Handel Rinaldo

Italian singer Sara Mingardo is considered among the more important contraltos of her generation. Her repertory is broad, encompassing works by composers from Monteverdi to Britten, though she has scored some of her greatest successes in operas and sacred music of the Baroque.

Sandrine Piau does it again or should I say she did it already! This collection of superb Handel arias from '96 could be considered an earlier version or forerunner of the recently released Handel Opera Seria, and certainly very complementary to it. The ensemble she plays with is different (Fabio Bondi and his charismatic Europa Galante players), possibly somewhat less refined from the "early music" style perspective but this consideration is blown away by the dramatic presence and the stellar precision of this non-pareil Baroque vocalist.

Anna Prohaska’s recital takes us into the moss-carpeted dreamworlds of Ariosto, Ovid, Shakespeare and Tasso. The theme is transformation, by love or magic or a combination of the two. Arcangelo’s instrumental playing is reliably interesting, sometimes too interesting (Jonathan Cohen is not a ‘less is more’ director). But the most effective enchantment occurs when Prohaska stops trying to fit her dryish, coolish voice into a Patricia Petitbon-shaped presentation box.

Into the clean, relaxedly idiomatic playing of the European Community Chamber Orchestra, the sweet, boyish voice of their Guest Singer of the Year 1990 enters, stilling the equinoctial winds at the start of Handel's Silete venti. So far, so good. Ann Mackay's voice is, as ever, intelligent and true.

The National University Library in Turin houses several extremely important musical collections. Among these are those of Mauro Foa and Renzo Giordano, containing over 450 manuscripts of Vivaldi, many of them autographs. With the purpose of exploring this immense heritage and bringing to life many unpublished works, the Instituto per i Beni Musicali in Piemonte and Naïve [Opus 111] with the collaboration of the Library in Turin, have undertaken to record a complete edition on CD of Vivaldi scores held in Turin.

Georg Friedrich Händel was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period. Opera dominated Handel’s career, yet he was better known for his oratorios and instrumental works for several centuries. He forged a personal idiom by taking Italian traditions and adding elements of German counterpoint and dance forms from France. The result was a uniquely cosmopolitan style which, when Handel took it to London, would expand to embrace the musical legacy of the English Restoration composer Henry Purcell. Discover a compilation of famous Handel works featuring masterpieces by the great composer and wonderful musicians.

The greater part of Handel's working life as a composer was devoted to writing and performing operas. In many ways this was the genre to which he owed his international renown: performances during his period of study in Venice won him an audience far greater than could be expected in London. Italian opera reached England around 1710, and the staging of Rinaldo in 1711 confirmed Italian as the language of the future for such ventures. This exciting recording from Emma Kirkby presents nine arias, from nine of the most enduring of Handel's Italian operas, alongside four overtures.

Simone Kermes is a highly idiosyncratic performer who delights in pushing the boundaries of good taste, often unafraid to inject her singing with a grab bag of vocal tricks. So it’s surprising that her latest release is that most standard of offerings, one to put next to your favourite singer’s Verdi or Puccini disc – the Handel recital.