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NEW RELEASES 2017 // 2 WWW.OUTHERE-MUSIC.COM

OUTHERE MUSIC HAS BECOME A MAJOR ACTOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF CLASSICAL MUSIC ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS. THIS YEAR, OUTHERE MUSIC HAS ENRICHED ITS CATALOGUE BY WELCOMING TWO OUTSTANDING NEW LABELS: LINN RECORDS, FROM SCOTLAND, AND THE JAZZ AND CONTEMPORARY SWISS MUSIC SPECIALIST, HATHUT RECORDS. THEY HAVE THUS JOINED THE STANDING LABELS IN THE OUTHERE MUSIC GROUP: ALPHA CLASSICS (AWARDED « LABEL OF THE YEAR » BY CLASSICA), RICERCAR, PHI, ARCANA, AEON, RAMÉE AND FUGA LIBERA. TOGETHER THEY MAKE UP A FAMILY RUN BY THE ONE UNRELENTING PRECEPT: QUALITY.

Alpha Classics Outhere Music France

S 5 21

Ricercar 23 Arcana 29 Linn Records

Phi 45 Fuga Libera

Aeon 53 Hat Hut

ALPHA CLASSICS

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

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Though anchored in the music of the baroque period that has made its history over the past 15 years, the French record label ALPHA has more recently been opening its doors to artists and repertoire of very diverse horizons. ALPHA is ready to take risks in exploring programme ideas that are off the beaten track, never forgetting the fresh new talents that are a priority for the label. Favouring bold artistic projects and long-term relations with its musicians, ALPHA is in the process of forming a family of artists of international format, all driven by the same desire for artistic freedom and excellence.

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ALPHA is one of the main independent classical music producers in the world today, yet it still remains committed to the values of an artisan.

BUXTEHUDE TRIO SONATAS OP.1 BUXWV 252-258

ARCANGELO SOPHIE GENT VIOLIN JONATHAN MANSON VIOL THOMAS DUNFORD LUTE JONATHAN COHEN HARPSICHORD, ORGAN & DIRECTION

ALPHA 367 JULY 2017

For this recording of music by Buxtehude, Jonathan Cohen, founder of the ensemble Arcangelo, is joined by a distinguished trio, including two regulars on the Alpha label, Sophie Gent and Thomas Dunford, alongside the gambist Jonathan Manson. Although Dietrich Buxtehude is famous above all for his organ music and cantatas, and for the long journey the young Bach undertook to meet him, his chamber music is virtually unknown. In the mid-1690s, at the height of his fame, Buxtehude published two collections in rapid succession, each comprising seven sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and basso continuo. It is the works of the first collection (1694) – designated Opus 1 in the print – that Arcangelo has recorded here. These sonatas are characterized by pronounced experimental features in both the scoring and the handling of the instruments.

1 CD

BEETHOVEN SONATAS APPASSIONATA, LES ADIEUX & WALDSTEIN

OLGA PASHCHENKO FORTEPIANO

ALPHA 365 JULY 2017

Olga Pashchenko is in the process of creating a unique place for herself in the world of the keyboard: she moves with astounding ease and skill from the harpsichord to the fortepiano, the organ and the modern piano. After a recording of Beethoven’s variations in 2015 (awarded ffff by Télérama), the young pianist has now gone to the legendary Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, a venue she knows well since she regularly gives concerts within its walls, to record three monuments of the pianistic literature – the Appassionata, Les Adieux and Waldstein sonatas – on the original Conrad Graf piano of 1824 conserved there. She utilises all the sonic possibilities and the full palette of colours of this instrument made around fifteen years after the composition of these sonatas, three of the finest in the corpus of thirty-two that Hans von Bülow called ‘the New Testament of every pianist’.

1 CD

PURCELL DIDO AND AENEAS MOZART REQUIEM SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO.14 MUSICAETERNA TEODOR CURRENTZIS

ALPHA 376 ︱REISSUE ALPHA 377 ︱REISSUE ALPHA 378 ︱REISSUE AUGUST 2017

Alpha is now reissuing three recordings from its back catalogue, the first discs of the conductor Teodor Currentzis. An opportunity to discover or rediscover three very different styles, and three facets of the talent of ‘the enfant terrible of classical music’, as Le Figaro called him, for whom ‘music is intended to transport into the waking world the sentiments we feel when we dream’. With their invitation to travel through different periods and territories, these reissues may be appreciated both separately and as a triptych revealing the artistic approach of Teodor Currentzis and his ensemble MusicAeterna, from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (here served by an exceptional cast of singers) to Shostakovich’s Symphony No.14 (conducted like a dance of death) by way of Mozart’s Requiem, the Salzburg composer’s last work, here given an invigorating reinterpretation.

1 CD 1 CD 1 CD

RACHMANINOV PIANO CONCERTO NO.2 RHAPSODY ON A THEME OF PAGANINI

ANNA VINNITSKAYA PIANO NDR ELBPHILHARMONIE ORCHESTRA ´ KRZYSZTOF URBANSKI

ALPHA 275 AUGUST 2017

Serge Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto might never have seen the light of day had it not been for hypnosis: before the twenty-seven-year-old composer began work on it, he was on his last legs – financially, artistically and psychologically. Dr Nikolay Dahl hypnotized his patient every day, whispering to him: ‘You will write your concerto. You will work with great fluency. The concerto will be of excellent quality.’ The creative block disappeared, and the concerto’s premiere in Moscow in 1901 was a triumph for Rachmaninov, who played the solo part himself. Anna Vinnitskaya says she feels ‘a spring-like atmosphere’ in this work: throughout there is a sense of movement, of awakening. The music passes through the most contrasting psychological landscapes, but moves towards clarity and light. Rachmaninov composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934, ten years before his death. Brahms, Liszt, Lutosławski and Andrew Lloyd Webber are among the remarkable roll call of composers inspired by Paganini’s theme. The Russian pianist and the Polish conductor Krzysztof Urbański have often played Rachmaninov together, on every continent. The two artists, both of whom present here their third disc for Alpha, were reunited in the NDR studios in Hamburg to record this repertory that fits them like a glove.

1 CD

BEETHOVEN DIABELLI VARIATIONS

FILIPPO GORINI PIANO

ALPHA 296 AUGUST 2017

Supporting new talents is in Alpha’s DNA. Here is the very first recording of the Italian pianist Filippo Gorini, who was recently awarded First Prize in the Telekom-Beethoven Competition in Bonn. He has also won the same competition’s Audience Prize twice over. At just twenty years of age, he has already played in such prestigious venues as the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Die Glocke in Bremen, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Moscow Conservatory. Strongly supported by Alfred Brendel, with whom he studies, he has chosen to tackle a monument of the piano repertory, the Diabelli Variations, a work whose interpretation he has matured through frequent performance, notably at the Beethoven Competition where it was the key item in his winning programme. And, appropriately, it is at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn that he made this first disc, the start of a highly promising recording career.

1 CD

VIVALDI LE QUATTRO STAGIONI, LA NOTTE, LA TEMPESTA DI MARE, IL GARDELLINO

LES MUSICIENS DE SAINT-JULIEN FRANÇOIS LAZAREVITCH

ALPHA 281 AUGUST 2017

In the course of his recordings for Alpha, François Lazarevitch has explored the music of the Baroque and of oral and popular traditions. After Scottish and Irish music, airs de cour and Baroque suites and sonatas, he stops off in Vivaldi’s Italy. With him, of course, he has his cargo of rare instruments, including the musette de cour (a more sophisticated form of bagpipe) which he uses here to perform Spring from The Four Seasons, in an astonishing and very convincing version transcribed by the great virtuoso wind player of the reign of Louis XV, Nicolas Chédeville. Lazarevitch himself has arranged the other Seasons for the transverse flute, following a frequent eighteenth-century practice. A new angle on these evergreen masterpieces. As François Lazarevitch says: ‘I want to explore all the early sources in depth in order to challenge my performance practice of today and enrich it with an understanding of the style and the naturalness of period theory and phrasing. When I take tackle old Scottish and Irish music, it is with the aim of retracing this path.’ The rest of the programme is devoted to other favourite pieces by Vivaldi, this time originally written for flute.

1 CD

IL VIOLONCELLO DEL CARDINALE SONATAS FOR CELLO AND CONTINUO

ACCADEMIA OTTOBONI MARCO CECCATO

ALPHA 368 AUGUST 2017

Cardinals Benedetto Pamphili and Pietro Ottoboni played a prominent role in Rome at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with their patronage of the three most important composers of the day, Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel. At that time, numerous musicians converged on Rome, and the large orchestra directed by Arcangelo Corelli at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi included several famous cellists, among them G. L. Lular, N. F. Haym, F. Amadei and G. M. Perroni. As well as notable virtuosos, these men were often also composers of oratorios, vocal music, and pieces for their own favourite instrument, though very few of these have survived. It is to their music, often unpublished, that Marco Ceccato and his Accademia, winners of a Diapason d’Or of the year in 2015, introduce us here, along with works by the composers who subsequently formed the core of this group after Handel left for London: G. Bononcini, P. G. P. Boni, and G. B. Costanzi, who was later to teach Boccherini.

1 CD

BACH PRIVAT SCHEMELLI LIEDER, CANTATAS, SUITE, PRELUDE, NOTENBÜCHLEIN FÜR ANNA MAGDALENA BACH (EXCERPTS)...

GEORG NIGL BARITONE ANNA LUCIA RICHTER SOPRANO ANDREAS STAIER HARPSICHORD PETRA MÜLLEJANS VIOLIN ROEL DIELTIENS CELLO

ALPHA 241 SEPTEMBER 2017

This recording is an invitation to immerse ourselves in the musical inner circle of the Bach family. We are familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach as a composer of genius, but we know little about his family life, with the exception of the famous Clavierbüchlein (Little keyboard book) that the forty-year-old composer gave as a present in 1725 to his second wife Anna Magdalena, his junior by sixteen years. This manuscript is a unique document of the music the family played together. It provides us with a point of reference for the ‘programmes’ of these domestic concerts: it contains short keyboard pieces and songs alongside extended arias taken from the church cantatas, as well as chamber music. Bach and his two eldest sons were not only virtuoso harpsichordists but also excellent violinists, while the composer’s son-in-law Bach, J. C. Altnickol, played the cello and was an outstanding double bass player. Anna Magdalena Bach and her oldest stepdaughter both contributed as singers. And the still young children of the second marriage participated by playing easy pieces on their father’s various keyboard instruments. The musicians and singers on this recording, all eminent exponents of Bach and of Baroque music in general, have come together here to bring these exceptional moments back to life.

1 CD

REICHA CHAMBER MUSIC

SOLOISTS OF THE QUEEN ELISABETH MUSIC CHAPEL CD1 - WORKS FOR SOLO PIANO NATHANAËL GOUIN AND JOSQUIN OTAL (PIANO) CD2 - PIANO TRIO NO.2 I TRIO MEDICI & TRIO FOR THREE CELLOS I HAN BIN YOON, KACPER NOWAK, JUSTINE METRAL (CELLOS) CD3 - STRING QUARTET, STRING QUINTET (WITH TWO VIOLAS) QUATUOR GIRARD AND TANGUY PARISOT (VIOLA)

ALPHA 369 SEPTEMBER 2017

The fruitful partnership between the Alpha label, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and the Palazzetto Bru Zane continues with this set of chamber music by Anton Reicha, performed by the musicians of the Chapel, young talents of an exceptionally high standard, ready and willing to take up the challenge of this music. A key figure of the early nineteenth century, this Czech composer who became a naturalized French citizen did not leave his contemporaries indifferent. Both his music and his theoretical writings set zealous partisans against fierce detractors. This threedisc set, assembling pieces from different genres and periods, gives an insight into the richness of the composer’s extremely prolific output of chamber music, whose originality can still fascinate us nearly two centuries after his death: it illustrates the diversity of the instrumental genres he tackled (sonatas, fugues, études and variations for piano; piano trio, string quartet, string quintet) and a compositional art characterized at once by perfect mastery – as one would expect from someone trained by Haydn in Vienna between 1802 and 1808 – and by the greatest originality.

3 CDs

AGITATA ARIE, MOTTETTI E CANTATE (VIVALDI, PORPORA, JOMMELLI, STRADELLA...)

DELPHINE GALOU CONTRALTO ACCADEMIA BIZANTINA OTTAVIO DANTONE

ALPHA 371 SEPTEMBER 2017

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

1 CD

MOZART DON GIOVANNI

LE CERCLE DE L’HARMONIE JÉRÉMIE RHORER

ALPHA 379 SEPTEMBER 2017

Here is the third and last instalment in the ‘Live at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées’ series of Mozart operas conducted by Jérémie Rhorer. After Die Entführung aus dem Serail and La clemenza di Tito comes Don Giovanni, recorded in 2016. On the occasion of the performances (directed by Stéphane Braunschweig) during which Radio France recorded the present discs, Le Figaro wrote: ‘Jérémie Rhorer expertly conducted his orchestra “Le Cercle de l’Harmonie”. On the stage, Jean-Sébastien Bou sang and acted the title role impeccably. He was seconded by his valet Leporello, superbly played by the Canadian Robert Gleadow. A thrilling production both musically and intellectually.’ The cast is completed by the ardent Myrtò Papatanasiu in the role of Donna Anna, the lovely voice of Julie Boulianne as Donna Elvira and the elegant timbre of Julien Behr as Don Ottavio, not forgetting the magnificent Commendatore of Steven Humes and the lively Zerlina and Masetto of Anna Grevelius and Marc Scoffoni.

3 CDs

ˇ DVORÁK PIANO QUARTETS NOS.1 & 2

BUSCH TRIO MIGUEL DA SILVA VIOLA

Following a first recording devoted to Dvořák’s Dumky Trio and Trio No. 3, Omri Epstein, Mathieu van Bellen and Ori Epstein are joined by one of their former teachers at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, the violist Miguel da Silva, a founder member of the famous Quatuor Ysaÿe. Together they pursue this series of the Czech composer’s complete chamber music with piano: there is an obvious close rapport between the musicians, who share with us their passion for this repertory and their pleasure in playing together. The Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major op.23 of 1875 was one of the first works in which the young Dvořák, inspired by Schubert, laid the foundations of the compositional style which he would conserve for the rest of his life. Fourteen years later, he composed the Piano Quartet No. 2 in E flat major op.87, completed under pressure from his publisher. This work, influenced by Brahms, is one of the masterpieces of his maturity. Two further recordings will complete this quadriptych of the Czech composer’s keyboard trios, quartets and quintets.

ALPHA 288 SEPTEMBER 2017

1 CD

CRAZY GIRL CRAZY BERG, LULU SUITE GERSHWIN, GIRL CRAZY (NEW TRANSCRIPTION) BERIO, SEQUENZA III

ENSEMBLE LUDWIG BARBARA HANNIGAN SOPRANO & CONDUCTOR + FILM DIRECTED BY MATHIEU AMALRIC

ALPHA 293 SEPTEMBER 2017

Whether singing, conducting, dancing or acting, the Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan is a source of fascination. Alpha Classics is proud to enter her world today and to present in 2017 her very first album as singer and conductor: with the Amsterdambased orchestra Ludwig, of which she is associate artist, Barbara Hannigan has devised a programme including Berg’s Lulu Suite and Gershwin’s Girl Crazy in a Suite newly arranged by the multiaward-winning American composer Bill Elliott. To complement these two pieces, she has recorded Berio’s spectacular Sequenza III for solo voice. An outstanding soprano, a distinguished interpreter of the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, an all-round artist who creates a sensation on concert platforms and in opera houses throughout the world, Barbara Hannigan has enriched her palette over the past few years by devoting a portion of her activities to conducting. This album in the form of a musical portrait of the artist, is completed by a DVD of a film made by Mathieu Amalric during the rehearsals and recording sessions. It plunges into the heart of the orchestra with a very personal look at the exchanges between conductor and musicians. Over the next few years, Alpha will accompany Barbara Hannigan in a number of projects from very varied horizons . . .

1 CD + 1 DVD (52’)

RAVEL STRING QUARTET CHAUSSON CHANSON PERPÉTUELLE* DEBUSSY STRING QUARTET

QUATUOR VAN KUIJK KATE LINDSEY MEZZO-SOPRANO* ALPHONSE CEMIN PIANO*

The first disc of the quartet founded by Nicolas Van Kuijk, a programme of Mozart, was awarded a ‘Choc de Classica’ and ‘Diapason Découverte’. Now they return to their roots with key works from the French repertory: the single quartets of Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy and the Chanson perpétuelle of Ernest Chausson, in which they are accompanied by the mezzosoprano Kate Lindsey, who recently joined Alpha, and the pianist Alphonse Cemin, also well-known on the label. The Quatuor Van Kuijk gives these works all their youthful impetuosity. The quartet is already a BBC New Generation Artist, having won First Prize and the Haydn and Beethoven Prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, and First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Trondheim International String Quartet Competition. It has just joined the roster of ECHO Rising Star artists for the 2017-18 season.

ALPHA 295 SEPTEMBER 2017

1 CD

LAGRIME E SOSPIRI STRADELLA OPERA AND ORATORIOS ARIAS

CHANTAL SANTON SOPRANO GALILEI CONSORT BENJAMIN CHÉNIER

The life of Stradella, murdered on a Genoese piazza at the age of forty-two on the orders of a jealous rival in love, has achieved mythical status and inspired several novels and operas featuring Stradella the adventurer, the rebel and above all Stradella the Don Juan, whose amorous escapades, from abducting a novice from a convent in Florence to a flight across Italy with the high-born fiancée of a senator, were never a hindrance to his flourishing musical career. It is easy to imagine that Stradella’s hectic life provided the inspiration for the captivating female figures who abound in his output, exalted by technically redoubtable vocal writing, as exuberant and virtuosic as it can sometimes be sober and ethereal, and supported by remarkably skilled recitatives, a genuine verbal theatre that offers the singer infinite scope for expression. From the demonic Salome to Ariadne, the model wife turned into a Fury by despair; from Pelagia, the repentant sinner who ends her days living in a cave disguised as a man, to Susanna, the very image of innocence and purity, this programme presents a series of portraits of women whom Chantal Santon embodies in their turn with all her artistry, her intimate knowledge of this repertory and her sense of theatre.

ALPHA 297 SEPTEMBER 2017

1 CD

AÏRES AIRELLE BESSON TRUMPET ÉDOUARD FERLET PIANO STÉPHANE KERECKI DOUBLE BASS

Édouard Ferlet has already explored intriguing byways for the Alpha label: in 2015 he and Violaine Cochard recorded ‘Plucked Unplucked’, an album associating piano and harpsichord – a successful venture that will soon see a follow-up. The bassist Stéphane Kerecki has already made several recordings for Outhere, including ‘Nouvelle Vague’, a prizewinner at the Victoires de la Musique. The career of the trumpet player Airelle Besson has been on a high since 2015, when she won both the Prix Django Reinhardt of the Académie du Jazz and the ‘Révélation’ Award at the Victoires du Jazz. These three jazz musicians met and decided to form a trio in order to combine their universes and their ambitions. Here is the fruit of their first year of companionship, a programme presenting compositions by each of them, an album wearing the colours of jazz but featuring several tracks directly inspired by great standards of the classical repertoire, including ‘Es ist vollbracht’ from Bach’s St John Passion, the Pavanes of Ravel and Fauré, the Valse sentimentale of Tchaikovsky, and Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance, which can be recognized behind the ‘Stances du sabre’. The refinement of the compositions and the playing and the musicians’ capacity for listening to each other are a source of endless pleasure and fulfilment.

ALPHA 298 OCTOBER 2017

1 CD

JAZZ

GERSHWIN AN AMERICAN IN PARIS | BY STRAUSS THE MAN I LOVE | I GOT RHYTHM MY MAN’S GONE NOW | SUMMERTIME

CLARON MCFADDEN SOPRANO ANIMA ETERNA JOS VAN IMMERSEEL

ALPHA 289 OCTOBER 2017

George Gershwin composed his Rhapsody in Blue in 1924. In the same year, he launched his collaboration with his brother Ira, which produced countless songs. He never achieved his ambition of studying with Maurice Ravel, but was always enthralled by the symphonic poem and the concerto. His masterpieces, such as An American in Paris and the opera Porgy and Bess, greatly enriched the American musical heritage. Jos van Immerseel has always been fascinated by Gershwin, but it was the appearance of a new edition of the scores that prompted the pianist and conductor to record this extensive homage. Thanks to the very latest research undertaken by the University of Michigan, the Library of Congress and the Gershwin Estate, he and his companions in Anima Eterna have got closer than ever before to the composer’s intentions, making use of the appropriate instruments.

1 CD

SCHUBERT ARPEGGIONE SONATA & PIANO TRIO NO.2

MARIE-ELISABETH HECKER CELLO MARTIN HELMCHEN PIANO ANTJE WEITHAAS VIOLIN

ALPHA 284 OCTOBER 2017

Following a first recording on Alpha devoted to Brahms which garnered much praise – ‘real duo playing’ said Gramophone, while Classica discerned ‘shared music making... a world full of nuances and subtlety, boundless sonic imagination (MarieElisabeth Hecker), playing of rare intelligence (Martin Helmchen)’ and awarded the disc a ‘Choc’ – the duo is reunited. Its new programme features two summits of chamber music: Schubert’s famous Arpeggione Sonata – named after a now obsolete instrument that was a cross between the guitar and the cello – and his no less celebrated Trio No. 2 D929, which achieved even greater popularity thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon. In the latter, the duo is joined by an eminent musician with whom they enjoy playing, Antje Weithaas, ‘one of the great violinists of our time’ (Fonoforum) and also one of the teachers most sought after by the young generation. For example, she taught Tobias Feldmann, the young violinist recently signed by Alpha.

1 CD

HANDEL MESSIAH (1754 VERSION)

SANDRINE PIAU SOPRANO KATHERINE WATSON SOPRANO ANTHEA PICHANICK ALTO RUPERT CHARLESWORTH TENOR ANDREAS WOLF BASS LE CONCERT SPIRITUEL HERVÉ NIQUET

ALPHA 362 OCTOBER 2017

Why yet another Messiah? ‘I went through the different scores that exist and decided on the very interesting 1754 version, which features five soloists. You must remember that, when Handel arrived somewhere to perform his oratorio, he had soloists of varying standards available to him. So he quickly revised his score accordingly... All this is directly related to the reality of Handel’s situation as a concert promoter. In those days, to earn a living from his music, a composer absolutely had to get his works performed and make a profit on the evening. The idea of not retouching a work to avoid “spoiling” or “distorting” it is a much more modern one. There must be around a dozen versions of Messiah (I won’t list them all). The 1754 version is rarely played because it calls for five soloists: two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass... I’ve opted here for an operatic interpretation, taking its cue from the drama inherent in this account of the life of Christ.’ (Hervé Niquet) This CD-book edition also includes a fascinating portrait of Hervé Niquet, an interview organized around thirty keywords (from ‘Dance’ to ‘Nerves’) that sheds new light on one of the most atypical conductors on today’s musical scene.

2 CDs + BOOK

BEETHOVEN | LISZT SYMPHONIES

YURY MARTYNOV PIANO

This set brings together the five separate discs containing Franz Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies performed by the pianist Yury Martynov. Reducing these complex works for piano solo was an enormous challenge for Liszt, who nevertheless succeeded in recreating their prodigious character and their incredible power. ‘An event on a period piano, thanks to which we rediscover the colours... of the orchestra’ (Pianiste): the piano combines the whole orchestra, sometimes even with vocal soloists and chorus, bringing their voices together in a single instrument. The energy and the textures of the symphonies are laid bare and magnified in the interpretation of Yury Martynov on a Blüthner piano dating from 1867 and an Érard piano of 1837, both from the collection of Edwin Beunk: the Russian pianist reveals ‘details usually obscured in orchestral performances, which come to light thanks to his meticulous phrasing and colouring of every bar’ (The Guardian).

ALPHA 374 OCTOBER 2017

5 CDs

THE MASTERS OF BAROQUE BACH | VIVALDI | CHARPENTIER | RAMEAU ALBINONI | PURCELL...

AMANDINE BEYER RAPHAËL PICHON VINCENT DUMESTRE BLANDINE RANNOU HERVÉ NIQUET BRUNO COCSET...

ALPHA 372 OCTOBER 2017

This box gives you a chance to admire some of the most glittering jewels left to us by the Baroque era. Its fifteen discs outline an exciting panorama of musical Europe during that period, an inspired heritage performed by the finest soloists and ensembles: Vivaldi’s Gloria by Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet and his Four Seasons by Gli Incogniti and Amandine Beyer; Bach’s B minor Mass by Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon, the Solo Cello Suites by Bruno Cocset, the Brandenburg Concertos by Café Zimmermann and the Goldberg Variations by Céline Frisch; Charpentier’s Te Deum by Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre; Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas by MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis; Rameau harpsichord pieces by Blandine Rannou; Albinoni sonatas by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini; and much else. A veritable treasure trove containing the indispensable works of the Baroque by today’s leading artists.

15 CDs

ANIME AMANTI MONTEVERDI, STROZZI, D’INDIA, CACCINI, MERULA...

ROBERTA MAMELI SOPRANO LUCA PIANCA LUTE

ALPHA 291 OCTOBER 2017

A voice, a lute, a sigh. Nothing could be simpler and more immemorial. This expression of sentiments and emotions, of the intermittencies of the heart and the shadows of the soul, is of course as old as the world. Yet it was truly a reconquest of the Renaissance. With Caccini, the ‘new music’ at once found a miraculous melodist. He composed a Euridice, performed in 1602, two years after Jacopo Peri’s setting and five years before Monteverdi’s Orfeo. The Renaissance did not know opera, but long secreted that genre soon to be born. And it is brand-new opera that opens and closes this recording, through the voice of its first visionary, Claudio Monteverdi. His Lamento d’Arianna, the centrepiece of a lost work, expresses sorrow, regrets, revolt through the very music of the Italian language, here brought to white heat. The ‘new music’ spread throughout Italy: Merula in Cremona, Falconieri in Naples, and Barbara Strozzi, the most famous woman composer of the age, in Venice. The Italian soprano Roberta Mameli is a great lover of this music, which she performs with an outstanding feeling for words and drama. Luca Pianca offers her his artistry and his great experience. Roberta Mameli is joining Alpha for several recordings, which will guide us towards other rarities and other periods.

1 CD

TELEMANN QUATUORS PARISIENS, DUOS & TRIOS

NEVERMIND ANNA BESSON FLUTE LOUIS CREAC’H VIOLIN ROBIN PHARO VIOLA DA GAMBA JEAN RONDEAU HARPSICHORD

After their first recording on Alpha, ‘Conversations’, featuring rarely heard pieces by Quentin and Guillemain, Anna Besson (flute), Louis Creac’h (violin), Robin Pharo (viola da gamba) and Jean Rondeau (harpsichord) continue to introduce the public to the riches of a repertory that has been too long ignored, with this recording of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Nouveaux Quatuors parisiens. At the height of his glory, the German composer left Hamburg in 1737 to spend time in Paris and appreciate the city’s vibrant musical life. There he composed a new set of quartets that came to be called the ‘Paris Quartets’ and in which he celebrated the union of the European styles of his time, at the zenith of the Baroque. The four musicians and friends of Nevermind pursue their exuberant conversation, as virtuosic and eloquent as ever.

ALPHA 299 OCTOBER 2017

1 CD

CHOPIN NOCTURNES

NELSON GOERNER PIANO

ALPHA 359 NOVEMBER 2017

Sophisticated colourist and cerebral virtuoso though he is, Nelson Goerner nevertheless brings out the moments of weakness, the hesitations, the lightning passions in the labyrinth of Chopin’, wrote Diapason on the release of the Preludes in 2015 (Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica). ‘Serenity’, ‘balance’, ‘clarity’, ‘phrasing’ are the key words that recur in reviews of the discs and concerts of the Argentine pianist, whose fifth solo release on Alpha this is. His latest venture is a complete recording of the Nocturnes, a highpoint of Chopinesque poetry. These twenty-one miniatures accompanied Chopin over a good part of his life, for he composed them between 1827 and 1848. They are tributes to Italian bel canto, expressing reveries but also complexity of feeling and a profundity that far transcends their apparent simplicity. Nelson Goerner’s feeling for melody and tempo works wonders in these pieces, which he recorded in the ideal surroundings of the Salle de Musique of La Chaux de Fonds (Switzerland).

2 CDs

HAYDN2032 NO.5 L’HOMME DE GÉNIE SYMPHONIES NOS 19, 80 & 81 KRAUS SYMPHONY VB142

KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL GIOVANNI ANTONINI

ALPHA 676 NOVEMBER 2017

Haydn2032, the ambitious project of recording the complete symphonies of Haydn, has been placed from the start under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini, with two ensembles, Il Giardino Armonico, which made the first four volumes, and the Kammerochester Basel, to which this fifth volume and the next two are assigned. Another characteristic of the edition is that each time Haydn is set in perspective with another composer; here it is Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-92): ‘Kraus was the first man of genius that I met. Why did he have to die? It is an irreparable loss for our art. The Symphony in C minor he wrote in Vienna specially for me is a work which will be considered a masterpiece in every century’, said Haydn in 1797. Though he long remained forgotten after his death, Kraus made an active contribution to the movement of poetic renewal called ‘Sturm und Drang’ or ‘Geniezeit’ (time of genius) because such artists as the young Goethe broke free of all tradition to follow their hearts alone. When Haydn called Kraus homme de génie, in French, he probably had this context in mind. The two composers had met in Vienna in 1783.

1 CD

ALSO AVAILABLE ON VINYL!

HAYDN2032 NO.5 L’HOMME DE GÉNIE SYMPHONIES NOS 19, 80 & 81 KRAUS SYMPHONY VB142

KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL GIOVANNI ANTONINI 2 LPS + CD + DOWNLOAD CODE LIMITED EDITION NUMBERED FROM 1 TO 1000

ALPHA 677 NOVEMBER 2017

2 LPs + CD

STRAVINSKY THE RITE OF SPRING

NDR ELBPHILHARMONIE ORCHESTRA ´ KRZYSZTOF URBANSKI

For their fourth recording on Alpha, following Lutosławski, Dvořák and Rachmaninov, Krzysztof Urbański and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra present the orchestral piece that changed the history of music: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. A work of universal, earth-shattering power, ‘the Beethoven’s Ninth of the twentieth century is unclassifiable and incomparable’, says Urbański. ‘There’s no genre you can place it in, it has to be classified under Rite of Spring... Compared to this work, Heavy Metal is just pretty little tunes.’ In addition to being the young Polish conductor’s recording of his favourite masterpiece, this release marks another event: the first recording made in studio conditions in the new Hamburg concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, inaugurated in 2016 and unanimously acclaimed as sensational all over the world! The audio recording, made in sequences in the brand new auditorium, is completed by a DVD that also presents The Rite, but this time filmed at the inaugural concerts of the Elbphilharmonie. A chance to admire the beauty of the building designed by the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, and to see the equally earth-shattering energy of Krzysztof Urbański and the musicians of the orchestra.

ALPHA 292 NOVEMBER 2017

1 CD + 1 DVD

HANDEL DIXIT DOMINUS

BACH MAGNIFICAT

VOX LUMINIS LIONEL MEUNIER

ALPHA 370 NOVEMBER 2017

After several recordings on Ricercar and a first disc on Alpha, Actus Tragicus, containing early Bach cantatas, ‘of staggering profundity, purity and beauty’ (ffff Télérama), Lionel Meunier and his ensemble Vox Luminis devote this new project to two showpieces by Handel and Bach. Of these two composers born in 1685, the first travelled to Italy in 1707 and made a powerful impression in Rome with the creation of his Dixit Dominus, while the second produced one of his finest compositional tours de force in the Magnificat of 1723/32-35. Two works from the core repertoire of the Belgian ensemble, here fielding combined vocal and instrumental forces, which is perfectly versed in the style and expression of Baroque rhetoric.

1 CD

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE ELGAR | BOWIE | BREL | SCHUBERT | TAVENER

ENSEMBLE PERSPECTIVES

Perspectives is an a cappella ensemble comprising five singers who explore every kind of music, from the Renaissance to jazz and popular song. Their new album, ‘Songs of Experience’, is a journey through emotions and sentiments. ‘This programme enables contemporary ears to grasp the temporal threads that link Tallis to Tavener, a folksong to a song of today, the better to make their perspectives resonate’, says the group’s founder, Geoffroy Heurard.

OMF 702 AUGUST 2017

The ensemble invites us on a musical itinerary that begins in the Renaissance, enters Romantic territory with Schubert, then traverses the golden age of choral music in the Victorian age, and makes a detour by way of Ohana’s Spain before reaching Jacques Brel and a legendary David Bowie song of 1971, Life on Mars, which is a sensation in the exceptionally inspired interpretation of the five members of Perspectives. With Mathilde Bobot soprano, Marie Pouchelon alto, Sean Clayton tenor, Romain Bockler baritone, Geoffroy Heurard bass-baritone, musical director.

1 CD

OMF

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

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

“

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

MEDIEVAL MUSIC AND TWO NEW ENSEMBLES HILDEGARD VON BINGEN EGO SUM HOMO

TIBURTINA ENSEMBLE BARBORA KABÁTKOVÁ

The dramaturgy of the project is inspired by the life philosophy of Hildegard von Bingen as is preserved in her musical and literary work. On the one hand we can perceive Hildegard as a mystic and saint woman, on the other hand as a strong abbess and political gifted person. Those two points of view are the most important in the interpretation of her concept of human being. Her music and visions are full of humanity and divinity as well, it inspires me to call the concert programme "Ego sum homo" (I’m the man).

RIC 383 AUGUST 2017

1 CD

THINK SUBTILIOR SONGS FROM THE CERCLE DES FUMEUX

SANTENAY

The Ensemble Santenay invites us on an enthralling journey through the French Ars Subtilior repertory of the fourteenth century. These pieces with their often esoteric texts are presented here as a genuine sound project. Just as works of art are framed with the greatest care, the musicians have devised sound frames for the compositions on this album, in order to introduce them, link them with each other, take them further than usual, and above all make sure our ears and our consciousness are alert at the moment when the art makes its appearance. These sonic atmospheres are realised with the aid of sounds produced by instruments, scraps of pieces of music, sometimes a single voice. RIC 386 AUGUST 2017

1 CD

TWO MASTERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ORLANDO GIBBONS GO FROM MY WINDOW...

L’ACHÉRON FRANÇOIS JOUBERT-CAILLET

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was one of the most complete musicians of the Elizabethan era. He made talented contributions to every genre of vocal and instrumental music. In the domain of the fantasia for viols, he wrote for numerous combinations of between two and six instruments and elaborated endlessly inventive formal structures, in which traces of Italianism are by no means absent. L’Achéron offers us a wide selection from this repertory, which it has recorded on viols based on early seventeenth-century English models.

RIC 384 OCTOBER 2017

1 CD

GIOVANNI FELICE SANCES DIALOGHI AMOROSI

SCHERZI MUSICALI NICOLAS ACHTEN

Giovanni Felice Sances published his collections of cantade in Venice around 1640. Their music, poetic, lively, rhythmic and sensual, is placed at the service of a rich palette of amorous sentiments: innocence, desire, seduction, jealousy and despair all make their appearance. Sances also left us a number of ‘amorous dialogues’, miniature operas depicting Ruggiero and Angelica (who, to safeguard her virginity, makes herself invisible and flees the doughty knight who has just saved her from a monster’s clutches) and the naughty frolics of Tirsi and Filli, who want at all costs to ‘die’ together. RIC 385 NOVEMBER 2017

1 CD

HISTORY OF EARLY MUSIC MUSIC IN GERMANY FROM SCHÜTZ TO BACH JÉRÔME LEJEUNE

After exploring the evolution of Italian and French music in the seventeenth century, Jérôme Lejeune devotes a new volume in his History of Early Music to Germany. During this century in which the Lutheran musical tradition developed further, Germany lived through a particularly enthralling period, bringing the musical world a highly original language, but also assimilating Italian and French models with talent and imagination; all of this unquestionably prepared the way that leads to Johann Sebastian Bach.

RIC 109 SEPTEMBER 2017

8 CDs

Indispensable for anyone eager to discover Monteverdi’s role in the music of his time

RIC 107

RIC 108

RIC 106 27

RICERCAR OPENS UP ITS ARCHIVES...

Since it was founded in 1980, RICERCAR has made nearly 400 recordings, some of which have been unavailable for many years now. Its artistic director Jérôme Lejeune conceived this ‘research’ label as a wide-ranging exploration of the music of the past, considering each disc as a ‘page of history’, though this has not prevented him from tackling better-known repertory on occasion when it has been revisited in the light of an innovative interpretation. In order to give its back catalogue a new lease of life, RICERCAR now presents a new series at an attractive price: RICERCAR IN ECO, a name that suggests its twin aspects – an ‘echo’ from the label’s past and an ‘economical’ way of getting to know a wealth of fascinating music!

COLLECTION RELEASE: OCTOBER 2017

- RIC 125 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - Toccaten & Fantasien für Orgel - Bernard Foccroulle - RIC 126 MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER - Oeuvres pour le Port Royal - Capella Ricercar - RIC 127 MICHAEL PRAETORIUS - Terpsichore Musarum - Ricercar Consort - La Fenice - RIC 128 JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH - Gloria in exclesis - Les Agrémens - Chœur de chambre de Namur - RIC 129 GIOVANNI GABRIELI - In Festo Sanctissime Trinitatis - Choeur de chambre de Namur - La Fenice - Jean Tubéry - RIC 130 ANTONIO VIVALDI - Concerti da Camera - La Pastorella - Frédéric de Roos (2 CDs) - RIC 131 JOHANNES OCKEGHEM - Missa mi-mi - Cappella Pratensis - Rebecca Stewart - RIC 132 VIVALDI, STÖLZEL, FASCH, GRAUN... - Sonate e Concerti per il corno da Caccia - Ricercar Consort - Claude Maury - RIC 133 CARLO FARINA - Capriccio Stravagante - Ensemble Clematis - Stéphanie de Failly - Leonardo García-Alarcón - RIC 134 Troubadours Songs and Tumbler Dances - Millenarium - RiC 135 MARIN MARAIS - Trios pour le coucher du Roy - Ricercar Consort - Philippe Pierlot (2 CDs) - RIC 136 VIVALDI, ZIANI, MARCELLO... - Cantate ad alto solo - James Bowman - Ricercar Consort 28

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

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

“

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN SONATE À FLAUTO SOLO

LORENZO CAVASANTI SERGIO CIOMEI CAROLINE BOERSMA

A 433 JULY 2017

Among Telemann’s hundreds of sonatas, his last publication of solos for melody instrument and basso continuo, the XII Solos à violin ou traversière (Hamburg: 1734), contains music of great expressive depth. These twelve works not only sum up the composer’s approach to the solo sonata over several decades, but also reveal his continuing exploration of the genre’s possibilities. Yet they have been unfairly overshadowed by several of his earlier sonata collections. This recording by Lorenzo Cavasanti and the members of Tripla Concordia offers a new perspective on the XII Solos by performing four of them with recorder in place of violin or flute. Such flexibility of instrumentation was characteristic of Telemann, who often sanctioned alternative scorings in his publications. Paired with these works is a sonata preserved in a Brussels manuscript and one from the well-known Essercizii musici. The music’s significance is explored in booklet notes by Telemann scholar Steven Zohn, author of Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann’s Instrumental Works (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

1 CD

LE CŒUR ET L’OREILLE MANUSCRIPT BAUYN

GIULIA NUTI

(HARPSICHORD BY L.DENIS, PARIS 1658)

A 434 AUGUST 2017

The Bauyn Manuscript, a key collection of seventeenth century harpsichord and other music, displays the influence of various schools of composition on the writing and performance of the great clavecinistes of the mid- seventeenth century. The recording includes works of Chambonnières and Louis Couperin, displaying their different styles which led Le Gallois (1680) to write that «one touched the heart and the other touched the ear», as well as other contemporary composers such as Hardel and d’Anglebert. The Denis harpsichord of 1658 is the extraordinary protagonist of this recording, in which Giulia Nuti explores the expressive capacities of one of the earliest extant French double-manual harpsichords, displaying how instrumental refinement enables performance choices. The approach is that of Giulia Nuti’s award-winning first solo recording of eighteenth -century French harpsichord music, Les Sauvages, recorded on the Taskin of 1788, which received a Diapason d’Or. Hearing this music through the voice of the Denis harpsichord accesses the sound world in which these pieces belong and should be understood.

1 CD

ALFABETO FALSO I BASSIFONDI SIMONE VALLEROTONDA

After the success of ‘L’ultimo romano’, his album of music for archlute from the 1718 collection of the Roman composer Giovanni Zamboni, Simone Vallerotonda presents something totally new with his Baroque ‘power trio’ I Bassifondi: ‘Alfabeto falso’. Their debut album is devoted to Italian and Spanish music for guitar and theorbo from the first half of the seventeenth century. A little-known repertory, characterised by rhythmic oddities and harmonic extravagances that challenge those of contemporary jazz. Ordinary ‘alfabeto’ (alphabet) was the system used by guitarists of the period to mark chords: each letter corresponded to a single chord. But, in the ‘false alphabet’, those letters which were marked with a slash indicated chords containing dissonances, often very bold. The trio, comprising guitar/theorbo, percussion instruments and colachon, reconstructs an ensemble typical of the seventeenth century. Breathtaking rhythms, ‘dirty’ chords, improvisations and variations: these are the colours they seek to convey in their sound. The beauty and the challenge of this disc lie precisely in providing an interpretation that respects everything notated in the score, and in the choice of arrangements and timbres. This music sounds modern and perhaps slightly provocative to us, but all of it was written around 1640!

A 435 AUGUST 2017

1 CD

LOYSET COMPÈRE MISSA GALEAZESCHA MUSIC FOR THE DUKE OF MILAN

ODHECATON, PAOLO DA COL ENSEMBLE PIAN & FORTE LA PIFARESCHA LA REVERDIE LIUWE TAMMINGA

A 436 SEPTEMBER 2017

During the reign of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444-76), Milan experienced an extraordinary musical era. In the 1470s, the Duke set out to form a ‘famous and worthy choir’, recruiting a ‘goodly number of singers from beyond the Alps and from various countries’. He soon assembled a musical ensemble that boasted some of the most celebrated musicians in the Franco-Flemish polyphony of the day, from Italy and beyond. The Duke brought into being a new kind of polyphonic mass, a cycle of motets called missales to replace the traditional ordinarium, with texts attributing special importance to the worship of Our Lady of Grace and Mercy, much beloved by the Sforza family. A masterpiece of the genre is the so-called Missa Galeazescha for five voices, composed by Loyset Compère and performed here by an ensemble inspired by the impressive size of Galeazzo Maria Sforza’s cappella. This recording brings together four vocal-instrumental groups.

1 CD

LAMENTATIONES GAETANO MANNA | GENNARO MANNA | FRANCESCO FEO - SACRED MUSIC

SILVIA FRIGATO TALENTI VULCANICI | EMANUELE CARDI

A 437 SEPTEMBER 2017

One of the most talented singers of the new generation brings to light four gems for soprano and orchestra belonging to the great eighteenth-century tradition of Neapolitan sacred music. The three composers are representative of as many generations of an industrious dynasty: Francesco Feo (1691-1761) was the uncle of Gennaro Manna (1715-79), who in turn was the uncle of Gaetano (1751-1804). Comparison between their scores allows us to observe the extraordinary development from the austerity of the late Baroque to the elegance of the galant style. The Lamentations by the two Mannas were part of the liturgy of Holy Thursday (Officium tenebrarum), whereas Feo’s La sinderesi, a sorrowful meditation on sin and contrition, belongs to the form of the spiritual cantata and points to a private devotional environment. The short and bright Gloria by Gennaro Manna crowns the programme, symbolising the final achievement of a dimension of redemption and eternal salvation. All the pieces are characterised by the typically Neapolitan taste for purity of voice, with restrained virtuosity and radiant expressivity. This is the third instalment of the new series devoted to Neapolitan music, in collaboration with the Neapolitan Centro di Musica Antica - Fondazione Pietà de’ Turchini.

1 CD

DRESDA 1720 SONATE A TRE E A QUATTRO CALIFANO, FASCH, HEINICHEN, LOTTI, QUANTZ, TELEMANN, VIVALDI

ZEFIRO ALFREDO BERNARDINI

A 438 SEPTEMBER 2017

An ensemble selected from the excellent Capelle of Friedrich August I in Dresden, the Cammer-Musique and its leader, the phenomenal oboist Johann Christian Richter, inspired some of the leading German composers and Italian guests at the court around 1720 to write sonatas in which oboes and bassoon are challenged with extremely expressive and virtuosic parts. This was the time and place in which the largest amount of impressive music with oboe and bassoon as soloists in history was written. German composers such as Heinichen, Zelenka (to be heard by Zefiro on ARCANA A 394), Fasch and Quantz wrote these pieces in the Italian style, with the typical alternation between singing adagios and brilliant allegros. Telemann composed a sonata with ornamentation and affects inspired by the French style. Lotti, who resided in Dresden between 1717 and 1719, also noticed the outstanding skills of the court’s wind players and wrote his only solo pieces for these instruments there. Vivaldi met Richter during the latter’s visit to Venice in 1716, when he accompanied the Elector to the city, and he too dedicated some remarkable oboe and bassoon solos to the German musician. Alfredo Bernardini

1 CD

GIOVANNI CROCE MOTTETTI & CANTIONES SACRAE

VOCES SUAVES FRANCESCO SAVERIO PEDRINI CONCERTO SCIROCCO | GIULIA GENINI

A 439 OCTOBER 2017

Venice, July 1603: Giovanni Croce, known as ‘il Chiozzotto’, a priest at the church of Santa Maria Formosa, was appointed maestro di cappella of St Mark’s basilica, one of the most prestigious posts in the musical world of the time. A controversial biography, many aspects of which have not yet been elucidated, and a musical output of excellent quality constitute the appeal of this composer born in Chioggia, who is still overshadowed today by his famous successors. Yet Giovanni Croce proves to be an extraordinary figure, halfway between the conservative Venetian school of Gioseffo Zarlino and the modernism of Claudio Monteverdi. He makes masterly use of double chorus and of such special devices as echo effects, while maintaining a fine transparency in his counterpoint that links him with classical polyphony. Two exceptional young Swiss ensembles, the vocal group Voces Suaves (which has won several prizes for its first two recordings) and the instrumental ensemble Concerto Scirocco, combine here in the magnificent surroundings of the palatine basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua, where they have the advantage of the outstanding Antegnati organ built in 1565, to honour Giovanni Croce and his contemporaries and introduce us to other aspects of the glorious musical activity at St Mark’s.

1 CD

CINEMA PER ARCHI ENNIO MORRICONE | NICOLA PIOVANI | NINO ROTA

ARCHI DELL’ACCADEMIA DE SANTA CECILIA | LUIGI PIOVANO

‘Oscar™ Cinema’ might be a suitable alternative title for the new CD with which the strings of the Santa Cecilia Academy (Archi dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia) under the direction of Luigi Piovano – principal cellist of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and for several years now also much admired as a conductor – begin their collaboration with Arcana, after two recordings for Eloquentia released in 2014 and 2015. Yes, it’s true, the three Italian composers represented here – Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone and Nicola Piovani – all won the highest honours at the American Oscar™ ceremony. But this CD goes further. Alongside some of their most famous movie themes – from La strada to The Mission, from Life is beautiful to Amarcord – it also includes works written by these three screen giants for performance in concert. Although they concentrated their work on the cinema, Rota, Morricone and Piovani were still composers above all else, and their activity did not exclude an independent and committed creative dimension. Some of the pieces featured on this disc were composed or arranged for the Archi dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Luigi Piovano and are dedicated to them.

A 440 OCTOBER 2017

1 CD

BENEDETTO MARCELLO SALMI DI DAVIDE

L’AMOROSO GUIDO BALESTRACCI

With a selection from Benedetto Marcello’s Estro poeticoarmonico, a monumental musical setting of the first fifty psalms, the first edition of which was accompanied by letters of praise from such musicians as Telemann, Mattheson and Bononcini, L’Amoroso finds an original way of celebrating its initial passion, the Italian repertory with viola da gamba, of which the ensemble has made a speciality at the instigation of Guido Balestracci. The artistic project here renews the group’s ties with the centrality of melody, the dialogue between voices and instruments, and experimentation with vocal sound. The two singers, the ductile and sensitive soprano Caroline Pelon and the alto Mélodie Ruvio with her deep tone-colours, appear in both solo and duet formation. A sonata from the composer’s op.2, testifying to the taste for the viola da gamba typical of Baroque culture in Venice, completes this recording, a new collaboration between the ensemble and Outhere that also marks the debut of L’Amoroso and Guido Balestracci on the Arcana label.

A 441 NOVEMBER 2017

1 CD

THE NIGHT OF ST. NICHOLAS A MEDIEVAL LITURGY FOR FATHER CHRISTMAS

LA REVERDIE CANTORI GREGORIANI

A 442 NOVEMBER 2017

Winter feasts like the Latin Saturnalia and the Germanic Yule, airborne gift-giving figures like the Norse Ođinn Jólnir, the Slavic Ded Moroz, the Dutch Sinterklaas: from time immemorial December skies have been rather busy. Pagan patterns were readapted to Christianity – and a canonised bishop from fourthcentury Asia Minor, Nikolaos, whose feast occurred near the winter solstice, merged with another bearded benefactor. Wotan’s hood and Nicholas’s mitre were mixed up, and by the nineteenth century Santa Claus was ready to don new red and white robes and to deliver toys on both sides of the Atlantic. The pieces on this recording (mainly from a thirteenth-century English manuscript) belong to the liturgy for the eve of the Feast of St Nicholas: they allude to his picturesque feats, such as the rescue of three needy maidens or the taming of a storm. Readings and additional songs come from the repertory associated with this widely popular saint, celebrated throughout the Middle Ages from Italy to Iceland. Originally released in 1998, this joint performance by La Reverdie and Cantori Gregoriani received enthusiastic reviews in several music magazines: ‘For those who want to enjoy some of the best liturgical singing this is highly recommended’ (Early Music, 1999).

1 CD

LINN RECORDS Linn’s philosophy combines a love of music with a passion for quality.

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We capture the finest performances from favourites such as Ingrid Fliter, Frederieke Saeijs, Dunedin Consort and Sir Charles Mackerras so you can experience music the way the artist intended from the comfort of your own home. Linn’s credentials as a leading classical label was confirmed when it was named ‘Label of the Year’ at the 2010 Gramophone Awards. For Linn, winning this prestigious award was the culmination of nearly three decades of work, and represents the dedication of a team striving to bring you the very best music. With a catalogue brimming with quality and diversity, you will be sure to find so much music to enjoy. ‘...the very model of a modern record company…’ Gramophone

“

‘…a genuinely audiophile approach to sound quality...’ Hi-Fi Choice

‘It will appeal to music lovers who demand top quality sound.’ The Times

LINN SUPER AUDIO COLLECTION VOLUME 10

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Having reached its ten-year milestone Linn’s Super Audio Collection series remains as popular as ever. Comprising tracks from across the award-winning label’s most recent releases Linn Super Audio Collection Volume 10 encompasses music from Trevor Pinnock, Phantasm, Joe Stilgoe, Dunedin Consort and Ensemble Marsyas. Dip into Linn’s jazz catalogue to share Joe Stilgoe’s enthusiasm for the silver screen with a track from his second movie themes album, Songs On Film: The Sequel.

AKP 564 JULY 2017

Making their Linn debut in the last year were young pianist Chiyan Wong with an impressive Liszt recital, Irish Baroque Orchestra and Theatre of the Ayre. The critics enthused about Bach’s Christmas Oratorio by Dunedin Consort with The Guardian calling it ‘one of the finest accounts now available’, whilst Phantasm’s Dowland recording earned several five star reviews with Gramophone remarking that it ‘has all the hallmarks of a classic recording.’ Whether you are discovering Linn for the first time or compiling your 2017 wish list, this collection is for you.

1 SACD

MOZART PIANO CONCERTOS NOS. 25 & 26

FRANCESCO PIEMONTESI ANDREW MANZE SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

CKD 544 AUGUST 2017

Described as a ‘stellar Mozartian’ Francesco Piemontesi finds a perfect partner in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra whose impeccable credentials are widely acknowledged. Piemontesi has performed Mozart extensively recently, including a critically acclaimed 2015 BBC Prom, a Mozart cycle at London’s Wigmore Hall which commenced in January 2016 and continues in 2017 and Mozart concertos with the SCO which The Herald awarded five stars. The Swiss pianist enjoys particular insight into Mozart gaining a useful ‘love of detail’ from his teacher Alfred Brendel, who was himself renowned for his masterly interpretations of Mozart. This recording couples consecutive yet contrasting works from Mozart’s Vienna period: K. 503 represents the longest and most substantial of his concert masterpieces and K. 537 provides the soloist with an audience-pleasing cadenza. Conductor Andrew Manze, well known as a HIP pioneer, shares Piemontesi’s approach to creating an authentic performance, making this somewhat of a Mozart dream team.

1 CD

EDINBURGH 1742 BARSANTI & HANDEL

ENSEMBLE MARSYAS PETER WHELAN

CKD 567 AUGUST 2017

The popular Ensemble Marsyas returns with a diverse programme of concerti, wind music and songs by Italian composer Francesco Barsanti and George Frideric Handel. Horn soloists Alec FrankGemmill and Joseph Walters take centre stage in Barsanti’s Concerti grossi Op. 3 (an unusual concertino comprising timpani and natural horns) and Handel’s Concerto for 2 Horns. Widely performed in the eighteenth century, Barsanti’s Concerti grossi also hold special historical significance as the first concertos to be published on Scottish soil. Barsanti’s four ‘Old Scots Songs’, equally notable as one of the first examples of Scottish Traditional music to be faithfully transcribed, introduce fiddle player Colin Scobie. Completing the programme is Handel’s aria ‘Sta nell’Ircana’ from Alcina featuring mezzo-soprano Emilie Renard and the March for Wind Band, HWV 346. The recording, which will be launched at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival, is a fine addition to Ensemble Marsyas’ critically acclaimed discography.

1 CD

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

LA MER & ARIETTES OUBLIÉES

ROBIN TICCIATI MAGDALENA KOŽENÁ DEUTSCHES SYMPHONIE-ORCHESTER BERLIN

Robin Ticciati will take up his new position with the multi awardwinning Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester from the beginning of the 2017-18 season. To launch this exciting new partnership Ticciati and the DSO present Debussy’s La mer, Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande and the premiere recording of composer Brett Dean’s arrangements of Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées featuring Magdalena Kožená. Following his DSO debut in 2014 Ticciati chose La mer to perform when he returned as the newly announced Principal Conductor in 2016. Ticciati conducted La mer and Pelléas et Mélisande across Europe with the LPO, Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Budapest Festival Orchestra receiving excellent reviews: ‘La mer, however, was terrific, with Ticciati patiently building up the vast canvas of Debussy at his most elemental’ (Financial Times). Brett’s new arrangements expand on the colours heard in Debussy’s original six songs applying unbelievably delicate orchestration that sounds like gossamer; The Daily Telegraph declared it ‘a revelation’ stating ‘Dean’s adventurous but respectful settings highlighting Kožená’s radiant top register and fine expressive range.’

CKD 550 SEPTEMBER 2017

1 CD

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI VESPERS

DUNEDIN CONSORT HIS MAJESTYS SAGBUTTS & CORNETTS JOHN BUTT

The sonic grandeur of Monteverdi’s spectacular masterpiece is expertly realized in this new recording by John Butt and Dunedin Consort. Together with the virtuoso players of His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and a star-studded line up, including Peter Harvey, Joanne Lunn and Nicholas Mulroy, Dunedin Consort delivers the perfect recording to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth. The raison d’être for this recording was reinforced following a performance of the Vespers at the 2016 Lammermuir Festival which wowed the critics: The Herald called it ‘superbly stylish…an exhilarating performance’ whilst The Scotsman stated ‘it is hard to imagine a more exquisite, deeply felt performance’. In direct contrast to the more typically lavish stagings John Butt’s preference for single part performance brings a welcome sense of intimacy to Monteverdi’s most famous work. In eschewing the pomp and circumstance John Butt’s approach delivers a fresh, modern performance that allows the individuality of the soloists to shine.

CKD 569 SEPTEMBER 2017

2 CDs

CHRISTOPHER TYE COMPLETE CONSORT MUSIC

PHANTASM LAURENCE DREYFUS

This latest recording from the award-winning viol consort focuses on an important composer and radical thinker from the sixteenth century, the Englishman Christopher Tye. Tye is especially bold in his metrical and harmonic experiments embraced within his mystical but surprisingly approachable instrumental works. There are pieces depicting the biblical Rachel weeping for her children, an In Nomine counted in lengths of five beats (unheard of before the nineteenth century) and obsessional works – such as Sit fast – which test the rhythmic skills of musicians with passages of dizzyingly modernist metrical complexity. Phantasm take a radically different approach to previous recordings, delivering a performance that brings out the music’s ceaseless energy, rhythmic articulation, and provocative harmonies – in short, one that highlights Tye’s insights as music for today. Phantasm will perform works by Christopher Tye at Berlin’s Marienkirche and London’s Wigmore Hall in September and October 2017 respectively.

CKD 571 SEPTEMBER 2017

1 CD

PARLE QUI VEUT VARIOUS COMPOSERS

SOLLAZZO ENSEMBLE

Sollazzo Ensemble makes its Linn debut following its prizewinning performance at the highly respected biennial York Early Music International Young Artists Competition. Comprising sopranos Perrine Devillers and Yukie Sato, tenor Vivien Simon, medieval fiddles Anna Danilevskaia and Sophia Danilevskaia, and harpist Vincent Kibildis this vibrant young ensemble offers a fresh perspective on mediaeval repertoire. Since forming in Basle in 2014 Sollazzo Ensemble has been supported by the ‘eeemerging’ (Emerging European Ensembles) program which has seen them perform across Europe; concerts in France, Germany, Switzerland, UK and Italy are planned for 2017. CKD 529 OCTOBER 2017

1 CD

On Parle qui veut the performers embrace the exuberant style of flourishing melodies which was fashionable in the north of Italy in the fourteenth century. In contrast, a different kind of expressivity is required for the sober and succinct aesthetic of the works with French provenance. Sollazzo creates a pure, bright sound, enhanced by the songs’ incredibly open textures and the use of the rarely heard Pythagorean temperament. A remarkable debut.

MAHLER | SCHUMANN LIEDER

FLORIAN BOESCH MALCOLM MARTINEAU

This recording brings together the Austrian baritone Florian Boesch, whose interpretation of Die schöne Müllerin was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2015, and Malcolm Martineau, who is widely recognized as one of the leading accompanists of his generation. Together they explore two of the greatest song cycles of the nineteenth century, both centred around the idea of dislocation and loneliness through the metaphor of a journey. The recording opens with Schumann’s Op. 39, Liederkreis, settings of Joseph von Eichendorff’s poems, and finishes with Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, written around forty years later. In between are some of Schumann’s Op. 98 ‘Wilhelm Meister’ Leider, on texts from the novel by Goethe. Boesch has cemented his reputation as one of today’s foremost Lieder interpreters with performances at Wigmore Hall, Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Philharmonie Cologne, Edinburgh and Schwetzingen Festivals, Philharmonie Luxemburg as well as throughout the USA (Carnegie Hall) and Canada.

CKD 511 OCTOBER 2017

1 CD

A CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL VARIOUS COMPOSERS

RSNO JUNIOR CHORUS ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA CHRISTOPHER BELL

CKD 580 OCTOBER 2017

This new recording captures the magic of the season as the RSNO and its Junior Chorus deliver a perfect selection of classic festive favourites in A Christmas Festival. These charming performances show why their joyous, fun-packed Christmas concerts, conducted by the inimitable Christopher Bell, are always a highlight of the Scottish seasonal calendar. The well-chosen programme finds traditional favourites, such as Jingle Bells, In A Cottage, In A Wood and Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, sitting harmoniously alongside contemporary tunes from Michael Head and Howard Blake (The Snowman, The Bear). An unexpected but brilliant instrumental mash-up up of The Little Dummer Boy with Ravel’s Bolero gives centre-stage to the award-winning RSNO. Two fantastic medleys provide a one stop shop of Christmas tunes both old and new which you’ll be hard pressed not to join in with! At turns rousing, sentimental, cheering and familiar this is the perfect present for this Christmas.

1 CD

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

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

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DU TREUER GOTT, LEIPZIG CANTATAS BWV 101, 103, 115 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE COLLEGIUM VOCALE GENT

For the third time on the Phi label, Philippe Herreweghe gives us the opportunity to (re)discover three cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach – Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott BWV 101, Ihr werdet weinen und heulen BWV 103 and Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit BWV 115. After two albums of cantatas written during the composer’s first year in Leipzig (LPH006 and LPH012), the Belgian conductor and his Collegium Vocale Gent, orchestra and choir, will be performing three cantatas he composed during his second year as Kantor at St Thomas’s. The choir and vocal soloists are once again challenged to produce performances of subtlety and refined virtuosity, and the instrumentarium is as rich and colourful as those heard previously in this series.

LPH 027 SEPTEMBER 2017

1 CD

This album, a genuine delight for aficionados and novices alike, precedes a further disc of cantatas which will be released in spring 2018.

STABAT MATER ˇ ANTONÍN DVORÁK

COLLEGIUM VOCALE GENT PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE ANTWERP SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

For its second vinyl release, PHI has chosen to reissue one of Philippe Herreweghe’s most masterly interpretations: Antonín Dvořák’s ineffable Stabat Mater, for which the conductor and his ensembles, the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, were praised by public and press alike – Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, 4F Télérama, 4* in Classica, Le Choix de France Musique, and 10 in Luister and Klara, to name but a few of the distinctions it earned. LPH 951 OCTOBER 2017

‘With the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, [Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent] rid this rarely recorded work of all Romantic excess. The result is a spiritual journey... highlighting the universal greatness of this major work of sacred music.” CHOIX de France Musique

DOUBLE LP

‘All of Herreweghe’s performers clearly love this ravishing music, relishing every detail of this beautifully nuanced score... This new release must be the top choice.’ Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Recording of the Month ‘The serenity Dvořák succeeded in reclaiming is particularly present in the movements reserved for the choir, and especially so here with the interventions of Collegium Vocale Gent, possibly the only European ensemble . . . that currently offers such purity of timbre, perfection of intonation and accuracy of expression.’ 4F Télérama

SCHUBERT SYMPHONIES NOS. 2 & 5

PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE ANTWERP SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

After the success of his recordings of Symphonies nos. 1, 3 and 4, released on the Phi label in 2016, Philippe Herreweghe offers us the next instalment of Schubert’s orchestral output with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic: the Symphony no.2 D125 and Symphony no.5 D. 485 – both in B flat major. Like those on the previous disc, these works from his youth – written when the Viennese composer was not yet twenty years old – mark the promising beginnings of an already highly accomplished composer. They demonstrate finesse of large-scale symphonic construction, even though the Fifth is the least heavily scored of the cycle – it is the only one that does not call for clarinets, trumpets and timpani. The Second, with its light character, requires just as much subtlety from the orchestra – which Philippe Herreweghe and the Philharmonic provide with their accurate and intelligent playing throughout this album.

LPH 028 NOVEMBER 2017

1 CD

A new homage from the Belgian conductor to the genius of the Viennese composer, whose later symphonies are better-known to us, while his earlier works are – quite unfairly - not played or recorded enough!

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

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Fuga Libera was founded in 2004. With its catalogue of more than 80 titles, it is one of Belgium’s most lively and active labels. The catalogue reaches from the baroque to the romantic repertoire. Fuga Libera invests in the future by profiling itself explicitly as a platform for young musicians. Creative and durable collaborations with musicians who are at the beginning of their professional careers, as well as with musicians who already developed an international reputation form the heart and the soul of the label. Through an open dialogue with partners such as festivals, concert halls, and music schools Fuga Libera plays an important role in the development of musical talent. Moreover Fuga Libera is a platform for experiment, where different musicians can meet each other, exchange musical ideas, and develop new musical alliances.

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FRANZ SCHUBERT WANDERER-FANTASIE AND OTHER WORKS FOR FORTEPIANO

NARUHIKO KAWAGUCHI

The winner of the International Bruges Musica Antiqua Competition, Naruhiko Kawaguchi, has made a name for himself thanks to his sensitive and nuanced interpretations and his expressive style of fortepiano playing. In this album, the young artist has put together a programme devoted to Schubert and performed on a period instrument. You will (re)discover such works as the Ungarische Melodie D817, the Adagio D612, the Wanderer-Fantasie D760 and the Four Impromptus D899, as well as Franz Liszt’s solo piano arrangements of some of his lieder – Trockne Blumen, Der Müller und der Bach and Meeresstille. FUG 744 SEPTEMBER 2017

Always keen to get involved with talented young musicians, Outhere Music has been a partner of the MAFestival for several years now and offers one of its winners the chance to make a recording – which will be released this year on the Fuga Libera label. Naruhiko Kawaguchi is a new example of Outhere’s wish to promote promising young artists and aid their career development.

1 CD

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN SONATAS, RONDOS & BAGATELLES OP. 13, 51, 57, 78, 110, 111, 119

PIET KUIJKEN

For his fourth release on the Fuga Libera label, the pianist and fortepianist Piet Kuijken, professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Antwerp Conservatory, presents a programme of music by Ludwig van Beethoven. The starting point of this double album is an artistic approach that is both pedagogical and musical: the first CD contains pieces such as the Sonate Pathétique op.13 and the Sonata op.110 performed on a historical piano (a Tomkinson original from 1807), while the second invites you to compare this with pieces of the same magnitude – the Appassionata Sonata op.23 and the imposing op.111, amongst others – played on a modern piano. FUG 745 SEPTEMBER 2017

2 CDs

A text written by the eminent musician highlights the differences in interpretation from a modern or historicising perspective, and invites you to follow the artist’s approach, forced to choose within the same type of repertory when faced with two instruments requiring different techniques and with different sonorities. A sensitive and interesting album to help you discover all the different facets of this artist!

LES POÈTES MAUDITS CRUMB | DEBUSSY | RAVEL | POULENC | HAHN

LORE BINON INGE SPINETTE

In 1884, Paul Verlaine published an anthology entitled Les Poètes maudits, a work paying homage to French Parnassianism and giving meaning to the concept of the poète maudit (accursed poet), so specific to the period towards the end of the nineteenth century and to the angst of its writers. Their names – Verlaine, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, de Lautréamont, Corbière, de Nerval and Mallarmé – and their existential malaise are reflected in the works of the musicians of their time.

FUG 746 OCTOBER 2017

This is Inge Spinette’s fifth release with Fuga Libera, and this time she is joined by the talented soprano Lore Binon. In this album, the duo focus on the enduring link between poetry and music, applying their talents to works by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc and Reynaldo Hahn, in dialogue with the American composer George Crumb. They create a perfect alchemy in which the hues of these composers are revealed in all their delicate nuances.

1 CD

GABRIEL FAURÉ

VIOLIN SONATA NO. 1

EUGÈNE YSAŸE

POÈME ÉLÉGIAQUE, EXTASE

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

CAPRICE EN FORME DE VALSE

SATÉNIK KHOURDOÏAN ALEXANDER GURNING

For his first recording Saténik Khourdoïan, concertmaster of the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie and an enthusiastic and passionate violinist, joins forces with the gifted pianist Alexander Gurning, who has received numerous awards for his qualities as a chamber music performer. The two artists perform a subtle Franco-Belgian programme featuring the Sonata no.1 op.13 of Gabriel Fauré, Eugène Ysaÿe’s Poème élégiaque and Extase, and finally the Caprice en forme de valse of Camille Saint-Saëns. Fauré and Saint-Saëns found in Ysaÿe a virtuoso performer and an exceptional ally in getting their music known, who was on friendly terms with both men and was also a composer himself. They often played together in Paris, notably at the concerts of the Société Nationale, and in the Brussels salons of the XX and the Libre Esthétique.

FUG 747 NOVEMBER 2017

1 CD

These masterful and elegant performances by the talented Khourdoïan-Gurning duo offer a blissful immersion in the key transitional period of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, so rich in musical transformations, through which the three composers lived.

AEON

At the cutting edge of contemporary and medieval music.

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

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MICHAEL NYMAN NO TIME IN ETERNITY

ENSEMBLE CÉLADON PAULIN BÜNDGEN

Through a repertoire of Consort Songs for five violas and countertenor, the Céladon Ensemble tries to underline the obvious artistic connections between the music of english Renaissance and contemporary music.

AECD 1757 SEPTEMBER 2017

This parentage, this harmonic, rhythmic and poetic logic, opens a whole field of exploration into sound identity and tradition. How have such seemingly different composers, belonging to remote eras, dealt with timbre fusion in a similar way, with the same desire to deeply affect, to create a full-bodied sound, both powerful and soothing ?

1 CD

The two eras are not placed in opposition for this concert, as Michael Nyman’s music arises naturally from that of his predecessors ; on the contrary, it is a clever mix of genres that points out to  surprising similarities between these works : we could easily believe that Tye’s Sit Fast was composed very recently. From one century to the next, we face a testimony brought to song by the timbre of a countertenor, the intensity of a violas consort that carries a certain magic, the paradoxical expression of a voice which is solitary but also becomes a sixth instrument, one of the violas.

IRVINE ARDITTI CAPRICES

SCIARRINO | CARTER | NUNES | BOULEZ

AECD 1755 SEPTEMBER 2017

Over and above his legendary career as leader of the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has worked on many solo projects and is still today one of the foremost interpreters of the music of our time. Over the past decade he has given the world premieres of a whole host of large-scale works written especially for him. His approach to the contemporary violin is fascinating. The works by Salvatore Sciarrino, Elliott Carter, Emmanuel Nunes and Pierre Boulez assembled in this album are among the most widely known in the recent repertory for violin, both on account of the transcendental character of the pieces themselves and the impetus they have given the instrument’s technique, but also and above all because of the accomplishment manifest in the variety of their modes of expression. Irvine Arditti’s performance of them on this disc is masterly and already sets a benchmark.

1 CD

MICHAEL JARRELL ...MAIS LES IMAGES RESTENT...

ERNESTO MOLINARI THOMAS DEMENGA MARINO FORMENTI WDR SINFONIEORCHESTER KÖLN PETER RUNDEL

AECD 1754 OCTOBER 2017

Michael Jarrell claims for himself the status of a craftsman. Well aware that mastery of his art is acquired in the long term, he has often felt the need to return to the same object, considered from a different angle, when he judges that he now possesses more efficient tools and can express his musical ideas with greater precision. Although he says he is fascinated by artists who constantly work at the same idea, he does not seek a reduction of this kind for himself, but rather moves from one work to another through a process of reactions. That attitude is illustrated by this new album in which works and performers intersect; and the artists here are the composer’s most loyal supporters.

1 CD

The arborescences and ruptures, the profundity of the multiple levels of interpretation we can perceive in the pieces on the programme of this disc, make us conscious of the multiplicity of the levels of meaning present in his music. Michael Jarrell’s training as a visual artist has probably honed his sensitivity to forms still further. The impact on him of Paul Klee’s ideas, notably concerning the relationships between forms and movements, is doubtless not foreign to the way he animates the materials with which he composes.

In 1975, Werner X. Uehlinger founded HatHutRecords simply in order to document the artistry of a musician he heard through a chance encounter-saxophonist / trumpeter Joe McPhee. Today, over forty years and more than 500 LP and CD releases later, HatHut stands as one of the most adventurous and important independent New Music labels in the world. It has grown from an out-of-pocket venture to an established enterprise, from small press runs of black vinyl to a line of beautifully (and ecologically responsible) packaged CD-only releases. From the beginning, the label has shown a high regard for graphic design, cover art, and program notes, striving to create not just a musical artifact but a multifaceted work of art with each new release.

AUGUST CAT HOPE - Ephemeral Rivers : Chamber Works hat(now)ART 200 KIMMIG-STUDER-ZIMMERLIN - Im Hellen : String Trio hat(now)ART 201 JUDITH WEGMANN - Le Souffle du Temps : X(Rétro)Perspectives hat(now)ART 202

SEPTEMBER ENSEMBLE FÜR NEUE MUSIK ZÜRICH - Noriko Hisada : Led By The Yellow Bricks hat(now)ART 203

OCTOBER REINBERT DE LEEUW, VERA BETHS, HARMEN DE BOER - Galina Ustvolskaya I hat(now)ART 194 JOHN SNIJDERS - Morton Feldman: Triadic Memories & Piano hat(now)ART 2-205 JOSJE TER HAAR, JOB TER HAAR, JOHN SNIJDERS - Morton Feldman: Trio hat(now)ART 155

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