Alpha Classics

The debut of the Taracea ensemble creates a bridge between past and present. The Madrid-based trio’s artistic project is to combine early music, jazz and improvisation. Its founder Rainer Seiferth , a German musician who lives in Spain, plays the vihuela, the Spanish counterpart of the Renaissance lute. Belén Nieto is a flute and recorder specialist and a regular member of Jordi Savall’s ensembles. The double bass player Miguel Rodrigáñez is at home in jazz, flamenco and classical music. If there is a movement for ‘new’ early music, Michel Godard was one of its founders: the French virtuoso of the serpent blends in perfectly with the group. Percussionist David Mayoral combines East and West on zarb, riq and darbuka. The young Spanish singer and percussionist Isabel Martín performs a song by the Spanish Renaissance composer Juan del Encina. This album is called ‘ Akoé ’ – ‘Listening’ in ancient Greek: each of the musicians brings his or her own sound and ideas and becomes an integral part of an inextricably interwoven texture. ALPHA597 • Released 2022

NEW RELEASE! •• 'HIMMELFAHRT' WAS OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR JULY 2024 •• Click here to read our blog about this release! Vox Luminis has teamed up with the Freiburger Barockorchester again, and together they celebrate music for Ascension Day. This topic inspired great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, four of whose Ascension cantatas have been preserved. The festive and colourful Cantata BWV 128 was composed towards the end of Bach’s second year in Leipzig. The Ascension Oratorio BWV 11 was written for larger forces and ends with a triumphant chorus. In the case of Georg Philipp Telemann, more than thirty cantatas for Ascension Day alone have survived. The cantata Ich fahre auf zu meinem Vater (I ascend unto my Father) was composed in 1721 and receives its world premiere recording here. Lionel Meunier’s ensemble and the FBO give a fervent rendering of this captivating music with its texts focusing on the afterlife. Freiburger Barockorchester Vox Luminis Lionel Meunier director Viola Blache soprano Zsuzsi Tóth soprano Alexander Chance alto William Shelton alto Raphael Höhn tenor Sebastian Myrus bass Tobias Wicky bass ALPHA1032 • Released 2024

Vox Luminis already boasts an impressive discography, orientated mainly towards sacred music and German repertoire (its CD devoted to music by Heinrich Schütz won the Gramophone ‘Best Recording of the Year’ Award in 2013). Now this ensemble, founded nearly fifteen years ago by Lionel Meunier , has scaled one of the summits of English music: the legend of King Arthur and his mentor the wizard Merlin inspired one of Henry Purcell ’s most popular successes, King Arthur, a semi-opera on which Purcell lavished all his exuberant musical and theatrical inventiveness. In this revelatory new reading, the Vox Luminis vocal sound always perfectly matches the mix of choruses and highly characterized vocal solos. Prior to recording, the group presented the work in many semi-staged concerts, notably in Britain, where this Franco-Belgian ensemble has enjoyed enormous success, becoming one of the most respected European ambassadors for baroque music-making. Vox Luminis Lionel Meunier director Sophie Junker, Zsuzsi Tóth, Stefanie True, Caroline Weynants, Olivier Berten, Robert Buckland, Daniel Elgersma, Marcus Fansworth, David Feldman, Jan Kullmann, David Lee, Sebastian Myrus voices ALPHA430 • Released 2018