IL Teatro Spagnolo Dei Secoli D’oro

This recording of Handel "Theodora features a truly star-studded cast, with Lisette Oropesa in the title role. Joyce DiDonato as Irene, Michael Spyres as Septimius, John Chest as Valens and Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian as Didymus. Following great critical acclaim for recent performances in Europe and DiDonato's performance at the Royal Opera House earlier this year, this new version of the dramatic oratorio is accompanied by Il Pomo d'Oro orchestra and choir, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.

Francesco Corti and il pomo d’oro continue their acclaimed series of Bach harpsichord concertos, now moving to the works for two harpsichords, BWV 1060-1062, together with Andrea Buccarella. Compared to the previous two instalments, the accompanying ensemble is small, allowing for maximal transparency and focus on the soloists. The greatest discographic asset of this album is Corti’s arrangement of Bach’s unfinished concerto for harpsichord, oboe and strings in D Minor, BWV 1059. In his extensive contribution to the booklet, Corti explains why and how he used parts of Cantata BWV 35 to complete the score. Emmanuel Laporte performs the solo oboe.

The debut album from countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński – born in Warsaw, trained at New York’s Juilliard School, and 2016 winner of the Metropolitan Opera's prestigious National Council Auditions – Anima sacra features what are believed to be world premiere recordings of eight Baroque arias, notably by composers of the Neapolitan school. Orliński is partnered by Il pomo d’oro conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.

The charismatic, cosmopolitan cellist Giovanni Sollima joins the instrumentalists of Il Pomo d’Oro for Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto.

Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d’Oro continue their uncommon Mozart symphony cycle. The idea is the following: put together great symphonies of the late Mozart and youth pieces. Maxim Emelyanychev, who has already gathered the first and the last symphonies – the beginning and the end –, has chosen to record the symphony no. 29 and the legendary no. 40 in the present volume. The ensemble makes us follow Mozart, from Salzburg to Vienna, in the yearning for liberty his life was. Perfectly suited to this repertoire, Maxim Emelyanychev uses the exceptional and period-instrumented sonority of Il Pomo d’Oro to deliver a dramatic and powerful Symphony no. 40, while rendering all the lyricism and contrasts of the no. 29. The Oboe concerto, interpreted by the soloist Ivan Podyomov, first oboe at the Royal Concertbouw Orchestra, adds a concertante supplement to this programme.

The Argentine countertenor Franco Fagioli, with his mighty voice, has always been easy to imagine as one of the castrati with whom Handel contended at the height of his operatic career. He brings both power and flair to fast passagework, and that doesn't change here in such arias as Venti, turbine, prestate, from Rinaldo, HWV 7a. What's different this time is the expertise Fagioli brings to the slow numbers. For the most part, Fagioli does not essay unusual repertory here, except in the final Ch'io parta?, from Partenope, HWV 27, which elegantly ends the program on a question and frames the whole thing nicely with the opening aria from Oreste, HWV A11. For the most part, though, Fagioli sticks to familiar territory, and he lays claim to it. Sample the intense but understated performance of Ombra mai fu, from Act One of Serse, HWV 40, which seems to allude to its suppressed emotion rather than laying it on the line.