Rudi Van Rensburg

Handel: Alcina / Alan Curtis
Deutsche Grammophon | ARCHIV Produktion | 16 Mar. 2009 | 3 CDs
EAC Rip | ape (img+cue) | logs | cover | no scans | 951 MB

Under baroque-pioneer conductor Alan Curtis, the sorceress Alcina bewitches as never before for Handel year 2009
Alan Curtis, lauded by Opera as “one of our finest conductors of Baroque opera,” illumines Handel’s masterpiece, Alcina, by casting, as heroine, the brilliant Joyce DiDonato
Since Alcina is historically dared by virtuosic sopranos like Sutherland and Battle, this innovative recording with a mezzo is a must-have not just for Alcina freaks but all who adore sensational vocalism
As Handel did in his time, Curtis arrays our era’s finest Baroque singers – such as Maite Beaumont and Karina Gauvin – in supporting roles around his star
With this electrifying Alcina, first ever studio recording of the rarely heard Ezio and Rolando Villazón’s new album, Handel Year 2009 is being exceptionally well feted by Deutsche Grammophon.

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".

Georg Friedrich Händels großes Chor-Oratorium "Israel in Egypt" ist das wertvollste Geschenk, das der Komponist der Chormusik machen konnte: Der Chor fungiert als Protagonist in diesem klangmächtigen Werk, das in bildhafter Dramatik vom alttestamentarischen Exodus erzählt. Viel zu lange war das Oratorium nach seiner wenig erfolgreichen Uraufführung im Londoner King’s Theatre in Vergessenheit geraten, bis es im Zuge der Barock-Renaissance unter Felix Mendelssohn im 19. Jahrhundert wiederentdeckt wurde.

In 1641 Monteverdi made this masterpiece based on Homer’s Odyssey for a public opera house in Venice. It has more characters than you can shake a stick at – presumably one reason why William Christie chose to direct it from the harpsichord – so it needs a cast that has strength in depth. Luckily, these performers from the 2009 production at the Teatro Real in Madrid are superb. Christine Rice gives us a finely-paced Penelope, full of complexity beyond the merely stoical, and with a dark voice that signals restrained fury as well as painful neglect.

René Jacobs' performance of Handel's 1750 version of Messiah is remarkable for the fresh insights he brings to such a familiar work. His reading is fleet but never hurried, and movements flow fluidly from each other, virtually without pause. This Messiah is an integrated whole, whose ebbing and flowing move it inexorably toward its climaxes, avoiding the usual sense that the oratorio is merely a string of separate, thematically related numbers. The speed of some sections, and certain unconventional articulations, can at first seem eccentric, but Jacobs' interpretive decisions are always guided by the meaning of the texts, and when the initial surprise fades, seem obviously to be the best choices possible.

Alan Curtis' stellar recording of Alcina, which joins a respectable number of very fine recordings of the opera, is remarkable for the supple liveliness of his conducting and the outstanding performances of the soloists. The elasticity of his performance, leading Il Complesso Barocco, should dispel any misconceptions about Baroque music being rigid and metronomic. The nuanced care with which he brings out the emotional depth of Handel's writing is evident from the first measures of the overture and enlivens the entire opera.

Rodrigo is Handel's fifth opera. His first four operas were written for Hamburg. Almira, the first of them, survives, but Nero, Florindo, and Dafne are almost completely lost. Rodrigo, first performed in the autumn of 1707 (exact date unknown), shows a great advance on Almira after Handel had spent less than a year in Italy; his mature style is already evident…