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.

The resounding success Handel’s Messiah encountered the first time it was presented in Dublin in 1742 set the scene for its future. The oratorio depicts the Sacred History of Christ in three parts: the Nativity, Christ’s Passion and Resurrection and finally, Redemption. The alternance of airs and choirs is perfect and Handel’s musical knowledge infallible. Messiah quickly became the composer’s most successful work. It was played thirty-six times during his lifetime and has continued to be presented to modern day, embodying just how majestic and sublime music can be. During its première in London, King George II was so moved by the mythical Hallelujah! that he could not help but leap to his feet, with the entire audience following his lead. In the sumptuous Royal Chapel at Versailles, Hervé Niquet leads four impassioned soloists and a tremulous choir to the height of Handel’s most resplendent baroque edifice!

One’s first impression of this CD, in an aria from Orlando comparing Love to the Wind, with its bouncy coloratura and light attitude, might mistakenly be that soprano Amanda Forsythe is “one of those coloratura songbirds,” albeit a very good one. This would be selling her short: yes, she’s most certainly a superb singer, with staggering agility and high notes perfect and free, but she uses every note in her well placed, many-hued voice. Sudden plunges into a not-quite chest voice on words like “dolor” (sadness) color and vary the experience of the aria.

And the next aria, “Geloso tormento” from Almira, with its obbligato oboe and aggressively unhappy strings, gives Forsythe even more emotional room: like any good “early music” soprano, she can sing without vibrato, but what she does with the first two words of the aria are special. The second syllable of “geloso” is attacked white and she sings a crescendo on it, adding vibrato; “tormento” finds a rolled “r” and a shudder on “men”. She embellishes freely and dramatically in the da capo section (here and in each other such aria).

It is a joy to hear a singer rethinking much of this familiar music without ever distorting it, such that the CD’s 55 minutes of singing (broken up with four expertly played orchestral excerpts from Terpsichore) truly impresses like a first hearing. And you never tire of Forsythe, as you might with other light-and-high-voiced singers. A bauble such as Atalanta’s flirtatious “Un cenno leggiadretto” from Serse has such character that it enchants anew. She has no fear of leaning on her voice but she never forces or makes an ugly sound; drama comes from inflection and diction.

Armida’s enraged recit “Dunque I lacci” and the anguished “Ah! crudel” that follows from Rinaldo are tragic in scope and sound, heavy with rage and sadness. The brief, insane B section that pops out of Armida’s deranged mind, “O infidel”, filled with tommy-gun coloratura, is a spectacular display, and Forsythe sadly lopes into the da capo with a voice filled with desolation. Morgana’s “Tornami a vagheggiar” from Alcina is sung for fireworks, and they light up the sky.

Jeanette Sorrell leads the period instruments of Apollo’s Fire devoid of any affectations, and the band plays smoothly and expertly. This is clearly Forsythe’s show and the orchestra and conductor offer great support. I could go on but find no need to; I hope you get my point. This is a knockout recital by a major American soprano.

-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

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.

Under the title I vanni occulti, ensemble Al Ayre Espanol, led by maestro Eduardo Lopez Banzo offers us it's personal vision of Handel's Sonatas Op. 2. The phrase comes from the oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Dillusion, 1707). The reference to this aria is not anecdotal, because Sonata No. 1 in this Op. 2 contains references to this music- an aspect that, hardly surprisingly, constitutes a characteristic element of the composition technique of the maestro from Halle. Over the course of his life, Handel composed 20 trio sonatas, 12 of which were published in London in two different collections: six sonatas were published in 1733 as Op. 2 and another seven printed in 1739 as Op. 5. In a disguised allusion to the vanitas allegory and the fleeting passage of time, Al Ayre Espanol presents, just three years after it's recording of Op. 5, an introspective version of Op. 2, which completes and, at the same time, complements the group's first rendition of Handel's trio sonatas. The two recordings form a single project that offers the listener a passionate and impassioned, southern and Mediterranean version of this exquisite chamber music. This version is marked by the emergence, with particular expressive intensity, of the two aesthetic poles present in the chamber music universe of Handel: the most contained lyricism combined with the most explosive fury.

Set in a time of ancient Rome' persecution of the Christians, Handel' late masterpiece Theodora tells of the tragic martyrdom of the heroine and her lover Didymus.

George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

CPO's previous release with the soloists and ensembles of the Boston Early Music Festival was awarded two prestigious prizes. The recording of Charpentier’s opera La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers and La Couronne de Fleurs received the Grammy Award for the Best Opera Production in February 2015 and recently won the Klassik-Echo 2015, again for the Best Opera Recording of the Year. Prior to this double success, other productions by cpo and BEMF had been nominated for Gramophone Awards. In the category of the Best Opera Production these were Ariadne by Johann Georg Conradi and Thésée and Psyché by Jean-Baptiste Lully. In addition, Thésée and Psyché received nominations in the category honoring Baroque Vocal Works.

Now the American ensemble joins forces with successful soloists like Aaron Sheehan and Teresa Wakim for our production of Handel’s opera Acis and Galatea in the version of 1718, which was composed for the landed estate of the Earl of Carnarvon and does not recycle music from the earlier version. Both Acis and Galatea and the cantata Sarei troppo felice heard here represent decisive turning points in Handel’s career. The Italian cantata came at the beginning of the one and half decades spent by Handel in the service of patrons. Acis and Galatea marks the highpoint of this phase and therefore, like the cantata before it, clearly renders recognizable the musical means available to him in the private ensembles of his employers. Moreover, Acis and Galatea contains the musical and textual seeds of the English oratorio, which after 1742 completely supplanted opera compositions.

Baroque Music - BACH, J.S. / CIMAROSA, D. / HANDEL, G.F. / L

This is the first time a whole album of Handel featuring viola da gamba has been published. Includes the premiere recording of Kassel Sonata No. 5 George Frideric Handel is generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of the baroque era, known especially for his operas, oratorios, concertos and keyboard works. His chamber works include a fine selection of solo and trio sonatas with basso continuo, written for a variety of instruments such as the violin, recorder and transverse flute. In Handel's lifetime the viola da gamba (or viol, as it is also known), was highly regarded in some parts of Europe and Handel featured the instrument in numerous works. In the eighteenth century, the practice of performing music written for other instruments was fairly common, and countless examples of instrumental transcriptions of varying kinds survive from this period. Included in this album are several transcriptions of works of Handel's, as well as pieces which are attributed to him such as the Sonata in C major with Obbligato Harpsichord and a sonata from a recently unearthed collection called the Kassel Sonatas, which here is a premiere recording. Aziz's previous FHR album 'Risonanze' (FHR83) has received much critical acclaim. 'This is a recording to be reckoned with' (American Record Guide)

John Beard was a young tenor who came to George Frideric Handel’s attention when still a teenager. He inspired the great composer to give new focus to the tenor voice within his English oratorios. Beard was Handel’s ideal in his demands for ‘articulate utterance of the words and a just expression of the melody’- a collaboration that climaxed in Handel’s creation of the first truly great tenor part as the hero in Samson. Grammy Award-winning tenor Aaron Sheehan steps into John Beard’s shoes equipped with a voice of ‘shining quality and deep sensitivity’ (The New York Times).

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin continue their Handel trilogy with this recording of the last six concerti grossi of the composer’s Op. 6. Originally designed as attractive interludes to English oratorio performances, Handel’s concerti grossi soon gained fame as some of the most appealing orchestral music of the baroque era. With these pieces, written in London towards the end of his career, Handel paid tribute to the immensely popular concerti grossi of Corelli while simultaneously proving his mastery, incorporating all musical styles of his times into his work. The players of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, led by their concertmaster Bernhard Forck, demonstrate why many consider them the best baroque ensemble of today. The concerti grossi Op. 6 are concluded with this second instalment, and a recording of the concerti grossi Op. 3 will complete the trilogy. The ensemble’s first PENTATONE album, Cantata (2018) with countertenor Bejun Mehta, won a Diapason d’or. Their 2019 recording of the first six Op. 6 concerti grossi was hailed as “immaculately played … free of fashionable eccentricities” by The Sunday Times, while Klassik praised the ensemble’s playing as “eloquent”.

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REVIEW:

The group, by the standards of 2020, is large, but the ensemble is precise and quite impressive in the fugues and the other contrapuntal movements in which Handel attempted to outdo Corelli, his model in these works. These pieces are to Corelli what Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are to Vivaldi: dense yet brilliant takes of the form. These performances succeed on their own terms, and there is still plenty of life in this approach.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir present an intimate and stirring performance of the highlights of the baroque masterpiece Handel’s Messiah. This CD recording of the full score on period instruments features a stellar cast of soloists. Tafelmusik presents this baroque masterpiece with the spirit and vitality of Handel’s own 18th-century productions. “Superhuman”, “spot-on”, “crisp” and “inspired” are just a few of the words critics have used to describe Tafelmusik’s Messiah. A perennial favourite with audiences and critics alike, Tafelmusik’s Messiah has garnered glowing reviews year after year. “I cannot remember a Messiah presentation as uniformly ‘spot-on’ as this year’s by Ivars Taurins’ Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and Baroque Orchestra.” - The Globe and Mail

Georg Friedrich H�ndel's work, Messiah Famous Choures are performed by the Scholars Baroque Ensemble.

Also available on Blu-ray

During his years in Italy, Handel absorbed the music of his contemporaries and mastered new stylistic trends. Though the staging of La resurrezione was a memorable event in the Roman musical world, it was the production of Agrippina that marked Handel’s definitive investiture as an operatic composer. It met with enormous success and an unprecedented number of performances followed. Its melodic power is overwhelming and in his creation of credible and vivid characters, the alternation of recitative and arias, and sheer theatrical power, Handel established the template that was to last for the remainder of his operatic career. The production on the present release was filmed in March 2016 at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria, and was directed by Robert Carsen.

‘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)

Classical Music

This is William Christie's valedictory disc for Harmonia Mundi before seeking pastures new with Erato. All five works belong to Handel's last and greatest set of concertos, Op. 6, printed in London in 1740. They are splendid pieces and I never tire of listening to them. Christie has chosen three of the four concertos for which optional oboe parts have survived (Nos. I. 2 and 6), as well as the seventh and tenth concertos of the set. It is as good a choice as any if choices have to be made and Christie brings the music to life with all his characteristic enthusiasm and feeling for Handelian idiom. The orchestra of Les Arts Florissants sound on good form, too, achieving a pleasant warmth of string timbre and a greater unanimity of sound than has sometimes been the case in earlier issues.

On the whole I like the presence of oboes in the aforementioned concertos, though the music loses nothing by their absence. Perhaps they are a shade too prominent in the G major Concerto (Op. 6 No. I) but I doubt if this seemingly slight imbalance will bother readers. What I did find more disconcerting, though, were some of the embellishments and cadential elaborations which felt too extended or spun out. One such instance occurs at the close of the Larghetto andante e piano of the F major Concerto (Op. 6 No. 2), where the continuo archlute launches into a veritable solo, albeit in miniature; and again, at the conclusion of the following Allegro the oboes, aided and abetted by the archlute, indulge in imitative flights of fancy. Such moments are neither unimaginative nor lacking in taste but my ears tell me that they are really not necessary. Perhaps I'm just being too English about it—beware of Channel tunnels!

Apart from this reservation, I found Christie's approach refreshing and full of vitality. The playing is wonderfully articulated and the rhythms clear-cut without being at all stiff or unyielding. There are moments, too, of great delicacy as, for example, in the languorous Musette of the G minor Concerto (Op. 6 No. 6), which is eloquently shaped and plentifully endowed with affecting contrasts. Then, at the opposite end of the scale, so to speak, are infectious movements like the Hornpipe of the B flat Concerto (Op. 6 No. 7), and the robust French overture which begins the D minor Concerto (Op. 6 No. 10). Christie enlivens these admirably—though the Hornpipe is, perhaps, a little restrained---responding with spontaneity to Handel's engagingly wide terms of stylistic reference. In short, a stimulating and enjoyable performance, notwithstanding reservations which may worry some ears much less than others.

-- Gramophone [5/1995]
reviewing the original release of this title

Music Director Nicholas McGegan leads Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and an acclaimed cast of soloists in this rarely performed masterpiece of Handelian opera. Writing of the live performance of the opera, the New York Times said, “Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by Nicholas McGegan, gave a performance of Handel’s ‘Teseo’…that confirmed its leading position in the field.” The cast, led by the glowing soprano Dominique Labelle, as the witch Medea, and the outstanding lyric soprano Amanda Forsythe in the title role is buoyed by the “irrepressible positive energy” (New York Times) of the Orchestra under McGegan’s direction.
The performances were recorded live at First Congregational Church, Berkeley, CA on April 13-14, 2013.

Dramatic, highly-colored music from one of the most approachable and individual voices in contemporary music.

Handel’s ever-popular Messiah was recorded live in the superb acoustic of Boston’s Symphony Hall, to mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Handel and Haydn Society, America’s longest-standing performing arts organization. Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1742 and the Handel and Haydn Society gave the first complete performance of the work in the USA in 1818. It has been performed annually in Boston as part of the Handel and Haydn Society concert season every year since 1854.

REVIEWS:

In his rendering of the score, Harry Christophers eloquently guides us through the entire oratorio with a steady hand and firm conviction. The tempi are sprightly where they ought to be, even sparkling like jewels at times—but not blazing as if on fire—and are equally slackened when they need to be. Further, the text is not merely declaimed; rather, every word is expressed!

The period instrument orchestra plays each and every note, trill, and ornament to perfection. As one would expect, the soloists are likewise fantastic. Soprano Gillian Keith, countertenor Daniel Taylor, tenor Tom Randle, and baritone Sumner Thompson off er impressive virtuoso contributions.

The chorus’s full-bodied yet accurate ensemble singing perked up these ears from the very first pitch of “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” all the way through “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” and the mammoth, closing “Amen.”

– Choral Journal

Includes work(s) by George Frideric Handel.

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.

Dutch recorder player Erik Bosgraaf is one of a group of Young Turks taking a fresh look at the Baroque recorder repertory, with often spectacular results. Here Bosgraaf turns to Handel’s sonatas for recorder and harpsichord. The keyboard realizations here are unusually vigorous and ornate, and the instrument is almost an equal partner with the recorder. This album represents an excellent imaginative reconstruction of what these sonatas might actually have sounded like in Handel’s time, based on the contexts in which they might have been used.

The marvelously affecting Italian Duets have long remained favorites among Handel's oeuvre distinct markers of the influences of the young Saxon's early trips to Rome and studies of the chamber duet master Agostino Steffani. The grand Hamonices Mundi is joined here by rising stars of Baroque singing Gemma Bertagnolli and Susanne Ryden.

Handel: Water Music - Recreating A Royal Spectacular

Handel, G.F.: Water Music / Sinfonias in B-Flat Major, Hwv 3

The oratorio Theodora was first performed at the Covent Garden Theatre on 16 March 1750 and clearly took Londoners by surprise. Handel had, after all, made a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn in his choice of subject. The grandiose episodes of the Old Testament, the glorious struggles of Solomon, Saul, or Judas Maccabaeus are no more: the young martyr Theodora leads neither a community nor troops into battle. In a work far removed from the grand spectacle of biblical oratorios, Handel invites us to witness the poignant tale of a personal drama, a drama of the beginnings of Christianity fuelled by conscience, faith, and the heartbreak that they cause.

At the borders of mythical Lydia, a crisis erupts: Prince Melo takes up arms against his father, King Halyattes, who has been blinded by the slanders of a deceitful adviser who made him believe he would be disinherited in favor of an usurper. It is in this torn kingdom that Sosarme, sovereign of Media and future husband of Princess Elmira, steps forward as a mediator, determined to calm the fury of blood and restore peace. Drawing on the conventions of opera seria, Handel achieves a subtle balance between the power of Antonio Salvi's text and the richness of the score, building a bridge between the Lullian tradition and the innovations later brought by Rameau. Under the direction of Marco Angioloni, the Orchestre de l'Op�ra Royal delivers a Sosarme that is both innovative and filled with vitality and emotion.