Lucy Crowe

David Bates directs La Nuova Musica in a pair of contrasting settings of Psalm 109.

Handel's masterful and ambitious HWV282 was penned in 1707 during a youthful visit to Italy. Vivaldi's vivid and economical RV807 (his third Dixit Dominus) was long mistakenly attributed to Baldassare Galuppi; it probably dates from the early 1730s. Rounding out the programme is Vivaldi's dazzling motet for solo voice, "In furore iustissimae irae", featuring soprano Lucy Crowe.

In the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, Alison Balsom celebrates the heroic era of the Baroque trumpet in works by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Henry Purcell (1658 or 1659-1695), whose anthems, odes, sinfonias and operas have provided the music for numerous royal celebrations from their own day to the present.

Joining forces with Trevor Pinnock, harpsichordist, conductor and pioneer of historical performance, and with the English Concert orchestra that he founded, Balsom demonstrates the versatility and expressive power of her valve-less instrument in original works and new arrangements. These include Purcell’s Sound the trumpet and Handel’s Eternal Source of light divine in duet with countertenor Iestyn Davies and Purcell’s The Plaint from The Fairy Queen in duet with soprano Lucy Crowe. Further repertoire includes suites from Purcell’s semi-operas King Arthur (1691) and The Fairy Queen (1692) in new arrangements by Balsom and Pinnock, Handel’s Water Piece in D Major HWV 341 and his Oboe Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Major HWV 301 transposed into C Major.

Alison Balsom is one of today’s most popular classical musicians. Having managed to break through to the mainstream without abandoning her musical integrity, she continues to draw ever-wider audiences for her performances and recordings of diverse repertoire.

This recording of Alceste is performed by the Early Opera Company and Christian Curnyn, whose other Handel recordings for Chandos have all received glowing accolades: Semele, for instance, was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and one of the Records of 2007 in The Sunday Times. The recording of Flavio was nominated for a Gramophone Award in 2011, in the Baroque Vocal category.

In Alceste, Admetus, the terminally ill King of Thessaly, is promised by Apollo that he can defer his premature death if another person volunteers to die in his place. Alcestis, the beloved wife of Admetus, bravely sacrifices herself to die in his place. The hero Hercules visits his grieving friend Admetus, resolves to travel to Hades, overpowers Pluto, returns Alcestis to the world of the living, and restores her to Admetus.

The production of Alceste was initially envisaged as an expensive collaboration between the Scottish-born novelist and playwright Tobias Smollett, the Covent Garden company of actors and singers, the theatre owner and manager John Rich, the prestigious composer Handel, and the elaborate scenery designer Giovanni Servandoni. However, soon after full rehearsals began, Alceste was aborted permanently for reasons that are unclear. One theory to explain the cancellation is that the lavishness of the production became too expensive for Rich to risk box-office failure – another is that the temperamental Smollett quarrelled violently with the theatre owner, who might have responded by cancelling the production. Whatever the reason behind the cancellation, Smollett’s abandoned script for the play was lost, and only Handel’s incidental music survives today.

Although Handel never performed his music for Alceste, he characteristically found plenty of practical uses for it.

He adapted several sinfonias, choruses, and arias to form the majority of the music for The Choice of Hercules, and several other numbers were later used in revivals of Belshazzar and Alexander Balus.

‘Music has the capacity to breathe harmony into the soul. The Peacemakers breathes the harmony of peace.’ Terry Waite CBE

‘As a composer, he recognises no boundaries - musical, commercial, geographical or cultural. His is a way of thinking and composing that is perfectly in tune with the spirit of the times.’ Classic FM Magazine

The Peacemakers, a brand new choral work composed by Karl Jenkins, offers inspiration and solace for a time in need of both. It features texts from some of the greatest peacemakers throughout history, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank and Mother Teresa, as well as words from the Bible and the Qur’an with some new text specially written by Terry Waite.

The 17 short movements are performed by various combinations of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Rundfunkchor Berlin, City of Birmingham Youth Chorus and 1000-strong choral society The Really Big Chorus, made up of members of UK choirs from across the country brought together in one studio. Guest artists include violinist Chloë Hanslip, soprano Lucy Crowe, Davy Spillane on Uilleann pipes, Indian bansuri (ethnic flute) player Ashwin Srinivasan and jazz greats Nigel Hitchcock and Laurence Cottle.

Karl Jenkins conducted the world premiere of The Peacemakers at Carnegie Hall on 16 January 2012 and will introduce the work in the UK in May 2012, conducting performances at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Royal Festival Hall, London, St. David’s Hall, Cardiff and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

“The Peacemakers is dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives during armed conflict and, in particular, innocent civilians,” Karl Jenkins said recently. “When I composed The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace for the millennium, it was with the hope of looking forward to a century of peace. Sadly, nothing much has changed.” The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace has been enormously successful, having been performed nearly 1000 times in 20 different countries since the CD was released in 2001. In a sense, The Peacemakers could be seen as a sequel to The Armed Man.

“In The Peacemakers,” Jenkins continues, “one line from the 13th-century Persian mystic poet Rumi sums up the ethos of the piece: ‘All religions, all singing one song: Peace be with you’. Many of the other ‘contributors’ are figures who have shaped history, others are less well known. I have occasionally placed some text in a musical environment that helps identify its origin or culture: the bansuri (Indian flute) and tabla in the Gandhi; the shakuhachi (a Japanese flute associated with Zen Buddhism) and temple bells in that of the Dalai Lama; African percussion in the Mandela; and echoes of the blues of the deep American South (as well as a quote from Schumann’s Träumerei (Dreaming) in my tribute to Martin Luther King. ‘Healing Light: a Celtic prayer’ is with uilleann pipes and bodhrán drums. “

For its harmonia mundi début, the London-based La Nuova Musica, led by David Bates, presents a true rarity: the original 1712 version of Handel's opera 'Il pastor fido' (The Faithful Shepherd) featuring Lucy Crowe, Anna Dennis, Katherine Manley, Madeleine Shaw and Clint van der Linde.

'Il pastor fido' was first performed at the Queen’s Theatre on 22 November 1712, but achieved only seven performances throughout the season. One unimpressed eyewitness complained in his diary ‘The Scene represented only ye Country of Arcadia. ye Habits were old – ye Opera Short.’

Handel’s distinctive original version of his Arcadian opera was not heard again until its first modern revival at Abingdon in 1971; more than 40 years on, this performance by La Nuova Musica is its first recording.

La Nuova Musica is a vocal and instrumental ensemble dedicated to the music of the European Renaissance and Baroque. In less than five years since its foundation by counter-tenor David Bates, it has shot to prominence in the UK and abroad, establishing itself amongst critics and audiences as both a fixture and a breath of fresh air. Across a steadily developing repertoire, La Nuova Musica performances are characterised by vividness and ardour. The Times wrote of its 2009 performance of Handel’s 'Acis and Galatea' at the London Handel Festival: “[Bates] breathed life, meaning and shape into every phrase. His speeds were properly brisk and his little band responded with playing of robust vigour.”

At the 2009 Aldeburgh Easter Festival, the group’s interpretation of Schütz’s 'Musikalische Exequien' proved, in the words of the Eastern Daily Press, “to be one of the sensations of the weekend…effortlessly sung.” Audiences were thrilled by La Nuova Musica’s recent account of Monteverdi’s Seventh Book of Madrigals at the Spitalfields Winter Festival: “extrovert, free-spirited and alive to every sob, sigh and smile” The Times. In 2012, LNM embarks on an exciting new relationship with Kings Place, curating the winter concert season around its own performance of Monteverdi’s 'Orfeo'. A recital with renowned countertenor Robin Blaze and a performance of Bach’s 'Christmas Oratorio' follow in 2013. In March, 2012 they will give concert performances of Handel’s 'Il pastor fido', featuring Lucy Crowe, Katherine Manley and Clint van der Linde, including on 13th April, the London Handel Festival.

This recording marks the group’s harmonia mundi début. Future projects will include Vivaldi Dixit Dominus RV807, Vivaldi In furore Iustissimae RV626 and Handel Dixit Dominus HWV232.

Soprano Lucy Crowe joins The English Concert led by Harry Bicket in this dazzling programme of Handel arias and cantatas dating from his 1706-10 sojourn in Italy, where he was affectionately dubbed ‘the dear Saxon’. 2nd in the 2005 Kathleen Ferrier and a Wigmore Young Artist, Lucy Crowe made her debuts with Scottish Opera as Sophie in 'Der Rosenkavalier' and ENO as Poppea in 'Agrippina', both to great critical acclaim.

Other opera engagements include Susanna for Opera North, Drusilla in 'The Coronation of Poppea' for English National Opera and Nanetta in Verdi's 'Falstaff' for Scottish Opera. She made her debut at Covent Garden as Belinda in 'Dido and Aeneas' in 2009 and in the same year Sophie in 'Der Rosenkavalier', a role subsequently taken to the Bavarian State opera, and the Deutsche Oper, Berlin.

This year she made her US opera debut at the Chicago Lyric Opera, and 'The Fairy Queen' with William Christie at Glyndebourne.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, music director of English National Opera and an exclusive Chandos artist, presents Volume 2 of their Polish Music series; a disc dedicated to vocal works by Witold Lutosławski. They are joined by the soloists Lucy Crowe, Toby Spence, and Christopher Purves in looking at some of the composer’s earlier works for voice and orchestra as well as three major works written after 1960: Paroles tissées, Les Espaces du sommeil and Chantefleurs et Chantefables.

Among the earlier pieces, Lacrimosa is the only surviving fragment of an intended Requiem and the only sacred work in Lutosławski’s output. In complete contrast, the Silesian Triptych was written at the height of the post-war Soviet doctrine that called for music that connected with the broad masses. In this folk-based work, Lutosławski takes three Silesian songs about the trials of love, giving them sparkle as well as depth to lift them above the mundanity of everyday life. Both works here feature the soprano soloist Lucy Crowe.

When Poland finally emerged from the cultural oppression of the post-war decade, its music scene flourished.

For Lutosławski, it was a time for personal development. In the first half of the 1960s his music had a raw energy, but by 1965 it had developed a much more subtle tone. Paroles tissées, in which the tenor soloist here is Toby Spence, simply accompanied by strings, harp, and piano, was the first work really to show this new subtlety in his works. Les Espaces du sommeil, with the baritone soloist Christopher Purves, is another prime example of the new lyrical quality that came to colour many of Lutosławski’s later orchestral works.

Chantefleurs et Chantefables is made up of nine charming and humourous songs which, inspired by the collection of childrens’ poems by the surrealist Robert Desnos, explores the vivid imagery and bright colours of the natural world through the innocent eyes of a child.