was already a fine demonstration of its unique sound, which is now further refined and specified on its first full album You Know. Lush and intimate sounds alternate with strongly rhythmically based compositions, while groovy bass riffs from Trui Amerlinck, Mathias Vercammen’s elaborate drum patterns and the modern, virtuoso guitar playing of Roeland Celis play their part in this musical adventure full of highlights – all created in combination with Claerhout’s distinctive trombone playing ‘that sings, cries, pulsates, narrates and knows how to make many hearts weak through well-constructed contemporary pieces’.

RAMÉE Corina Marti explores the earliest keyboard music written in Europe, providing a magical glimpse into a highly virtuosic world, performing on a rare line-up of medieval keyboard instruments. Cristiano Holtz offers a Well-Tempered Clavier I performed on a ‘grand clavessin’ after Christian Zell (Hamburg, 1728) with a grandiose and splendid sound and equally flamboyant registrations. Romina Lischka and Marnix De Cat imagine the most beautiful combinations of viola da gamba and organ in original or arranged chorales and trios by Johann Sebastian Bach. Utopia Ensemble introduces us to the musical world of Andreas Pevernage, a composer of late Flemish vocal polyphony who is now forgotten, but who in his time was mentioned in the same breath as Orlandus Lassus, Clemens non Papa and Giaches de Wert. Korneel Bernolet explores the sound of the magnificent 1747 Dulcken harpsichord in Antwerp’s Vleeshuis Museum with a ‘Grand Tour’ of masterpieces written by great European masters around 1747. The Theater of Music reconstructs the musical part of a masque as it might have been performed in a London theatre around 1680: a courtly entertainment combining instrumental music, dance, drama, song and pantomime. Musicke & Mirth plumbs the depth of John Baldwin’s musical treasure trove, bringing to life a fascinating era of English music history.

KEYNOTES EARLY EUROPEAN KEYBOARD MUSIC WORKS FROM THE CODICES OF FAENZA, ROBERTSBRIDGE, BUXHEIM, LAS HUELGAS, FLORENCE, PERUGIA, A.O.

CORINA MARTI CLAVICYMBALUM, CLAVICITERIUM, ORGANETTO, ORGAN

RAM1916

1 CD

9 JULY 2021

Some of the greatest works ever composed were conceived for and inspired by keyboard instruments. Today, however, the splendour of the canonical works for keyboard instruments composed after 1600 — Bach’s Preludes and Fugues, Beethoven’s Sonatas and Chopin’s Nocturnes — tends to overshadow works composed earlier, despite there being a rich history of repertoire and a variety of instruments at that earlier time. Here Corina Marti not only explores the earliest keyboard music to be composed in Europe but also provides a fascinating insight into a world of virtuoso players and the music composed for them, playing a selection of instruments that are hardly known today: a metalstringed clavisimbalum (an early form of harpsichord), an upright gut-stringed claviciterium, two organetti (portative organs) of different sizes, and the church organ in Altenbruch in northern Germany with its array of original pipes that date from the fifteenth century.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH DAS WOHLTEMPERIERTE CLAVIER I CRISTIANO HOLTZ HARPSICHORD

RAM1912 27 AUGUST 2021

2 CDs

Which ‘Clavier’ did Bach have in mind? Apart from a ‘grand clavessin’ by Michael Mietke, which he probably had at his disposal at the court in Cöthen, there is evidence that he knew instruments by Gottfried Silbermann. A harpsichord with a 16’ stop by Johann Heinrich Harrass (today in the Berlin Musikinstrumenten-Museum) is also assumed to have been in Bach’s possession. A large instrument similar to this supposed ‘Bach harpsichord’ was built by Zacharias Hildebrandt, who was closely associated with the composer during his Leipzig years. Since Bach travelled to Hamburg on various occasions, it can be assumed that he was familiar with the famous harpsichord building tradition of that city, represented by the workshops of Zell, Fleischer and Hass. Since he was known for using rich and unusual registrations on the organ, we can assume that he used equally flamboyant registrations on the harpsichord. Cristiano Holtz has therefore chosen a large instrument by Matthias Kramer after Christian Zell (Hamburg 1728).

THE MUSICAL UNIVERSE OF ANDREAS PEVERNAGE CHANSONS, MOTETS, MADRIGALS

UTOPIA ENSEMBLE

RAM2006

1 CD

10 SEPTEMBER 2021

Andreas Pevernage is best remembered today as the choirmaster of Antwerp Cathedral and as the composer of several picture motets (Bildmotetten), which have been classified as masterpieces of Flemish cultural heritage. Perhaps Pevernage’s output is less well-known today because he spent his entire professional career exclusively in Flanders. In his time, however, his name was mentioned in the same breath as Orlandus Lassus, Clemens non Papa and Giaches De Wert: the quality of his music is in no way inferior to the works of these more famous contemporaries. In his work, Pevernage took up the innovations of the Italian madrigal and led the genre of the chanson to a new flowering. His four magnificently produced books of chansons, published by Christophe Plantin, show the confidence this famous printer had in Pevernage’s craftsmanship. With this recording, Utopia Ensemble would like to propel the forgotten master of Flemish vocal polyphony to new fame.

GRAND TOUR THE 1747 DULCKEN HARPSICHORD

KORNEEL BERNOLET HARPSICHORD

RAM2009 24 SEPTEMBER 2021

1 CD

"The harpsichord maker of the greatest eminence ... was Ioannes Daniel Dulcken". With this quote from Charles Burney, Dulcken stands as one of the most important Flemish harpsichord makers of the 18th century in the tradition of the Ruckers-Couchet dynasty of the previous century. This CD programme explores the sound of a very special instrument: the magnificent single-manual Dulcken harpsichord from 1747, now in the collection of the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp on permanent loan at the Museum Vleeshuis. Considering that Antwerp instruments have been exported and played in all corners of the world, harpsichordist and conductor Korneel Bernolet – as the professor for harpsichord its harpsichordist-in-residence – proposes a 'Grand Tour' that will make this Antwerp Dulcken sound with music written in 1747 or shortly before by European grand masters such as Bach, Haendel, Rameau, Scarlatti or Forqueray.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH' SEI EHR' ROMINA LISCHKA VIOLA DA GAMBA MARNIX DE CAT ORGAN

RAM2005

1 CD

8 OCTOBER 2021

Johann Sebastian Bach left us three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord. Among other arrangements, he transcribed the last movement of the gamba sonata in G major as a trio sonata for solo organ. Conversely, he also arranged some movements of the six organ trio sonatas for different instruments. This practice has prompted the duo Romina Lischka and Marnix De Cat to devise the programme Bach for Two, in which they have contrived the most beautiful combinations of viola da gamba and organ in original or arranged chorales and trios by the great composer. Bach is a master of the head and the heart. Taking text and melody as his starting point, he creates small musical worlds in his organ chorales. He takes the listener on the most varied inner journeys: experiencing musical joy in his sonatas, finding inner peace through every possible emotion, being comforted in one’s heartsearching or sorrow, being touched in one’s deepest being – this is the art of Bach, the magician of sound.

AN EVENING AT THE THEATRE ENGLISH STAGE AND DANCE MUSIC

THE THEATER OF MUSIC MARION FERMÉ

RAM2002

1 CD

An Evening at the Theatre reconstructs the musical part of a masque as it might have been performed in a London theatre around 1680. As courtly entertainment, the masque combined instrumental music, dance, theatre, song and pantomime and flourished in England from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth century. English art music, John Playford’s country dances and Scottish folk music had their place in the same musical event. In the middle of the programme, The Theater of Music gives prominence to the oddity known as the ‘anti-masque’, a genuine comic interlude within the masque itself. Its aim was to cheer up or even parody the king or some other person of high rank through scenic and instrumental antics, before returning to a more polite level of discourse, thus emphasising the subservience of subjects to their ruler.

22 OCTOBER 2021

A STORE HOUSSE OF TREASURE JOHN BALDWIN'S COMMONPLACE BOOK INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL PIECES BY BYRD, BEVIN, MARENZIO, BALDWIN...

MUSICKE & MIRTH

RAM2001 12 NOVEMBER 2021

1 CD

The focus of this programme is the singer, composer and music copyist John Baldwin (c.1560–1615). Baldwin trained as a choirboy in the Royal Court Chapel in England between 1580 and 1590 and was taught music theory and ensemble playing in conjunction with viol playing. Armed with this practical education, he performed a broad repertoire, encompassing church music, theatrical performances and evening entertainment for the feasts of wealthy citizens. He compiled the repertoire performed in this musical environment in his so-called ‘Commonplace Book’, with the aim of preserving the pieces contained therein for future generations. In the introductory poem to his manuscript he describes his book as ‘a store housse of treasure’. The pieces included are diverse, ranging from rhythmically sophisticated instrumental pieces over humorous songs to profound motets. The programme plumbs the depth of this musical treasure trove, bringing to life a fascinating era of English music history.

RICERCAR New paths? In 2020 Ricercar celebrated its fortieth anniversary, an event hailed by the international press and crowned with a Special Achievement Award from ICMA, among others. If 2020 was the anniversary year, 2021 is the year of the label’s fortieth season. Let the festivities continue! It is true that last year was marked by the terrible health crisis, whose impact on our activity as a record label is still difficult to assess; but, while paying attention to how the field of music distribution develops, Ricercar intends to continue along the paths it has been following for so many years and to remain the faithful champion of early repertories. Thus curiosity and discovery remain the essential driving forces of the label. And for the second half of 2021, German Baroque music will play an important role in the new productions. With his ensemble, Ludus Instrumentalis, the Russian violinist Evgeny Sviridov, whose Tartini discs have received special acclaim, presents a complete recording of the chamber music of one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most talented students, Johann Ludwig Goldberg. Olivier Riehl and Le Petit Trianon focus on the works of Pierre Gabriel Buffardin, flautist at the court of Dresden and – once again – a friend of J. S. Bach! Yoann Moulin continues his exploration of the seventeenth-century German harpsichord repertory. Bor Zuljan’s Dowland recording has attracted a great deal of attention, and he has now immersed himself in the repertory associated with the entourage of Gesualdo, who is also known to have played the archlute...

JOHANN GOTTLIEB GOLDBERG COMPLETE TRIO SONATAS LUDUS INSTRUMENTALIS EVGENY SVIRIDOV VIOLIN

RIC426

1 CD

If there is one student of Johann Sebastian Bach whom posterity has definitely not forgotten, it is Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. However, he owes this destiny to his position as harpsichordist to Count Keyserling: during the latter’s bouts of insomnia, it was Goldberg’s task to play for him the famous variations that he had commissioned from the Leipzig Kantor. This has probably long obscured the fact that Goldberg was also an excellent composer. Aside from his only two surviving cantatas (already recorded by Ricercar), his output is essentially instrumental, and the genre of the trio sonata occupies an appreciable place within it. Here are his complete trio sonatas, along with a sonata in C major at one time attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1037).

27 AUGUST 2021

PIERRE-GABRIEL BUFFARDIN SONATES & CONCERTO LE PETIT TRIANON OLIVIER RIEHL FLUTE

Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin, a French-born flautist, was active at the court of Dresden. He is known to have been the teacher of Johann Joachim Quantz and a friend of Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote a few concertante arias for him in his cantatas. He was considered one of the greatest virtuosos of his time. This recording is the world premiere of a recently discovered collection of sonatas. Alongside the Concerto à cinq parties, these sonatas provide flautist Olivier Riehl and the ensemble Le Petit Trianon with a recreational area conducive to enjoyment, one which combines virtuosity, energy and expressiveness to produce a disc rich in colour and novelty. RIC428

1 CD

10 SEPTEMBER 2021

STYLUS LUXURIANS SELECTED HARPSICHORD WORKS

WECKMANN, TUNDER, FROBERGER, RITTER YOANN MOULIN

HARPSICHORD

For this second part of his anthology of seventeenth-century German harpsichord music, Yoann Moulin takes as his starting point the famous competition organised when Weckmann and Froberger met at the court of Dresden. It was in the 1650s that the influences of the French style were grafted onto models drawn from Italian music. The compositions of this period are presented to us in their infinite variety, as illustrated here by the notion of stylus luxurians. RIC433

1 CD

8 OCTOBER 2021

GESUALDO IL LIUTO DEL PRINCIPE BOR ZULJAN LUTE

RIC434

1 CD

The scandalous composer Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa, was also an excellent lutenist extolled by his contemporaries. At the end of the sixteenth century he received the first two prototypes of the archlute from his colleague Alessandro Piccinini in Ferrara, one of which he kept. In the absence of music for the lute by this composer of genius, Bor Zuljan has imagined the sound world of the prince’s archlute: a kaleidoscope of fabulous and extreme sonorities on this extravagant instrument, from transcriptions of his vocal and instrumental music to the astonishing chromatic compositions of the composers he is thought to have encountered in the course of his turbulent life. Includes works by C. Gesualdo, A. Piccinini, J. H. Kapsberger, P. P. Melli, C. Saracini etc.

12 NOVEMBER 2021

OTHER LABELS PLAYLIST ENSEMBLE PERSPECTIVES Ensemble Perspectives, an a cappella vocal quintet founded and directed by Geoffroy Heurard, creates programmes that blend the mainstream classical repertory with lesser-known composers and folk and pop songs. These pieces are sung in transcriptions ‘tailor-made’ for Perspectives, which works with world-renowned arrangers and composers of all aesthetic persuasions. The group’s new album, entitled Playlist, allows today’s ears to grasp the timeless threads that link Purcell to Brahms, a traditional song to an American song crooned by entire generations. A playful and inspired journey through the music of Purcell (Dido’s Lament), Brahms, Ravel and Fauré, traditional songs such as Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and Frère Jacques, and songs by Charlie Chaplin (Smile), Michel Legrand (La Chanson de Maxence), Paul Simon (Mrs. Robinson and 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover) and Tom Waits (Alice). OMF704

1 CD

27 AUGUST 2021

GESUALDO MADRIGALI A 5 VOCI, LIBRO QUINTO (1611) COLLEGIUM VOCALE GENT PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE Philippe Herreweghe records his third disc devoted to a controversial figure in the world of music and art in general: Carlo Gesualdo, who had his wife murdered and is suspected of having his son smothered. This time Collegium Vocale Gent performs his fifth book of madrigals (1611), published two years before his death. A collection that even today contributes to the eternal debate: to what extent does art become impregnated with reality, and how can it be appreciated when it emanates from a mind living so close to horror? Here the bold dissonances and sometimes tortured expressiveness that can be perceived in his harmonic language offer food for thought. Can we speak of redemption through art for a murderous composer in the twilight of his life? LPH036

1CD

24 SEPTEMBER 2021

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