Handel' oratorio Semele was composed in 1743 and tells of a beautiful mortal, whose short but spectacular love affair with Jupiter. King of the Gods, comes to a terrifying end in consequence of both her own vanity and the scheming of Jupiter' insanely.
London Calling / Oman, Beyer, Austrian Baroque Company
Fra Bernardo
CD
$20.99May 22, 2020
This new release gives us a small impression of what was played for entertainment in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in the houses of London's high society. The variety of the programme ranges from typical British melancholy to ostinato melodies by Nicola Matteis, an Italian violinist who, like Handel, who is also represented here, enriched the musical life on the Thames as a musical guest worker and Englishman of choice, to the exuberance of the 'Ayres'. The famous baroque violinist Amandine Beyer and the recorder player Michael Oman are supported by the ABC - Austrian Baroque Company.
Of all English oratorios Handel’s Messiah has always been the most overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of his oratorios and the most purely sacred in its choice of subject matter. The vivid choral writing- there are more choruses in Messiah than in any other Handel oratorio- coupled with the expressive density of the solo arias, have ensured its status as one of the greatest choral masterpieces in the Western canon. Since winning the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Award and conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, Edward Polochick has attracted international attention as an orchestral, operatic, and choral conductor. He is the founding Artistic Director of Concert Artists of Baltimore since 1987. He is also in his 20th season as Music Director of Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska. From 1979-1999 he was the Director of the Baltimore Symphony Chorus, and since 1979 he has been at the Peaboedy Conservatory as Associate Conductor of the Orchestra, Director of Choral Ensembles, and Opera Conductor.
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REVIEW:
What we have here can be described as a ‘popular’ approach, using a large number of performers with a conventional modern chamber orchestra, and chorus capable of lifting the roof off the concert hall, as they almost do in Hallelujah and in a triumphal Worthy is the lamb. You will enjoy the passion he infuses into the music throughout, and he obtains a neat participation from his Baltimore musicians.
Jennifer O’Loughin's account of O daughter of Zion has joy as she negotiates the fast running passages, and there's a deep sincerity in her I know my redeemer Liveth. The tenor, Nicholas Phan, tastefully decorates his arias and slows down proceedings in his deeply felt account of the recit and aria, Behold, and see if there be any sorrow. Sidney Outlaw’s bass voice warms as the performance progresses and eventually gives an enjoyable The trumpet Shall Sound.
Cleopatra, Adelaide, Alcina, Laodice, Medea, Atalanta, Melissa & Morgana: Audacious fighters, indomitable queens, and evil witches: On their debut album, soprano Margriet Buchberger and the musicians of Il Giratempo put Handel’s strongest and most mesmerizing women center stage - where they rightfully belong. The “wild” women in Georg Friedrich Handel’s operas are truly queens of their own destiny. They rule over empires, fight in bloody battles, are courageous hunters and passionate lovers. Their adventures are gems in a sea of female characters bound to tradition and cliché. “Good girls” may go to heaven, but in baroque opera they do so either as victims or trophies. At best they come into their own when they sacrifice themselves virtuously to the mercy of fate and/or the men surrounding them. We have searched for strong, self-determined women – and found fascinating, modern characters, brought to life through beautiful music.
Unlike Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the supreme composers of the high Baroque, Handel was not by profession a church composer. He did write a number of anthems and smaller sacred works and invented the English oratorio, a hybrid of sacred and secular elements that assures his renown in sacred music, particularly through a single work of that genre, Messiah. Messiah bookends this ten-album set, with a which begins with the original, and ends with Mozart's arrangement of the work. Also included are Saul, Alexander's Feast, Belshazzar, and Dettinger te Deum. These reference recordings are presented by the biggest names of baroque music scene: Karl Richter, Helmuth Rilling, Ulrich Stötzel.
Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks / Lamon, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Tafelmusik
CD
$18.99May 29, 2012
REVIEW:
Thankfully, as presented here by the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, this is no one-to-a-part, minimalist realization. I should probably have mentioned well before getting this far into the review that this recording, originally released on Sony Classical, was made at a time, 1997, when period-instrument ensembles still had more than four or five players on their payrolls. Thus, the performance here includes 11 violins, three violas, three cellos, two double basses, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, timpani, and harpsichord continuo. So, for all intents and purposes, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra sounds like a modern-instrument ensemble, which, from my perspective, is a good thing.
This is a wonderful disc, and not just for Handel lovers. The music is invigorating, splendidly performed, and exceptionally well recorded. I recommend it to everyone.
Following the success of 100 Christmas Classics (Capriccio C7331) comes Christmas Meditation, featuring 100 choral and vocal works from across the centuries. The set encompasses sacred Renaissance treasures including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Bach/Gounod’s Ave Maria, Handel’s Baroque masterpiece Messiah (‘He shall feed his flock’) and classic Christmas carols such as It Came Upon A Midnight Clear by Richard Storrs Willis and Franz Xaver Gruber’s Stille Nacht (‘Silent Night’). Featuring some of the most renowned choral institutions, Christmas Meditation offers listeners a classical Christmas to remember.
REVIEWS:
A rather sumptuous collection of seasonal choral works, instrumental pieces and carols. --BBC Music Magazine
After the success of the 5 CD box “100 Christmas classics” (Capriccio C7331), the new 5 CD box “Christmas Meditation” contains 100 choral and instrumental works from past centuries. It contains works from 43(!) composers, including excerpts from Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Bach/Gounod's Ave Maria, Handel's Baroque masterpiece Messiah, and traditional and classical carols such as "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" by American composer Richard Storrs Willis, and Franz Xaver Gruber's "Silent Night”. With some of the most renowned choirs, “Christmas Meditation” offers you an unforgettable Christmas.
In addition to world-famous Christmas music, in this box you will also discover previously unknown but no less beautiful work by Bruch, Rheinberger, Carl Neuner, Wagenseil, Robert Fuchs, Johann Philipp Reichert or Johann von Herbeck. Cannot be missed!
A glance at ensemble concert plans, opera and festival programmes and recording catalogues shows that George Frederick Handel's music enjoys enormous and unwavering popularity today. Even during his lifetime, Handel's works could be heard in his homeland as well as in his adoptive country. Following a roaring success as "Caro Sassone" among the Italians his fame spread like wildfire throughout Europe before the composer finally settled among the British in London. This release from Le Petit Concert Baroque presents some of Handel's most famous selections, including several pieces from the opera "Rinaldo," from which this album takes it's title.
Handel: Organ Concertos, Opp. 4 & 7 / Haselböck, Orchester Wiener Akademie
Alpha
CD
$26.99Jul 09, 2021
Handel is best known to the wider public for his large-scale choral and orchestral works, but his organ music is equally precious. It was the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels who, diverting him from a career in the law, spotted his exceptional abilities on the instrument. By the age of seventeen, Handel was already the resident organist at the Domkirche in Halle, and he was later to defeat Domenico Scarlatti in a contest of virtuosity during his time in Rome. Martin Haselböck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie have recorded the Organ Concertos opp.4 and 7 in the prestigious Vienna Musikverein, world-famous for its acoustics. Haselböck plays on the hall’s imposing Rieger organ in what is one of its very first recordings. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the fourth organ in the Musikverein since the hall opened in 1870. With its considerable dimensions – much larger than the organs Handel used to play on – the instrument offers a tonal palette rich in contrasts.
REVIEW:
The performances, while undoubtedly in good Baroque style (the period Wiener Akademie are excellent), offer the latent thrill of a large instrument in a large hall. If for some this might not seem the stuff of a definitive recording, it is certainly fun to listen to.
Handel's Queens: Cuzzoni & Faustina / Cunningham, Crowe, Bevan, London Early Opera
Signum Classics
CD
$27.99Jul 19, 2019
Handel’s Queens features some of the most exquisite pieces of music written by G.F. Handel and his contemporaries for the two finest singers of the eighteenth century, Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni. Often wrongfully framed as rivals, these dazzling new recordings with Mary Bevan and Lucy Crowe reveal the distinctive yet versatile talent of the Italian vocalists. Led by London Early Opera Director, Bridget Cunningham, Handel’s Queens serves an example of the group’s dedication to imaginative programming and outstanding period performance, placing them at the forefront of baroque research.
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REVIEW:
The choice of singers in Handel’s Queens seems perfect, for the two excellent and appropriate voices are neatly contrasted while displaying the required virtuosity. Cunningham’s contribution is adroit, with pace and style aplenty and she conducts from the harpsichord.
Played by specialized Early Music Groups, including L’Arte Dell’arco, Musica Amphion, Violini Capricciosi, Musica ad Rhenum, and many others.
The 17th and 18th centuries marked the era of Enlightenment, overseas exploration, unprecedented European economic expansion and a flourishing of art and culture, not to mention the birth of the greatest composers in history. From concertos to fantasias, suites to sonatas, Brilliant Classics presents a comprehensive and concise overview of this innovative and groundbreaking period in musical history, the Baroque era. The set opens with Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni and his famous Concerti a5, in which he was the first Italian composer to use the oboe as the solo instrument in a concerto. He influenced J.S. Bach, who is fittingly the next composer to feature. Bach pioneered the Concerto Grosso form, with several soloists plus accompaniment, as opposed to just one. There is no better example of this than the famous Brandenburg Concertos, where solos are shared between a group of instruments and the various timbres of the different instruments make for varied and interesting pieces. In the first concerto, Bach employs horns, then mainly used as open-air hunting instruments, a twist on the refined concert piece performed in an elegant chamber setting. Bach also admired the work of Alessandro Marcello. Although Marcello’s work is lesser known, his music is notable for its forward-looking nature. Far from copying the styles and structures of his contemporaries, Marcello’s music is unique in its emotional impact; it’s dark and tempestuous, inflicted with a romantic streak. Passing via selected works by Purcell, Corelli and Telemann, Alessandro Stradella’s string sinfonias are found towards the end of the set. Stradella lived only to the age of 38 and yet he wrote over 300 works. He also found time to conduct a string of love affairs leading to his untimely demise at the hands of an assassin hired by a rival.
This outstanding live recording is the first ever collaboration between director Luc Bondy, conductor William Christie, and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. This recording was taken in December of 2004 at the Opera National de Paris. Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie, does a beautiful job of performing the score by G. F. Handel.
Handel: Water Music / Huss, Haydn Sinfonietta Wien
BIS
SACD
$21.99Sep 24, 2013
Manfred Huss and the period orchestra Haydn Sinfonietta Wien are internationally acclaimed for their rousing performances of music by Haydn and Schubert. They now bring their indomitable enthusiasm and collective expertise to one of Handel's most famous and popular works, rounding off the disc with the composer's far less well-known, but equally resplendent Ouverture from the Occasional Oratorio.
The Handel Album is the Aulos Ensemble's fifth in a series of critically acclaimed releases for Centaur Records, which include a collection of Christmas music, as well as albums dedicated to Rameau, Telemann and the Bach family. Soprano Dominique Labelle, whose voice has been called "angelic," "silvery," and "vibrant", is noted for her probing explorations of the repertoire from the Baroque to new music. This selection of Handel's masterful operatic arias and other vocal excerpts is interspersed with individual movements from his instrumental Trio Sonata and Concerto masterpieces.
After finishing the chorus ‘How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees’ in February 1751, Handel noted in the autograph score that he couldn’t continue his work on Jephtha because of eye problems. Later in the year, he regained his eyesight and was able to complete the work in the autumn. The problems returned however, and in January 1753 a London newspaper reported that ‘Mr Handel has at length, unhappily, quite lost his sight’. Jephtha was thus to become Handel's last oratorio, and indeed his last major work. It is nevertheless no less a masterpiece than his earlier works, and contains some of his noblest music.
The plot of this ‘Sacred Drama’ is loosely based on the story of Jephtha in the Old Testament: a father who in order to win the the Israelites’ struggle against the Ammonites makes a rash promise to God, and after his victory is compelled to sacrifice his own daughter. The situation gives rise to music of touching poignancy, as well as great choral set-pieces.
This rousing live performance, recorded in 2008 in the Stavanger Concert Hall, boasts a roster of soloists headed by the fine British tenor James Gilchrist as Jephtha, as well as the eminent Belgian choir Collegium Vocale Gent, all backed up by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. At the helm of these large forces is Fabio Biondi, the Baroque violinist and conductor who since 2005 has been artistic director of the Stavanger orchestra in the baroque and classical repertoires.
![Handel, G.: Semele [Oratorio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1379217.jpg?v=1786820546&width=800)
![Handel, G.: Semele [Oratorio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/61-HVpQzZHL_9d2d766c-2a40-4b8e-8de9-42c4bd8f030e.jpg?v=1786820546&width=800)
![Handel, G.: Semele [Oratorio]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1379217.jpg?v=1786820546&width=400)
![Handel: Hercules / DiDonato, Christie, Les Arts Florissants [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3343345.jpg?v=1786828298&width=800)
![Handel: Hercules / DiDonato, Christie, Les Arts Florissants [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/91aD-Et2-1L.jpg?v=1786828298&width=800)
![Handel: Hercules / DiDonato, Christie, Les Arts Florissants [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3343345.jpg?v=1786828298&width=400)
