While there is no proof of any direct interaction between Handel and Caldara, it seems likely that their paths crossed in Italy between 1706 and 1710. Their careers then diverged, with Handel settling in London and Caldara becoming Vize-Hofkapellmeister to Charles VI in Vienna. One quality the two composers shared was the central role they both assigned to the bass voice, which is often employed in the 'arie di furore' so characteristic of Baroque opera. These are works designed to showcase the voice's range, agility and virtuosity. In this, his first solo recording, the Bolivian Jose Coca Loza offers a selection of arias composed by Handel for the great virtuosos of the age like Antonio Montagnana and Giuseppe Maria Boschi, and four Viennese arias written by Caldara for Christoph Praun. Also including various premiere recordings, the album offers a significant contribution to the rediscovery of the Baroque repertoire for bass. Accompanying the extraordinary Coca Loza is Andrea Marcon conducting La Cetra Basel orchestra on period instruments, a partnership whose acclaimed recording of Bach's Mass in B minor already features in the Arcana catalogue. In his first solo album, Bolivian composer Jose Coca Loza presents a selection of arias composed by Handel for great virtuosos of the time such as Antonio Montagnana and Giuseppe Maria Boschi, and four Viennese arias by Caldara for Christoph Praun. The CD, featuring several world premiere recordings, offers a significant contribution to the rediscovery of Baroque bass literature. Coca Loza will be accompanied by the La Cetra Basel ensemble directed by Andrea Marcon, who already appear in the Arcana catalogue with an acclaimed recording of Bach's Mass in B minor.

Handel's Baroque opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto unfolds here as a high-stakes drama of power, passion and survival. Dmitri Tcherniakov's powerful production strips the story to it's psychological core, placing political rivalry and a fiery love story within the claustrophobic setting of an underground bunker. Christophe Dumaux delivers a compelling Cesare, while Olga Kulchynska shines as a 'lyrical' Cleopatra in her Salzburg debut. With a superb supporting cast, above all Lucile Richardot as Cornelia 'with her smouldering mezzo' (BR Klassik) and Federico Fiorio as Sesto, Emmanuelle Haim conducts Le Concert d'Astree from the harpsichord, shaping 'a perfect whole' (Kurier) of musical brilliance and electrifying theatre.

Handel's Baroque opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto unfolds here as a high-stakes drama of power, passion and survival. Dmitri Tcherniakov's powerful production strips the story to it's psychological core, placing political rivalry and a fiery love story within the claustrophobic setting of an underground bunker. Christophe Dumaux delivers a compelling Cesare, while Olga Kulchynska shines as a 'lyrical' Cleopatra in her Salzburg debut. With a superb supporting cast, above all Lucile Richardot as Cornelia 'with her smouldering mezzo' (BR Klassik) and Federico Fiorio as Sesto, Emmanuelle Haim conducts Le Concert d'Astree from the harpsichord, shaping 'a perfect whole' (Kurier) of musical brilliance and electrifying theatre.

In Addio Amore, Kammerorchester Basel, soprano Jeanine de Bique, and countertenor Terry Wey present a programme of searing intensity and refined expressive beauty, exploring the fragile threshold between love and loss in 18th-century opera. Inspired by a world in which singing was not merely an expression of virtuosity, but the most direct language of the heart, this recording explores the emotional core of the farewell moment-when lovers, friends, and heroes are torn apart, and music becomes the only source of consolation. Across arias and duets of striking intimacy, the album reveals how composers from Albinoni to Hasse transformed separation, abandonment, and death into some of the most poignant musical utterances of their time, creating a shared language of expressive extremes where tenderness and grief exist side by side. For Jeanine de Bique and Terry Wey, this is a debut album on PENTATONE, while Kammerorchester Basel appeared on Anime Immortali (2023) and Haydn Stabat Mater (2023).

MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - ITALY: A Musical Tour of South Tyrol (NTSC)

ITALY


The Places
South Tyrol, in Northern Italy, has had a varied history, for many years as part of Austrian territory. The region remains largely German-speaking, although both German and Italian are used. Looming over the territory are the mountains, the Dolomites, with their strange shapes, and the Alps, while the valleys provide fertile ground for the production of wine.

The Music Music for the tour is taken from four Concerti grossi by Handel. Born in Halle in 1685, Handel had his first musical employment there and then in Hamburg, before moving in 1706 to Italy, where he remained until 1710, when he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover. He travelled almost at once to London, where he had been engaged to compose an Italian opera, and from 1712 until his death in 1759 settled in England, winning fame first as a composer of Italian opera and then as the creator of English oratorio.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 56 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The scenes shown all breathe an air of peace and tranquility. Starting with an evening landscape in Bohemia we move to a lake in the Tyrol to the Museo Vela with it's gesso figures Bavarian craftsmen fashioning glass and the Corniche near Cannes in the South of France. Other scenes include the ancient Chapel of St Sixtus at Eygalieres the Church of St Jakob at Tramin night in Madrid and a nocturnal view of Seville the whole culminating in the great Basilica of St Mark in Venice.

Alexandria, 48 BC: Caesar lands in Egypt and is handed the severed head of his rival Pompey. What follows is an opera of power, revenge, and seduction; Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy at war for the throne, Pompey's widow and son bent on vengeance, and Cleopatra winning Caesar by disguise, appearing as Virtue among the Muses to sing him into love. The English Concert and Harry Bicket continue their Handel series on Linn with this full, unabbreviated Giulio Cesare, written in 1724 for the castrato Senesino and the soprano Cuzzoni, and rarely recorded complete. Christophe Dumaux sings Caesar and Louise Alder is Cleopatra, with Beth Taylor, Paula Murrihy, John Holiday, Morgan Pearse, Meili LI, and Thomas Chenhall. This recording is the culmination of an international tour. After the ensemble's Carnegie Hall performance, The New York Times wrote: 'This ensemble sets a standard for Handel performance.'

This exceptional double album stands as a landmark historically informed recording of Handel's solo sonatas, uniting pioneering scholarship, extraordinary period-instrument artistry, and superb audiophile sound in one of the most compelling chamber music portraits of the Baroque era. The Ganassi Consort, joined by guest violinist Anne Rohrig, illuminate the astonishing breadth of Handel's imagination across four decades of his creative life, revealing music of remarkable elegance, invention, and emotional depth.

This program offers a generous and varied selection of arias by three of the greatest composers of the Baroque: Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Presented are dramatic and moving arias from Handel's Theodora, Jephta and Acis & Galatea, Purcell's King Arthur, Oedipus and Diocletian, and Bach's St. John and St. Matthew Passion. This recording is a vocal showcase of two of the most prominent young vocalists of today: tenor Guy Cutting and baritone Alvar Tiisler. Guy Cutting is recognised internationally for his compelling performances and refined musicianship, with a particular reputation in the music of J.S. Bach. A regular soloist with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe, he has performed across Europe's leading concert halls and festivals including La Scala Milan, the BBC Proms, The Philharmonie Berlin, Tonhalle Zurich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He has collaborated with many of the world's foremost period conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Maasaki Suzuki, John Butt, Paul McCreesh, Jos van Veldhoven and Marcus Creed. Baritone Alvar Tiisler has performed with orchestras such as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, the Sinfonietta Riga, the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, the Barrocade Ensemble, and the Estonian Sinfonietta. Ensemble Floridante is an Estonian Early Music ensemble founded in Tallinn in 2014. It is anchored by two core members: harpsichordist Saale Fischer and viola da gamba and cello player Villu Vihermae. The ensemble brings together several dozen professional Estonian musicians united by their passion for Early Music.

One of the most famous English contraltos of the twentieth century sadly passed away at a young age. However, she left behind several memorable recordings, including those made with some of the greatest conductors of the period. These recordings are meticulously restored from the original sources.

VERITAS X2 SERIES is the leading range of early music recordings on the market. This new batch of ten essential reissues introduces into the Veritas range, for the first time, key recordings from the historic Erato catalogue. John Eliot Gardiner is at his best in this milestone recording showcasing the full splendor of Handel's music. Among the first historically-informed versions of these beloved choral works, the Dixit Dominus initially sold more than 500,000 copies around the world.

in 1952 Kathleen Ferrier made her last and perhaps greatest record... four arias each of Bach and Handel. The (engineers) ensured the utmost fidelity (Penguin Guide Rosette) "This is a recording that honours all concerned and in which Ferrier shows the English art of oratorio singing at it's finest. She is in superb voice and is accompanied with scrupulous artistry by Boult and the L.P.O.... The finest thing of all is All is Fulfilled... The hushed way (she) sings "This mournful night" and the sudden broken utterance "It is finished", dwell long in the memory. Having listened to contraltos singing Return, O God of Hosts at competitions, I can pay no higher compliment to Ferrier than to say I felt I was hearing it for the first time... It is rare that a disc gives such satisfaction in almost every respect" (Gramophone)

CDs of opera and oratorio arias and duets by Handel are hardly a rare event. Last year’s 250th anniversary of the composer’s death lead to something of a glut in the market. In this respect, Chandos - under its early music Chaconne label - has made a wise choice in waiting until this year to release this recording of dramatic duets. It enables us to sit back and assess it on its own terms rather than as yet another anniversary act of homage.

And this disc really is worth considering closely. Superbly recorded, it sounds alive, clear and acoustically rich. It also features a well balanced programme, mixing operatic with oratorio duets that cover the full range of emotional experiences endured by Handel’s characters – from painful separation to joyous reunion; and from loving harmony to malign scheming.

The playing from the English Concert under Harry Bicket is excellent. Their performance is a fully ‘authentic’ affair on original instruments, with the usual sections of the baroque orchestra augmented by organ, archlute and baroque guitar. The recording balance brings them more to the fore than is often the case in Handel recordings, and turns them from stage supporters, to fully fledged actors in each of the short scenarios. Take for example the painterly introduction to ‘To thee, thou glorious son of worth’ from Theodora (track 6), or the plaintive flutes that accompany ‘Vivo in te’ from Tamerlano (track 9).

And what of the two soloists – soprano Rosemary Joshua and mezzo Sarah Connolly? Both are experienced Handelians in the recording studio and, more importantly, on stage, and therefore bring an insight, vigour and commitment to each of their roles. Their voices are also sufficiently varied to enable the listener to differentiate between them: Joshua’s is bright and lithe; Connolly’s warm and supple. Occasionally their blend is a little indistinct – in ‘Notte cara!’ from Ottone, for example (track 5) – and Connolly’s characterisation of roles originally sung by male castrati could do with a little beefing up. But for sheer vocal beauty, there is very little to fault.

John-Pierre Joyce, MusicWeb International

"This is what happens when you give every bar of Handel’s music its own raison d’être and breathe every wisp of nuance into his flavourful duets and those prolonged “da capo” arias. This concert, delivered by the English Concert under Harry Bicket, offered two artists of great refinement: Connolly and the elegant soprano Rosemary Joshua. Actually, there was a third great artist here, too: Bicket led his ensemble with both dramatic concision and pungent expression."

-- The Times (London)

London Early Opera continue their new series of Handel's works with the second volume of pieces composed in Italy. Both volumes of Handel in Italy explore the young composer's Italian years through his cantatas, sacred pieces, operatic works and instrumental compositions. Featuring performances from internationally acclaimed soloists, the sopranos Sophie Bevan and Mary Bevan with their uncle, baritone Benjamin Bevan, conducted and conceived by Bridget Cunningham.