Classical Music

The horns are let loose! In their fifth GENUIN release, the german hornsound brass ensemble has brought together their favorite works and those of their fan community. And we’d be hard-pressed to find a single work in the Western musical literature that doesn’t sound at least as beautiful arranged for four horns as it does in the original. What’s more, there’s no need for troublesome singers, meddlesome conductors, and big stages for massive orchestras! In these splendid renditions, Handel’s "Rinaldo", Dvorák’s Ninth Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s "Midsummer Night’s Dream" are both glorious and groovy, exquisite and ethereal, sophisticated and sexy.

Classical Music

Classical Music

As a young man Handel spent four years in Italy, forging a uniquely exuberant operatic style. During that time he composed these three cantatas about classical love, a favourite theme of baroque composers. Ann Murray, a superb Handelian singer, here explores the different emotions engendered by the departure, absence, and finally the death of a lover, all with a telling range of colour and nuance much acclaimed in her Handel performances at English National Opera.

Classical Music

‘Handel: Operatic Arias’, originally released in 2005, saw soprano Emma Bell perform with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, directed from the harpsichord by Richard Egarr, in her second Linn recital disc. + The well-chosen extracts sample the whole of Handel's London operatic career, from his first (Rinaldo, 1711) to his last (Deidamia, 1741), and demonstrate his (and the singer's) wide range of moods, from defiance to resignation, from love to the wilder shores of hatred. + ‘Bell stamps her bold artistic mark on a group of peerless Handel arias. Magnificent stuff. 5 stars.’ (Classic FM)

London Early Opera (LEO) have recorded a unique program of Handel’s Italian-inspired works, devised by harpsichordist, conductor, early music specialist and director Bridget Cunningham and featuring a unique family collaboration from world-renowned soprano sisters Sophie and Mary Bevan alongside their uncle, bass Benjamin Bevan. LEO are leading exponents of baroque research as they work closely with musicologists, historians, editors and researchers, interestingly linking dramatic music and singing with narration and art history for their concert performances.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Famed for it's interpretations of some of Handel's most loved works, The Sixteen marks the start of it's 40th anniversary season by releasing it's first new Handel recording in five years. Handel's pastoral opera is a tale of love, tragedy and liberation. The libretto by John Gay, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses (book XIII), tells of the eternal love between the mortal shepherd Acis and goddess Galatea and how it is doomed by the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. Handel's music beautifully demonstrates the pain and love in such beautiful, dramatic choruses as 'Wretched lovers!' and the grief felt by Galatea in 'Must I my Acis still bemoan'. Staying true to the premiere in 1718, just five singers and nine instrumentalists feature on this intimate recording.

The Places - the monastery at Ottobeuren was founded in 764 and included buildings from the succeeding centuries, subsequently destroyed by fire. The present buildings date from the beginning of the 18th century, with the church rebuilt under the architect Johann Michael Fischer. It remains a remarkable monument to it's period, and the ornate Abbey Church, with it's frescoes and elaborate rococo decoration is bewildering in it's splendor. The Music - Music accompanying the visit to Ottobeuren consists of choruses from Handel's oratorio Messiah, written in 1741. Of all English oratorios Handel's Messiah has always been the most overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of all his oratorios and the most purely sacred in it's choice of subject, the Messiah, a compendious version of the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection. The text, by Charles Jennens, drew extensively on the Authorized Version of the Bible, and an additional attraction has always been the large number of choruses included, a larger number than in any other of Handel's oratorios.

This year's Christmas CD from OehmsClassics presents the baroque specialist par excellence: Michael Hofstetter. With the Neumeyer Consort and the Ensemble Barock Vokal of Mainz, he has recorded the great and famous choruses from Handel's Messiah. As always with Hofstetter, the result is phenomenal and each tiny sonic nuance is meticulously worked out in the greatest detail.

Classical Music