Handel’s Messiah is already very well represented on the market with dozens of existing recordings and new productions appearing at regular intervals. Yet this is a very special version, carefully crafted by the Prague-based Collegium Vocale and Collegium 1704 under the baton of Vaclav Luks, founder of the ensemble and one of the most exciting conductors of the Baroque and Classical repertoire. The fine young singers Giulia Semenzato, Benno Schachtner, Krystian Adam, and Krešimir Stražanac joined the ensembles for two moving live performances in Prague’s Rudolfinum in March 2018, and those performances are now presented here. Collegium 1704 and the Collegium Vocale 1704 were founded in 2005. Since 2007, Collegium 1704 has been ensemble in residence of the St. Wenceslas Music Festival in Ostrava and a regular guest at leading European festivals and concert venues in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and more.

Throughout his life, the oboe played a key role in the music of Georg Friedrich Handel. For no other instrument did he compose such passionate, dramatic and virtuosic music. On this disc, the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle presents a selection of Handel's most beautiful works featuring the oboe. Xenia L�ffler, member of the Akademe f�r Alte Musik Berlin, is the soloist. Vocal parts in the arias with oboe are sung by the young coloratura soprano Marie Friederike Sch�der, a shooting star of the baroque music scene.

The Six Recorder Sonatas by George Frideric Handel are a compendium of the recorder's original literature, and have an exceptional position because of their beauty. They're typically Handelian in character, in that the upper voice is very vocal, like his operas. The melodies are truly captivating and remarkable for their "simplicity" which demands far more virtuosity than simply moving the fingers quickly. The goal of Stefan Temmingh, one of Germanys most renowned recorder players of the younger generation, is to come as close as possible to the greatest of all instruments - the human voice. The bass line makes an equal counterpart to the recorder part; it's opulent, virtuosic and full of variety - much more than in comparable pieces. It's executed without cello only by harpsichord, performed in an outstanding way by Wiebke Weidanz.

Handel: Faramondo / Sparbo, Devin, Lowrey, Cummings, Gottingen Festival Orchestra, Release Date: 10/14/2014, Composer: George Frideric Handel, Performer: Edward Grint, Maarten Engeltjes, Christopher Lowrey, Anna Devin, Conductor: Laurence Cummings, Orchestra/Ensemble: Gottingen Festival Orchestra, Venue: Deutsches Theater G�ttingen, Germany, Number of Discs: 3. This is the last in the series of Handel's "heroic" operas. It ran for only eight performances after it's premier in January 1738 and has since been largely neglected before a relatively recent revival of interest, resulting in two studio recordings from 1996 and 2007; this is only the third recording available and is of a live radio broadcast from the G�ttingen International Handel Festival.

Judas Maccab�us is one of Handel's most impressive and successful works. More than 50 performances took place in Handel's lifetime. The integration of the libretto with the conflict between the Scottish Jacobites under the leadership of the catholic Stuart pretender, Charles Edward, and the royalist government troops played a crucial role in this. The original libretto tells the story of the struggle of the Jews against the rule of the Seleucids. Handel portrays the plot with colorful arias, touching laments, and exultant triumph choruses. The present live recording is a production of the 2018 International Handel Festival in G�ttingen, highly praised by the critics and the audience. With Laurence Cummings, the Festival's Artistic Director, a renowned H�ndel specialist stands at the helm of the G�ttingen Festival Orchestra, assisted by an excellent vocal cast and the NDR Choir.

The Old Testament narrative of Susanna is a popular motif in the domain of art history. Many portrayals of Susanna being watched by two lusting elders as she bathes exist. Likewise, the scene of the supposed adulteress appearing before the judges who seal her fate and sentence her to death inspired such painters as Rembrandt, Giorgione, Gentileschi, and Corinth. After the patriotic ‘victory oratorios’, the oratorio Susanna marks a turning point in Handel’s composition. In adopting this as his subject, Handel chose a heroine who is neither a queen nor a prophet. The piquant account from the Book of Daniel drew from him magnificent inventiveness in the music, which also includes passages in the lighter vein characteristic of the English ‘ballad opera’ popular at the time. Susanna’s virtue, however, is extolled in monumental choruses. The present live recording is a production of the 2016 International Handel Festival in Gottingen, highly praised by the critics at their performances in Gottingen, Berlin, and Wroclaw. With Laurence Cummings, the Festival’s Artistic Director, a renowned Handel specialist stands at the helm of the Gottingen Festival Orchestra, assisted by an excellent vocal cast and the NDR Choir.

Handel: Siroe / Cummings, Dennis, Adjei, Zamojska, Giovannini, Release Date: 06/10/2014, Composer: George Frideric Handel, Performer: Anna Dennis, Yosemeh Adjei, Aleksandra Zamojska, Antonio Giovannini, Conductor: Laurence Cummings, Orchestra/Ensemble: Gottingen Festival Orchestra, Number of Discs: 3. Live recording from the G�ttingen International H�ndel Festival 2013 Betrayal, revenge, inheritance conflicts and forbidden love at the Persian court - in 1728 this explosive mixture inspired Handel to compose the successful opera Siroe, Re di Persia, one of his last compositions for the Royal Academy of Music at the King's Theatre. Handel based his work on the libretto by the famous poet Pietro Metastasio. In it's first season Siroe was performed on 18 successive evenings, but it was never subsequently revived in Handel's lifetime. The opera received it's first performance in G�ttingen with a top-rank cast performing under the musical direction of Laurence Cummings. The Financial Times wrote about the premiere: "This is new artistic director Laurence Cummings' first opera in G�ttingen, and it must count as a high point in the festival's history... Cummings hits every tempo bang in the middle, so that phrases are light and airy, architecture is solid yet soaring, recitatives feel like free speech, and it is often hard not to stand up and dance. His orchestra is superb. This is both musical discovery and pure joy; this is how Handel should be." The live recording will be the only available release on CD of Handel's "Siroe" at the time. It is the beginning of a new cooperation between the Label Accent and the G�ttingen International H�ndel Festival which plans the release of a series with opera productions on CD.

It was Stefan Zweig who wrote a particularly colorful description of Georg Friedrich Händel’s “Messiah.” In his “Sternstunden der Menschheit” he creates a living story from the spirit of the work, and in the process allows his readers to glance over Händel’s shoulders whilst he is composing. He revealed the timelessness of one of the most impressive compositions in the history of music. In September 2019, the Gaechinger Cantorey orchestra and chorus under their principal conductor and intendant of the International Bachakademie Stuttgart Hans-Christoph Rademann have recorded this epic work of sacred choral music at St. Margaret’s Church in Gotha, Thuringia, together with an excellent quartet of soloists.

Classical Music

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

This Handelian diptych, the brainchild of the director Pierre Audi, was conceived in a style of great purity, right down to the costumes, the decors and the sumptuous chiaroscuro lighting. In order to replicate this aesthetic, reminiscent of Renaissance paintings, with the greatest possible fidelity, the performances, filmed in high resolution, are being released on BLU RAY only. Christophe Rousset and his orchestra convey exceptional fervor in this music, here served by the finest Handelian voices imaginable, foremost among them Sandrine Piau, who enjoyed a genuine triumph in the stage production. Nor can one forget the dramatic performance of Jeremy Ovenden in Tamerlano, or the beauty of the voices of Ann Hallenberg, Sophie Karthauser, Delphine Galou and the countertenor Christophe Dumaux. Christophe Rousset writes of this production: “…In Alcina, Handel gives us one of his most dramatically accomplished scores, in which each character follows a wholly individual trajectory, and the different “stages” of love are delicately handled.”

Why yet another Messiah? ‘I went through the different scores that exist and decided on the very interesting 1754 version, which features five soloists. You must remember that, when Handel arrived somewhere to perform his oratorio, he had soloists of varying standards available to him. So he quickly revised his score accordingly... All this is directly related to the reality of Handel’s situation as a concert promoter. In those days, to earn a living from his music, a composer absolutely had to get his works performed and make a profit on the evening. The idea of not retouching a work to avoid “spoiling” or “distorting” it is a much more modern one. There must be around a dozen versions of Messiah (I won’t list them all). The 1754 version is rarely played because it calls for five soloists: two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass... I’ve opted here for an operatic interpretation, taking its cue from the drama inherent in this account of the life of Christ.’ (Herve Niquet) This deluxe edition also includes a fascinating portrait of Herve Niquet, an interview organised around thirty keywords (from ‘Dance’ to ‘Nerves’) that sheds new light on one of the most atypical conductors on today’s musical scene.

This deluxe package presents the oratorio on two CDs, issued in a hardcover book that explains not only the background of Messiah, but also Niquet’s quasi-operatic interpretation, which emphasizes the spiritual drama of the work and removes it from the overly reverent tradition that prevailed from the 19th century until the 1980s. Highly recommended.

– All Music Guide

Classical Music

The oldest Bach choir in the United States, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem celebrates it's 120th birthday in 2018. Since it's founding in 1898, the now famous choir has attracted thousands of visitors from across the United States and beyond to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival in Pennsylvania. According to a note on the score, the Song for Saint Cecilia's Day (HWV 76) - usually referred to as the Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day - took just 10 days to compose, between September 15 and 24, 1739. The Ode is not an oratorio but rather a sequence of movements, comprising instrumental pieces, declarative recitatives, expressive arias, and powerful choruses that extol music and it's patron saint. With Cassandra Lemoine, Benjamin Butterfield & The Bach Festival Orchestra, directed by Greg Funfgeld, this is a glorious release.

Classical Music

The 1720 William Smith harpsichord; the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, Oxford.