Gramophone 2015 – Chamber Award – Pavel Haas Quartet – Smetana String Quartets.
This is the Pavel Haas Quartet’s fourth Gramophone Chamber Award (not counting Recording of the Year) in under ten years! The quartet’s live performance of the slow movement of the 1st quartet was a particular highlight of the evening.

“Seldom does a show generate such a high level of expectation – an audio/visual adventure into the unknown. Such was the sense of wonderment as the rarely-seen live cadre of core and contributing musicians entered to enthusiastic applause. This final performance on a UK mini-tour fitter perfectly into the purview of the group’s cultural preservation of all things British. In retrospect, it was made the more poignant as I took my seat next to original Fairport Convention singer, Judy Dyble, who’d just completed an album with (lead singer, front man) David Longdon. Chatting with them both at the after-show is now even more memorable, given Judy’s passing. The show itself was magnificent tour de force of progressive movements and moments. Many rate and treasured memories were captured in one magical evening.” Paul Davies

The award – from one of the oldest and most prestigious classical music magazines in the world – is a supreme honour for the label, and is especially encouraging during this time of crisis. Alpha Classics has been championing quality music-making for more than 20 years: rare repertoire that is frequently off the beaten track, and recorded in the best possible conditions by artists of all generations and from all walks of life. New talent also remains a top priority for the label. Firmly rooted in Baroque music since its beginning, Alpha has opened its doors to more diverse repertoire and adventurous programming since the arrival of Didier Martin at its head six years ago.

Three further Gramophone Awards were presented this year to Alpha Classics artists or recordings:

• Recital category: SI J’AI AIMÉ by Sandrine Piau (soprano), Le Concert de la Loge, Julien Chauvin (in collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane).

• Chamber Music category: VERESS BARTÓK recorded during the Lockenhaus festival by its artistic director Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), with Vilde Frang & Barnabás Kelemen (violin), Lawrence Power, Katalin Kokas (viola), Alexander Lonquich (piano).

• A Special Award within the context of the «Beethoven 250» celebrations to Martin Helmchen for his recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos 2 and 5 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, under the direction of Andrew Manze.

“I am proud and happy that our flagship label has received this prestigious award. It is a tribute to all the artists who have chosen to join us and to the work of a superb team. It also confirms that there is a place for those who champion culture and quality in the face of the deluge of commercial nonsense. The public, whether established or new, deserves only the best!”

~ Charles Adriaenssen, President of Outhere Music

Didier Martin, Director of Alpha Classics and CEO of Outhere Music, added: “It is more than an honour to receive this award. It is a particularly joyous gift that motivates us to keep going and stay on course. It’s also a huge encouragement for all the Alpha and Outhere teams who work tirelessly and passionately. In this moment of global pandemic – which comes on top of an ongoing crisis within the cultural sector – it is more urgent and crucial than ever to put our heads together and unite to save musical diversity. A high quality press is essential, and ever more important in the digital world.”

Concerto Award

Dvořák * Martinů

Dvořák: Piano Concerto in G minor; Martinů: Piano Concerto No. 4, ‘Incantation’

Ivo Kahánek (piano); Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Jakub Hrůša

Chamber Music
Martinu: The Complete Piano Trios
Smetana Trio: Jitka Čechová (piano), Jiří Vodička (violin) & Jan Páleníček (cello) (SU41972)
‘These are quite simply benchmark performances of these life-affirming works. The Smetana Trio proves hugely responsive to the Czech composer Martinů’s characteristic sprung rhythms, effervescent humour and contrasting moments of introspective lyricism. It’s an intoxicating mixture that leaves you puzzled as to why such incredible music has not yet established itself firmly in the repertory.’

Dvorak: Quintets Op. 81 & 97
Boris Giltburg (piano), Pavel Nikl (viola)
Pavel Haas Quartet (SU41952)
Throughout the slow movement, the playing of the solo lines is captivating…The Haas Quartet with Boris Giltburg provide both relaxation and a strong sense of purposeful energy…Excellently recorded,… — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, *****

Carbonelli: Sonate da Camera Nos. 1-6
Bojan Čičić (violin)
The Illyria Consort (DCD34194)
Čičić’s distinctive sound – sweet, slightly dry and exquisitely centred – is ideal for the taut beauty of Carbonelli’s solo lines. Crucially, Čičić fleshes out the composer’s ideas, filling rests… — BBC Music Magazine, September 2017, *****

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 26
Francesco Piemontesi (piano)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Manze (CKD544)
Piemontesi’s playing is mostly magnificent, with crystalline clarity, radiant tone and eloquent phrasing. In the fine and intriguing cadenzas, he shines with surety of purpose — BBC Music Magazine, October 2017, ***

Early Music
Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares
Elizabeth Kenny (lute), Phantasm (CKD527)
“Phantasm’s performances are totally convincing and absorbing…their acuity to the music’s ever-active emotional flux leaves them unafraid to use forceful gestures of articulation and dynamics to make a point

Orchestral
Haydn 2032 Volume 4 – Il Distratto
Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini (ALPHA674)
“As in the previous volumes, the orchestral playing is breathtaking in its accuracy -the sort of Haydn playing you dream of…this may well become the period-instrument Haydn cycle by which all others are measured.”

Gramophone 2015 – Chamber Award – Pavel Haas Quartet – Smetana String Quartets.
This is the Pavel Haas Quartet’s fourth Gramophone Chamber Award (not counting Recording of the Year) in under ten years! The quartet’s live performance of the slow movement of the 1st quartet was a particular highlight of the evening.