Deborah Fasolo

Giovanni Battista Fasolo (1598-1680) was born in Asti (Italy) and spent his life as a Franciscan Friar in Rome, Naples and finally as Maestro di Cappella at the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily. He is mainly known for his “Annuale”, the largest compendium of organ music for liturgical use written in the 17th century.

‘Deborah contains some of the most glorious music Handel ever wrote. Even if many of the numbers have been recycled from earlier works, the invention is still staggering. Handel devotees can thus amuse themselves spotting the tunes while everyone else can revel in the sumptuous scoring and the sheer vitality and humanity of the piece, all superbly conveyed in Robert King's recording’.

Joachim Carlos Martini is obviously a conscientious and intelligent musician. Like Robert King before him, he opts for the overture used in the 1744 revival, as only a continuo part survives of the original overture. Acknowledging that we cannot be certain of what the first performance did or did not include, he also picks and chooses items from the various editions and texts (among them Chrysander, Bernd Baselt and Robert King himself) available to him.

Deborah is one of Handel's earliest oratorios, and it contains a lot of music recycled from other pieces–not that it really matters with Handel, who recycled whole works by other composers into some of his other oratorios. The real reason the piece has never caught on is the plot, in which the heroine lures her enemy into her tent, seduces him (we presume), then nails him to the floor with a tent peg through the brain. OK, so it isn't The Omen, but it's as close as Handel ever got. Fine performance, fun music, disgusting story. That's life. –David Hurwitz