Handel

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho shares his love for Handel’s often neglected keyboard suites on his latest album, The Handel Project. Each of the suites is brilliantly full of character and life, and Cho has chosen his three favourites for his new album, saying, “For me, Handel’s music comes directly from the heart.” Brahms loved the suites too, and Cho has also recorded the latter’s spectacular Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, based on one movement from Suite No. 3.

This unique collection, newly remastered from original Philips recordings, documents the work of Dutch conductor Eduard van Beinum in Baroque and Rococo repertoire. Thanks to his celebrated recordings of Romantic composers – many of them reissued on previous Eloquence releases – such as Berlioz (ELQ4825569), Brahms (ELQ4429788) and Bruckner (ELQ4807068), the conductor has a solid reputation as a classically unfussy, clear-sighted guide through the formal intricacies of large-scale symphonies. His score-driven approach and highly tuned ear for orchestral colour also made him a renowned conductor of Russians such as Tchaikovsky (ELQ4804849) and Rimsky-Korsakov as well as English composers including Elgar (ELQ4804249) and Britten (ELQ4802337).

Much has been said and written about Handel and Metastasio, and the composer’s supposed lack of interest in the librettos of the famous Roman poet. The fact is that Handel generally used adaptations of much older librettos which perhaps represented a bigger space of liberty for its work and conception of drama. Though Handel set to music only three librettos by Metastasio (Siroe, Poro and Ezio), we can hardly doubt he knew and recognised the qualities of their dramaturgy. Two of the three were successful and all of them gave him opportunity to write beautiful music.

When Handel had a difficult time as opera manager, in the 1730s, he turned to oratorios, which required neither the expensive Italian soloists nor complicated sets. Saul, based on the First Book of Samuel, written in 1738, and first performed in 1739, was relatively popular, with Handel reviving it several times through 1754. With all of the dramatic features of Handel’s oratorios, this work, featuring a bass in the starring role, opens with a festive four-movement instrumental Symphony.

With all the dandy digital recordings of Handel's Concerto Grossi Opus 6 available, why choose this one made in the late '80s and early '90s with Christopher Hogwood leading the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston with Daniel Stepner, Stanley Ritchie, and Linda Quan starring as the violin soloists? Choosing a recording of Handel's concertos is, of course, inevitable in the life of any listener: along with Bach's Brandenburgs and Vivaldi's Four Seasons, they form the core repertoire of high Baroque orchestral music. But why choose Hogwood? For one thing, he has a well-deserved reputation as a Handel conductor: his Messiah was lean and muscular, expressive and intense, lyrical and dramatic – characteristics of these performances as well.

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.

What else can be traced and discovered from Handel’s lost music? Well, once again the Brook Street Band embark on their exciting quest with their fourth disc on AVIE, bringing music unheard since the time of Handel: English Cantatas and Songs.

George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Born in a family indifferent to music, Handel received critical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London (1712) as a naturalized British subject in 1727. By then he was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

Bach / Handel - Thomas Zehetmair / Amsterdamer Bach Solisten - Musik auf Villa Hügel
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 520 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info | 2x CD
Label/Cat#: Berlin Classics / special edition by "Krupp Steel" | Country/Year: Germany 1994
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

This recording presents works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Bernhard Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel, performed for the most part at a concert in "Villa Hügel" on March 25, 1994.

Georg Friedrich Händel - Floridante
Marijana Mijanovic / Il Complesso Barocco / Alan Curtis
3xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 806 MB | Full Artwork: 351 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Archiv Produktion # 477 6566 AH3 | Country/Year: Germany 2007
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Opera

"…their instrumental contributions are always judicious. The brooding yet lively performance of the magnificent overture sets the tone for a performance which frequently brings out the inventive genius of Handle's writing. The pacing and rhetoric of the music is intelligently delivered throughout the performance, and (…) the cast is remarkably excellent: Joyce DiDonato's silvery singing is beautiful, stylish, dramatically astute yet unforced; her first contributions are matched by comparable quality from the light-voiced Sharon Rostorf-Zamir; Vito Priante smoulders with menacing villainy as Oronte; Roberta Invernizzi navigates the role of the disguised hero Timante with style and charm, and combines to wonderful effect with Rostorf-Zamir in the spellbinding duet "Fuor di periglio". Curtis certainly reveals that "Floridante" is a compelling and richly rewarding opera, and Handelians should not hesitate to add this to their collection." ~Grammophone