George Frideric Handel

Hermann Uhde was a German Wagnerian baritone. In December 1961 Audrey Williamson wrote in Opera magazine: “On the opera stage the connection of intellect and passion is seldom. This is why stage singers like Hermann Uhde deserve the greatest appreciation; they uplift the opera to the highest level of musical drama.”

Patricia Petibon, admired for her command of Baroque style, records her first album of Italian Baroque arias partnered by Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra

Saluted by the International Record Review for her “rare ability to inject into her performance vocal characterizations which . . . nullify the need to see these operatic characters in the flesh,” Rosso frames Petibon’s gift of transformation by purely vocal means

Petibon’s keen interpretive intelligence and gleaming tone summon into vivid life a wealth of characters tangled up in the power plays of gods, kings, witches, and devils

Rosso mixes beloved Handel airs like “Lascia ch’io pianga” with newly discovered arias by his contemporaries and predecessors. Sartorio’s “Quando voglio” and Porpora’s floating “Morte amara” are potential hits

Her Deutsche Grammophon debut, Amoureuses, won 2009’s BBC Music Magazine Award for “Best Opera Album”

Judas Maccabaeus, one of the most popular (and lucrative) oratorios of Handel's career, in the first new complete recording for 15 years, marking the 5th anniversary of the Ambronay label and from the 30th year of the Festival. Composed to celebrate an English victory, Judas Maccabaeus, combines celebration and scenes of hope, national aspiration and vocal jubilation. This sumptuous oratorio, packed full of ‘patriotic hits’, is given here a complete recording which incorporates the artistic and musicological developments of the past 15 years. Leonardo García Alarcón invests this new score with an abundance of delicate and generous emotion, and a very Italian baroque voice. This live double album marks the beginning of a promising new partnership between the Namur Chamber Choir, Ambronay and the young Argentinian conductor with a "breathtaking" talent (Télérama).

“To imagine a German musician surrounded by Italian soloists, an English choir and French dance musicians, in order to celebrate freedom through that of the Jewish people, is a real pleasure for the soul. This richness, born out of diversity, has led to an artistic result which is neither uniform nor homogenous, but deeply baroque; the baroque being above all the art of the confrontation of cultures, the richness of variatio and the exploration of contradictory and opposing modes of expression.” Leonardo García Alarcón

Winter & Winter's first audio production with the Freitagsakademie and soprano Susanne Rydén presents Handel in Italy, combining his works with compositions by Corelli and Scarlatti. Handel's successful career in England was based on the reputation he gained as a composer and musician during his travels through Italy. At the age of 21 he had already established himself as a successful opera composer in Hamburg, before he journeyed to Italy in late 1706. He passed through Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice where he met and performed with Italy's composer elite: Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Lotti, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. The Swedish soloist Susanne Rydén is one of Europe's sucessful sopranos specialising in early music. Her love and understanding of the colourful Baroque repertoire has led her to work with internationally acclaimed ensembles and conductors, recent concert seasons having included Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Fransisco, the St. Matthew Passion with the Nederlandse Bachvereiniging, a programme of Handel with Harry Bicket and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm, Haydn's Creation with the Kölner Akademie, Handel's Messiah with the Bach Collegium Japan under Masaaki Suzuki, concerts with Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Concerto Copenhagen, Mozart Concert Arias with the Australian Brandenburg Baroque Orchestra and Paul Dyer, and European tours with Emma Kirkby as well as Collegium Vocale and Philippe Herreweghe. Recently she was the soloist at the 2009 Nobel Banquet in Stockholm.

"The Swedish soprano Susanne Rydén captivated her audience. The singer's enchanting presentation of the programme proved an exemplary demonstration of how to keep an audience eating out of one's hands." Goldberg

Annie Fischer’s (July 5, 1914 - April 10, 1995) main teacher was Ernst von Dohnányi at the Budapest Music Academy. In 1933 she won the first prize at the International Liszt Competition and soon established an illustrious solo concert career. She was regularly invited to perform throughout Europe by the likes of Otto Klemperer, Ferenc Fricsay, Igor Markevich, Antal Dorati, Walfganf Sawalisch, Adrian Boult. and considered one of the most admired pianists of the 20th century. Her great qualities were the poetic, passionate and magically beautiful performances that created a special communication with the audience.

A stunning debut album from an up and coming young opera singer, Ilona Domnich. This diverse album covers a range of styles, as Ilona says …”some of the songs are very difficult. For instance some parts of the Strauss songs are very acrobatic, on the other hand the lyrical Italian songs, while ostensibly less technically demanding, call for intense musicality and sensitivity”

The critically acclaimed Naxos Stokowski Transcriptions series is now available in a deluxe boxed set.

Also includes a bonus disc: Serebrier on Stokowski.

15 CD + CD ROM.

A stunning 15 CD collection of some of the greatest sacred music ever written.

From the great Lamentations of Byrd, Tallis and Palestrina, the listener is taken on a remarkable spiritual journey through Bach’s great St Matthew Passion, Purcell’s moving and bleak funeral music for Queen Mary, and Handel radiant Messiah.

Pergolesi’s masterful setting of the Stabat Mater and Telemann’s Passions-Oratorium are also to be found here, along with Haydn’s Stabat Mater and his dark and intense masterpiece Die sieben letzen Worte, or The Seven Last Words of our Saviour from the Cross.

Finally, Allegri’s hauntingly beautiful Miserere opens this collection – a work that was copied from memory after one hearing by the child Mozart. Prior to that moment the work had only been heard in the Vatican.

Superb value with a CD-ROM containing a full tracklist, sung texts and translations and booklet notes.

First rate performances from leading choirs including Kings College and Clare College, Cambridge, and the Stuttgart Chamber Chorus.

All recordings are recent.