Deborah King

This budget-price compilation disc brings together twenty favourite tracks from The King’s Consort’s acclaimed Handel recordings. There are movements from recent releases such as ‘The trumpet’s loud clangour’ from An Ode for St Cecilia’s Day plus two tracks released for the first time on Hyperion—‘Largo’ from Concerto Grosso Op 3 No 2 and ‘Let the bright seraphim’ from Handel’s much-loved oratorio Samson.

In the eighteenth century the cantata was considered to be the supreme challenge for a composer's artistry. Here are recorded three fine examples from the enormous corpus of such works by Alessandro Scarlatti, two for solo voice with continuo, and one which includes a particularly demanding part for obbligato trumpet, faultlessly played by Crispian Steele-Perkins.