David Daniels

One of David Daniels’ great passions is to explore repertoire not necessarily associated with the countertenor voice. He also really likes to sing with guitar. The result is a delightful program of songs that David performs regularly in recital, ranging from gems by Dowland and Purcell to American classics like Beautiful Dreamer and the title song, John Kander’s A Quiet Thing. Leading Australian guitarist Craig Ogden has made the arrangements and accompanies David in a collection designed to be ‘very intimate, and full of beautiful words and melodies’.

In this double album, the greatest vocal artists of the present day offer their own vision of the singing of their legendary predecessors.

The extraordinary adulation accorded to castrati during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is still today one of the most fascinating phenomena in the history of music. During this golden age of the castrato, these male singers endowed with high voices that combined incredible refinement, amazing power and superhuman virtuosity took the musical world by storm. The whole of Europe was overcome by infatuation for these vocal prodigies. In the absence of the castrati themselves, the singers of today face the formidable challenge of reviving their repertoire. Both male and female singers now undertake the task of bringing back to life the wondrous voices of their androgynous forebears, in music that is by turns unsettling, deeply moving and of a dizzying virtuosity.

A 2CD-Compilation for the Price of 1 + 1 Bonus DVD - Digipack Format

The mid-price collection presents some of the most important and admired recordings of the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics catalogue which make EMI 'The Home of Opera'. This performance of Bajazet was recorded in 2004 at the Musica Numeris, Brussels.

The brand new series celebrates EMI - The Home of Opera with Haïm's recording of Dido and Aeneas with Susan Graham and Ian Bostridge. Includes complete libretto and synopsis on a bonus CD ROM.

“It seems that, in the years around 1720, when people went to the opera to hear a castrato idol or an adored soprano, they would play cards, pay court to their neighbours and savour sorbets during the recitatives – even during the so-called arias of action, which they enjoyed less than the ornamented reprises of the showpiece arias. With this intractable and hedonistic audience in mind (so different from people like us, of course), thirteen star singers came together to concoct this festive piece, constructed and presented in three acts like a true dramma per musica, but with no explicit story and no concrete characters: in other words, an imaginary opera formed of passion and music.” Ivan A. Alexandre

This album marks the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death with creativity, erudition and maybe a touch of audacity. Far more than a compilation album, it selects individual numbers from 11 operas and two oratorios by Handel and reassembles them in a sequence that respects the potent formula elaborated in the composer’s 38 works for the operatic stage.

While there is no specific narrative, the listener will be drawn in by the dramatic logic of a balanced succession of numbers, including some ‘greatest hits.

This ravishing selection of arias and duets is drawn from some of Handel’s finest vocal works, among them the operas Xerxes (source of the famous ‘Largo’), Ariodante, with its gripping ‘Scherza, infida’, and, perhaps his most popular works for the stage, Giulio Cesare and Alcina.

The generously-filled discs (two CDs for the price of one) also include the complete cantata Splenda l’alba in oriente and excerpts the dramatic cantata Armida abbandonata, the English ode L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and the exquisite Neapolitan serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo.

An international cast of outstanding Handelians includes Philippe Jaroussky, Natalie Dessay, David Daniels, Véronique Gens, Ian Bostridge, Joyce DiDonato, Stephanie Blythe, Janet Baker, Vivica Genaux, Gérard Lesne, James Bowman..

It has been a several years since David Daniels’ last recital for Virgin Classics – in 2004 the renowned countertenor explored Berlioz’ Les Nuits d’Eté - and his most recent recital of Baroque works, the critically acclaimed Oratorio Arias by Handel, dates back to 2002.

For this new release, Daniels returns to sacred works of the Baroque era with this programme of sacred arias and cantatas by Bach. He lends his beautiful countertenor voice and immense musicianship to this programme of famous cantatas, namely “Ich habe genug”, and arias from Bach’s Mass in B minor and the Saint Matthew’s and Saint John’s Passions. The programme was recorded in London in September 2007.

Accompanying David Daniels, Harry Bicket conducts The English Concert, considered to be one of the finest chamber orchestras for interpretations of Baroque and Classical music. Harry Bicket, the ensemble’s new musical director, is renowned worldwide for his performances of Baroque opera with many of the leading singers of the age, and forthcoming TEC seasons will include exciting collaborations with Sara Mingardo, Jonathan Lemalu, David Daniels, Anna-Caterina Antonacci, Mark Padmore and others.