Handel 2018

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Mary-Ellen Nesi presents thirteen arias most of them recorded here for the first time inspired by ten Greek female archetypes. George Petrou and the brilliant Armonia Atenea add fire to this exciting collection of 18th-century masterpieces. MDG listeners will be familiar with Mary-Ellen Nesi from several outstanding Handel recordings. In her most recent recital the acclaimed mezzo-soprano turns to dramatic roles from Baroque and classical operas.

Handel was in his twenties when he travelled throughout Italy, producing some of the Baroque era’s most exciting, colourful music for his patrons. These cantatas—effectively mini-operas with one or two characters and performed in aristocratic homes—were only recently rediscovered, having remained unpublished for 300 years. They’re vintage Handel: Aminta e Fillide, telling of a shepherd’s love for a shepherdess, features some of his most skilful vocal writing, deftly and gracefully performed by Sabine Devieilhe and Lea Desandre. The star attraction, Armida abbandonata, explores the gamut of Handel’s genius and deserves a place among his greatest operas. Le Concert d’Astrée are in blistering form.

Annika Treutler grew up in Detmold and is now based in Berlin. She studied with Prof. Matthias Kirschnereit at the Rostock College of Music and Drama and Prof. Bernd Goetzke at the Hanover College of Music, Drama and Media. The young artist won third prize at the Montreal International Piano Competition in 2014 and reached the semifinals of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich that year. Annika Treutler has appeared as a guest soloist with such orchestras as the Konzerthaus Orchestra of Berlin, the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. On this release, she presents beautiful solo piano works by Johannes Brahms.

In 1717, Handel was in dire straits. Living in London, his pension of 200 pounds a year for teaching the Royal princesses had stopped, and the public's enthusiasm for opera had faded. Fortunately, he was to gain a new patron: James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos. Brydges offered Handel residence at Cannons, his newly built palace in Edgware, then a rural area outside London. Set up as a rival court to King George I, he employed Handel to replace Johann Pepusch as Kapellmeister. Among his commissions were the Chandos Anthems and Chandos Te Deum.

Following the success across Europe of his eight ‘Grand Suites’ for harpsichord in 1720, albeit in a doctored and pirated edition, Handel resolved to make good on his promise of a sequel, ‘reckoning it my duty with my small talent to serve a Nation from which I have received so generous a protection.’

Handel's 1738 opera Serse (Xerxes) baffled audiences at first hearing with its mixture of tragedy and comedy, but that same mixture has resulted in the opera's steadily rising status in performance today. If you're maxed out on athletic opera seria performances, check it out: it has elements of a put-on of that genre. The plot is kicked off by Serse, the king of ancient Persia, praising a shade tree in the famous aria "Ombra mai fu," whose tune is also known as Handel. The role of Serse is written for a male countertenor (originally the castrato Caffarelli), who has to keep a level of seriousness as his character becomes involved in increasingly improbably romantic triangles.

‘Hermann of the Cherusci’ and the Varus Battle found their way into the German founding myth a long time ago. Arminius, whose Teutons roundly defeated three of Varus’ legions, was already described as the ‘Liberator of Germania’ by Tacitus. In Handel’s Arminio, the liberation battle is only the background against which the characters come to terms with themes like honour, duty, obedience, love and freedom. Arminio premiered in the Covent Garden Theatre on January 12, 1737 but disappeared from the London stage after only six performances.