Haydn: Fortepiano Sonatas, Adagio & Variations

For his first disc, Bobby Mitchell, ‘Alpha winner’ of the legendary Bruges Competition, proposes a programme devoted to Joseph Haydn. His interpretation, juvenile yet based on solid musicological research, lets us rediscover all of Haydn’s humour as well as the depth of his feelings. It also reveals an unusual musical personality and an absolutely remarkable pianist.

Bobby Mitchell is a perfect example of Alpha’s desire to bear witness to the talent of young artists and to accompany them in their development: a way for the label to contribute to the future of ‘early music’.

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Haydn: Cello Concertos 1 & 2

Born in 1971 Anne Gastinel began playing the cello at the age of four while studying simultaneously the piano and the oboe. She gave her television début at the age of 10 as concert soloist. Five years later Anne Gastinel finished first place at the Music Conservatory in Lyon went on to complete her brilliant studies at the National Music Conservatory in Paris.

In 1989, she met Yo Yo Ma, Janos Starker and Paul Tortelier who later became her masters and profoundly marked her personal musical evolution.

By the age of 18, Anne Gastinel had performed in over fifty cities throughout Europe, won the 1st prize of the International Competition of Scheveningen and became the first French artist in forty years to reach the finals of the International Competition of Prague.

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Haydn & Hummel: Trumpet Concertos

“Balsom plays them all with great virtuosity, varied toned and good style. The German Chamber Philharmonic provides spirited, carefully detailed support.” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2008 *****

“…a stunning recital from a poet of this traditionally martial instrument.” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2008

“The first movement of the Haydn is a model of concision which Balsom plays gloriously” --Classic FM Magazine, December 2010

“Haydn and Hummel composed their concertos for Anton Weidinger's newfangled keyed trumpet, whose timbre was appreciably softer than the natural trumpet (contemporaries likened it to an oboe or clarinet). More than any performance, Alison Balsom brings out the mellow, even veiled, colouring of so much of the writing.

Where clarion brilliance is in order she can peal out with the best of them. But what lingers in the memory is the lyrical grace of her phrasing, and her delicacy of shading.

In the entertaining Hummel Concerto, with its palpable Mozart cribs, she mingles tonal subtlety and swagger in the opening movement, spins a refined, beautifully modulated line in the slow movement, and makes the finale's pyrotechnics properly dazzling. The spruce Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie match her all the way in sensitivity and rhythmic verve.

Moving back in time, Balsom savours the bold, bugling fanfares of Torelli's miniature concerto and makes a persuasive case for a pleasant, if hardly distinctive, mid-18th-century concerto by the Czech Johann Baptist Neruda, written for the corno da caccia but forgivably pilfered by trumpeters hard-up for solo concertos. In sum, a stunning recital from a poet of this traditionally martial instrument.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

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Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 33 Nos. 1-6 (complete)

“amazing precision of intonation and articulation. Yet the piecing [sic] intensity of their virtually vibrato-less style, enhanced by the bright, resonant Hyperion recording, can sometimes weary the ear.” --BBC Music Magazine, September 2013 ***

“[the playing] is indeed good, the lovely plangency of gut strings combining with that characteristic 'ticking' that's so much a feature of ancient instruments...These musicians know how to have gentle fun together - and they seem happy to welcome interested listeners in to share it with them.” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2013

The London Haydn Quartet

A fourth volume of Haydn String Quartets finds period band The London Haydn Quartet on sparkling form. Their previous recordings have been praised for the ‘glowing sound of gut strings played perfectly in tune … the ensemble’s delicacy of nuance and sensitivity to harmonic colour, treating the listener as a privileged eavesdropper’ (Gramophone).

This competitively priced set contains the six Op 33 quartets, which Haydn wrote in Esterhazy after neglecting the genre for a decade, and which immediately became popular around Europe on publication.

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Haydn: Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 11

“Hamelin and Les Violons du Roy play that gypsy finale [of the D major Concerto] with irresistable verve...If there's an incongruity between the sound of Hamelin's modern piano and that of the period-band that accompanies him, it's one that's easy to get used to...it's hard not to enjoy Hamelin's showmanship and the eloquence of his slow movements is an added bonus.” --BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ****

“Hamelin could probably hum these concertos into a battered plastic kazoo and they’d still sound great. Everything works. There’s the requisite dynamism and energy, coupled with a superhuman lightness of touch...Hyperion’s sound is beyond reproach. Another entry in my provisional "Best of 2013" list.” --The Arts Desk, April 2013

“[in the F major] Hamelin weaves an enchanting spell, approaching an almost Mozartian pathos...[in the finale of the D major] he pushes forward without dropping the tempo, heightening the delirium of this whirling gypsy dance. Add to that some unmarked col legno earlier in the same movement for an authentic touch of Hungarian paprika and the result cannot fail to raise a smile.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2013

“Hamelin’s songful legato in the F major’s largo cantabile and bravura in the presto finales make the strongest possible cases for these works, and I don’t know a more exhilarating account of the D major — but it ought to be the disc’s climax.” --Sunday Times, 21st April 2013

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