New Releases 2014 January/ June

The New Collection January - June 2014

The independent music group Outhere produces around one hundred recordings every year, ranging from early music to contemporary, by way of jazz and world music.

These are released all over the world in both physical and digital form. Outhere’s success is founded on the consolidation and articulation of labels with a strong individual identity, which today number nine: Aeon, Alpha, Arcana, Fuga Libera, Outnote, Phi, Ramée, Ricercar, and Zig-Zag Territoires. The group’s philosophy gives pride to place to the quality of its relationship with the artists, meticulous attention to the realisation of each project, and its openness to new forms of diffusion and relations with the public.

Table of Contents Aeon p.4 Alpha p.6 Arcana p.11 Fuga Libera p.14 Phi p.16 RamĂŠe p.17 Ricercar p.19 Zig-Zag Territoires p.22 Outnote p.27

2 CDs AECD 1333

Johann Sebastian Bach Die Kunst der Fuge – l’Art de la fugue Cédric Pescia

014 Release 01/2

3 CDs AECD 1335

Harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt said that Bach had written his Art of Fugue for himself, without thought of performing it on any instrument in particular. In the presence of a speculative work, every musician is free to chisel the perfect lines of polyphony as he or she chooses. Up to the final canon, which continues to pose the question of its incompletion. It is the Franco-Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia, with his subtle, understated playing, who will make this sublime score sing. But he will do so on an untempered piano, which is hardly banal! After a first æon disc devoted to Cage, which created a tremendous stir, Cédric Pescia deploys a low-key art in Bach, a sense of rhythm combined with a rubato of extreme subtlety and an inventiveness in the phrasings and ornaments, both flowing and sharp, that have no equivalent in the discography. Such relief, such life!

Brian Ferneyhough

Complete Works for String Quartet & Trios Arditti Quartet Claron McFadden, soprano

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On the occasion of its 40th anniversary (1974-2014), the Arditti Quartet, one of the most famous groups in contemporary music, has chosen to record, for the second time — and this is an occurrence sufficiently rare that it bears emphasizing —, the complete string quartets of Brian Ferneyhough. The pieces on these discs immediately weave an auditory spell and well illustrate this composer’s brand of complexity, i.e., writing reputed to be unplayable for the instrumentalists but providing a definite pleasure for the listener, caught up in the headiness of a universe without limits or vanishing point. This 3-CD set will not only be one of the indispensable releases of 2014 but also the best way to apprehend the music of a fundamental composer whose intense writing, emancipated heir of Schoenberg, remains radically expressive, chaotic in appearance but sublimated here by the freedom and excellence of the interpretation.

Music for a King – Le Tropaire de Winchester

AECD 1436

Ensemble Discantus Brigitte Lesne, direction

Release 03/2

014

On Easter Day in the year 1043, King Edward the Confessor was crowned in Winchester Cathedral. Nearly 10 centuries later, the six women’s voices of Discantus bring back to life the nascent polyphonies that were being written at the time in England: between Gregorian chant and organized two-part pieces, here we are at the beginnings of counterpoint and the practice of discantus (descant). These compositions are drawn from the Winchester Tropary, one of the most fabulous musical testimonies of the era, with most of the pieces selected centred on the Paschal period.

In mirror are inserted, like two shimmering stained-glass windows framed in the Romanesque stone, two compositions from today, commissioned by the ensemble on texts excerpted from Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy (c.524). These works, by two young composers – a Frenchman (Pierre Chépélov, born 1979) and a Briton (Joel Rust, born 1989) –, extend the musical exchanges that existed between the great island and the continent throughout the Middle Ages.

Hilda Paredes

AECD 1439

Cuerdas del Destino

Arditti Quartet Jake Arditti, countertenor

Release 03/2

014

The Arditti Quartet’s latest release is devoted to the Mexican-born composer Hilda Paredes. Now living in England, she does not, for all that, disown her roots. Born in Tehuacán, in Puebla State, she engages critical reflection, vis-à-vis the multiple Mexican, indigenous and folk cultures, that closely combines the imaginary and political, all in writing of remarkable precision and refinement. Convinced that the language spoken by a composer shapes his or her music, she likes to work the voice in all its expressive singularities, here that of countertenor Jake Arditti, Irvine Arditti’s son. There is no ‘Mexican-ness’ with Hilda Paredes, in the sense of that stereotyped colourful sensuality, but rather a close relation to the poetic speech of Mexico and the European avant-garde.

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier & Jean-Baptiste Lully

ALPHA 952

Te Deum

Le Poème Harmonique Capella Cracoviensis Vincent Dumestre, direction

014 Release 01/2

This recording of the Poème Harmonique revitalizes Charpentier’s and Lully’s Te Deum, two magnificent pieces of sacred music celebrating the Sun King’s victory and recovery. Lully, who was of Italian origin, found the essence and style of French art, while Charpentier gave the emotion and composition methods he had learned from the Italians to the music of his country. This is the story of two m sicians, two countries, two aesthetics, and two fundamental stakes. Lully became a lauded composer, outshining Charpentier and relegating him to an undeserved subpar position.

Gabriel Fauré

ALPHA 604

Complete chamber music– Vol.5 Pieces for violin and piano Daishin Kashimoto, violon Eric Le Sage, piano

This final instalment in this complete recording of Gabriel Fauré’s chamber music features his compositions for violin and piano. Eric Le Sage and Daishin Kashimoto, concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, give us a particularly convincing and moving interpretation of these intimist works, thanks to a complicity polished in the course of numerous collaborations in concert.

014 Release 01/2

Gabriel Fauré was 30 when he began his first violin sonata in the summer of 1875.

Not until four decades later, when he was director of the Paris Conservatoire, would he get round to a second sonata. More than an anthological disc, the present volume paints the portrait of a life, bearing witness to the change in civilization between the waning 19th century and the coming upheavals of the 20th.

This last volume brings to a close a complete recording of reference, based on Eric Le Sage’s capacity for federating first-rank artists around him. This original approach was hailed by the international critics for his first complete recording, devoted to Schumann.

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2 CDs ALPHA 953

Joseph-Nicolas Pancrace Royer Pyrrhus (opera)

Les Enfants d’Apollon Michael Greenberg, direction

Pyrrhus, an opera proposed for the first time on disc and never given in concert, is the last of Royer’s tragédies lyriques, staged at the Académie Royale de Musique in Versailles between 1687 and 1730 and inspired by the Trojan War.

Release 02/2

014

4 CDs ALPHA 819

However, the title is misleading: it is not so much the son of Achilles who is the subject of this opera but Princess Polyxena, the youngest daughter of Priam and Hecuba, whom Pyrrhus would have sacrificed to avenge the death of his father.

This world première recording, with a first-rate cast, brings to light a major work of the French operatic heritage. Pyrrhus by Pancrace Royer (also noted for his very fine – and virtuosic – harpsichord music) was first performed early in the reign of Louis XV. It is one of the twenty-one tragédies lyriques on the subject of the Trojan War that were performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) between 1687 and 1730.

Johann Sebastian Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier on the organ Frédéric Desenclos, organ

A veritable manifesto of the art of the keyboard at the time of Bach, this founding work of the Cantor’s writing and also of all keyboard literature, is recorded here on four exceptional organs.

Release 02/2

014

Frédéric Desenclos’s committed choice, this ‘transition to the organ’ of the 48 preludes and fugues, proves highly successful. Perhaps never before has the architecture of these gems of imagination and compositional skill appeared so clearly; perhaps never have the phrasing and tempo choices seemed so obvious; doubtless never has a complete recording imposed itself as a work in itself. This reading almost makes us forget the original destination of these works for harpsichord, the recording itself particularly accentuating the registration work at the service of a wide variety of instrumental colour.

7

Exploring Time With My Piano

ALPHA 606

Sergey Kasprov, piano

For his first recording on the Alpha label, Sergey Kasprov, a young Russian artist trained at the Moscow Conservatory, defies the laws of time. He has in fact chosen to create a dialogue between great Baroque geniuses and Russian Romantics: Rameau, Lully, Loeillet, Bach and Scarlatti revised by Tausig, Godowsky and Rachmaninov.

Release 03/2

014

In the tradition of Marcelle Meyer, Glenn Gould or, more recently, Alexandre Tharaud, Sergey Kasprov pulls off the tour de force of freeing himself from ‘Baroque’ interpretative codes and, at the same time, from those of the 19th century, to better get back to the essential.

The excellent recording quality attests ideally to the discourse, respectful of the original counterpoint as well as unfailing digital dexterity necessitated by appropriate ornamentation and the amazing sound palette required by late Romanticism, all on a Steinway contemporary with Rachmaninov. A new talent, an Alpha discovery!

Johann Sebastian Bach

ALPHA 186

Flute Sonatas

François Lazarevitch, flute

As director of Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, François Lazarevitch has enabled us to discover numerous treasures stemming from dance and folk music. For the first time on Alpha, he has recorded a solo album, devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Flute Sonatas. His approach to these works benefits from his experience as the conductor of an ensemble, enriched by the particularly varied musical experiments he has carried out.

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So this disc offers us an especially interesting and singular interpretation of these treasures by Bach with a rhythmic approach not lacking in swing, and backed up, it is true, by a basso continuo featuring first-rank instrumentalists.

Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger

ALPHA 195

Arias & Toccatas

Anna Reinhold, soprano Thomas Dunford, theorbo

The ‘Eric Clapton of the lute’ (BBC Magazine) comes back to the Alpha microphones, this time with the soprano Anna Reinhold.

Release 05/2

014

Here, Thomas Dunford applies his truly prodigious virtuosity to the eight Toccatas from the first book by Meister Kapsberger, giving us a veritable concert such as the composer himself might have proposed with, in counterpoint to the toccatas, a few of the loveliest airs by Caccini, Merula et al.

The beauty of Anna Reinhold’s voice (a young talent noticed especially in William Christie’s ‘Jardin des voix’) has a freshness and energy that bring to mind the young performers at work in Alpha’s earliest recordings. This goes to prove that there still remains much distance to cover in the discovery of Baroque art.

Ludwig van Beethoven

ALPHA 820

The complete Concertos for pianoforte Arthur Schoonderwoerd, pianoforte Ensemble Cristofori

Alpha proposes rediscovering the three discs of the complete recording made between 2004 and 2008 by Arthur Schoonderwoerd, conducting the Ensemble Cristofori from the keyboard.

Release 05/2

014

These recordings had been widely hailed by the international press at the time of their release. Beyond that success, it was the singularity and profundity of Arthur Schoonderwoerd’s approach that convinced Alpha to assemble these discs in the same box, offered at an attractive price.

Since the dawn of sound recording, this great Beethoven cycle has motivated a large number of artists and given rise to memorable interpretations. No doubt that, thanks to its aesthetic coherence and the originality of the musical options retained, this reference on early instruments will convince even more widely than in its initial edition on separate discs.

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9

ALPHA 890

Disc-book 5

CDs

Cello Stories

Cello stories from the late 16th to the late 18th centuries Bruno Cocset Les Basses Réunies

After the publishing success of the disc-book devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach, Alpha returns with a guide evoking, in music and in iconography, the Baroque cello and what surrounds it.

‘What surrounds it’, for Bruno Cocset’s approach touches as much on the essence, the contours and the evolution of this instrument, a fairly wide diversity of the other instruments having rubbed shoulders with it during the Baroque era.

Bruno Cocset also lets us discover a generally unsuspected variety of cellos that provide so many accesses to remarkable works.

Release 06/2

014

Accompanied by enlightening – but accessible – texts written by Marc Vanscheeuwijck, this disc-book gives life to a rich history that will delight connoisseurs of this particular instrument as well as the broader public.

Haydn au piano

ALPHA 196

Sonatas for pianoforte Bobby Mitchell, pianoforte Winner of the 2013 International Competition “Musica Antiqua” (Bruges)

For his first disc, Bobby Mitchell, ‘Alpha winner’ of the legendary Bruges Competition, proposes a programme devoted to Joseph Haydn.

Release 06/2

10

014

His interpretation, juvenile yet based on solid musicological research, lets us rediscover all of Haydn’s humour as well as the depth of his feelings. It also reveals an unusual musical personality and an absolutely remarkable pianist.

Bobby Mitchell is a perfect example of Alpha’s desire to bear witness to the talent of young artists and to accompany them in their development: a way for the label to contribute to the future of ‘early music’.

3 CDs A 372

Vertù Contra Furore [Virtue Against Fury] Musical languages in late medieval Italy, 1380-1420 Mala Punica Pedro Memelsdorff

The critically-acclaimed ensemble Mala Punica came into the limelight in the mid-Nineties with a trilogy of illustrious, multi-award-winning discs on Arcana, which revolutionized the world of medieval music and performance practice: Ars subtilis Ytaliaca (A21), D’Amor ragionando (A22) and En attendant (A23). For the first time, all these milestone recordings are united in one set.

Release 02/2

014

On The Shoulders Of Giants

A 373

A philosophical and musical itinerary on the roots of the counterpoint Ensemble Aurora Enrico Gatti

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11

Enrico Gatti’s 8th recording for the Arcana label, and the debut album by his Ensemble Aurora in the role of string quartet, is without a doubt the most original of his discography. The result of years of research and discoveries, On the Shoulders of Giants is an exciting journey on the roots of string quartet writing and counterpoint: from the Renaissance tablatures to Mozart’s famous String Quartet in G major KV387, first of the ‘Haydn’ Quartets, by way of Dario Castello, Johann Rosenmüller, Johann Sebastian Bach (the fourth counterpoint from The Art of Fugue) and the inevitable Corelli (Fuga a quattro voci): A concentration of beautiful music, with a programme that encompasses different periods but with a clear main theme, which Enrico Gatti describes so well in his authoritative liner notes.

11

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

A 374

Opera arrangements Le nozze di Figaro KV 492 – Don Giovanni KV 527 – Così fan tutte KV 588 Zefiro Alfredo Bernardini

Reissue of one of the one of the most successful recordings by Zefiro (2004), which seems to have had only very limited release previously: arrangements for 13 instruments (i.e. the same scoring as the Gran Partita) by Zefiro’s oboist leader Alfredo Bernardini of music from the three great Da Ponte operas: Le nozze di Figaro K492, Don Giovanni K527 and Così fan tutte K588.

Release 04/2

014

Giovanni Benedetto Platti

A 375

Piano Concertos Luca Guglielmi, pianoforte (copy of Cristofori 1726) Concerto Madrigalesco (on period instruments) Paolo Grazzi, oboe

014 Release 05/2

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Twelve years younger than Bach and Handel, Giovanni Benedetto Platti left us a collection of nine Concerti per il cembalo obligato that rank not only among the very earliest examples of composition for keyboard instrument and strings, but also and above all, the first specimens written especially for fortepiano, the new instrument invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori. Regular keyboard player of Zefiro, Luca Guglielmi offers us, for the first time on period instruments, three brilliant and forward-looking piano concertos, interspersed with the large-scale Piano Sonata in C minor, a very widely played composition at the time, and the baroque Sonata for oboe, with a special appearance by Paolo Grazzi. Astonishing music from a composer who deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest of his era.

Fermate Il Passo

A 376

In search of the origins of opera, between the 15th and 16th centuries VivaBiancaLuna Biffi, voice and viola d’arco

This unique and, in some respects, revolutionary programme offers a new approach to the Early Italian Renaissance frottola repertoire. First of all, the solo performance with voice and viola d’arco, that cantare alla viola (‘singing to the viol’) which Baldassare Castiglione, in his famous Book of the Courtier (1527), indicated as the ‘more welcome’ way of performing a sung text. Secondly, the frottole have been selected and put in order forming a miniature opera with a Prologue, three acts, and Epilogue, shedding new light on the origins of opera.

Release 06/2

014

A charismatic figure, VivaBiancaLuna Biffi is engaged in an intense solo activity and is regular partner of some of the leading Early Music performers such as Jordi Savall, Pierre Hamon and Brigitte Lesne.

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3 CDs FUG 716

Lost In Venice With Prometheus Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, Nono, Holliger

Jan Michiels, piano (Steinway, 1875 – Steinway, 2007)

With the ‘Lost in Venice with Prometheus’ project, Belgian pianist Jan Michiels tells a story that follows the unshakeable logic of a dream. The result is a musical journey with, as the principal port of call, Venice, its architectural density serving as a metaphor for going deep into the plurality of history (of music). Our travelling companion is Prometheus, a character who, according to composer Luigi Nono and to the image of the city of 1,000 canals, never stopped seeking, finding, setting, going beyond and transgressing.

014 Release 02/2

The piano version of Ludwig van Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus forms the heart and main line of this ambitious project and is the starting point that leads us to Bach, Wagner (Feierlicher Marsch, Isoldens Liebestod), Liszt (Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe, R.W. – Venezia) Nono (Partita) and Holliger (...sofferte onde serene...).

‘I invite you into the lion’s den, somewhere in Venice, the secret labyrinth that cannot be apprehended in its entirety except by getting lost in it.’ Jan Michiels

4 CDs FUG 717

Bach, Albinoni, Fasch Anniversary Box – 25 Years Il Fondamento Suites, Concertos, Overtures

Il Fondamento Paul Dombrecht, oboe, direction

Release 03/2

14

014

In 2014, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the baroque orchestra Il Fondamento. Founded in Belgium by the oboist Paul Dombrecht - renown for his vast knowledge of historical instruments and his interpretation of baroque music -, the ensemble has gained an international interpretation, confronting less-known works with masterpieces by composers such as Händel, Bach...

Fuga Libera celebrates this anniversary with a set of three recordings: orchestral overtures for strings and winds by Johann Heinrich Fasch, oboe concertos by the famous Venetian composer Albinoni, and the orchestral suites by the immortal Johann Sebastian Bach. Enjoy these wonderful recordings, highly acclaimed by the international press (Diapason d’or, R10 Classica, Supersonic pizzicato…)!

John Dowland

FUG 718

Lachrimae Or Seven Tears

Hathor Consort Romina Lischka, direction

The Hathor Consort was founded in 2011 by the Austrian gambist Romina Lischka.

This Brussels-based ensemble explores consort music going from the Renaissance to the Baroque era, using diverse instrumental combinations with, as a starting point, the viola da gamba. The name comes from the goddess Hathor, a female divinity of ancient Egypt, who embodied love, joy and everything having to do with the heart.

014 Release 04/2

For this first recording, the ensemble has chosen a pièce de résistance of the consort repertoire: the collection Lachrimae or Seven Tears by John Dowland (15631626). The seven pavanes for five viols and lute form the core, each being based on the song ‘Flow My Tears’. Dowland’s music often expresses melancholy, and with the title of the piece Semper Dowland, semper dolens (‘Always Dowland, always suffering’), contained in this collection, the composer himself openly underscores this aspect of his music.

Berg, Zemlinsky, Webern, Busoni

FUG 720

Arrangements by Reinbert de Leeuw Het Collectief Reinbert de Leeuw, direction Katrien Baerts, soprano

When it comes to modern music – ranging from the 20th-century repertoire to pieces of which the ink is not yet dry –, Het Collectief is one of the leading ensembles in Europe. For its sixth disc with Fuga Libera, the ensemble comes back to the roots of the modern repertoire, performing, with soprano Katrien Baert, Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder, Zemlinsky’s Maeterlinck Gesänge and Webern’s Passacaglia.

014 Release 06/2

But how to perform this music written for orchestra or piano, with a chamber ensemble? One must look for arrangements! Happily, Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor, pianist, composer, teacher and founder of the first-rate Schönberg Ensemble, and an eminence of contemporary music, has arranged these works. And as icing on the cake: Het Collectief plays these arrangements under the direction of… Reinbert de Leeuw himself!

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Johann Sebastian Bach – Ich elender Mensch

LPH 012

Leipzig Cantatas (BWV 48, 73, 44, 109) Collegium Vocale Gent Philippe Herreweghe, direction

Release 01/2

014

For the second time on the Phi label, Philippe Herreweghe presents four Bach cantatas written during the first year the composer spent in Leipzig. In relation to the repertoire composed in Weimar, the instrumentarium is enlarged to adapt to the size of the churches of Saint Thomas and Saint Nicholas. But, above all, the instrumental virtuosity is much greater, as are the vocal demands confronting the choirs and solo singers, trained at the time by Bach himself. The Collegium Vocale Gent, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe and in the company of top-notch soloists (Dorothee Mields, Damien Guillon, Thomas Hobbs and Peter Kooij), show us in dazzling fashion to what point the composer endeavoured to create veritable musical sermons going far beyond a simple musical setting of the text. By way of a bonus, the album contains a magical little piece, Komm, Jesu, komm by Johann Schelle, one of Bach’s predecessors in Leipzig.

Joseph Haydn – Die Jahreszeiten

LPH 013

Christina Landshamer, soprano Maximilian Schmitt, tenor Florian Boesch, bass Collegium Vocale Gent Orchestre des Champs-Elysées Philippe Herreweghe, direction

014 Release 03/2

16

Impressed by the Handel works that he heard in London, Haydn felt the need to compose oratorios. First came Die Schöpfung (‘The Creation’), which met with resounding success; then Baron Gottfried van Swieten proposed to Haydn an arrangement of James Thomson’s poem ‘The Seasons’. Initially, Haydn was little attracted by the text, which deviates from the classic oratorio based on a religious text, but subsequently let himself be convinced. The result, for three soloists, chorus and orchestra, is a vast pictorial fresco of Nature that describes landscapes and the feelings that they arouse. For the first time, Philippe Herreweghe gives us his own vision of an oratorium by Haydn. This recording is also the first in a Haydn cycle with Philippe Herreweghe for Phi, of which the next project is... Die Schöpfung!

Michelagnolo Galilei

RAM 1306

Il primo libro d’intavolatura di liuto Anthony Bailes, lute

Release 02/2

014

Michelagnolo Galilei, the younger brother of the famous Galileo, was a professio­ nal lutenist at the court of Maximillian of Bavaria. In this, he followed in the foots­ teps of his father, Vincenzo, also a lutenist but equally renowed as a theorist and one of the initiators of Count Bardi’s influential Florentine “Camerata”. Both Mi­ chelagnolo and Galileo were taught to play the lute by their father and the music included in this programme would have been known to and played by both bro­ thers. In 1620 Galileo helped finance Michelagnolo’s Il primo libro d’intavolatura di liuto. For this reason, most of the pieces for this project have been chosen from this publication. Despite being relatively unknown, it contains repertoire of high musical quality, reflecting the new thinking of the day and displaying both Italian influence: as in the poetic toccatas, stylistically close to the toccata de durezzo e ligature; and the new seventeenth-century French style as evinced by the correntes and voltes. As such the collection is a unique amalgam of forms encountered in no other publication of lute music. The book also contains passamezzi with their salterelli, a genre found in countless sixteenth-century collections and fulfilling the same function as the “twelve bar blues” in our own time.

Reinhard Keiser – Brockes-Passion

RAM 1303

Vox Luminis Les Muffatti Peter Van Heyghen, direction

Release 03/2

014

The Brockes-Passion can be considered the archetype of the German Passion oratorio. As such, it served as a model and source of inspiration for famous later masterpieces, enjoying uninterrupted popularity throughout the 18th century when no less than 11 composers, including Handel and Telemann, set it to music. The superb version by Reinhard Keiser is not only the first but also adheres most closely to the great rhetorical power and rich changes of affects of the poet’s text. In German literary history, Barthold Heinrich Brockes is known above all for his innovative role during the second quarter of the 18th century. In 1712, the year of its first performance, Keiser, fellow citizen of Brockes and barely older, was already recognized as the most important opera composer in Germany – and, in some opinions, even in Europe. When the genius of these two great artists combined in a single work, the result could only be spectacular. The tricentennial of its first performance justified a belated but nonetheless dithyrambic tribute, here presented by the instrumentalists of the ensemble Les Muffatti and singers of the Vox Luminis ensemble.

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Johann Sebastian Bach

RAM 1305

Clavier-übung III

Léon Berben, organ

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Clavier-Übung III is considered Johann Sebastian Bach’s most important and most complete organ work, containing some of his pieces for the instrument that are the most complex musically and the most demanding technically. Formally, it takes its inspiration from the religious music of the masters of the stile antico. But, at the same time, Bach was an innovator and here incorporated modern Baroque musical forms, such as the chorale à la française and the gallant style. The aim of the collection was manifold: an ideal organ programme; a practical translation of Lutheran doctrine in musical terms for devotional use at church or in the home; a collection of organ music in all possible styles and idioms, old and modern; and a didactic work presenting examples of all possible forms of contrapuntal composition, going well beyond earlier treatises of musical theory. Léon Berben gives us his interpretation, a new and fresh view of this milestone in organ music, using the exceptional sound colours of an organ contemporary with Bach and largely preserved in its original state: the Christoph Treutmann organ in Grauhof (Germany).

2 CDs RIC 341

A Tribute to Sax

CD 1 - The Sax Players - Christian Debecq CD 2 - Steve Houben & Michel Benita

014 Release 01/2

RICERCAR, the catalogue in service to knowledge about musical instruments, could not help but pay tribute to the brilliant inventor of the saxophone, Aldophe Sax, in this bicentennial year of his birth. Two very different parts evoke the new instrument: on the one hand, the original repertoire that flourished in Paris in the years following the patent registration and, on the other, the musical genre that finally established the instrument’s pedigree: jazz (Sax would have never been able to imagine that!). As usual, with RICERCAR, the booklet is quite meticulous, featuring a text by Jérôme Lejeune evoking the instrument’s invention and earliest Parisian repertoire. Jean-Pol Schroeder is the author of another article tracing the history of the saxophone in jazz. The Romantic pieces by Singelée and Demersseman are performed on Sax’s original instruments: an absolute sound revelation. As for the jazz, this selection of standards was recorded by Steve Houben on his 1957 Selmer alto. These recordings were made for RICERCAR in 1992 and 1999 (jazz) and 2002 (Romantic repertoire).

Anthony Holborne (c.1545-1602)

RIC 339

The Fruit of Love

L’Achéron François Joubert-Caillet, direction

Release 02/2

014

It was in 1599 that Anthony Holborne published a large collection of pieces in five parts for violas da gamba and other instruments; in fact, this was the first collection of dances to be published in England. A lute virtuoso, he also attracted attention for his mastery of other instruments such as the bandora and cittern. The dances are primarily Pavanes, Gaillardes and Allemandes, but almost all of them were given titles that suggest their character, whilst some remain more enigmatic. After the recording of Johannes Schenck Le Nymphe di Rheno with Wieland Kuijken, François Joubert-Caillet gives here us the first disc by his ensemble L’Achéron.

For this recording, the gambists of L’Achéron have made a point of using copies of English viols from the 17th century, characterized by very long strings that give these instruments an absolutely remarkable ‘gravity’. Moreover, some of the viols were made especially for this recording. Backed up by lutes, cittern, bandora and virginals, this consort is characterized by an exceptional, original sonority.

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Gioseffo Zamponi

RIC 342

Ulisse all’ Isola di Circe (1650)

Clematis Cappella Mediterranea Leonardo García Alarcón, direction

Release 03/2

014

Ulisse all’isola di Circe was the first opera to be performed in the southern Netherlands and was given on the occasion of the marriage of Philip IV of Spain and Maria Anna of Austria. Gioseffo Zamponi was most likely of Roman origin, and it was in the southern Netherlands that he carried out his career, entering the service of Archduke Leopold-Wilhelm in 1648. Ulisse is written in the style of Venetian operas and features the presence of stock characters. This opera is a real discovery that enthused all the artists participating in its resurrection. CLEMATIS has taken every possible measure to give this production the pomp of the conditions of the premiere in Brussels in 1650, appearing in large formation with some thirty instrumentalists. In addition to the strings and a full continuo section, the ensemble is enriched with numerous wind instruments that allow for colouring scenes and giving each character his or her sound identity. The singers of CAPELLA MEDITERRANEA make up a dream cast for this opera, whilst soloists of the NAMUR CHAMBER CHORUS portray Circe’s ladies-in-waiting, the Chorus of Tritons, the Chorus of Statues… A major recording event!

RICERCAR – LES PLÉIADES For more than thirty years, RICERCAR has explored all the early music repertoires. A good number of these recordings being currently out of stock, this very vast heritage is being re-released in the form of economically priced sets. Each one will bring together coherent programmes, bringing together excerpts from various recordings that will represent thinking about a particular subject. Like the constellation of the Seven Sisters (Pleiades), these seven-CD sets will shine with the stars of the RICERCAR catalogue.

7 CDs RIC 344

Pléiades Collection German Baroque Sacred Music Passion & Resurrection

Ricercar Consort Les Agrémens Choeur De Chambre De Namur

Release 03/2 20

014

The first Pléiades set is devoted to music for Passiontide, Easter and funeral cantatas. This long page in the history of music stretches from Schütz to Bach with the first release of a highly moving live recording of Bach’s Johannes Passion by Les Agrémens and the Chamber Chorus of Namur conducted by Guy van Waas.

Nuits occitanes - Songs of the Troubadours

RIC 340

Ensemble Céladon Paulin Bündgen, direction

Under the title ‘Occitan Nights’, a few troubadour songs have been collected here.

Those poet-musicians celebrated the beauty of women, praised the courage of men and evoked the parting of lovers at daybreak. The CÉLADON Ensemble offers us a poetic, inspired vision of these lovely melodies (proposed with their complete texts), and the accompaniment, with four instruments (fiddle or rabab, lute, recorders and percussion), provides a particularly elegant sound environment sublimated by the perfect acoustics of the church of Notre-Dame de Centeilles.

Release 04/2

014

Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa Sacrae Cantiones Quinque Vocibus

RIC 343

Odhecaton Paolo da Col, direction

Release 05/2

014

Although the madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa constitute the best-known part of his oeuvre, his religious music is no less important, revealing a completely different facet of the composer. Aside from the Responsoria (1611), of which Philippe Herreweghe recently made a magnificent recording (LPH 010), most of Gesulado’s religious music was published in 1603 under the title Sacrarum cantionum. Unlike the Responsoria, intended for Holy Week services, the motets of 1603 are settings of texts for all circumstances of the liturgical year. For this recording, made in the Santa Trinità abbey church in Venosa, ODHECATON has enriched the sound palette of its men’s voices with a few instruments, including an ensemble of violas da gamba. Liuwe Tamminga counterpoints this programme with selected pieces by Giovanni Salvatore and Giovanni de Macque on an historical organ of the Venosa region.

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Continuation of the complete Beethoven Symphonies transcribed by Liszt

ZZT 336

3rd (‘Eroica’) and 8th Symphonies

Yury Martynov, Blüthner piano of 1867

Release 01/2

014

For Franz Liszt, transcription was just as much a way for celebrating Beethoven’s genius as for meditating on his music. It was also a way of provoking an almost titanic confrontation between the means of the pianist and his instrument, and the immensity of the orchestra’s possibilities. The power of the performer’s thinking and his comprehension of the work’s essence thus become the crucial challenge in the approach and the adventure proposed to the listener.

For the third volume of his cycle of Beethoven symphonies transcribed by Franz Liszt, Yury Martynov has chosen a piano made in 1867 by Blüthner, whose instruments Liszt particularly appreciated.

Romantic French Cantatas

ZZT 337

Karine Deshayes, mezzo-soprano Opera Fuoco David Stern, direction

This recording, produced by the Bru-Zane Foundation and released

by Zig-Zag Territoires, is an invitation to discovery: that of Romantic French cantatas by Cherubini, Hérold and Boisselot in the company of an exceptional guide, mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes, and with the attentive complicity of Opera Fuoco and its conductor, David Stern

Release 01/2

014

Composed between 1789 and 1836, these scores bear witness to a genre, the French Cantata, very much present during the Baroque era and restored to favour in the 19th century as a sort of alternative to the Italian stage, generally perceived in France as being overly exuberant.

So discoveries combined with the pleasure of again finding the splendid voice – particularly well adapted to this repertoire – of Karine Deshayes.

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Bach on the Viola Da Gamba and Harpsichord

ZZT 340

Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1027-1029 Sonata BWV 1019 Marianne Muller, viola da gamba Françoise Lengellé, harpsichord

Marianne Muller and Françoise Lengellé are two exceptional musicians whose career has constantly been that of performers having a great love of discoveries as well as of in-depth work, and who are now at the peak of their art. Their approach to these great Bach works comes from complicity, of course, but even more from enlightened, generous rigour, as close as possible to the spirit of the work.

Release 02/2

014

An occasion of closeness with the compositions of the great Cantor and also pure pleasure in contact with brilliant alchemy of sound and architecture, this recording will surely become a long-term reference. As a bonus: Sonata BWV 1019, originally written for violin and harpsichord.

Moussorgski/Ravel

Moussorgski/Ravel : Pictures at an Exhibition Ravel : Ma Mère l’Oye

ZZT 343

Anima Eterna Bruges Jos van Immerseel, direction

The relation of Anima Eterna Bruges and Jos van Immerseel with French music is as strong as it is fruitful. The fantastic recent recording Debussy’s La Mer (ZZT 313) – henceforth recognized as a reference – stands as proof. The singular colours and timbres of the period instruments of the Anima Eterna musicians also have their share in this amazing osmosis.

Release 02/2

014

In this new recording where Ravel the orchestrator of Mussorgsky rubs shoulders with Ravel the orchestrator of his own piano work, the force of the interpretation perhaps relies even more on the astonishing richness of the Anima Eterna sound palette to serve works that make the orchestra sound in a way that very few have achieved.

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8 CDs ZZT 344

Ludwig van Beethoven The Complete Quartets Quatuor Belcea

‘These 16 quartets, composed about two hundred years ago, constitute one of the most decisive and most powerful musical stands of all time, already by the unprecedented intensity of this cycle but also owing to the absolutely astonishing evolution / revolution that can be observed between the first and last works – a revolution that lasted for thirty years and changed our way of feeling music forever.’

(Belcea Quartet).

Release 02/2

014

After the first volume, released in October 2012, and the second, in March 2013, this set brings together Beethoven’s complete mythical cycle, as performed by the Belcea Quartet in concert at the same time as on disc.

Recorded in the superb hall designed by Britten for Aldeburgh (England), this complete set, widely hailed by the international press, is henceforth a reference amongst the available versions.

Chansonnettes, Frisquettes, Joliettes et Godinettes

ZZT 339

Songs and airs of the Renaissance Doulce Mémoire Denis Raison-Dadre, direction

014 Release 02/2

Alongside religious music, which is often complex, the songs of the Renaissance are simple, light musical forms in which the text is often of primary importance. And better than history books, these airs, these songs then relate the pleasures and pains of daily life at the time.

‘Chansonnettes’ is the sort of gift that Doulce Mémoire and Denis Raisin-Dadre give at the end of their concerts, with a choice of Renaissance songs in a recreational atmosphere, even though emotion is present more than ever.

We find Mignonne allons voir si la rose by Jehan Chardavoine, as well as songs

by Jehan Le Roy (As-tu point vu ce grand vilain, Ma maîtresse est toute angelette...), Jacques Arcadelt (Margot, labourez les vignes), and also songs given rise to by Jean de Nivelle. This celebratory disc salutes the 25th anniversary of the Doulce Mémoire ensemble and invites us to sing along with these airs that we have always known!

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Antonio Vivaldi - Cello Sonatas

ZZT 338

RV 39 in E flat major - RV 40 in E minor, Op.14 - RV 41 in F major, Op.14 RV 42 in G minor - RV 43 in A minor, Op.14 - RV 46 in B flat major, Op.14 Marco Ceccato, cello Rebecca Ferri, cello Matteo Coticoni, double bass Francesco Romano, theorbo and Baroque guitar Anna Fontana, organ and harpsichord

Release 03/2

014

Vivaldi’s Opus 14 Sonatas are part of the cello’s ‘great repertoire and also some of the works from the last years of the ‘Red Priest’. Quite simply – and regardless of Igor Stravinsky’s curiously rash judgement regarding Vivaldi’s work –, these sonatas are splendid, making this instrument sound as only a composer who is an experienced virtuoso instrumentalist himself – in this case, a violinist – can do.

Marco Ceccato is one of the members most often noticed of Amandine Beyer’s ensemble, Gli Ingogniti, (‘…Cellist Marco Ceccato is equally impressive,’ Gramophone, March 2013). Zig Zag Territoires wanted to devote this recording to him, convinced of his great talent and of the singularity of his sound imagination.

Joseph Haydn

The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross

ZZT 341

Alexei Lubimov, Tangentenflügel

Alexei Lubimov chooses the repertoires he plays and records with the freedom of the inspired musician that he is. This time, the intention came from his encountering the sonority of a particular piano, a Tangentenflügel, i.e., a tangent piano (the strings being struck by a metal piece called a ‘tangent’) that, in France, was sometimes called a ‘harmonious, heavenly harpsichord’. And it is the singular sonority of this instrument that made him want to record this keyboard transcription of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.

Release 04/2

014

Beyond this encounter, the disc attests to Alexei Lubimov’s incredible force of evocation and amazing sound imagination; he also demonstrates – as if that were necessary – how much the relation between a certain kind of writing and a particular instrument can contribute to the comprehension of a work.

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Eugène Ysaÿe

ZZT 342

Sonatas for solo violin - Sonata for two violins Tedi Papavrami violin

This recording is the logical – and awaited – complement to the ‘Fugue for Solo Violin’ set released in the spring of 2013, on the occasion of the publication of Tedi Papavrami’s autobiography by Robert Laffont.

Release 05/2

014

It features the Sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, an extraordinary violinist who, in his time, played a role comparable to that of Niccolò Paganini, just a century earlier. Ysaÿe dedicated each of these six sonatas to one of the very great violinists of his time (Szigeti, Thibaud, Enesco, Kreisler...). They constitute heights of virtuosity that few musicians can envisage confronting and are, at the same time, musical works of the first rank.

Tedi Papavrami has chosen to supplement this cycle with a work that Ysaÿe composed in 1915 and dedicated to his student, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.

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« Nouvelle Vague »

OTN 021

Georges Delerue , Michel Legrand et al.

Stéphane Kerecki, double bass Jeanne Added, voice Emile Parisien, saxophones John Taylor, piano Fabrice Moreau, drums

Release 05/2

014

The films of the New Wave maintained a strong relationship with music: Contempt, Elevator to the Gallows, Breathless, Young Girls of Rochefort ... And the soundtracks for these films were imagined by musicians of whom film buffs as well as music lovers are quite fond (Georges Delerue, Miles Davis, Martial Solal, Michel Legrand...).

In this recording, bass player Stéphane Kerecki, surrounded by a few other exceptional jazz musicians, takes a look as personal as it is inspired at the main musical themes of these films, giving new life to ‘hits’ and other tunes that play with our perception and memory of this great period in French cinema.

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REWIND Collection: second batch!

In 2013, Outhere Music launched a mid-price series, REWIND. A further twelve discs will be released in 2014 : REW 511 : Robert Schumann – Éric Le Sage – An Clara REW 512 : Domenico Belli – Le Poème Harmonique – Il nuove stile REW 513 : Jean-Marie Leclair – Les Folies Françoises – Le Tombeau REW 514 : Jean-Philippe Rameau – Céline Frisch – Harpsichord pieces REW 515 : J.S. Bach – Hélène Schmitt – Sonatas & Partitas, Vol. II REW 516 : L. Beethoven – Ensemble Kheops – Trios For Piano, Clarinet & Cello REW 517 : Sergei Prokofiev – Abdel Rahman El Bacha – Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 REW 518 : Frédéric Chopin – Luc Devos – Nocturnes REW 519 : Johannes Brahms – Walter Boeykens, clarinet / Jean-Claude Vande Eynden, piano / Roel Dieltiens, cello – Clarinet Sonatas & Trio REW 520 : W. A. Mozart – Anima Eterna – The last Symphonies REW 521 : Francesco Geminiani – Ensemble 415 – Concerti grossi & La Follia REW 522 : Stravinsky, Bartók – Héau, Gastaldi, Lefevre – A Soldier’s Tale / Contrasts The philosophy behind this collection remains unchanged: offering ‘gems’ from the catalogues of the Outhere Music labels at a very attractive price, with the aim of interesting a wide public desirous of beginning or continuing its discovery of the riches of classical music, as well as a public of connoisseurs happy to procure, in advantageous conditions, earlier recordings from labels they know well.

To facilitate the buyer’s choice, the collection offers a system of flagging by tabs, identifying styles (early music – Baroque – Classical – Romantic – modern – contemporary – jazz/world) and genres (opera, vocal, orchestra, concerto, chamber music, sacred music, recital).

Collectors, amateurs, discoverers and nibblers of all stripes: map out your own path in this collection!

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