Handel, G.F.: Giove in Argo [Opera]

TRIO SONATAS

HANDEL IN LONDON

At the beginning of the Sixties, one of the pioneers of the modern philology, Karl Richter, finally recorded, in German, the first modern discographic edition of Handel's Der Messias, which has here been restored. Karl Richter is best remembered for his interpretations of Bach and Handel. His performances were known for their intense and festive manner. He avoided tempo fluctuations that were common in interpretations of his era, and he devoted much attention to ensemble balance. His recordings are notable for "discipline, rhythmic tautness and expressive intensity." This production features soloists Maurice Andre, Hedwig Bilgram, Elmar Schloter, as well as the Muenchener Bach-Chor and the Muenchener Bach-Orchester.

HANDEL: Cantatas (HWV 82, 142 and 150)

The Coronation of King George II was a magnificent event, deploying great pomp and ceremonial, elevated by music of an equal splendor. Handel, the celebrated opera composer, was commissioned by the new king to compose the music for this grand ceremony which was due to be held at Westminster Abbey. His antiphons stood by ceremonial works by other composers such as Henry Purcell, John Blow, Thomas Tallis, John Farmer, Orlando Gibbons and William Child, intermingled with superb fanfares and processions of drums. The result is one of the most beautiful ceremonial works ever written for a coronation in England.

Classical Music

In 1735 Handel gave up opera due to dwindling public demand and turned his attention to the great sacred compositions. However, he took with him essential elements of the opera and transferred them to the oratorio, which he also called Sacred Dramas. The countertenor Franz Vitzthum has selected a number of wonderful Sacred Arias from various of these Sacred Dramas, in which his light, bell-pure alto voice comes into its own. He has compiled these arias into an exciting programme, which is finely set in scene by the Orfeo Baroque Orchestra conducted by Julian Tölle.

This release celebrates the 300th anniversary of Handel's great Brockes-Passion: a long-neglected masterpiece by this most brilliant composer. Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music are joined by a stellar line-up of soloists in this recording, the culmination of two years of scholarly research. To create its new edition of the score (Handel's original being long-lost), the Academy of Ancient Music assembled a team of scholars and musicologists from the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, King's College London and more, to work alongside Music Director Richard Egarr and editor Leo Duarte.

Consulting 15 manuscript sources from 11 collections in 5 countries, they have produced the most substantial edition of this work yet, including as appendices extra movements and Charles Jennens' partial English translation in their world premiere recordings. A deluxe 220-page album booklet accompanies this release, featuring new contemporary artworks inspired by Handel's Brockes-Passion, full notes, the first contemporary publication of the original Kurrentschrift text alongside the modern German libretto and a brand new English translation, several additional articles, details of other composer's take on Brockes' visceral libretto, and much more. This album is perhaps the most definitive guide to this astonishing work yet published.

Soprano Elizabeth Watts takes the limelight as the Daughter of Zion, with tenor Robert Murray and bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum as Evangelist and Christ respectively. They are joined by Tim Mead as Judas, Gwilym Bowen as Peter, and Ruby Hughes, Rachael Lloyd, Nicky Spence and Morgan Pearse as Faithful Souls, amongst others. The Academy of Ancient Music, and the Choir of AAM, recorded this new release around a 300th anniversary performance on Good Friday 2019 at London's Barbican Hall. The Academy of Ancient Music's exploration and re-discovery of Handel's Brockes-Passion has been a fascinating journey of discovery that is only the beginning, in the modern era, for this major work of Handel's. "A gruesomely graphic work to break Bach's monopoly" (Financial Times)

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REVIEW:

From the French-style opening tableau, the only extended chorus in the work, Egarr and his responsive forces hardly put a foot wrong. The superb playing and singing of the AAM go beyond mere notions of good Handelian style, while all the soloists ‘live’ their roles with operatic vividness. The words – overly sentimental or brutal for modern taste – always matter.

– Gramophone

Handel's collection is regarded as homage to Corelli's Concerti Grossi Op.6 and the enthusiasm of the audience Englichen for Italians, which led to "corellisierenden" works long after Corelli's death (1713). But Handel's Concerti Grossi in it's more than the model also. So he let's et al the Concertino act independently from Tutti, which he reached a wide varied musical history.

Handel's solo sonatas exist in versions for various wind instruments as well as for violin, in some cases differing in their respective keys and number of movements. Many were reworked in later printed editions so that they would be playable on the transverse flute, an instrument that was becoming ever more popular in England at that time. This release of the complete wind sonatas takes into account the different versions of the pieces. The soloists are proven experts in their field: flutist Barthold Kuijken, recorder player Peter Van Heyghen and oboist Marcel Ponseele.

Handel: Complete Italian Cantatas For Bass / Raimund Nolte, Batzdorfer Hofkapelle, Composer: George Frideric Handel, Performer: Raimund Nolte, Orchestra/Ensemble: Batzdorfer Hofkapelle, Number of Discs: 1. In their recording of the complete Italian cantatas for bass solo by George Frideric Handel, the bass-baritone Raimund Nolte and the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle have tackled a repertoire which makes extensive demands on the singer. The two cantatas Nell'africane selve HWV 136a and Cuopre tal volta il cielo HWV 98, probably composed for the bass Antonio Manna in Naples in the summer of 1708, belong to the most spectacular works Handel ever wrote with their exorbitant vocal range, breathtaking leaps and bizarre changes of register. As Karl B�hmer illustrates in his informative booklet text, these two cantatas are deeply embedded in the tradition of the Italian "contra basso" singing style mastered only by a few exceptional singers who were able to combine an extremely low register with a sinuous baritone register. The other two cantatas included on this recording, Dalla guerra amorosa HWV 102a (already a 'hit' during Handel's lifetime) and Spande ancor a mio dispetto HWV 165 are somewhat more moderate in their technical demands. These two works also focus on the description of natural phenomena and the metaphor of the war of love for the emotional state of mind expressed by the protagonist.

On occasion of the 300th anniversary of the first performance of Handel's Brockes Passion in Hamburg (4 April 1719), Accent presents a 2017 live performance at the G�ttingen Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings conducting the Festivalorchestra G�ttingen, the NDR Chor, and an excellent cast of singers such as the Dutch soprano Johannette Zomer and the young German tenor Sebastian Kohlhepp (as Evangelist). Barthold Heinrich Brockes' passion text is one of the most frequently set in the history of music, and was the only German text used by George Frideric Handel as the basis for a large-scale sacred composition. The original score was lost, but the surviving version, which was hand-copied by Johann Sebastian Bach, makes it possible for us to hear this 1719 oratorio today.

David returns from the battle bearing the head of the giant Goliath – as a reward, King Saul promises him the hand of his horrified daughter Merab. But when David receives more popular acclaim than the King, Saul is consumed by jealousy. His daughter Michal advises David to soothe the incensed monarch with the calming strains of a harp. But Saul’s rage is merely exacerbated, and he finally casts a spear at David. When he misses, Saul orders his son Jonathan to slay David … When setting this Old Testament material to music in 1738, George Frideric Handel worked together for the first time with the librettist Charles Jennens, who later on, for example, put together the text for the Messiah. The work was premiered on 16 January 1739 in the King’s Theatre at the Haymarket in London.

George Frederic Handel wrote little for his native tongue, but what he did demonstrates a particular level of contemplative pietism while still employing the familiar techniques of Italian opera. Praise of the beauty of nature and eternal life are the subjects of the sacred poems by his contemporary Barthold Heinrich Brockes which Handel set to music in his "Nine German Arias". Each of the arias celebrates an aspect of nature – from the beauty of a flaming rose to the sweetness of silence – with extraordinary tenderness and sincerity. In these nine pieces for soprano and a small group of instruments, to be chosen at will, Handel drew in many places on music from his own operas, with the voice part in the German arias adapted to be less virtuosic and more deeply expressive. The musical relationships with Handel’s opera arias are evident in the endless ingenuity of his characterization and the expressive, articulate melodies with which the soprano and the violin obbligato create their vivid images. The young German soprano Marie Friederike Schöder is accompanied in her beautiful interpretation of the arias by the specialist ensemble Batzdorfer Hofkapelle.