Handel

Handel wrote very little for the flute. Indeed, when he wrote the indication ‘flauto’ in his scores he meant recorder. His use of ‘traversa’ is limited to a few sonatas and an occasional movement in operas and oratorios. However, the flute was a popular instrument among amateur musicians in Handel’s London. The publisher John Walsh capitalised on this when printing arrangements of arias and overtures that could be played by either flute or violin, with continuo accompaniment. The London Handel Players take inspiration from Walsh’s editions, with flautist Rachel Brown restoring violin parts to some favourite pieces from Alcina, Solomon and Semele.

Handels Queens features some of the most exquisite pieces of music written by G.F. Handel and his contemporaries for the two finest singers of the eighteenth century, Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni. Often wrongfully framed as rivals, these dazzling new recordings with Mary Bevan and Lucy Crowe reveal the distinctive yet versatile talent of the Italian vocalists. Led by London Early Opera Director, Bridget Cunningham, Handels Queens serves an example of the groups dedication to imaginative programming and outstanding period performance, placing them at the forefront of baroque research.

George Frideric Handel - Organ Concertos Op.4
Academy of Ancient Music / Richard Egarr
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,38 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,15 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Multichannel FLAC: 2,77 GB
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi # HMU 807446 | Country/Year: US 2008 | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Organ

…Even if you have other recordings of Op.4, including the beautifully restored Chorzempa/Schroeder set, this winningly idiomatic and novel account is highly desirable, in both the loving musicianship and its glowing sonic portrait.

George Frideric Handel - Organ Concertos Op.4
Academy of Ancient Music / Richard Egarr
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 299 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi # HMU 807446 | Country/Year: US 2008
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Organ

…Even if you have other recordings of Op.4, including the beautifully restored Chorzempa/Schroeder set, this winningly idiomatic and novel account is highly desirable, in both the loving musicianship and its glowing sonic portrait.

Mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne along with Clavecin en concert and its artistic director Luc Beauséjour present an exceptionally colourful chapter in the history of music on their new recording for the Analekta label. The 9 arias that make up this album are taken from operas that were presented between 1735 and 1738, at a time when two of London's opera houses were waging a heated battle.

Young Norwegian mezzo-soprano Tuva Semmingsen displays both vocal agility and a wide-ranging emotional range in a disc of arias from Handel. The disc unveils a portrait of Handel: his emergence in the early Italian-styled Amadigi, reaching maturity in the ‘English operatic’, and arriving finally in the perennial melodic grace of Theodora.

The aria Ombra mai fu at the start of Act I of Handel's opera seria Serse (Xerxes) is likely to be its best-known asset. Serse was written in 1733-38, at the end of Handel's career as an opera composer: he concentrated on oratorio after 1741. It is a great achievement. Not least because it uses the music, and the marriage of words and music, to evoke in the audience pathos, sympathy, delight, and as much tempered ridicule as tempered tenderness.