Larence Zazzo

Saul is one of Handel's most action-filled, fast-moving oratorios; an opera in everything but name only. It has been lucky on disc–both Paul McCreesh (Archiv) and John Eliot Gardiner (Philips) have led superb readings, and Joachim Carlos Martini leads a good performance on Naxos, which is a bargain. Now René Jacobs and his remarkable Concerto Köln come along and offer a truly majestic reading, filled with real drama and beautiful, precise singing and playing. Tenor Jeremy Ovenden sings Jonathan with nobility and faces down Saul in Act II with style and power. David is sung by countertenor Lawrence Zazzo, and he's as good as the best-recorded competition (Andreas Scholl, Derek Lee Ragin). Emma Bell is ravishing as Merab; Rosemary Joshua makes a fine Joshua.

Proud Songsters is a journey through the distinctive musical genre of English Song. This collection of 20 songs – familiar and lesser known – are performed by some of the finest former members of the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge with one of this generation’s most exceptional pianists. Each of the nine alumni featured on this album sang as young adults at King’s, alongside pianist Simon Lepper, a graduate of King’s. The songs included on the album span settings of Shakespeare songs, those of prominent 20th Century composers Vaughan Williams, Britten, Finzi, Clarke and Howells through to contemporary works by Jonathan Dove, Iain Bell and Celia Harper. The album includes a specially-commissioned essay on the works by Stephen Banfield, and the CD includes a special bonus track sung by Gerald Finley and Christopher Keyte.

Semele is a masterpiece. For what else can one call a drama in which the perfect symbiosis of text and music conjures up such suggestive power? ‘To hold the mind, the ears and the eyes equally spellbound’: this recommendation by La Bruyère (Les Caractères: ‘Les ouvrages de l'esprit’) refers to the ‘machine plays’ so adored by the public in the Baroque period. But even without machinery or indeed without sets or real staging, Handel’s oratorio involves us in the tragic fate of his heroine with supreme skill.

In 2009 the music world celebrates the 250th anniversary of Georg Friedich Handel's death.
"Caro Amor" presents on 2 CDs the most beautiful and expressive arias from his most famous operas and oratorios, performed by the best in their field: Ian Bostridge ("Ombra mai fu", "Where'er you walk"), Maria Bayo ("Lascia ch'io pianga"), Vesselina Kasarova ("Caro Amor"), Nuria Rial and Lawrence Zazzo ("Alma mia, dolce ristoro", "Caro amico amplesso"), Angelika Kirchschlager ("Qui d'Amor," "Scherza Infida","Cara Spem"), Marijana Mijanovic ("Qual nave smarrita"), Annette Dasch ("Ah Crudele") and instrumental gems, played by Gabor Boldoczki ("Arrival of the Queen of Sheba"), Il Complesso Barocco, Kammerorchester Basel, etc. The double CD will be released as a high quality 2 CD digipak with a very attractive cover and is the right product for the many fans of beautiful Baroque music.

Following its successful full length opera, Artaxerxes, Classical Opera return with the first in an epic series of Mozart operas, Apollo et Hyacinthus. Named in The Guardian as one of ‘The Best Classical albums of 2012’. Classical Opera has mounted two staged productions of Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus (1998 and 2006), with both receiving wide critical acclaim; The Independent stated, “Classical Opera’s polished debut in Apollo et Hyacinthus proved a pearl beyond price. Here was a work of staggering beauty riddled with sweet noises like Caliban’s enchanted isle.”

Saul is one of Handel's largest oratorios; its rich orchestration includes trumpets, trombones, timpani, harp, and carillon. René Jacobs certainly wrests every drop of color from this luxurious array of instruments, particularly in the choruses, which are gloriously grand but also extremely exciting. In Nos. 20-24, where the populace (with maddening relentlessness) praises David above Saul to the incessant jangling of the carillon, it's easy to understand why the king objects to the unseemly revelry. Handel's music wonderfully suggests both the joyous celebration and seeds of jealousy being planted in Saul's mind. Similarly, Jacobs' careful choice of colors for the continuo part makes the famous "Dead March" far more solemn than it often sounds, an appropriate introduction to Handel's "Elegy on the death of Saul and Jonathan".

Nach der hoch gelobten Aufnahme von Händels "Riccardo Primo" hat sich das Kammerorchester Basel unter Leitung des Händel-Spezialisten Paul Godwin mit den Solisten Nuria Rial, Lawrence Zazzo und Geraldine McGreevy erneut zusammengetan und eines der schönsten Oratorien Händels, "Athalia", neu eingespielt. Das Libretto (geschrieben von Samuel Humphreys) geht auf das Zweite Buch der Könige zurück und erzählt von der Königin Athalia, die vom jüdischen- zum Baalsglauben übertrat. Als Vorlage diente Jean Racines Tragödie Athalie. Die Uraufführung des Oratoriums 1735 war ein solcher Erfolg, dass das Werk noch vier Mal wiederholt werden musste.

This is the first authoritative recording of Alessandro Scarlatti's Griselda, rendered with exquisite beauty by René Jacobs, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and an outstanding cast led by Dorothea Röschmann in the title role. Warming to the story of Griselda (originally by Boccaccio) – the low-born woman who endures a string of indignities as the king, Gualtiero, tests her suitability to be the mother of his heir – is not easy. But the added humanity of Apostolo Zeno's libretto, which invests Griselda with more backbone, and Gualtiero with more sympathy, than they had in Boccaccio's original, and the emotional immediacy of the performances, Röschmann's in particular, make this recording go down smoothly. It is also an abundantly melodic and beautifully orchestrated score, representing Scarlatti at the height of his powers.

Joachim Carlos Martini is obviously a conscientious and intelligent musician. Like Robert King before him, he opts for the overture used in the 1744 revival, as only a continuo part survives of the original overture. Acknowledging that we cannot be certain of what the first performance did or did not include, he also picks and chooses items from the various editions and texts (among them Chrysander, Bernd Baselt and Robert King himself) available to him.