Alpha Classics

Ensemble Intercontemporain & Matthias Pintscher - Bartok & Ligeti (2015) {2CDs Alpha Classics}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 423 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 259 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (pdf+jpg) -> 35 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France | Alpha 217
Classical / Concerto / Sonata / Modern Composition

Alpha is launching a collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and its new artistic director, composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher. This new series will alternate 20th-century landmarks and new works, providing an opportunity to show to advantage the great quality of the EIC musicians in the major masterpieces of the last century and to discover scores by composers of the 21st century.

Juliette Hurel & Quatuor Voce - Mozart - Complete Flute Quartets (2015) {Alpha Classics}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 267 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 138 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (pdf+jpg) -> 23 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France | Alpha 204
Classical / Flute / Chamber Music / Quartets / Viennese School

‘Three small, easy and brief concertinos and a couple of quartets for the flute’ is how Mozart described the commission from Ferdinand Dejean. The pieces were K285 and K285a; K285b and K298 were written separately. The authorship of K285b has been questioned, and for Henrik Wiese, editor of the Henle Edition, Mozart in K298 ‘makes use of various themes by minor contemporary composers cobbling them into a parodistic quartet’.

With the rise of Romanticism, the topics of opera changed from the mythological fantasy of Baroque operas to the fairytale fantasy which graced the French stage long before Romanticism reached other European nations. Initiated by the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this project is built like a universal fairytale, inspired by Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, and others, as set to music by French composers of the Romantic period, alternating between famous composers such as Offenbach and Rossini and little known masters like Viardot, Silver, and Isouard. This imaginary opera was conceived and transcribed by Alexandre Dratwicki for piano quartet and two singers- a soprano and a mezzo, the roles of which are performed here by Jodie Devos and Caroline Meng.

Jean-Baptiste Quentin & Louis-Gabriel Guillemain - Ensemble Nevermind - Conversations (2016) {Alpha Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 409 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 174 Mb | Artwork (pdf+jpg) | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Alpha Classics / Outhere Music | Alpha 235
Classical / Baroque / Chamber Music

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.

Bruno Cocset & Les Basses Réunies - Cello Stories: The Cello In The 17th & 18th Centuries (2016) {5CD Alpha Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 1.79 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 819 Mb
Full Artwork (pdf+jpg) -> 118 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France | Alpha 890
Classical / Baroque / Cello / Chamber Music / Viola da gamba / Double Bass

‘This set of five discs is an invitation to a rather special journey: through what you hear, and what you read too, you will traverse, guided by the cello, not one history but several histories. With these Cello Stories, our intention is to show you how an instrument and its repertoire have taken shape whilst retaining the imprint and memory of diverse origins. I have selected the musical programme from my recordings for Alpha – some of them previously unreleased – to complement the text by Marc Vanscheeuwijck and numerous contemporary illustrations.’ –Bruno Cocset

Janacek & Dvorak - Sinfonietta & Symphony From The New World - Anima Eterna Brugge (2015) {Alpha 206 Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 360 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 200 Mb | Artwork (pdf+jpg) | 5% repair rar
© 2015 Alpha Classics / Outhere Music | Alpha 206
Classical / Romantic / Orchestral / Symphony

Two glorious Czech masterpieces are presented on this 2014 release from Alpha, performed on period instruments by the exceptional Anima Eterna Brugge, directed by Jos van Immerseel. Considering that Antonín Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World" was completed in 1893, and Leos Janácek's Sinfonietta dates from 1926, and the period instruments movement mostly has been concerned with Baroque and Classical era works, original instrumentation might strike some listeners as odd. Yet performances in the late 19th and early 20th centuries called for instruments that differ substantially in construction and tone quality from modern models, and the variety of timbres was much greater with handmade instruments than the homogenized sounds of today's mass-produced woodwinds and brass.