|
BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 5 'Spring', 9 'Kreutzer' & 3 Alena Baeva; Vadym Kholodenko [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 27/Feb/2026 ] Alena Baeva and Vadym Kholodenko are starting their recording of Beethoven's complete sonatas for violin and piano. Alena is recognised as a versatile violinist with a magnetic presence and now performs with the greatest orchestras and conductors,... |
|
Doulce Mémoire; Denis Raisin Dadre
Lasso & Agostini: Lagrime di San Pietro [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 27/Feb/2026 ] This recording, made at Noirlac Abbey in January 2025, is dedicated to Denis Raisin Dadre, who passed away suddenly on September 29 of the same year. With Doulce Mémoire, the ensemble he founded in 1989 and with which he brought Renaissance music to... |
|
UNSUK CHIN
Unsuk Chin Ensemble Intercontemporain; Pierre Bleuse; Samuel Favre; Dimitri Vassilakis [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 13/Feb/2026 ] The Ensemble Intercontemporain and its musical director Pierre Bleuse continue their monographs on the great figures of contemporary musical composition. After the multi-award-winning Ligeti, it is the composer Unsuk Chin who is celebrated here.... |
|
Johann Sebastian Bach; François Couperin; Jean-Baptiste Lully; Johann Fischer; Johann Philipp Krieger
Tranquilles Cœurs Ensemble Théodora [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 27/Feb/2026 ] In 2018, four friends studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London decided to form an ensemble they called Théodora. Mariamielle Lamagat (soprano), Louise Ayrton (baroque violin), Lucie Chabard (harpsichord) and Alice Trocellier (viola da gamba)... |
|
Ksenija Sidorova; Paavo Järvi; Estonian Festival Orchestra
Prophecy [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 13/Feb/2026 ] With these works for accordion and orchestra, Ksenija Sidorova and Paavo Järvi pay tribute to the music of the Baltic countries: the Latvian and the Estonian, who have been collaborating for over 10 years, recorded in Pärnu with the festival... |
|
Le Banquet Céleste
Bach: Mein Geist [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 13/Feb/2026 ] Following the departure (of his own accord) of its founder Damien Guillon, Le Banquet Céleste has reinvented itself as a collective of musicians and singers, all committed to continuing to explore the Baroque repertoire with the stylistic rigour that... |
|
Olga Pashchenko; Il Gardellino
Mozart: Piano Concertos 6, 8 & 18 [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 13/Feb/2026 ] Olga Pashchenko and Il Gardellino present a third recording of Mozart's piano concertos, following two volumes (Alpha 726 and 942) that were very well received by the press and the public: 'The most exhilarating "authentic" Mozart I have ever heard,'... |
|
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; Igor Stravinsky; Darius Milhaud; Charlotte Sohy
Symphonies in 3 Movements Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine; Bar Avni [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 27/Feb/2026 ] Winner of the 2024 La Maestra competition in Paris and recipient of five additional prizes, conductor Bar Avni is pursuing a very promising career. Born in Israel, she first studied percussion before turning to conducting. She counts Yoav Talmi,... |
|
François Couperin; Antonio Vivaldi
Or (Light): Couperin & Vivaldi Sonia Wieder-Atherton [ Alpha Classics / CD - due 27/Feb/2026 ] For her new recording, entitled 'Or' (light), cellist Sonia Wieder Atherton has devised a two-part narrative, 'a series of freeze frames, like incursions into time': first, Couperin's Les leçons de ténèbres or the Lamentations of the Prophet... |
|
Adèle Charvet; Florian Caroubi
Belle Epoque! [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 22/Aug/2025 ] For her second recital with piano, mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet reunites with Florian Caroubi, who has been her regular duo partner since 2015. Together they celebrate the belle époque of the great French melodists (Massenet, Debussy, Fauré) and their... |
|
Alpha Wolf
Half Living Things [ Cooking Vinyl Australia / CD - released 5/Apr/2024 ] In the ever-evolving sonic landscape of Alpha Wolf, their music transforms like a shapeshifting beast, defying expectations and breaking through boundaries with the weight of wrecking-ball dynamics and captivating off-kilter hooks. The Australian... |
|
Alpha Wolf
Half Living Things (LP) [ Cooking Vinyl Australia / LP - released 5/Apr/2024 ] In the ever-evolving sonic landscape of Alpha Wolf, their music transforms like a shapeshifting beast, defying expectations and breaking through boundaries with the weight of wrecking-ball dynamics and captivating off-kilter hooks. The Australian... |
|
Alpha Wolf
A Quiet Place To Die [ Greyscale Records / CD - released 25/Sep/2020 ] "A wolf that hides in sheep's clothing will never be the Alpha." An iron will is only ever hardened within the forge, and Australia's fastest rising metal core act Alpha Wolf have proven they are made of sterner stuff. The five piece bared their... |
|
SERGEI PROKOFIEV / ALEXEY SHOR
Prokofiev & Shor: Piano Concertos Behzod Abduraimov, Vasily Petrenko, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 28/Mar/2025 ] "Behzod Abduraimov's expansive phrasing and potent left hand lend the opening Andantino a Brahmsian patina...abetted by the Royal Philharmonic's shapely pizzicato strings and individualistic first-desk solo turns under Vasily Petrenko's leadership." |
|
GABRIEL FAURE / CHARLES GOUNOD
Fauré: Requiem - Gounod: Messe de Clovis EmÅ‘ke Baráth (soprano), Philippe Estèphe, Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 23/Aug/2024 ] While Faure's Requiem is a monument of French sacred music, Gounod's Messe de Clovis is much less well known. It was composed from 1891 onwards as a tribute to Clovis who, like Joan of Arc, had become an iconic figure after the defeat of France in... |
|
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN / GIOACHINO ROSSINI
Haydn 2032, Vol. 16: The Surprise Il Giardino Armonico, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Giovanni Antonini [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 1/Nov/2024 ] "With consistently alert, finely nuanced playing from the period forces (including superb wind principals), this latest addition to Antonini's Haydn odyssey is self-recommending" Gramophone |
|
MASSE / MEYERBEER / HALVEY / THOMAS / ADAM / etc
Jodie Devos - Bijoux Perdus Jodie Devos (soprano) / Brussels Philharmonic; Pierre Bleuse [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 23/Sep/2022 ] "Devos is again wonderful. Her warm voice comes flying out of the grooves, and one can sit back and just revel in it. The orchestra is idiomatically led by Pierre Bleuse. Alpha provides a warm and balanced acoustic." Fanfare |
|
JACQUES OFFENBACH
Offenbach: Colorature Jodie Devos (soprano) / Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Laurent Campellone [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 8/Feb/2019 ] GRAMOPHONE AWARD NOMINATION 2019 TOP THREE - Recital |
|
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23, Symphony No. 40 & Don Giovanni Overture Andreas Staier, Le Concert de La Loge, Julien Chauvin [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 23/Sep/2022 ] Julien Chauvin meets up with one of the great harpsichordists and fortepianists of our time, Andreas Staier, who is a leading interpreter of the Mozart concertos. He presents us with his vision of the Piano Concerto no.23 and its famous Adagio, 'one... |
|
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn 2032, Vol.17: Per il Luigi Kammerorchester Basel; Giovanni Antonini [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 20/Jun/2025 ] Per il Luigi is the 17th volume of the complete Haydn 2032 collection and presents a number of Haydn's earliest symphonies; these had been composed to display the talent of the musicians who had joined the Esterházy court orchestra during the same... |
|
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn 2032, Vol. 15: La Reine Kammerorchester Basel, Giovanni Antonini [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 12/Jul/2024 ] Antonini has the knack of making you hear this music afresh without indulging in any of the tweaks and 'listen to this!' exaggerations that can grow increasingly irritating on repeated hearings…He's a natural in Haydn. - Gramophone |
|
ADÈLE HUGO
Hugo: Mélodies sur des poèmes de Victor Hugo Karine Deshayes (soloist), Sandrine Piau (soloist), Isabelle Druet (soloist), Anaïde Apelian, Laurianne Corneille, Axelle Fanyo (soloist), Thomas Saul [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 15/Nov/2024 ] The composer Richard Dubugnon has orchestrated 14 of her songs, and his instrumentations lend an idiomatic, sometimes colourful, often mellow slant to some appealing melodies. - The Guardian |
|
MONTEVERDI / SCARLATTI / HANDEL / MONARI
Kate Lindsey: Tiranno Kate Lindsey (soprano) / Arcangelo; Jonathan Cohen [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 20/Aug/2021 ] "This is perfect ground for Lindsey and Cohen, both extremely accomplished and transformative performers of Baroque music...Her extraordinary vocal evocations are complemented throughout by the subtle and inflected playing of the Arcangelo group" BBC |
|
FRANZ SCHUBERT / CARL LOEWE
Schubert / Loewe: Mythos Konstantin Krimmel (baritone) Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano) [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 5/Jul/2024 ] Passion, solitude, nostalgia, the pain of the world, flight, death - these are the typical themes of Romanticism. Konstantin Krimmel has already explored this era of extreme emotion in Saga, his first recital album (Alpha549). Now, with collaborative... |
|
CARL MARIA VON WEBER
Weber: Overtures / Konzertstück in F minor / Arias Martin Helmchen; Anna Prohaska; Konzerthausorchester Berlin; Christoph Eschenbach [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 28/May/2021 ] 200 years ago, on May 26th 1821, today's Berlin Concert Hall was inaugurated as "Königliches Schauspielhaus". Destroyed as "Preußisches Staatstheater" during World War II, the building, located in eastern Berlin, was rebuilt during GDR times and... |
|
ANTON BRUCKNER
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 Paavo Järvi, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 25/Aug/2023 ] Anton Bruckner called his Symphony no.8 in C minor a 'mystery'; others have seen it as an 'apocalyptic' work. For Paavo Jarvi, it is the composer's 'most unusual symphony' and the 'pinnacle' of his symphonic output. In the history of the... |
|
FRANCIS POULENC / PAUL SCHOENFIELD / BELA BARTOK / SERBAN NICHIFOR
Take 3 Reto Bieri (clarinet), Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Polina Leschenko (piano) [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 15/Mar/2024 ] "[The playing] can affectionately embrace the whimsical to the manner born, but equally bristles with spellbinding virtuosity, compelling insight and crests a lifeforce carrying all before it." 5/5 BBC Music Magazine |
|
SCHUMANN / DEBUSSY / WOLFE / POULENC / etc
Chimère Sandrine Piau (soprano) Susan Manoff (piano) [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 20/Apr/2018 ] "Piau's is a voice that can bloom sensuously at the top, and which she controls exquisitely...this is one of the most fascinating, satisfying and moving recital discs to have come my way for some time. It's beautifully recorded too." Gramophone |
|
SAINT-SAENS / FAURE / BERLIOZ / MASSENET etc
Sandrine Piau - Si j'ai aimé Sandrine Piau (soprano) / Le Concert de la Loge, Julien Chauvin [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 24/May/2019 ] Gramophone Awards 2020 WINNER - Recital BBC Music Award Finalist 2020 |
|
FRANZ LISZT / FRANZ SCHUBERT / CLARA SCHUMANN / LILI BOULANGER
Voyage Intime Sandrine Piau (soprano) David Kadouch (piano) [ Alpha / CD - released 10/Feb/2023 ] Sandrine Piau and the pianist David Kadouch have formed a new duo whose first concerts have been enthusiastically received. As is her wont, the French soprano enjoys intermingling languages and the worlds of different composers and poets around a... |
|
STRAUSS / BERG / ZEMLINSKY
Clair-Obscur Sandrine Piau (soprano), Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté, Jean-François Verdier [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 12/Mar/2021 ] GRAMOPHONE Award Nomination 2021 - Voice & Ensemble |
|
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Mozart y Mambo Sarah Willis [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 2/Oct/2020 ] Sarah Willis is a tireless ambassador for her instrument, the horn, which she champions around the world. Already a horn player with the Berlin Philharmoniker, in 2014 she launched for the German television channel Deutsche Welle what was soon to... |
|
FRANZ LISZT
Liszt: Faust Symphony Steve Davislim (tenor) / Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck [ Alpha / CD - released 13/Mar/2016 ] "[Haselböck] reveals aspects of Liszt's scoring that would otherwise go unnoticed. ...with Haselböck, you begin to understand Liszt's sound world as he understood it, more or less, though whose interpretation he would have favoured is anyone's guess" |
|
PYOTR Il'yich TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3 "Polish" / Polonaise from "Eugene Onegin" / Festival Coronation March Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Paavo Järvi [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 13/May/2022 ] With this final volume of their Tchaikovsky cycle, Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich complete their exploration of the Russian composer's symphonies. Symphony No. 3, also known as the "Polonaise" (1875) |
|
LULLY / CHARPENTIER / DESMARETS
Véronique Gens - Passion Véronique Gens; Ensemble Les Surprises; Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 27/Aug/2021 ] "Gens is in thrilling voice. She has the knack - harder, surely, in miscellaneous pieces than in a complete opera - of instantly getting to the heart of a character…Warmly recommended." Gramophone Award Finalist 2022 |
|
COPLAND / VAUGHAN WILLIAMS / BRITTEN / BARBER etc
Long Time Ago Adèle Charvet, Susan Manoff [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 1/Nov/2019 ] The young mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet has already attracted attention in the opera house, but she is also passionately interested in the song repertory. For her first album, she has devised a very personal programme, deriving in part from her musical... |
|
JOSEPH HAYDN
Haydn 2032: Die Schöpfung (complete oratorio) Anna Lucia Richter; Florian Boesch; Giovanni Antonini; Il Giardino Armonico; Maximilian Schmitt; Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks [ Alpha Classics / 2 CD - released 9/Oct/2020 ] GRAMOPHONE Award Nomination 2021 - Choral |
|
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto, Bacchanale & Symphony No. 1 Astrig Siranossian (cello), Philharmonie Südwestfalen; Nabil Shehata [ Alpha Classics / CD - released 8/Oct/2021 ] The year 2021 marks the centenary of the death of Camille Saint-Saëns, the French pianist, organist, critic and great Romantic composer. The cellist Astrig Siranossian, whose tribute album to Nadia Boulanger (Dear Mademoiselle, ALPHA635) recently... |
|
Bloc Party
Alpha Games [ BMG / ADA / CD - released 29/Apr/2022 ] Bloc Party return with Alpha Games, their first new album since 2016's Hymns. Alpha Games, produced by Nick Launay & Adam Greenspan (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, IDLES), includes new single 'Traps', which sees the band returning to the raucous,... |
|
Bloc Party
Alpha Games (Indie Vinyl LP) [ BMG / ADA / LP - released 29/Apr/2022 ] Bloc Party return with Alpha Games, their first new album since 2016's Hymns. Alpha Games, produced by Nick Launay & Adam Greenspan (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, IDLES), includes new single 'Traps', which sees the band returning to the raucous,... |