Saul Firedlander

This selection of chamber music by leading Portuguese composer Pedro Faria Gomes was written between 2007 and 2018. The works encompass themes of memory, change and waiting, with the concept of time being a central preoccupation. Though he has drawn on music from his country’s folk traditions – in Memória and in the Sonata – it is always with new harmonic insights and subtlety, creating undeniably invigorating additions to contemporary chamber music repertoire.

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".

Handel's Saul is an operatic oratorio with ever intensifying action and increasingly drastic scenes. Handel seems to have been especially moved by this particular text. He gives each of the five main soloists a distinctive profile. Even the vocal supporting roles are unique and intentionally individual. In none of his other oratorios does Handel call for a more differentiated orchestra. Alongside the strings, he uses oboes, recorders, bassoons, trumpets, timpani and trombones. For me, Saul is one of the great high points of Handel's works. All of the performers on this recording thoroughly enjoyed taking on the challenges brought forth by this music.

This is the sixth set in this comprehensive and excellent Handel edition from Warner. This volume deals with an important oratorio in the shape of "Saul" as well as the "Utrecht Te Deum" and the famous "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" and "Alexander's Feast", another splendid cantata. The recordings date from the early 1970's to 1990 and come from the prolific Teldec stable under the indefatigable Nikolaus Harnoncourt who conducts in his exemplary no nonsense fashion. "Saul' is a fine interpretation although I still feel that John Eliot Gardiner comes to the core of the work better. "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day' is also given a pomp and circumstance treatment whilst the Utrecht Te Deum is winningly done. The team of soloists is also very good and the recordings are fine and well balanced in proper Teldec tradition.