Handel

This is, quite simply, one of the most splendid Handel opera recordings ever made. We owe a debt of gratitude to DG/Universal for reissuing this much-admired Westminster recording from 1965. The opera itself is one of Handel's finest; a late work magically integrating farce and pathos, and filled with an abundance of brilliant invention remarkable even for Handel. Priestman does full justice to the kaleidoscopic shifts of mood, affect, idiom and orchestration that makes this work a viable musical entertainment today no less than in 1738. Though Priestman's Viennese forces play modern instruments, the conductor obviously has a solid understanding of Baroque performance practice (according to the musicological priorities of his day)…

The late seventeenth century was a period of great change in English music. This was a time when the influences of Italian music were ever-increasing, brought to England by Italian composers such as Draghi, Haym, and Matteis, and by their German contemporaries Pepusch and Handel. In this new release we explore how the English composers Purcell, Weldon, and Croft responded to Italian music and incorporated the style into their own works. The piece by Purcell, Tell me, some pitying angel (or ‘The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation’), written in the style of an Italian cantata, perfectly illustrates his mastery of the Italian style.

Classical music is one of the greatest joys in life. Opera on the other hand, is often too melodramatic to stomach. But there is nothing more enchanting than an Aria. On this 2 CD set, Emma Kirkby sings in sweet exultation. Her voice expresses power and agility yet a limpid tranquility. Clarity is the greatest achievement of any musician. With the aid of precision accompaniment on period instruments, shameless perfection is delivered. She soothes the soul longing for beauty. Her marvelous Soprano is rendered on 25 tracks in this eclectic ensemble. If you are a champion of Handel or a devotee of Mozart, you should not hesitate to purchase this CD. Emma Kirkby will have you beaming with delight and pining for more. Surely it will be one of the brightest of your collection.

The Brook Street Band secured their place on the musical map with their Avie debut of the world-premiere recording of Handel’s “Oxford” Water Music, a delightful chamber version of the evergreen work. A Gramophone Editor’s Choice sealed the Brook Street Band’s Handelian credentials. They further proclaim their allegiance to the baroque master with this, their follow-up CD of the charming Trio Sonatas, Op. 5. Handel was a renowned recycler of his own music and these informal works are full of one familiar tune after the other. Treated to The Brook Street Band’s effervescent interpretations, this disc is another winner for the all-girl baroque band.

Recorded in 1995, this Esther was first issued as Collins Classics 7040-2 early the following year. Like Hogwood, Harry Christophers recorded the original 1718 version of what has gone down in history as Handel’s first English oratorio.
In point of fact, the complex and still largely unresolved history of Esther suggests that it was not originally composed as an oratorio at all, but rather as a staged work that would have formed a companion to the near-contemporary Acis and Galatea.

Rodelinda, Regina de' Longobardi was the 7th opera Handel wrote for the Royal Academy of Music founded in 1719. It was premiered at the King's Theater in the Haymarket on February 13, 1725, with great success, as chroniclers report. There were 14 performances in the first season and 8 in each of the revivals in the following season and in 1731, for which Handel revised the work. Thus, it is not surprising that, after nearly 190 years of oblivion, it should have been Rodelinda, now in a German language version and called Rodelinde, which marked the beginning of the 20th century revival of Handel's operas on June 26, 1920, during the Gottingen Handel Festival.

Jordi Savall & Le Concert Des Nations - Handel - Water Music & Music For The Royal Fireworks (2008) {Alia Vox AVSA 9860}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 412 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 173 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 76 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1993, 2008 Alia Vox | AVSA 9860
Classical / Baroque / Orchestral

This is a reissue of a recording from 1993 (re-released a few years ago and deleted in 2003), recently remastered for SACD, and it really impresses with a renewed presence and impact, even on standard CD playback. As I said in my original review, Savall's reading "comes as close as these things can to placing us in the best seat in the house and treats us to a rare experience: the sensation of believing we're hearing a ruggedly familiar piece for the first time. Literally bursting with energy, scintillating strings, blazing horns, and incisive winds, and never boring even for one second, these performances give you Handel at his most exciting." If you have the earlier release, you probably don't need this one–unless you now own an SACD system–but it does deserve a place in every Handel collection, not only for the unsurpassed performances, but also for the effect of Savall's several decidedly "non-standard" tempos(!), and of course for the phenomenal sound, which now must have reached its ultimate realism in this format.

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.

There was a time, not long ago, when Baroque scores were treated as a folio of performance suggestions, not as the letter of the law. Performers felt free to add music or (more often) to take it away, and to do other things which were quite different from what the composer originally had in mind. Sir Thomas Beecham had no qualms about performing surgery on the music of George Frideric Handel, a composer he absolutely adored. No disrespect was intended. In fact, Beecham loved Handel so much, he wanted everyone else to love him too. That meant making him more palatable for modern tastes – bigger and leaner, at the same time.