Mága

This is a concept disc. Don’t be misled by the cover art which implies that Handel wrote an opera called La Maga Abbandonata; he didn’t. This is the brain-child of the music director Alan Curtis and the writer Donna Leon who reads an extract from her novel Acqua alta on the final track of the disc.
The concept has some interest but in essence this is a recital disc and a very good one indeed. Both singers are excellent, the soprano particularly so. These extracts are described by Donna Leon in her interesting accompanying essay as "arias of rage and sorrow" in which the sorceresses who people so many of Handel’s operas do just that, rage and sorrow; note the number of crudels and crudos in the track listing! The music is stunning. I don’t think I had realised just how good Handel’s operatic music could be. If one tries to attempt entire operas one gets bogged down in the interminable plots and the vast length of them. Productions on video seem to be overwhelmed by odd directorial peccadillos so perhaps this sort of disc, consisting of short extracts, is the best way into the repertoire. Ah! Crudel from Rinaldo is a splendid example of Handel at his most intense. Ah! Mio cor from Alcina epitomises the particular character of Simone Kermes’ voice. She is somewhat of the school of Cecilia Bartoli in that she "emotes" quite hard and has an appealing breathiness of voice as well as secure pitching. Melissa’s aria Desterò dall’empia Dite from Amadigi is a stunning display of singing as well as trumpet and oboe virtuosity from soloists of the very fine original instrument group, new to me, Il Complesso Barocco.

Equally known for his live performances and musicological work in establishing new performing practices for early opera, Alan Curtis enjoyed a fruitful career. A scholar, as well as a conductor and harpsichordist, Curtis edited several important works with an appreciation for authenticity, effective performance, and – in the case of opera – stage-worthiness. Several of his best recordings were issued in the 1990s and in the new millennium. Curtis studied first at Michigan State University and attained his bachelor's degree there in 1955.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier is the only composer of the age of Louis XIV to have distinguished himself so remarkably in the genre of the ‘sacred history’: he wrote more than thirty such works, all composed after his residence in Italy.
Sébastien Daucé and the Ensemble Correspondances have carefully extracted from this outstanding corpus a number of gems that reflect both his experience in Rome (probably studying with Carissimi, the master of the oratorio) and the humanist concerns of an entire period.

Although at first we might wonder at the rationale for pairing these two pieces–a double bass concerto and a sinfonia concertante by a (not very well liked) colleague of Mozart and Haydn–on closer inspection we realize that the connection derives from the fact that both pieces were premiered by the same double bass virtuoso. Leopold Kozeluch’s Sinfonia Concertante is scored for the unique combination of mandolin, trumpet, double bass, and piano.

Known for her idiosyncratic performances of baroque repertoire and eccentric personal style, the German coloratura soprano Simone Kermes trained in her native Leipzig, with early successes including the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. Bach has not, however, figured prominently in her career since then – Kermes gravitated towards Vivaldi, Handel and the Neapolitan composers who wrote for the great castrati, such as Riccardo Broschi, Alessandro Scarlatti and Porpora. (She has recorded several solo albums of such repertoire for Sony, including Dramma, and Colori d’Amore – reviewing the latter, BBC Music Magazine described her as ‘a remarkable artist, charming, fascinating and boldly risk-taking by turns’).