The New Collection January - June 2013
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Outhere is an independent musical production and publishing company whose discs are published under the catalogues Æon, Alpha, Arcana, Fuga Libera, Outnote Records, Phi, Ramée, Ricercar and Zig-Zag Territoires. Each catalogue has its own well defined identity. Our discs and our digital products cover a repertoire ranging from ancient and classical music to the contemporary, jazz and world music. We work with great artists and established ensembles, but we are also keen to invest in the development of young talent.
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Table of Contents Aeon p.4 Alpha p.7 Arcana p.12 Fuga Libera p.13 Phi p.16 RamĂŠe p.18 Ricercar p.21 Zig-Zag Territoires p.24
Complete String quartets & Chaconne for solo Violin
AECD 1225
ROBERTO GERHARD (1896-1970) Arditti Quartet
013 Release 01/2
Thanks to this release by the Arditti Quartet, the complete string quartets of the Spanish master Roberto Gerhard will be available on record for the first time. After Manuel de Falla, Roberto Gerhard is probably his country’s most brilliant and audacious composer. Born in Catalonia, the only Spanish pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, Gerhard was forced into exile by the Civil War, becoming a British citizen and finishing his life in Cambridge. The Arditti Quartet presents here a very fine recording of what may be regarded as some of the composer’s key works.
www.ownvoice.com/ardittiquartet
Dulle Griet
AECD 1328
GIOVANNI VERRANDO
Mdi ensemble – RepertorioZero Pierre-André Valade, conductor
Release 02/2
013
Born in Sanremo in 1965, Giovanni Verrando is one of the principal representatives of the young generation of Italian composers. After studying with Franco Donatoni, he worked on music informatics and composition with Tristan Murail and Brian Ferneyhough in the Cursus Musical at Ircam in Paris. This recording, which assembles his principal pieces for ensemble and electronics, gives us an insight into the current creative tendencies in Italy: a very Italian combination of lyricism and elegance. The album takes its title from Dulle Griet, the famous painting by Brueghel representing the mouth of Hell.
www.mdiensemble.com
4
Late String Quartets / Op. 132 & Op. 135
AECD 1223
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Brentano String Quartet
Release 02/2
013
Formed in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet of New York is internationally recognised as a key player on the musical scene, whose interpretations are eagerly awaited. Its previous volume, devoted to Beethoven’s Quartets opp.127 and 131, was singled out as an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. It also served as the original soundtrack of Yaron Zilberman’s film A Late Quartet, with an all-star cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Christopher Walken. After this successful initial release, the musicians today offer us a new instalment of the quartets of Beethoven’s final period, this time with op.132 and op.135. A crystal-clear performance, radiating intelligence and brilliance, which will certainly become a benchmark version.
www.brentanoquartet.com
Orchestral Works
AECD 1331
OSCAR STRASNOY
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Latica Honda-Rosenberg, violin Susanna Mälkki, conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Release 03/2
013
This complete recording of the works for orchestra of the Argentinian composer Oscar Strasnoy is a world premiere. The central figure of the most recent Présences Festival at Radio France, Oscar Strasnoy, who is today forty years old, is distinguished by his sense of pastiche and the fluency of a style that skilfully plays on the frontiers between art and popular music. He has carved out a highly personal path that has established him as one of the most original composers of his generation, at once serious and witty. http://sites.radiofrance.fr/chaines/formations/philharmonique/accueil/
5
Nel Gusto Italiano
AECD 1111
Concerti, Capriccio e aria JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Olivier Cavé, piano
Release 05/2
013
After the success of his two previous discs of Scarlatti and Clementi, the pianist Olivier Cavé continues his idiosyncratic itinerary with a project devoted to a group of works by Johann Sebastian Bach. There was a time when copyright did not exist. It was perfectly normal to make use of other people’s music without any remuneration; a time when, constantly recasting his musical style, Bach arranged for organ or harpsichord the concertos of Vivaldi, Torelli, or Marcello. These fine transcriptions resulted notably in a masterpiece from his own pen, the ‘Italian Concerto’. Olivier Cavé now explores this aspect of the composer’s keyboard output in a CD he has chosen to call Nel gusto italiano – Concerti, capriccio e aria. www.olivier-cave.com
6
Lord Gallaway’s Delight
ALPHA 534
An Excellent Collection of Dances & Gaelic Laments Les Witches guest : Siobhán Armstrong, harp
Release 02/2
013
The Witches continue their exploration of the music of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This series, successfully launched with the disc Nobody’s Jig, sheds new light on songs and dances at the intersection of the art music and folk music repertories. Our team of witches is joined here by Siobhán Armstrong, a talented harpist specialising in the Irish repertory. Together they recount an alternative history of Great Britain and Ireland, following the tunes as one goes up the course of a river, discovering with delight the treasures each of them has in store: spellbinding melodies and vivid titles which, in their evocation of people and places, bring the pages of history back to life. www.leswitches.com
Je voy le bon tems venir…
ALPHA 189
Songs of the Middle Ages
Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien François Lazarevitch, conductor
Release 03/2
013
Focusing on the theme of Robin and Marion immortalised by Adam de la Halle at the end of the thirteenth century, François Lazarevitch has brought together a team of specialists in the courtly and dance repertories of the later medieval period. Peasants, knights, village festivals . . . Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien explore a poetic, colourful world rich in contrasts, where subtle love songs engage in dialogue with boisterous dance tunes. François Lazarevitch pursues here a process of exploration now saluted throughout the worlds of classical and traditional music: his most recent release, Et la fleur vole, was awarded a Diapason d’Or and a ‘Choc’ de Classica. www.lesmusiciensdesaintjulien.fr
7
Lachrimae
ALPHA 187
JOHN DOWLAND
Thomas Dunford, lute Ruby Hughes, soprano - Paul Agnew, tenor Reinoud van Mechelen, tenor - Alain Buet, baritone
013 Release 03/2
Alpha is particularly pleased to present this first disc devoted to the lutenist Thomas Dunford. The programme combines lute pieces by Dowland with lute songs for several voices. These songs are certainly among the most frequently recorded works of the Elizabethan era. However, the four-part polyphonic texture is generally reduced to a single voice with lute accompaniment. The approach adopted on this disc has been to realise the songs in several voices, thus reverting to the practice, widespread at the time, of an intimate ‘chamber’ performance of these pieces Thus the inspired playing of Thomas Dunford is answered by exceptionally rich polyphony, with the combination of the two offering a Dowland of unprecedented colour and energy.
From England to Germany
ALPHA 191
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
La Sainte Folie Fantastique Lucile Boulanger, viola da gamba - Thomas Dunford, lute Arnaud de Pasquale, harpsichord - Jérôme van Waerbeke, violin
From England all the way to Germany, the douce folie of a young ensemble!
013 Release 04/2
Four musicians, among the most talented of their generation . . . A repertory of which Alpha has been one of the most fervent champions over the past few years . . . An unknown manuscript containing unpublished sonatas by Young, Abell, and other pieces by anonymous composers . . . All this plus the complicity of Thomas Dunford and Jérôme van Waerbeke: the ingredients seem to have come together for this new release, like the first disc of Lucile Boulanger and Arnaud de Pasquale, which received a Diapason Découverte and a ‘Choc’ de Classica, to become a major event. www.saintefoliefantastique.com
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Vivaldi, Per l’Orchestra di Dresda
ALPHA 190
Les Ambassadeurs Zefira Valova, solo violin Alexis Kossenko, conductor
013 Release 04/2
Les Ambassadeurs launch a series of recordings devoted to the repertory of the Dresdner Hofkapelle at the time of Bach, with the aim of rediscovering the splendid sound of an ensemble then regarded as the orchestral ideal. The ties of friendship between Johann Georg Pisendel – who led the orchestra – and Antonio Vivaldi held firm for life. Between their first meeting in Venice in 1716 and the death of the Prete Rosso in 1741, Pisendel continually enriched his collection of Vivaldi concertos, a certain number of which were manifestly tailor-made for his outstanding technique and equally exceptional delicacy of expression. This explains why Dresden holds so many Vivaldian treasures, sometimes autograph, sometimes copied in Pisendel’s own hand. Although the concertos assembled by Les Ambassadeurs bear no explicit dedication, there can be little doubt that they were expressly written for the Dresden orchestra: they feature the instrumentation typical of the court Kapelle, with its horns and oboes vying for prominence with the violin. www.les-ambassadeurs.com
Erard 1802 - Moonlight
ALPHA 819
Sonatas op.27 no.2, ‘Moonlight’; op.53, ‘Waldstein’; op.31 no.2 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Alexeï Lubimov, fortepiano (copy of an Érard piano of 1802)
Release 04/2
9
013
If there are times when the A&R director of a record label has to ask himself searching questions, one of them is certainly when a new version is planned of three of Beethoven’s ‘greatest hits’, recorded many times over by the finest interpreters over the last fifty years. The project is already very tempting when the idea is to do it with a pianofortist of the stature of Alexei Lubimov. Added to this is the opportunity of recording on an instrument that might be said to have been built for the occasion, the original of which was available for use by Beethoven and other pianists of his period in large parts of Europe. But, over and above even these elements, this recording presents in our view a dual and decisive interest: - the process of transversal reflection set up between by the builder, the curators, the musicologist, the tuner, the laboratory of the Cité de la Musique, and of course Alexei Lubimov; - the possibility, thanks to the digibook of which this disc forms part, to share with the public this reflection on the instrument, its technique, the playing style it requires, and the impact of all of this on the interpretation. 9
Dardanus
ALPHA
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU
Ensemble Pygmalion Raphaël Pichon, conductor
Release 05/2
013 2 CDs
After the exploration of the Bach’s ‘five’ missae breves, concluded recently with the original version of the B minor Mass, Ensemble Pygmalion have now recorded Rameau’s Dardanus after a series of concerts that received unanimous critical acclaim. Though superior in dramatic terms, this second version of Dardanus (1744) presented here by Pygmalion has never before been revived in modern times, with the exception of the famous air ‘Lieux funestes’ from the fourth act. A new edition (by Gilles Rico) has been prepared on the basis of the 1744 score, but incorporating the numerous variants incorporated by Rameau between 1744 and 1760, always with a view to enriching the emotional power of the music. Originally inherited from the constricting form of Lullian tragédie lyrique, while showing a pronounced taste for ‘extraordinary tales’, this work also makes room for a more intimate and human sense of drama, setting a very clear course towards the psychological explorations of the Classical period. www.ensemblepygmalion.com http://vimeo.com/39255449
Judita
ALPHA 816
Dialogos Katarina Livljanic, conductor.
Release 05/2
013
CD+ DVD
The Dialogos ensemble presents a highly original DVD. Here, far from the traditional filming of a staged performance, Alpha and Katarina Livljanic offer a genuinely cinematographic work based on the epic poem of the Croatian writer Marko Marulic. Musically speaking, this project comes into the category of a ‘reconstruction’, inspired by listening to and studying Dalmatian Gregorian and Glagolitic sources from the time of Marulic and by melodies of oral tradition. In this research, it was necessary to study the most archaic layers of what is known as Glagolitic chant. This repertory, curiously sung in the local vernacular even though it belonged to the Roman rite, was preserved in manuscripts written in the Glagolitic alphabet used in medieval Croatia. The archaic beauty of the text is fabulously illustrated here by images of incredible aesthetic refinement. For lovers of fine sound recordings, Alpha offers as a bonus CD the audio version of the project as realised at the time of filming.
www.ensemble-dialogos.org 10
The organ of the Chapelle Royale, Versailles
ALPHA
Two centuries of organ music in Versailles
Frédéric Desenclos, Michel Bouvard, Jean-Baptiste Robin, François Espinasse, organ
Release 06/2
013 2 CDs
Two centuries of organ music at the Chapelle Royale, Versailles . . . The recently restored organ of the chapel bears witness to the glorious past of this historic site and the magnificence of the royal liturgy. This project, entrusted to the four resident organists of the instrument, presents a rich panorama of the composers who had the privilege of entering the Versailles organ loft, from the Couperin dynasty to Balbastre. It forms part of a new series produced by Alpha with the Château de Versailles, which will present the fruits of the latest research into the organ repertory in a sumptuous edition.
11
I Dodici Giardini
A367
Cantico di Santa Caterina da Bologna La Reverdie Adiastema
013 Release 03/2
The Italian fiftheenth12century Laude still remain to this day a little-known and misterious musical treasure. 2013 will mark the 600th anniversary of the birth of Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413), a woman of both deep theological insight and extraordinary, artistic talent, who founded and guided the first monastery of the Clarisse in Bologna in 1456. La Reverdie have discovered the repertory of laude sung by the Saint and her sisters, and have placed it in its original context: the expression of a mystic devotional practice which the saint herself vividly describes in her own devotional treatise «The Twelve Gardens». The skillful combination of rich and varied instrumental sonorities together with crystal clear feminine vocality, in different settings from solos to choir, perfectly conveys the simple freshness and arcane fascination of this unexplored repertoire.
Complete Piano Sonatas on Period Instruments FRANZ SCHUBERT
Paul Badura-Skoda, fortepiano
Release 05/2
013 9 CDs
12
For as long as he can remember Paul Badura-Skoda has always been intimately linked with Schubert’s music. At a time when knowledge of the composer was still very sketchy, he scrutinized the princeps editions and manuscripts in order to track down errors and to establish Urtext versions which today are referential. But beyond that, he was able to complete certain movements that Schubert had left unfinished without however introducing music foreign to the composer. The choice of period instruments may still surprise the partisans of the modern concert piano, but no one can seriously ignore it. It responds to a quest for colours and sound ranges favouring a greater intimacy with the composer’s music, permitted by the use of only those instruments which Schubert knew, which he used and for which he actually wrote his music. This collection of the twenty Sonatas for period piano recorded by Paul BaduraSkoda on the instruments in his own collection, for the first time in a 9 CD box set, has every chance of being considered by posterity as one of the most creative and most significant achievements.
Transitions
FUG 598
Jan Ladislav Dussek - Sonata in F-sharp minor Ludwig van Beethoven : Seven Bagatelles, Op. 33 Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy : Variations sérieuses in D minor, Op. 54 DUSSEK, BEETHOVEN, MENDELSSOHN Olga Pashchenko, fortepiano
Release 01/2
013
This first album by the Russian pianist, harpsichordist and organist Olga Pashchenko – pupil of Alexei Lubimov and Richard Egarr, winner of the Schloss Kremsegg fortepiano competition 2011 and the Hans von Bülow piano competition 2012 – illustrates the period of transition between two states of art: the Classical and the Romantic. The repertoire on this recording – Dussek, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn – is situated on the cusp of these two styles and shows perfectly how the metamorphosis into Romanticism was subtly concealed in the details of the transparent architecture of Classical music. The two original period pianos (Conrad Graf 1826 and Donat Schoeffstoss 1812), carefully selected by Olga Pashchenko, possess great clarity of sound and immense timbral possibilities, allowing her to play with form as much as with colours. www.olgapashchenko.coml
Villa - Lobos
FUH 599
Melodia Sentimental
Krzysztof Meisinger, guitar Academy of St Martin in the Fields Andrew Haveron, solo violin José Maria Florêncio, conductor
Release 02/2
13
013
The young Polish musician Krzysztof Meisinger (b. 1984) is one of the most fascinating and charismatic guitarists of his generation. With the legendary Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the direction of the Brazilian conductor José Maria Florêncio, he has recorded the famous Guitar Concerto of Heitor Villa-Lobos. In this work of 1951, Villa-Lobos paid eloquent homage to the guitar’s qualities as a concert instrument. The recording also includes the Five Preludes for solo guitar, and an arrangement of Melodia Sentimental for guitar, violin, and string orchestra. This programme – recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London! – ideally displays the flexibility of a young soloist ready to conquer the world with his bewitching playing. www.meisinger.pl
13
Monument
FUG 710
BACH/ KURTAG - BARTOK
Yin-Yang piano duo Inge Spinette, piano - Jan Michiels, piano
Release 02/2
013
After La Valse à mille temps (FUG 577), Jan Michiels and Inge Spinette (the Yin-Yang Duo) return with a new two-piano programme for Fuga Libera. ‘This recording pays tribute to Bach, Bartók and Kurtág, and also to two legendary piano duos: Dittá and Béla Bartók, and Márta and György Kurtág. ‘We don’t compose music ourselves; that’s why we have composed . . . a programme; with a “monument” by Bartók – one of the greatest pianists of his time – accompanied by Bach chorales in a Kurtágian landscape . . .’ (Jan Michiels). A recording that highlights the strength of the union of two minds, which – like Dittá and Béla Bartók, Márta and György Kurtág, and . . . Inge Spinette and Jan Michiels – can phrase music with a rare degree of intensity and acuity. www.ingespinette.be www.michielsjan.be
Poème mystique
FUG 711
BLOCH, PART, MESSIAEN Elsa Grether, violin Ferenc Vizi, piano
Release 03/2
013
Elsa Grether, a charismatic young violinist characterised by her passionate and intensely poetic playing, performs for her first recording – with the Romanian pianist Ferenc Vizi – two sonatas for violin and piano by Ernest Bloch which form a diptych. The composer described the first as ‘the world as it is: the frantic struggle of blind and primordial forces’, and the second as ‘the world as it should be: the world of which we dream; a world full of idealism, faith, fervour, hope, where Jewish themes go side by side with the Credo and the Gloria of the Gregorian Chant’. The sonatas are framed by Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, a ritual between silence and sound, and Louange à l’immortalité de Jésus, the last movement of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps. Messiaen wrote this work as a prisoner during the Second World War, when cold and hunger gave him visions of colours and rainbows. The title of the album, Poème mystique, aptly evokes a vibrant programme composed of works of great emotional power, linked by a profound sentiment of mysticism, whether they draw their inspiration from Gregorian chant or from Judaism. www.elsagrether.com/
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Dvorak
FUG 714
Cello Concerto in A major Serenade for strings in E major
Alexander Rudin, cello / conductor Musica Viva
Release 04/2
013
For their fourth Fuga Libera-project, the Russian orchestra Musica Viva recorded one very famous, and one forgotten piece by Antonín Dvorak. The well-known piece is the Serenade for Strings in E major, written by Dvorak in 1875. It is believed that Dvorak took up this small orchestral genre because it was less demanding than the symphony, but allowed for the provision of pleasure and entertainment. The other piece is the Cello Concerto in A major. Unlike its brother, the B minor Concerto Op. 104, this concerto has been more than overlooked. It was left un-orchestrated by Dvorak, existing only in piano-score form. It was only after his death that a few composers orchestrated this dazzling piece of music. Cello virtuoso Alexander Rudin, and Musica Viva let us taste from this magnificent forgotten treasure ... www.musicaviva.ru
A Century of Russian Colours
FUG 712
RACHMANINOV, KABALEVSKY, AUERBACH Camille Thomas, cello Beatrice Berrut, piano
Release 05/2
013
This recording is the result of the passion the young musicians Camille Thomas (cello) and Beatrice Berrut (piano) have always felt for Russian music. Whatever its period of composition, they find in this repertoire the profundity and complexity of the Slavic soul, taking to extremes the expression of human torments. Camille Thomas: ‘For this recording we immediately thought of playing Russian music. In A Century of Russian Colours, we start with a very Romantic composition, Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata op.19. The programme continues with a very rarely recorded work, bearing the marks of Soviet communism, showing fear and anguish, but also the rigour and conformism of Dmitry Kabalevsky. We end with a young composer who is very highly thought of in the musical world: Lera Auerbach, one of the last artists to be stripped of Russian nationality, who now lives in the United States and Germany. This is the first recording of her Suite for cello and piano.’ www.camillethomas.com www.beatriceberrut.com
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Sei Solo
LPH 008
Sonatas & Partitas for Violin JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Christine Busch, Baroque violin
Release 01/2
013 2 CDs
Over the past forty years, Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent have had the supreme good fortune of working with often outstanding soloists, with whom he enjoys a fruitful and stimulating musical and human dialogue. ‘It seems important to us to give them too an opportunity to express themselves on the PHI label in works they are especially fond of’ (Philippe Herreweghe). Such is the case with the present recording. Christine Busch, who does an extraordinary job as leader of the orchestra of Collegium Vocale Gent, has recorded the Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin of J. S. Bach – a cycle she has played since his childhood and which she admires enormously. ‘Christine Busch is a great source of inspiration for us with her technical perfection, her strength, her modesty, her naturalness, and her poetic imagination: all the qualities needed to serve the greatest of all composers’ (Philippe Herreweghe). www.christine-busch.de
Stabat Mater
LPH 009
ANTONIN DVORAK
Collegium Vocale Gent - Royal Flemish Philharmonic Philippe Herreweghe, conductor Ilse Eerens, soprano - Michaela Selinger, mezzo-soprano Maximilian Schmitt, tenor - Florian Boesch, bass
Release 03/2
16
013
Antonín Dvorak’s daughter Josefa died on 21 September 1875. In response to this bereavement, Dvorak composed the initial version of his Stabat Mater – for four soloists, choir, and piano –between 19 February and 7 May 1876. He then set the work aside without orchestrating it. Soon after this, he lost his other two children in the space of a few weeks, his daughter Ružena on 13 August and his son Otokar on 8 September 1877. At this point he returned to the manuscript abandoned the previous year. The virtually overnight success of his Stabat Mater for soloists, large chorus, and orchestra raised him to the rank of one of the world’s leading composers of sacred music and established him notably in Great Britain, where his reputation was to remain firm for the rest of his life. This rarely recorded masterpiece has also inspired Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent. Along with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, they strip the work of all Romantic excess. The result is a spiritual journey from the sombre opening bars to the final Amen, underlining the universal grandeur of this major work of sacred music. www.collegiumvocale.com www.defilharmonie.be
The Last Symphonies
LPH 011
Symphonies 39, 40 & 41 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Orchestre des Champs-Elysées Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
Release 05/2
013
Written one after the other in the space of just three months and with unprecedented energy, Mozart’s last three symphonies carry within them the aesthetic ideal of their composer, touched by a grace that is already pre-Romantic, and thus form an exemplary musical testament. The Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, a pioneering collective among period-instrument orchestras, reveals a richness, a modernity, a visionary complexity that prepares the way for the Beethovenian revolution. The approach of the orchestra founded and conducted by Philippe Herreweghe is to explore in depth the sonority and the motor rhythms of the symphonic writing of a Mozart here at the height of his powers. To record this Mozart trilogy is a bold undertaking for any musician, and always an extraordinary event for the public! www.orchestredeschampselysees.com
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Mignonne allons voir si la rose
RAM 1301
Chansons spirituelles et amoureuses GUILLAUME COSTELEY Ludus Modalis Bruno Boterf, direction
Release 01/2
013
Guillaume Costeley was born in Normandy, very probably at Pont-Audemer, in 1530. He occupied the function of organist of Évreux Cathedral and also became official composer to King Charles IX. The status and quality of the music of Guillaume Costeley place him among the principal masters of the late Renaissance. He never abandoned the contrapuntal style he inherited from his great Franco-Flemish predecessors. Indeed, his imagination led him along paths little frequented before him. Although he was an organist and church musician, it is for his secular output that he is known today, notably thanks to one piece: the emblematic Mignonne allons voir si la rose, a setting of a text by Ronsard. Costeley was the composer of a substantial number of chansons in four or five voices, some of which are descriptive (La Prise du Havre), serious and moralistic, while others have a rustic tone that is sometimes very bawdy (Grosse garce noire et tendre). This recording draws on this varied repertory to draw a portrait in sound of an eminent master of vocal music. www.ludusmodalis.com
Fait pour les Anglois
RAM 1207
English Suites JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Pascal Dubreuil, harpsichord
Release 02/2
013 2 CDs
18
The well-known set of ‘English Suites’ is rarely played by harpsichordists on account of the unusual virtuosity it requires. The title of the disc alludes to a single manuscript – which once belonged to Johann Christian Bach – that mentions it as having been ‘Fait pour les Anglois’ (Written for the English). It may perhaps be a musical hommage or a response to the publication in 1713 of François Couperin’s Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavecin. Pascal Dubreuil presents his vision of this magnificent cycle here, thus pursuing his survey of Bach’s output on Ramée (RAM 1001: Clavier Übung I / RAM 0804: Partitas – Clavier Übung II).
Images
RAM 1205
Suites for Viola da Gamba MARIN MARAIS
Mieneke van der Velden, viol Fred Jacobs, lute
Release 03/2
013
Marin Marais is a master of the so-called character piece, in which he makes use of the most diverse subjects: La désolée (The Desolate), La Guitare, Feste Champêtre (Village festival), Le tableau de l’Opération de la Taille (describing an operation to remove gallstones!), and many others. The choice of such images in Marais’s five collections of Pièces de Violes is astonishingly varied. This disc follows on from the release of the disc Hommages on Ramée in 2012 (RAM 1105) www.mienekevandervelden.com
Petitiones Cordis
RAM 1208
Cantiones Sacrae from MS 229 (Stadtarchiv Stralsund) DESPREZ, ISAAC, CLEMENS NON PAPA, SENFL, LECHNER... Schola Stralsundensis Maurice van Lieshout, conductor
Release 04/2
013
The manuscript Stralsund MS 229, which dates from 1585, is a collection of sacred motets held in the Stadtarchiv of Stralsund, a German Hanseatic town on the Baltic. There were probably six part-books originally, but only four have survived. The manuscript contains 105 works, composed mainly for five or six voices. It spans several generations of composers, from the late fifteenth to the end of the sixteenth century; it therefore includes works composed before and after the Reformation. The variety of styles is impressive, ranging from early Franco-Flemish polyphony to Italian madrigals and works from central Germany. In order to bring back to life the many famous or less well-known gems of the manuscript, the founder of Schola Stralsundensis, Antonie Schlegel, and its musical director, Maurice van Lieshout, have tirelessly researched and compared sixteenth-century manuscript and printed scores all over Europe. The programme recorded here contains a wide selection of works from the manuscript. The title Petitiones cordis comes from Eucharius Hoffmann’s motet setting of Psalm 37: In Domino spera et fac bonum, delectare in Domino, et dabit tibi petitiones cordis tui (Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good . . . Delight thou in the Lord: and he shall give thee thy heart’s desire). www.scholastralsundensis.de 19
Le Parler et le Silence
RAM 1206
Music for flute consort and lute from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries PALESTRINA, FRESCOBALDI, SWEELINCK, DOWLAND, LULLY, HOTTETERRE The Attaignant Consort Kate Clark, direction
Release 05/2
20
013
This recording is the sequel to The Attaignant Consort’s first disc – Madame d’amours (RAM 0706) – and the third and last in a series of three recordings presenting the art of the Renaissance flute, both as solo instrument (RAM 1201) and as a consort instrument from the late fifteenth century until the middle of the seventeenth. This disc places the accent on the musical transition of the seventeenth century, and shows how the consort of flutes adapted to the new styles of composition, which pushed it to the very limits of its possibilities. This recording illustrates the repertory for flute consort from its beginnings, including examples of the first instrumental fantasias, of airs de cour in four voices, a suite of English songs, bicinia, and finally French airs enriched with Baroque ornaments from the early eighteenth century. www.attaignantconsort.com
Ciaconna
RIC 326
GIOVANNI BATTISTA VITALI (1632 - 1692) - TOMASO ANTONIO VITALI (1663 - 1745)
Ensemble Clematis Stéphanie de Failly, violin (G. P. Maggini, 1620) - Benjamin Glorieux, cello François Joubert-Caillet, bass viol – Quito Gato, theorbo, guitar – Thierry Gomar, percussion – Marion Fourquier, harp – Lionel Desmeules, organ
Release 01/2
013
Ever since the Romantic period, every violinist has played the famous Chaconne of Tomaso Antonio Vitali. But the score they used was always based on the radically modified edition produced by the virtuoso Ferdinand David around 1860. Certain oddities and the unexpected modulations of the work have always surprised Baroque specialists, who have invariably regarded it as a ‘forgery’. Going back to the original manuscript, Stéphanie de Failly now sheds new light on this rejected composition; and she links it to the other works of Tomaso Antonio Vitali and those of his father Giovanni Battista, whose inventiveness and varied pieces and dances lead directly to the extravagances of the Chaconne! A glittering programme which, in covering the works of both Giovanni Battista Vitali and those of his son Tomaso Antonio, retraces the path of Italian violin traditions, from the art of diminution to the conception of the first sonatas. www.clematis-ensemble.be
English Royal Funeral Music
RIC 332
HENRY PURCELL, THOMAS MORLEY, THOMAS TOMKINS, THOMAS WEELKES, JOHN PAISIBLE, & THOMAS TOLLET
Vox Luminis, – Lionel Meunier, conductor With the participation of Les Trompettes des Plaisirs (Jean- François Madeuf) Lingua Franca (Benoît Laurent) and Guy Penson, virginal
Release 02/2
013
We know now that Purcell’s three Funeral Sentences were not written for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. Following the tradition of the English court, it was pieces by Thomas Morley, originally written for the funeral of Elizabeth I, that were sung there. Purcell’s only contribution to the ceremony was the composition of two pieces for slide trumpets (March and Canzona), and the anthem in the archaic style Thou knowest, Lord. During the funeral procession to Westminster Abbey, a band of oboes played two marches written by John Paisible and Thomas Tollet. This recording assembles the music composed for the funeral of Queen Mary and that used at the funeral of Elizabeth I in 1603. The programme is completed by Purcell’s sublime a cappella anthems and a moving anthem by Weelkes on the death of Thomas Morley. After the success of the recording of Schütz’s Musicalische Exequien, voted Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine, this disc will be one of the major events of spring 2013.
www.voxluminis.com 21
The Birth of the Violin
RIC 333
JACOB OBRECHT, JOSQUIN DESPREZ, COSTANZO FESTA, ADRIAEN WILLAERT ...
Le Miroir de Musique – Baptiste Romain, director
Release 03/2
013
In the first half of the sixteenth century, small stringed instruments began to develop and gradually reached a synthesis in the ‘vyollon’, mentioned for the first time in 1523 at the court of Savoy. It is at the same period that the first violins appear in paintings, such as the fresco by Gaudenzio Ferrari that illustrates the cover of this disc. The programme reconstructs the musical context of those years, and presents for the first time a panorama of the repertories of the early violins: on the one hand, the Franco-Flemish music that had flourished in Italy since the mid-fifteenth century; on the other, the Italian style that was in the process of being reborn from its ashes. Motets, ricercari, contrappunti, madrigals and dances are all featured in this rediscovered music, which enriches our exploration of period instruments, one of Ricercar’s specialities. miroirdemusique.com
Carmina Latina
RIC 334
TOMAS LUIS DE VICTORIA, JUAN DE ARAUJO, GASPAR FERNADEZ...
Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Cappella Mediterranea, Clematis Leonardo García Alarcón, conductor
013 Release 04/2
After the conquest of ‘the Americas’, Spanish and Portuguese clergymen and musicians exported their entire polyphonic tradition to the new lands. These musicians settled in the territories of Latin America, Juan de Araujo in Peru, Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco in Argentina, and so on. Some of them were born in the New World, like Gaspar Fernández, whose whole career was spent in his native land, Mexico. If these musicians brought to the New World their polyphonic skills, they were also attracted by local folk traditions, going so far as to adapt the texts of the Catholic liturgy into native languages. The sphere of influence of the Iberian polyphonic tradition illustrated by this programme also extends to one of the more imposing Spanish masses of the early seventeenth century, the Missa de Batalla of Cererols, written for three choirs. A journey between sacred and secular music in a New World discovering the Baroque. This recording follows a triumphantly successful concert tour organised in the framework of the Festival de Wallonie 2012. www.clematis-ensemble.be
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Guide to Musical instruments II (1800-1950)
RIC
013 Release 05/2 8 CDs + Livre
This second volume of the Guide to Musical/Period/Early Instruments explores the history of musical instruments in the period from 1800 to 1950. Its purpose is both to discuss improvements and transformations of instruments dating from before 1800 and to investigate all the novelties thought up by instrument makers during this era. All these developments took place in a context in which the process of instrument making moved from artisans’ workshops to commercial firms which became veritable factories, typical of the ‘age of industrialisation’. This second volume of the Guide follows the same principles as the first. The text by Jérôme Lejeune is illustrated by numerous photos of instruments and other iconographic sources; a set of eight CDs, arranged in thematic programmes (‘The orchestra of Berlioz’, ‘Salon music’, ‘Vienna in the time of Beethoven’, ‘Wagner and instrumental innovations’, ‘The Sax workshop’, etc.), illustrates all these instrumental discoveries in sound. Unlike the first Guide, this second volume will be released in two versions, one in French, the other in English. Those who think this period merely developed the instruments of Beethoven’s orchestra will be surprised to discover an incredible number of instruments that enjoyed only a short lease of life, but also many that brought new colours to the orchestra.
Obras de Música
RIC 335
ANTONIO DE CABEZON, ADRIAEN WILLAERT, PHILIPPE VERDELOT, ROLAND DE LASSUS, THOMAS CREQUILLON, CLAUDIN DE SERMISY, CIPRIANO DE RORE, ...
Ensemble Doulce Mémoire Denis Raisin Dadre, director
Release 06/2
013
In 1578 Hernando de Cabezón, son of the celebrated organist Antonio de Cabezón, published an extensive anthology of his father’s compositions under the title Obras de Música para tecla, arpa y vihuela. Intended – as the title indicates – for keyboard and plucked string instruments, these pieces, which cover all the genres of the period, both secular and sacred, are written in perfect four-, five- or six-voice textures. Following a practice very widespread from the Renaissance onwards, the instrumentalists of Doulce Mémoire have appropriated these scores, dividing the parts between their different instruments. They have limited their choice to pieces from the secular repertory. These pieces are in fact ornamented versions of chansons and madrigals, among them some of the biggest ‘hits’ of the Renaissance, such as Suzanne un jour and Anchor che col partire. Most of these ornamented versions are supplemented by the original pieces sung by Clara Coutouly to a delicious accompaniment on plucked strings.The recording is released in association with the Festival de Musique à Maguelone, where the ensemble Doulce Mémoire will give this programme in June 2013. www.doulcememoire.com 23
Symphonies No.1 & 7
ZZT 317
BEETHOVEN-LISZT
Yury Martynov, fortepiano (Erard, 1837)
Release 01/2
013
The Russian pianist Yury Martynov presents here the second volume of the complete recording he has undertaken of the cycle of the Beethoven symphonies as transcribed for the piano by Franz Liszt. For both the pianist and his listeners, this recording constitutes a genuine adventure, combining the creative genius of Beethoven, the inspired vision of these works of the composer and pianist Franz Liszt, and a piano with the same sonic resources as were available to Liszt. Here is what Liszt had to say about the piano as a medium of transcription: ‘In the compass of its seven octaves, it can produce, with only a few exceptions, all the characteristics, all the combinations, all the most learned compositional figures, and leaves the orchestra no other advantages than those . . . of diversity of timbre and massed effects.’ For these two symphonies, Yury Martynov has chosen the same Érard piano of 1837 on which he recorded the first volume of this series. That CD – Symphonies nos.6 and 2 / ZZT 301 – received a particularly warm welcome from the press (‘Choc’ de Classica, May 2012).
Complete Sonatas vol. III
ZZT 318
BEETHOVEN
François-Frédéric Guy, piano
Release 01/2
013 3 CDs
This set is the third and last volume of François-Frédéric Guy’s complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas. In addition to the first three (op.2), it contains the late sonatas, including the celebrated ‘Hammerklavier’. This sonata is not only one of the cornerstones of the cycle, but also a key work in François-Frédéric Guy’s personal musical trajectory; this is the third time he has recorded it. François-Frédéric Guy chose to record the entire series live, in the course of a series of concerts at the Arsenal de Metz, France. He firmly believes that this method, in direct contact with an audience, is the best way to represent his relationship with the sonatas and the interpretation of them he wishes to project.
www.ffguy.net
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Tribulationem
ZZT 319
C. GESUALDO – A. MAYONE
Concerto Soave Jean-Marc Aymes, director
013 Release 02/2 2 CDs
This programme does full justice to the modernity of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (1561-1613), covering both his sacred music and his madrigals. It reproduces all the subtlety and chromaticism of his music, strictly respecting the temperament used in the composer’s time. An added attraction of this disc is that it alternates the Prince’s works with the music of his contemporary Ascanio Mayone, scored for harp, harpsichord and organ. A timely commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of Carlo Gesualdo, this recording showcases the outstanding artistry of the ensemble Concerto Soave and its director Jean-Marc Aymes.
www.concerto-soave.com
Mozart and Jos van Immerseel
ZZT 324
Symphonies, concertos, sonatas... W.A. MOZART
Anima Eterna Brugge Midori Seiler, violin - Yoko Kaneko, fortepiano Frank Theuns, flute - Marjan de Haer, harp Ulrich Hübner, horn - Jane Gower, bassoon Jos van Immerseel, fortepiano and conductor
Release 03/2
013 6 CDs
This economically priced box set of six CDs brings together all the previous releases on ZZT of Mozart works performed by Jos van Immerseel: Symphonies nos.29, 39, 40 & 41, the Bassoon Concerto, Violin Concertos nos.2 and 3, the Concerto for two pianos, the Concerto for flute and harp, Horn Concerto no.3, and seven sonatas for piano and violin (K376, 377, 379, 380, 454, 481, 526). This impressive body of work perfectly encapsulates Jos van Immerseel’s intimate relationship with Mozart’s music and shows his interpretations to be as inspired as they are historically informed. Here is a release that assembles in a single box a series of recordings that were greeted as and still remain benchmark versions. www.animaeterna.be
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Raphaël Imbert Project
ZZT 323
Suite élégiaque - Bach/Coltrane - New York Project
Joe Marin, double bass - Gerald Cleaver, drums Zim Nqawana, saxophones, whistles Yaron Herman, piano - Stephan Caracci, vibraphone Simon Tailleu, double bass - Cédrick Bec, drums Jean-Luc Di Fraya, vocals, percussion - André Rossi, organ Michel Peres, double bass - Quatuor Manfred Gérard Lesne, countertenor Raphaël Imbert, saxophones, direction
013 Release 03/2 3 CDs
This set combines three absolutely remarkable recordings made for ZZT by Raphaël Imbert in 2006, 2008, and 2009. It displays the formidable talent of the saxophonist, the breadth of his repertoire, and his astonishing ability to combine his eclecticism with that of the eminent musicians he invites to work with him, including Yaron Herman, Gérard Lesne, the Manfred Quartet, and Gerald Cleaver. This box contains several of ZZT’s bestselling jazz CDs, which are also among the artistic gems of the label’s catalogue. www.raphaelimbert.com
‘Fugues’ for solo violin
ZZT 320
Works for unaccompanied violin BACH, SCARLATTI, PAGANINI, YSAYE, BARTOK Tedi Papavrami, violin
Release 03/2
013
This seven-CD set marks the arrival of Tedi Papavrami on ZZT. It gathers together all his recordings for unaccompanied violin originally released on Aeon (Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, transcriptions of Scarlatti keyboard sonatas, transcriptions of various works by Bach, the Paganini Caprices, and the Bartók Sonata). The box also includes an Ysaÿe sonata inspired by Bach, a sneak preview of the set of Six Sonatas for unaccompanied violin to be released in the autumn of 2013 along with the Sonata for two violins.
6 CDs www.tedipapavrami.com
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Complete String Quartets - vol.II
ZZT 321
Quartets nos. 3 in D (op.18 no.3), 5 in A (op.18 no.5) 10 in E flat (op.74, ‘Harp’), 7 in F (op.59 no.1, ‘Razumovsky’) 8 in E min. (op.59 no.2, ‘Razumovsky’), 13 in B flat (op.130), Grosse Fuge op.133,15 in A min. (op.132), 16 in F (op.135) BEETHOVEN Belcea Quartet
013 Release 03/2
4 CDs
After the first volume released in October 2012, this second volume completes the cycle of Beethoven Quartets given simultaneously by the Belcea Quartet in concert and on disc. Recorded live, like its predecessor, in the superb concert hall conceived by Britten at Aldeburgh, this volume couples quartets from different periods, including the last two (opp.132 and 135) and the Grosse Fuge (op.133). Here is how the Belcea Quartet describes this great cycle: ‘These sixteen quartets written some two hundred years form one of the most complete and powerful musical statements ever made. The completeness lies in their unprecedented intensity and in the astonishing development that can be traced between the early and the late works – a thirty-year-long revolution which altered forever the way we experience music.’ www.belceaquartet.com
Tanguillo
ZZT 322
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA, JOCELYN MIENNIEL, TOMAS GUBITSCH, SAMUEL STROUK,VINCENT PEIRANI Vincent Peirani, accordion - François Salque, cello Guest : Tomás Gubitsch, guitar
013 Release 04/2
Vincent Peirani and François Salque, coming from two very different environments and musical traditions, have gradually developed languages and pathways of their own, involving written and improvised music as well as experimentations, from one concert to another. Their first disc, Est, was devoted to the traditional musics of central Europe. This time their guiding thread is the music of South America, and more especially the universe of Astor Piazzolla. Their two sonorities, as magnificent as they are different, intertwine and interlace amid the melodic and rhythmic undulations of the pieces, sometimes adapted, sometimes created by Vincent Peirani, Jocelyn Mienniel, and Tomás Gubitsch. www.vincent-peirani.com www.salque.com
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Amandine Beyer / Portrait
ZZT 325
J.F. REBEL, C.P.E. BACH, N. MATTEIS, R.de VISEE J.S. BACH, A. VIVALDI, A. CORELLI
Amandine Beyer, violin
Release 05/2
013 2 CDs
This double album offers a portrait of the violinist Amandine Beyer drawn from the recordings she has made for ZZT. The first CD selects highlights from her chamber repertoire, including works by Jean-Féry Rebel, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Nicola Matteis, and Robert de Visée. The second is devoted to the concerto, with compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and Arcangelo Corelli. This programme is an ideal introduction to the multiple facets of Amandine Beyer’s talent and to the grace and joie de vivre of her music-making. It also provides an opportunity to discover one of Corelli’s Concerti Grossi op.6, a preview of the complete set to be released on ZZT in the autumn of 2013. www.amandinebeyer.com
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