George Frideric Handel

“…Handel's Nine German Arias are devotional music at its most beguiling and hedonistic. With her pure, luminous tone, graceful sense of phrase and discerning musicality, Carolyn Sampson gives enchanting performances of music that is essentially about enchantment.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2007

“Carolyn Sampson sings with effortless ease, the reward for superb vocal technique. She generates a lovely warmth in tone to colour individual syllables while retaining a gloriously flowing musical line. No less a delight… are three oboe sonatas. Alexandra Bellamy plays them with alluring simplicity. Her tone is something quite special, supple and warm, and fluent when fast movements demand it - a real find.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 ****

“as fresh as it is tonally beautiful” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Tenors are fighter pilots - dashing, heroic, unhappy out of the limelight - and Padmore is an ace among them, soaring through this disc on a velvet voice in various Handelian guises. Semele falls for his smooth flattery in Where'er you walk', though he decelerates after the intro speed set by The English Consort under Andrew Manze. His blinded Samson is harrowingly persuasive in 'Total Eclipse', he shows off impressive no-breath acrobatics in Jephtha and dramatises outrageously in the Tameriano extract. The alto Robin Blaze and the soprano Lucy Crow are his top-notch, bit-part crew.” The Times

“Underpinned by Andrew Manze's unobtrusive and warm-hearted English Concert, Mark Padmore uses his extraordinary diction and whispering chamber-like intimacy to remind us that the most exalted tenor arias from Handel's operas and oratorios can achieve true potency out of context.
Favourites like 'Where'er you walk' and 'Waft her, angels' appear to grow out of this varied programme without the sense of being lifted for a compilation; Padmore is a master of taste, restraint and unassuming gesture. 'Pastorello d'un povero' is a touching vignette and the soft singing elsewhere contributes to a concentrated and affecting juxtaposition of human vice and virtue in the Tamerlano scenas. As throughout, Padmore saves the greatest emotional impact for the da capos where coloration reaches new heights.
Indeed, it is the joy in conveying the emotional core of each situation which marks out this disc. Graphic dramatic effects abound (not least the Sultan's gradual giving up the ghost in 'Figlia mia' with a croaking realism) but this is a disc which celebrates Handel's capacity for incisive human observation, achieved more through reflective means than showpiece coloratura.
It's a persuasive and thoughtful approach.
Padmore's lowest register can seem a touch insubstantial but this is a small gripe in a disc boasting – as its parting shot – the duet 'As steals the morn', a performance with the fine Lucy Crowe at her most alluring.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Handel was one of the first Baroque composers to invest his talents in the tenor voice and here this unique English legacy is recalled. Through his shading, dynamic range and commitment to the text, Padmore seduces the listener.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008

“Beauty's final aria (sung by Natalie Dessay) is unconventionally slow and intensely moving, accompanied by obbligato violin possibly intended for Corelli who may have led the first performance. Haïm is generally more elegant, though no less exciting, while the... sound is excellent. Technically superb, reassuringly stylish, this is an outstanding performance of Handel at the height of his powers.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2007 *****

“Emmanuelle Haïm performed the work at the Barbican in London, in March 2005. The cast, apart from Natalie Dessay, was identical to the one on the disc. “Emmanuelle Haïm's performance with her ensemble Le Concert d'Astrée was a thing of wonder: at once profound, sensual, witty and immaculate. The singing was phenomenal. A gorgeous evening, every second of it.” The Guardian

“Curtis directs with well-paced assurance and has assembled an effective cast drawn mainly from a pool of semi-regulars. As always with these pieces, veritable voyages of discovery, the score is generously filled with fine music.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2007 ****

“The great glory of the set is Joyce DiDonato as Elmira, not just fresh-toned, with flawless legato in her lyrical arias, but dazzlingly brilliant in the florid ones...Riccardo Novaro is excellent as the satrap, Timante.” Penguin Guide

“Scholl clearly relishes the young Handel's unbridled exuberance: he coaxes, seduces, laments and rages: here negotiating Handel's virtuosic writing with brazen panache, elsewhere singing with such sensuous ardour that surely even an ice-nymph would yield. Director Ottavio Dantone responds to Handel's every nuance, drawing lithe, capricious playing from Accademia Bizantina and high-lighting the ever-changing musical spectrum to thrilling effect.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2007 *****

“"Scholl quickly demonstrated his natural ease… a limpid sound, beautifully phrased, with vibrato used sparingly. Here is a musician of obvious intelligence whose voice, in someone so young, is marvellously developed, pure and full, reminiscent of the young Alfred Deller." I wrote these words for this paper 10 years ago at Andreas Scholl's debut recital at London's Purcell Room. The promise has been abundantly fulfilled.” The Independent

“If the libretto is not of the best then the same cannot be said of Handel's music which offers a veritable banquet. The cast of singers is always effective… and the instrumentalists in all but one of two instances unanimous and sympathetic. Curtis directs all with stylistic assurance.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2007 ****

“Fernando is the abandoned first draft of Handel's opera Sosarme (1732). We do not know why Handel changed almost all the character names, the location of the action and the title during the composition process, but in either guise the opera is full of top-drawer music.
Alan Curtis has decided to reconstruct Fernando for philological reasons, although maybe the desire to bring us another 'premiere' had something to do with it.
Curtis's pacing and shaping of Handel's music is consistently subtle, astutely rhetorical and firmly connected to the libretto text. Although it might be possible to explore firmer muscularity and create a more vivid sense of surprise in the quicker music, there is something to be said for Curtis's shrewd reservation of such effects for when it is truly vital for the drama. For instance, Marianna Pizzolato's powerful arias 'Vado al campo' and 'Cuor di madre e cuor di moglie' are potently delivered moments of severe agitated passion that are all the more effective for the sweeter elegance that pervades much of this lovely score. The sublime duet 'Per le porte' is sung with poetic intimacy by Lawrence Zazzo and Veronica Cangemi. Zazzo sings his elegantly heroic aria 'Alle sfere della gloria' with supple clarity. Max Emanuel Cencic is impressive as the reticent Sancio, unwilling to be used as a pawn in his ruthless grandfather Altomaro's Machiavellian plans to tear the royal family apart. Antonio Abete gives an ideal account of the villain's arias.
The only weak link is Filippo Adami's vocally deficient Dionisio: natural Italian declamation in his extrovert recitatives is not enough to carry him through under-achieving blustery accounts of magnificent arias that deserve better. Il Complesso Barocco are excellent: ritornelli are intelligently weighted and phrased and instrumental contributions are patiently integrated with the singing.
There are a few cuts to recitatives, but overall Fernando is one of Curtis's most consistent and pleasing Handel opera recordings.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Curtis draws lively playing from his period band, with a first-rate line-up of soloists. In the title-role Lawrence Zazzo is a masterly countertenor, coping superbly with the elaborate divisions, while Veronica Cangemi...has a gorgeously creamy soprano which is not only beautiful in her lyrical numbers but also flexible in the brilliant ones.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“Elin Manahan Thomas is excellent in the lyrical/poignant moments, but is, as yet, not impassioned enough for Handel's powerful emotions.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2007 ***

“The sheer spiritual power, the sheer heartfelt sincerity and warmth of feeling in her every utterance is overwhelmingly moving” The Telegraph

“Here, she is heard in Mahler's Five Ruckert Lieder, the voice unfailingly beautiful, the words evocative, and in the valedictory Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world), serenely resigned and sadly prophetic. A glowing memento of a glorious artist” Sunday Times

“This mezzo-soprano had a profound musical bond with Mahler, for example, and this is her only extant recording of the Ruckert Lieder. It's a marvel … Roger Vignoles deserves praise, too, for his playing matches Hunt Lieberson in its emotional concentration and directness … "Unbewegte laue Luft" ends the recital on an ecstatic note that surely sent the audience out on a cloud. Indispensable” Gramophone Magazine

“This recital presents a remarkable singer still at the height of her powers some eight years before her untimely death … All in all, this is a cherishable memento of a very special artist” International Record Review

“It is difficult to get through this recital without a lump in your throat … Her performance of Mahler's Ruckert Lieder, one of the finest on disc, avoids the usual morbidity and contains flashes of divine revelation ... Essential listening” The Guardian

“The unique warmth of tone is sounded in the first notes even of the lighter Mahler songs. But there's also a spiritual grace in her approach. Key tracks such as Mahler's 'Ich bin de Welt abhanden gekommen'; the spiritual 'Deep river'; her fervent second encore, Brahms's 'Unbewegte laue Luft' and Handel's 'As rosy steps'... place Hunt Lieberson alongside the best of Kathleen Ferrier and Dame Janet Baker, whose Mahler is matched for personality here.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2007 *****

“Here is a mezzo who more than any of her generation bade fair to rival Janet Baker in the warmth, beauty and intensity of her singing” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“Our finest coloratura soprano: she combines dazzling accuracy and luminous musicality” The Times