“Alexander’s Feast or The Power of Musick. An ode wrote in honour of St. Cecilia” dates from 1736, a time when Handel was attempting to counter the dwindling interest in his Italian operas with oratorios in English. Indeed this work, which resembles an oratorio, found immediate popularity and was quickly counted alongside “Messiah” among his best-loved compositions. Only “Acis and Galatea” and “Messiah” were performed more frequently than “Alexander’s Feast” during Handel’s lifetime. This high-profile recording features the singers Miriam Feuersinger, Danial Johannsen and Matthias Helm, together with the Kammerchor Feldkirch and Concerto Stella Matutina under Benjamin Lack.

Barthold Heinrich Brockes wrote a libretto on the Passion of Christ – based on the account in Matthew’s Gospel – which was set to music by many composers of his time, including Reinhard Keiser, Georg Philip Telemann and George Frideric Handel. It is Handel’s version of the latter that the period-instrument ensemble Arcangelo has chosen to present here. Under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, these specialists in the Baroque repertory are joined by the voices of Sandrine Piau, whose numerous Handel recordings are regarded as a benchmark, the tenor Stuart Jackson and the baritone Konstantin Krimmel, recently revealed in a debut recital for Alpha (Saga, ALPHA549). Together they resurrect the operatic splendor of a work that was first performed in 1719 and is thought to have influenced numerous passages of J. S. Bach’s St John Passion, written a few years later.

REVIEW:

Conductor Jonathan Cohen is working with excellent soloists. They're led by soprano Sandrine Piau, who has a crushing 14 arias and brings personality to each one. Tenor Stuart Jackson has a big, exciting voice, and baritone Konstantin Krimmel is splendid in his duet with Mary Bevan. The oratorio also has smaller solo roles, here taken by members of the choir, and all are well handled.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

THE TWO PIANISTS featured here were contemporaries, both English. Both made a small number of recordings for Columbia between 1926 and 1930 and today are largely forgotten. Howard-Jones was of an academic nature whose interpretations were described as having ‘scholarly and fastidious profundity’. He excelled in Bach and Brahms and his ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ recordings in particular offer playing of rare spirituality and beauty. As a friend of the composer and dedicatee of five of the piano pieces, his Delius recordings, which comprise the complete meagre published output for solo piano by the composer, have a unique authority. Edward Isaacs, who revelled in the repertoire of Chopin and Liszt, was described as ‘a kindly genial companion and a witty charming raconteur’. His recordings radiate brilliance and joie de vivre. This is the first time most of these discs have been reissued since the days of the original 78s. An added bonus is the discovery of a wonderful previously unpublished Howard-Jones recording of Beethoven’s Rondo in G major.