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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." |
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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... |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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... |
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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... |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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... |
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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... |
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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... |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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... |
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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 |
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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... |
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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" |