Nevermind CONVERSATIONS

Nevermind is made up of four young musicians and friends whose passion for early music and for the influence of jazz and traditional music stimulated them to form an ensemble whose virtuosity is equalled only by their youthful impetuosity and their love of fine music . . . For its first disc, Nevermind tackles the treasures of the Baroque in the shape of two totally neglected French composers.

The first one, Jean-Baptiste Quentin, a dessus de violon at the Académie Royale de Musique (forerunner of the Paris Opéra), was a habitué of the Parisian salons, where he frequented Rameau among others. The second, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, studied in Italy before joining the court musicians at Versailles. Sometimes whimsical and often very complex in Guillemain, invariably lucid and classical in Quentin, their style nonetheless presents a common feature: the dominance of the Italian idiom.

Alpha Classics continues its discovery of young talents with this project conceived by the inspired musicians of Nevermind. Their credo is to introduce the widest possible audience to the riches of music that has been too long ignored.

Olivier Fortin FRANÇOIS COUPERIN L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin

The harpsichord is perfect in its compass, and brilliant in itself; but, as one can neither swell nor diminish its notes, I shall always be grateful to those who, through consummate art sustained by good taste, manage to make this instrument capable of expression.’
Why is it difficult to play the music of François Couperin when it seems so simple at first glance? By offering precious information on the interpretation of his music (and more generally on the interpretation of French music of his time) in his treatise L’Art de toucher le clavecin (The art of harpsichord playing), Couperin provides us with the necessary elements for today’s performer, who seeks above all to respect the composer’s intentions. However, fear of not going beyond the indications given by the latter and excessive attention to every detail can inhibit inspiration and distract from the purpose of the works. Like the French language, it consists of rules but also of many exceptions. Modern grammars and dictionaries give us complete, firm, infallible answers to all these questions. But things were quite different at the time.

Elias Quartet SCHUMANN Quartets Nos 2 & 3

In 2010 the Elias Quartet played the first of Schumann’s three string quartets at Wigmore Hall – a richly characterised, open-hearted reading that was recorded and released on that venue’s in-house label. Now, at last, the Elias complete the cycle with concert recordings from Potton Hall in Suffolk. If you were as impressed by the Wigmore performance as I was, rest assured that these new accounts do not disappoint, for I find them even more absorbingly detailed and emotionally generous.

Schumann composed these quartets as a birthday gift for Clara, writing at white heat so that the three works were completed in just seven weeks. The Doric Quartet capture this sense of urgency, though with a magical, quicksilver touch. The Elias, on the other hand, take their time. It’s not that their performances are so much leisurely as they are elastic. The music breathes in their hands; and even when they stretch a phrase as if to feel its emotional weight, it still sounds natural and right. And it’s not that they only pull; they push, too. In the opening movement of the F major Quartet, for instance, listen to how they make the exposition repeat feel more eager and excitable. Then savour the exquisite rubato at 4'08" in the Andante quasi variazioni, with its foreshadowing of a Mahlerian Ländler. Some may be irritated by the way the Elias ease gradually into the main tempo of the finale; I’m charmed by it, particularly as it’s played differently each time this tune returns.

The A major Quartet is, to my ears, the jewel of the set, and the Elias play it with profound tenderness. How rapturously they play the first movement’s slow introduction, for example; even the rests are made to sound as expressively necessary as the notes themselves. And in the second theme of the Allegro proper, where the cello sings to a palpitating accompaniment (at 1'36"), there’s a vulnerability so touching I could imagine Schumann’s heart asking ‘is this love too good to be true?’ Unlike the Stradivari Quartet, the Elias are meticulous in observing dynamic markings, and their pianissimo playing can produce shivers of pleasure. Indeed, they find eloquence in the smallest detail, like the second violin’s strumming grace notes at 3'34" in the Adagio.

I could go on enumerating the myriad glories of these performances, but you get the idea. I continue to be delighted by the Doric’s recording – and the Zehetmair’s – but the Elias’s has instantly become my favourite, and I can’t recommend it urgently enough. (Andrew Farach-Colton / Gramophone)

Quatuor Van Kuijk SCHUBERT String Quartets Nos. 10 & 14 "Death and the Maiden"

‘When we approach a composer, we like to immerse ourselves in his or her early works, in order to understand the evolution of the person behind the score.
‘It was quite naturally that the idea emerged of coupling a youthful quartet, no.10, composed at the age of sixteen, with a masterpiece by the mature Schubert, the “Death and the Maiden” Quartet no.14. As in the case of Mozart on our first recording, we wanted to present two different atmospheres with two quartets by the same composer.
‘This journey through time sheds a new light on the later works, because the process of getting to know the young Franz Schubert naturally means deepening our knowledge of his language, but also allows us to refine our appropriation of the style, sound and articulation specific to him.
‘In Quartet no.10, we tried to achieve purity in our playing, a crystalline sound that allows the music to unfold in the most fluid and natural way, keeping in mind the intimacy of the family living room for which these pages were written.
‘In no.14, more tormented, brusquer, more intense, we attempt to pay homage to the work’s symphonic dimension, and to its most sombre, most violent asperities.
‘Two sides to one man: the bright and dark faces of Schubert.’ (Quatuor Van Kuijk)

Juliane Banse / Martin Helmchen HINDEMITH Das Marienleben

The German soprano Juliane Banse has sung the Lieder of Brahms, Schubert, Wolf, Ullmann, Strauss, Schumann, Loewe and Berg, earning a reputation for both the quality of her interpretations and the warmth of her timbre. She and her regular partner Martin Helmchen, who has just joined Alpha, have chosen to record Paul Hindemith’s song cycle Das Marienleben, composed in 1923 and revised by the composer in 1948. A bewitching, sometimes disturbing cycle whose texts, taken from the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke, retrace the life of the Virgin Mary. Fifteen poems, fifteen episodes tinged with mysticism and lyricism. They proved to be the ideal inspiration for Hindemith, whose compositional style here draws on both the power of Wagner’s operas and the subtle nuances of Debussy.

Busch Trio / Maria Milstein / Miguel da Silva DVORÁK Piano Quintets - Bagatelles

After two earlier Dvořák releases, the Trios nos.3 and 4 (Dumky) and the two Piano Quartets, Omri Epstein, Mathieu van Bellen and Ori Epstein are joined by one of their teachers at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, the violist Miguel da Silva (founder member of the famous Quatuor Ysaÿe) and the violinist Maria Milstein, who was also an artist in residence at the Music Chapel from 2011 to 2014. Together they continue this recording of the Czech composer’s complete chamber music with keyboard, this time in the two Piano Quintets and the Bagatelles. There is an obvious close rapport between these musicians, who share with us their passion for this repertory and their enjoyment of playing together. A gap of fifteen years separates Dvořák’s two Piano Quintets, which have few features in common except a shared home key: the First marks the debut of a youthful composer, while the Second shows him at the peak of his art. The Bagatelles, originally scored for two violins, cello and harmonium, are among his bestknown short pieces. A recording scheduled for release in autumn 2018 will complete this quadriptych of Dvořák’s piano trios, quartets and quintets.

Thomas Dunford BACH

Thomas Dunford continues to expand his discography on Alpha with a program of solo lute works by J.S. Bach, recorded in the ideal surroundings of the Salle de Musique of La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. He performs an original composition by Bach for lute, the Suite in G minor BWV 995, as well as his own arrangements of the Suite BWV 1007 and the famous Chaconne from the Partita BWV 1004 – the latter piece has a notorious reputation for being (virtually) unplayable, at least on the violin! Born in Paris in 1988, Thomas Dunford discovered the lute at the age of nine thanks to his first teacher Claire Antonini. He completed his studies in 2006 at the Conservatoire Superieur de Paris (CNR), when he obtained a unanimous 1st Prize with Honors in the class of Charles-Edouard Fantin. He continued his studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, and participated in various masterclasses across Europe. He has gone on to record an extensive discography and win multiple competitions.

Le Banquet Céleste / Damien Guillon CALDARA Maddalena ai piedi di Christo

Baroque is capricious and dramatic; it grabs you by the throat. But a work in which music and theatre fit together as grippingly as in Caldara's Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo is rare. In this iconic oratorio, Celestial and Earthly Love battle for the soul of sinner Mary Magdalene, who has her sister Martha and Christ himself as allies. With this magnificent work, with an exquisite cast of singers, Damien Guillon and his Banquet Céleste take the company into a new chapter.

Born in Venice around 1670, Caldara gave Barcelona the first opera ever heard in Catalonia, Il più bel nome (1708), commissioned by his patron, the future Emperor Charles VI, before eventually settling in Vienna in the latter’s service in 1716. A prolific composer with three thousand works to his credit, Caldara died in the Austrian capital in 1736 – in the Kärtnerstrasse, like Vivaldi five years later . . . and in a similar state of destitution. [...] The genre, born in the wake of the Counter-Reformation and illustrated notably by the Roman composers Carissimi and Landi, was initially sung in Latin and performed in pious confraternities. But La Maddalena is an oratorio volgare, that is, sung in Italian. [...] The protagonists of La Maddalena, six in number, are split between Earth and Heaven. They are Martha, Mary Magdalene and a Pharisee on the one hand; Jesus, Earthly Love and Divine Love on the other. They divide among them thirty-three arias and ensembles, in a sequence alternating recitative and aria. (Vincent Borel)

Chouchane Siranossian / Anima Eterna Brugge / Jakob Lehmann IN TIME

Chouchane Siranossian is a rising star of the baroque and classical violin, Jakob Lehmann a virtuoso violinist and orchestral director who frequently conducts Anima Eterna. Together, they embody what the Bruges orchestra and its founder, Jos van Immerseel, have decided to call the ‘Next Generation Anima Eterna’… Today they are presenting Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in its original version. “We wanted to take a look into Mendelssohn’s workshop. He struggled with his self-diagnosed ‘revision disease’ and always strove to work hard on himself and his creations” says Jakob Lehmann. Chouchane Siranossian keeps on “It was a fascinating experience for me to discover historical research and its implementation on period instruments in collaboration with Anima Eterna Brugge. In my interpretation, I used exclusively the fingerings, bowings and other performance markings of Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim, both of whom rehearsed the work with the composer.” This recording is rounded off with the Octet, also in its original version, which is longer and has many alterations in instrumentation, harmony and articulation…

Barbara Hannigan / Reinbert de Leeuw VIENNA FIN DE SIÈCLE

After the huge success of her GRAMMY Award-winning first album for Alpha, Crazy Girl Crazy, Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan is back with her longtime collaborator and mentor, the great figure of twentieth-century music, Dutch pianist Reinbert de Leeuw.

For this new recital album, the duo explores the roots of modern music with composers who went on to lead a musical revolution: Arnold Schoenberg, Hugo Wolf, Anton Webern, Alexander Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler and Alban Berg. Vienna: Fin de Siècle presents a vision of Vienna at the height of late Romanticism, when music was at its most lush and decadent, at the edge of tonality and full of voluptuous beauty. Featuring composers for whom text and song were inseparable, the album captures the rich and intense moment before the disruption of the harmonic language of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hannigan and de Leeuw have long championed the exquisite repertoire from this époque.