The Nicolas Errèra

Joseph-Hector Fiocco's music is remarkable for its quality, richness of invention and the liveliness that characterizes it all. With a somewhat surprising coherence it achieves a fusion of French and Italian aesthetics, as regards both harmony and melody. His infectious melodies give the listener the impression of knowing them already; singability is always paramount, and the lines are supple and elegant. Now and then a passage is reminiscent of Vivaldi, Pergolesi or Couperin. Yet the firm, inspired pen of Fiocco confirms his stature as a composer of the first order, with a highly personal language full of sensuality and light. Nicolas Achten and Scherzi Musicali deliver a second volume devoted to Fiocco's motets, after a 2011 release which was awarded a Diapason d'or Decouverte and IRR Outstanding.

Giulio Caccini played a decisive role in the birth of the solo madrigal. He not only accompanied himself as he sang them, but also formed the Concerto Caccini with his wife and children; this ensemble would go as far as to leave its mark on the French court. This double album features some of Caccini’s finest works as well as pieces by his two daughters Francesca and Settimia. It also provides the perfect opportunity for Scherzi Musicali to assemble some thirty instruments and to present the combinations of instruments used for the continuo group that developed around 1600.

Composer John Adams' album Road Movies contains five pieces that Adams' considers "travel music, (…) passing through harmonic and textural regions as one would pass through on a car trip." Indeed, during Leila Josefowicz's spirited and appropriately brusque reading of the "40% Swing" movement from the title work, one hears what sounds like a passing auto in the left channel. Is it mere coincidence or the album concept channeling onto the master tape?

La Catena d Adone was first performed in 1626 and marked the arrival of opera in Rome. With all the characteristics of the genre, a pastoral tale in one prologue and five acts, it chronicles the tumultuous love lives of Adonis, Apollo, Venus, and Falsirena. The frivolous and sensual even erotic tone is placed in sharp contrast with Christian morality in a perfectly mastered Recitarcantando style supported by a wealth of instruments. Besides being a world premiere recording, the opera inaugurates the arrival of a very young conductor to the Alpha catalog. Nicolas Achten is also a director, singer, and player of theorbo, harpsichord, and harp, and follows the path set by great musical pioneers such as Vincent Dumestre and Pablo Valetti.

Beethoven’s output for forte piano and violoncello is fascinating because it covers every period of his career, from early to late, with references to Bach in op.69 and op.102 no.2 and an especially innovative and amazingly modern musical language. For this complete set, which includes the variations on themes from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Nicolas Altstaedt was keen to record on an instrument with gut strings, a Guadagnini from Piacenza dated 1749, and using a Classical bow. Alexander Lonquich, his faithful recital partner – they been inseparable companions since the day Altstaedt replaced his teacher Boris Pergamenschikow for a concert of Beethoven sonatas with Lonquich at the Beethovenfest in Bonn in 2004 – here plays a Graf fortepiano of 1826.

Nicolas Folmer is of those rare artists who are unanimous as to the public, the criticism of its most prestigious peers. His project Horny Tonky reveals a new facet of the prolific composer who succeeds in this new directory today a very personal synthesis at the intersection of influences funk, rock, R & B, soul and improvised music.

The 2014 founded vocal group ensemble Beauty Farm is made up of members of top international ensembles such as the Huelgas Ensemble, Vox Luminis, Collegium Vocale Gent or Graindelavoix. Their second CD is also dedicated to motets by Nicolas Gombert, a grand master of the Franco Flemish polyphony.

Though he lived to be only 31, Nicolas de Grigny is remembered more than any of his contemporaries as epitomizing the French classical organ tradition. Technically and in his creative ideas Grigny demanded much more of his instrument (and his poor team of blowers!) than any of his predecessors, a fact that makes his works stylistically more akin to harpsichord than to organ practice at the time. In 1703, the year of his death, his wife published a first edition of his complete solo organ works, Premier Livre d’orgue (organists at the time typically composed only one or two books, then spent the rest of their lives improvising on them). A copy of this less-than-100-page volume eventually found its way to Germany and impressed a certain J.S. Bach enough that he reproduced it by hand for his own study.

Henri IV of France married Maria de' Medici in 1600. A new art-form - opera - played an important role in the wedding celebrations in Florence, with Jacopo Peri's L'Euridice being performed on 6 October at the Palazzo Pitti. Giulio Caccini, however, was clearly in some opposition to his illustrious colleague and beat him to publication; his own version of the same Rinuccini libretto appeared in print in December of the same year. Caccini's lyricism, emotion and skilled vocal writing show clearly that his L'Euridice is the true forerunner of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. Ricercar now proudly presents this world premiere recording of Caccini's masterpiece.