The Ensemble Santenay invites us on an enthralling journey through the French Ars Subtilior repertory of the fourteenth century. These pieces with their often esoteric texts are presented here as a genuine sound project. The musicians have devised sound frames for the compositions on this album, to link them with each other and take them further than usual. These sonic atmospheres are realised with the aid of sounds produced by instruments, scraps of pieces of music, sometimes a single voice.

Semyon Bychkov conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky’s epic Manfred Symphony for Volume 2 of his Tchaikovsky Project.

In composing his cantatas for solo voice, Johann Sebastian Bach magisterially combined two elements that might seem irreconcilable: strict devotion within the framework of weekly Lutheran worship and vocal virtuosity, served by skilful highlighting of the voice. The result is a style in which the expression of the sacred Word is raised to a peak of intensity – notably when a voice like Matthias Goerne’s tackles these two famous cantatas for bass, giving them all the lustre of rare pearls!

In the course of his recordings for Alpha, François Lazarevitch has explored the music of the Baroque and of oral and popular traditions. After Scottish and Irish music, airs de cour and Baroque suites and sonatas, he stops off in Vivaldi’s Italy. With him, of course, he has his cargo of rare instruments, including the musette de cour (a more sophisticated form of bagpipe) which he uses here to perform Spring from The Four Seasons, in an astonishing and very convincing version transcribed by the great virtuoso wind player of the reign of Louis XV, Nicolas Chédeville.

Until Charpentier, the myth of Orpheus had never provided the subject matter for an opera in French. He repaired the omission with this fascinating little gem on the margins of the large-scale tragédie lyrique. Charpentier offers us here a myth left in suspension, without a resolution, a carefree and happy ‘descent’ that consecrates Orpheus’ song and the enchanting power of music. A poetic experience amid the depths of night, which inspire Sébastien Daucé and his Ensemble Correspondences more than ever!

Supporting new talents is in Alpha's DNA. Here is the very first recording of the Italian pianist Filippo Gorini, who was recently awarded First Prize in the Telekom-Beethoven Competition in Bonn. He has also won the same competition's Audience Prize twice over. At just twenty years of age, he has already played in such prestigious venues as the Berlin Konzaerthaus, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Die Glocke in Bremen, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Moscow Conservatory.

Auf diesen Jubilar darf man sich lokalpatriotisch freuen, denn Carl Philipp Emanuel trägt zu Recht den Titel „der Berliner Bach“. Vor 300 Jahren wird er geboren, lernt beim Vater in Leipzig, studiert Jura an der Viadrina und entwickelt sich rasch zu einem der führenden Cembalisten. Friedrich II. nimmt ihn noch als Kronprinz in seine Kapelle auf.