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Leonardo García Alarcón, Cappella Mediterranea – La Finta Pazza (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:28:18 minutes | 2,76 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Château de Versailles Spectacles
The story of the incredible success of La Finta Pazza in Venice in 1641 is often attributed to the presence of the diva Anna Renzi and to Torelli’s incredible stage machinery. However, a show with an excellent singer and an impressive machinery is nothing without remarkable music. As soon as I discovered this score, which has almost never been performed recently, I immediately understood the surprising quality of this music and why it had such an impact on young King Louis XIV. It offers something new in the history of music, just as the opera was becoming accessible to the public, with an extremely sophisticated relation between music and text. The quality of the music is the reason why La Finta Pazza was the first opera performed at the French court in 1645, at a time when the genre was completely unknown.
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Julie Roset, Millenium Orchestra, Leonardo García Alarcón – Handel: Salve Regina (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:13:54 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Ricercar
Julie Roset, a young French soprano from Avignon, immediately attracted attention with her first recital for Ricercar (Nun danket alle Gott with Clematis) and went on to record a recital of works by Sigismondo d’India with Mariana Flores that met with great critical acclaim. In this new recording she tackles several of Handel’s masterpieces on religious themes: his Salve Regina , Gloria and the motet Silete venti were all composed at the time when the young Handel had been inspired to new heights by his discovery of Roman musical life.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Capella Mediterranea, Leonardo García Alarcón – Arcadelt: Missa Noe Noe (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:02:30 minutes | 1,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
Given that not one of the Masses by Jacques Arcadelt was included in our boxed set that revealed his immense musical personality to the world, we now remedy this situation with an indispensable addition. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon chose the Missa Noe Noe, which is presented here in the context of the Christmas liturgy. We have also included motets not only by Arcadelt but also by Josquin Desprez, as he was the great model for musicians of his generation. The recording ends resoundingly with Josquin’s imposing Benedicta es coelorum regina for six voices, although in an expanded version for twelve voices by Jean Guyot de Chatelet (1512 – 1588): another Walloon composer to be discovered!
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Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon – Strozzi: Virtuosissima Compositrice (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:58 minutes | 1,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ambronay Éditions
The virtuoso Venetian diva of the 17th century, Barbara Strozzi, Monteverdi’s heiress, journeys the passions of the soul through a daring mosaic of styles and rhythms. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, who is one of the rising generation of baroque conductors, is leading a major research project on the specific parameters which make up musical performance, paying particular attention to improvisation techniques and the relationship between text and music. His work at the Ambronay Festival has focused on the performance of 17th-century Italian music including rich and little-known repertoire of motets and madrigals by Barbara Strozzi, Isabella Leonarda and Antonia Bembo.
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Millenium Orchestra, Jodie Devos, Sebastian Wienand & Leonardo Garcia Alarcon – Mozart: The Vienna Concert (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:45:27 minutes | 1,66 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
On 23 March 1783, an important concert took place in Vienna, playing a considerable role for Mozart’s reputation in the imperial capital, where he had resided since 1781. It is obvious that Mozart wanted to be heard in both what he had composed prior to 1781, as well as in his more recent works. From the Salzburg repertoire, he borrowed the ‘Haffner’ Symphony. To this he added the long concertant movement for wind instruments from the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade. Here we also find two piano concertos (one from Salzburg, and the latest, doubtless composed for the occasion), several arias from earlier operas (Lucio Silla, Idomeneo) or again, recently written. Although he played his concertos, he also improvised keyboard variations and even a fugue (because the emperor was in attendance)… An historic concert to be rediscovered, as if you were there!
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Mariana Flores, Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo García Alarcón – Monteverdi: Lettera amorosa (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:04:49 minutes | 992 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
After the success of their album of music by Franceco Cavalli, the Cappella Mediterranea and Mariana Flores now present a programme devoted entirely to works for solo voice by Claudio Monteverdi, from the famous Lamento dArianna to the sublime (and much less well known) Voglio da vita uscir. Mariana Flores embodies here the most touching personalities of this section of Monteverdis output. Argentinean soprano Mariana Flores studied singing at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Since then she has lived and worked in Basel. She regularly sings early operas and vocal literature alongside fine ensembles like the Cappella Mediterranea. The ensemble Cappella Mediterranea was founded in 2005 by the Argentinian conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón. As its name indicates, the ensemble originally arose from a passion for the music of the Mediterranean basin, and aimed to propose a different approach to Baroque music of the Latin tradition. With more than forty-five concerts each year, the ensemble explores the madrigal, the polyphonic motet and opera, a mixture of genres that has molded a unique style characterized by an exceptionally close rapport between the conductor and his musicians.
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Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo García Alarcón – Monteverdi-Piazzólla: Una utopia Argentina (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:40 minutes | 1,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ambronay Éditions
This innovative program pairing the seemingly antithetical compositions of Claudio Monteverdi and Astor Piazzolla was first featured at the Ambronay Festival in 2009 and was greeted with nearly universal acclaim. The brainchild of Argentine conductor Leonardo Garcia Alarcon and his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea, this unusual collection highlights the surprising connections and musical synergies present in works that are separated by centuries of time and thousands of miles. Under the baton of Alarcon, the madrigal and the tango are revealed as be musical sisters, both conjuring up powerful emotions – from nostalgia to sorrow to ecstasy – and rich in improvisational freedom.
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Capella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur & Leonardo García Alarcón – Antonio Draghi & Leonardo García Alarcón: El Prometeo (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 02:06:32 minutes | 4,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
The original score of El Prometeo (Prometheus) is held in the Leopoldine Library in Vienna. It dates from 1669 and was written by Antonio Draghi, a composer who was also a singer, notably in the operas of Cavalli. For the first time in history, an Italian set a text in Spanish. The last act of El Prometeo has disappeared. But since the libretto of this act has survived, Leonardo García Alarcón decided to rewrite all the music for it. ‘I immersed myself in Draghi’s music in order to understand his style, his favourite intervals, the type of melody he composed and the type of basso continuo he was fond of, so as to try to produce a score that is worthy of him. So I hope that this third act will measure up to his music, his intentions and his creativity!’ says the Argentinian conductor. Directing a brilliant cast (Fabio Trümpy, Mariana Flores, Giuseppina Bridelli, Scott Conner, Borja Quisa, Zachary Wilder, Ana Quintans), Leonardo García Alarcón brings this Baroque opera to life in Spanish, an opportunity to show his love for his mother tongue, ‘a supremely musical language’!
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Leonardo García Alarcón – Antonio Vivaldi : Vespro a San Marco (2010/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:57:24 minutes | 2,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ambronay
The title of the two-disc album, Vivaldi: Vespro a San Marco, implies that the composer wrote a set of pieces comparable to Monteverdi’s Vespro della beata Vergine, but the title needs to be interpreted somewhat loosely. The program notes describe the collection of psalms, canticles, motets, and prefatory chants recorded here as an evocation of a service of vespers Vivaldi might have assembled rather than a reconstruction of one he actually ever did. These vespers are distinctly Vivaldian in idiom, but they resemble Monteverdi’s in the use of some common texts and in the diversity of musical styles, genres, and performing forces assembled; there is not much of a sense of unity in the traditional sense, but a profusion of delightfully varied musical vignettes, including a cappella chants, solos, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental pieces. The bugaboo of run-of-the-mill Vivaldi performances is most frequently a squared-off regularity that makes the music come across as undifferentiated and blocky. The superlative performances by Leonardo García Alarcón leading Choeur de Chambre de Namur and the chamber orchestra Les Agrémens (also based in Namur) are anything but run-of-the-mill. Alarcón consistently finds the musical individuality of Vivaldi’s lines and invests them with unambiguous emotional meaning. He creates elegantly shapely contours even in the most rhythmically severe movements like the fugal counterpoint of “Donec ponam” from the Dixit Dominus, and consistently heightens the music’s expressive lyricism. The soloists are also terrific, singing both with distinctiveness in their solos and with a gorgeous blend in the many ensembles. Sopranos Maria Soledad and Mariana Flores and bass Alejandro Meerapfel stand out for their especially sumptuous timbres and the musicality of their interpretations. All the singers and players sound like they are having a wonderful time performing this music and their enthusiasm is infectious. The sound of the live performances is clear, warmly present, and mostly clean except for some page turning and shuffling.
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Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Millenium Orchestra & Leonardo García Alarcón – Handel: Solomon (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:32:10 minutes | 2,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
Handel’s oratorio Solomon is now regarded by its performers and its listeners as one of his greatest compositions. This was not, however, always the case. Solomon was not performed outside of London during Handel’s lifetime, an unusual occurrence during his British career. The work had therefore enjoyed only a limited success, although we may well wonder why, when oratorios sung in English had been so successful until then. Could it have been the obvious lack of theatricality in the libretto, or the public’s growing indifference to the genre? Or was he afraid to alienate the Anglican church, given the rumours of lines with erotic connotations in the first and third acts? Here, Leonardo García Alarcón and his singers and instrumentalists offer us a flamboyant version of the work that would certainly have won over the most hesitant of London listeners in 1749!
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Christian Immler, Clematis, Leonardo García-Alarcón – Bach & Böhm: Music for Weddings and other Festivities (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:08:05 minutes | 626 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
Let us once more immerse ourselves in the musical life of Eisenach as it was at the end of the 1670s. One Sunday afternoon, after having played for the services in their respective churches, the cousins Johann Ambrosius Bach and Johann Christoph Bach were sitting in a Bierstube, each with a mug of beer and a meerschaum pipe. A moment of relaxation, with word games, laughter and a discussion about Johann Christoph’s coming marriage. There would naturally be music for the wedding, with a cantata for the church service at the very least. That particular Sunday morning’s cantata had been based on texts from the Song of Solomon — not Böhm’s, of course, because Böhm had only been born in 1661. The sensual and at times erotic flavour of the words amuses them and, after several beers and pipefuls of tobacco, they have an idea for a secular cantata for the festivities that will follow the wedding ceremony. Christoph will compose the music, whilst Ambrosius will put together the text and instructions for its performance. Even though we do not know how this cantata was performed, its score has survived complete with all of its the puzzles and riddles.
Read more![Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Millenium Orchestra, Leonardo García Alarcón - Handel: Semele (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/02/20/ixsm63k2jw26a_600.jpg)
Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Millenium Orchestra, Leonardo García Alarcón – Handel: Semele (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:50:21 minutes | 2,84 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Ricercar
Semele is a masterpiece. For what else can one call a drama in which the perfect symbiosis of text and music conjures up such suggestive power? “To hold the mind, the ears and the eyes equally spellbound”: this recommendation by La Bruyère (Les Caractères: Les ouvrages de l’esprit) refers to the “machine plays” so adored by the public in the Baroque period. But even without machinery or indeed without sets or real staging, Handel’s oratorio involves us in the tragic fate of his heroine with supreme skill.
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Chouchane Siranossian, Leonardo García Alarcón and Balazs Maté – Bach Before Bach (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:20 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
In the Europe of the first half of the seventeenth century, instrumental music became a source of sonic and expressive experimentation. Influenced by vocal rhetoric, composers sought to replace words with a new musical language. The virtuosity of the instrumentalists developed, as did invention, improvisation and the search for surprising sonorities. Along with the organ or the harpsichord, the violin was the instrument of choice for experimenting with these new techniques. Italian and German composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries such as Farina, Schmelzer, Mealli, Buxtehude, Biber, Pisendel and Bach vied with each other in imaginativeness… The violinist Chouchane Siranossian and the harpsichordist Leonardo García Alarcón – both loyal Alpha Classics artists – have chosen to explore this repertory, here including Bach’s sonatas BWV 1019, 1021 and 1023 among other pieces.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Clematis, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon – De Lassus: Canticum canticorum (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:04:51 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
At the height of the Renaissance, the music of Orlande de Lassus frequently combines the emotion of secular music with sacred compositions. With their erotic connotations, the texts of The Song of Songs are an ideal source for bringing together sacred and profane feelings. Based on his most famous song, Lassus wrote one of his unitary masses: Suzanne un jour. Along with the Magnificat that he composed on De Rore’s madrigal Ancorche col partire, here are two religious compositions of which the themes are borrowed from evocations of amorous turmoil.
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Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Leonardo García-Alarcón – Giorgi: Ave Maria (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 54:58 minutes | 523 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar
This recording is devoted to the works of a composer about whom we know practically nothing — neither his date of birth nor even his origins. All that we do know is that Giorgi held the position of maestro di cappella in San Giovanni Laterano in Rome in 1719 and that he ended his career in Lisbon, dying there in 1762.
The discovery of his music was a life-changing experience for the young Argentine conductor Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon, music director of Clematis and the Cappella Mediterranea and now also of the Choeur de Chambre de Namur.
Giorgi’s music contains many characteristic traits of Renaissance polyphony such as the use of the polychoral style as well as madrigalesque effects, although these older techniques are nonetheless put at the service of a new style of richly imaginative music with new harmonic colours.
A concertante Mass with soloists and instrumental accompaniment forms the centrepiece of this recording, although several motets from Giorgi’s immense body of work are also included; one of these is the deeply moving Ave Maria that also provides the CD with its title.
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