Comforted From Heaven

Celebrate the 250th anniversary of Handel's death with this impressive box set. 30-CD box set of the composer's most celebrated works–including the Royal Fireworks and Water Music, The Messiah, concerti grossi and much more! Featuring conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Mark Minkowski and others. Performances by the Gabrielli Players, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, English Baroque Soloists and others.

Celebrate the 250th anniversary of Handel's death with this impressive box set. 30-CD box set of the composer's most celebrated works–including the Royal Fireworks and Water Music, The Messiah, concerti grossi and much more! Featuring conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Mark Minkowski and others. Performances by the Gabrielli Players, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, English Baroque Soloists and others.

This is an untouchably great performance of one of Handel's most interesting oratorios: its examination of jealousy is on a par with what can be found in Otello and Pelléas. There's drama galore–in fact, during its first run it was referred to as a "musical drama" (rather than an oratorio), and Handel and his librettist, Thomas Broughton, always referred to its "acts" rather than "parts", as sections of oratorios were commonly known.

–Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

This is an untouchably great performance of one of Handel's most interesting oratorios: its examination of jealousy is on a par with what can be found in Otello and Pelléas. There's drama galore–in fact, during its first run it was referred to as a "musical drama" (rather than an oratorio), and Handel and his librettist, Thomas Broughton, always referred to its "acts" rather than "parts", as sections of oratorios were commonly known.

John Eliot Gardiner has done much over the years to set the music of Handel where it truly belongs in public opinion by the professionalism he has brought to live performances and to recordings. When his reading of Hercules appeared four years ago it was warmly received for its fine choral and solo singing and skilful playing on period instruments and, at the same time, taken to task for the extensive cuts made and Gardiner's tendency to overinterpret, particularly in the choruses. None of this has changed, nor could it have (unless the missing sections of recitative and aria had been recorded in the first place, cut and then reinstated, and the remarks of reviewers taken to heart) in the transfer to CD. The novel immediacy of the CD medium still thrills the listener: the crisp articulation Gardiner elicits from players and singers alike is particularly well served. Happily, Handel is the ultimate beneficiary. His music sounds better than ever on CD.

Handel's "Musical Drama" HERCULES (1744) is one of a pair of secular dramas on Greek myths - the other is SEMELE - which the composer wrote for concert performance after he had shifted his energies from Italian opera to English oratorio. A dark drama of the destructive power of jealousy, it boasts a score of great power, of which Dejanira's scene of madness and remorse "Where Shall I Fly?" has become a favorite of mezzo-sopranos.
By Nicholas A. Deutsch (Tarrytown, NY USA)