Yuletide is the mid-winter period from Hannuka, through Christmas, to the celebration of Twelfth Night. From the late 1950s through the 1970s it was seemingly obligatory for all artists from Jazz to Punk to make a Christmas album. With Yuletide Treats, Duo Pleyel joins that spirit and tradition, with some of the greatest classical hits for your festive delight. Comprising keyboardists Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya and Richard Egarr, Duo Pleyel begins with three beautiful, transcendental and intimate movements from Franz Liszt's 'Christmas Tree Suite'. Then follows 'For unto us a child is born' and 'Hallelujah' from Handel's Messiah. No New Year's celebration is complete without the Strauss family's 'Blue Danube' and 'Radetzky March'. Finally, they present Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite'. All performed on a Chris Maene Straight Strung Concert Grand, this album is to be listened to at high volume with a large glass of something delicious.

Handel's arrival in Rome seems to have had a miraculous influence on his development as a composer. Something about the eternal city ignited the most productive period of his entire career: there Handel worked with some of the greatest musicians of the age and enjoyed the favours of major patrons of the arts. There he also witnessed the clerical aristocracy's sensual enjoyment of those very luxuries, excesses, and trappings of beauty that they professed to deny in their sermons. In Handel in Rome, Dunedin Consort and it's director John Butt set out to convey Handel's response to this stimulating and somewhat paradoxical environment with three Italian cantatas. Winner of the Rising Talent award at the 2022 International Opera Awards, Nardus Williams is the star soprano.

The great baroque composer George Frideric Handel’s final masterpiece!

Recorded live in September 2022 by multi-GRAMMY®-award winning engineer Christopher Willis, JEPHTHA is performed by Music of the Baroque - Chorus & Orchestra, conducted by acclaimed British conductor Dame Jane Glover, who has been its music director since 2002.

Now in its fifth decade, Music of the Baroque is one of the leading professional ensembles in America devoted to 17th and 18th-century works. The Chicago Sun-Times writes, “Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra may be the big guys on the local classical music scene, but in terms of sheer quality of performance… Music of the Baroque inhabits the same stratosphere.” Andrew Megill directs the Chorus and six outstanding vocal soloists in this definitive performance of Handel's sublime oratorio JEPHTHA."

REVIEW:

The recording is present and vibrant. The balance of the harpsichord seems particularly right here. The solo voices are placed forward, but not excessively so. All told, this exciting release presents as compelling and dramatic a performance of Handel’s Jephtha as one could want. Urgently recommended.

— Fanfare

One of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, George Frideric Handel was born in Germany but spent most of his career living in London. He was something of a celebrity in his day -- a status he enjoyed thanks to his prolific cultivation of opera. Also ranking among Handel's large vocal output are his cantatas, works that form the focus of this release.

The disc brings together two different versions of Handel's two lesser-known cantatas, and includes the first ever recording of the two versions of Mira Lilla gentile. Largely neglected until now, these latter works tell the story of a young man's unrequited love for Lilla, and while the earlier version contains a soprano solo alternating with a violin, the later version sees this instrument replaced by a cello. The second pair of cantatas comprises the anonymous La caduta di Icaro and Handel's Tra le fiamme HWV170 -- both of which use the same libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili. Here the CD switches from heartbreak to counsel against pride; with the text declaiming the legend of Icarus and Daedalus, Tra le fiamme is particularly striking for its rich assortment of instruments.

Soprano Valentina Varriale has been praised for her 'highly focused tone' (International Record Review, April 2011). Having studied at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples, she has since performed a variety of roles with numerous opera companies and has appeared as Zeza in a filmed version of Leonardo Leo's L'Alidoro. In her first recording for Brilliant classics, she is joined by members of MVSICA PERDVTA.

Other information:
- The World Premiere of Handel's Cantata "Mira Lilla gentile", recorded 2010--2012, Rome.
- World premiere recording of Mira Lilla gentile.
- Soprano Valentina Varriale is an upcoming star in the Early Music scene, she sings in opera productions of Jordi Savall and Ottavio Dantone, and has recently performed in the Festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh and Dresden.
- Performed on original instruments.
- Contains booklet notes on each of the pieces.

Recorded live at The Sixteen's Handel in Oxford Festival, 2006, Elin Manahan Thomas gives a performance of captivating communication and sparkling intelligence in these stunning and contrasting Handel Cantatas, bringing to life the world of four women, all of whom have been betrayed by love and its deceitful charms.

This set brings together three of Handel's most compelling works for the stage in lavish Glyndebourne productions featuring preiod-instrument accompaniment from the renowned Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. David McVicar directs an all-star cast in Giulio Cesare, combining serious insight with entertainment to bring the masterpiece to life, aided by vivid playing from the OAE under William Christie. In Robert Carsen's fun-filled transformation of Rinaldo, lacrosse sticks and flying bicycles lend the fantasy's warriors and witches contemporary chic, with conductor Ottavio Dantone leading a youthful cast from the keyboard in Handelian fashion. Director Barrie Kosky's Glyndebourne debut, Saul stole the 2015 Festival seasona nd had critics raving. The Glyndebourne chorus plays an outstanding role, and the OAE sparkles under Ivor Bolton, as the Old Testament story is retold in Handel's time with witty anachronisms from costume designer Katrin Lea Tag.

This set brings together three of Handel's most compelling works for the stage in lavish Glyndebourne productions featuring preiod-instrument accompaniment from the renowned Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. David McVicar directs an all-star cast in Giulio Cesare, combining serious insight with entertainment to bring the masterpiece to life, aided by vivid playing from the OAE under William Christie. In Robert Carsen's fun-filled transformation of Rinaldo, lacrosse sticks and flying bicycles lend the fantasy's warriors and witches contemporary chic, with conductor Ottavio Dantone leading a youthful cast from the keyboard in Handelian fashion. Director Barrie Kosky's Glyndebourne debut, Saul stole the 2015 Festival seasona nd had critics raving. The Glyndebourne chorus plays an outstanding role, and the OAE sparkles under Ivor Bolton, as the Old Testament story is retold in Handel's time with witty anachronisms from costume designer Katrin Lea Tag.

Sara Mingardo, Ruth Rosique and Atonio Abete lead the cast in this premiere recording of Handel's opera from Turin's Teatro Carignano in 2009. Davide Livermore, the director, makes this 2009 production both enjoyable and interesting to watch. It has been recorded in the newly restored and beautiful Teatro Carignano in Turin and features Sara Mingardo, Ruth Rosique and Atonio Abete in the leading roles. Based on the well-known mythological story narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, this is a classical tale of jealousy and love. The giant Polyphemus tries to force his attention on the fair sea-nymph Galatea, who is in love with the shepherd Aci. When mad jealousy drives Polyphemus to kill his rival, Galatea asks her father Nereus to turn Aci�s blood into a river so that, flowing into the sea, he will join her forevermore. Directed by Davide Livermore, Matteo Ricchetti. Starring Ruth Rosique, Antonio Abete, Cristina Banchetti. Language: Italian Subtitles: English, Italian, German, French, Spanish

Classical Music

Red Priest is the only early music group in the world to have been compared to the Rolling Stones, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike Jones, and Cirque du Soleil. This extraordinary acoustic foursome has been described by music critics as "visionary and heretical" with a "break-all-rules, rock-chamber concert approach to early music." Founded in 1997 and named after flame-haired priest Antonio Vivaldi, Red Priest has given over a thousand concerts in many of the world's most prestigious festivals.

HANDEL: Harpsichord Works, Vol. 1

Classical Music

Samson is not merely an effective narrative, but also a drama of great psychological depth. Over it's three acts, we witness the slow but inexorable mental resurrection of a man chosen by God who, overcome by remorse, gradually rebuilds his character. Awareness of his error sustains him and helps him to conceive a decisive reversal of his situation. Though held in chains and forever deprived of his sight, Samson nevertheless gradually becomes convinced that his strength is intact. In order to set Israel free, he will succeed in regaining God's mercy and destroying his captors' people at a single blow. This recording was made live during the Namur Music Festival in July 2018.

Skin-tight rubber and lacrosse sticks bring contemporary chic to this timeless fantasy of warriors and witches in Robert Carsen's fun-filled transformation of Handel's first London triumph. Conducting from the keyboard just as Handel himself did, Ottavio Dantone leads a youthful cast of today's luminaries in the dramatic art of Baroque opera, the 'affecting' Sonia Prina, the 'unadorned intensity' of Anett Fritsch and 'fire-breathing flair' (The Observer) of Brenda Rae.

Classical Music