Handel - Italian Cantatas Volume 2 - Cantatas for Marchese Ruspoli

Records of the Year

“Volume 1 of this series, featuring Invernizzi, was an award-winning hit, but this collection of Handel's early cantatas, fabulously sung by Galli, is better still.”

November 2007

***

“Galli has a stylish approach, agile in fast movements, ornaments decorating rather than distorting Handel's lines. She is though, so bound up in the anguish of unrequited love, the common thread, that I longed for a moment of sustained line. Every note is a separate jewel, beautifully cut, but detached from those around it.”

October 2007

“…the Italian ensemble… deliver delectable performances at an unmatched level of thoughtful preparation, penetrating programming and artistic interpretation.”

2010

“Once again La Risonanza deliver delectable performances at an unmatched level of thoughtful preparation, penetrating programming and artistic interpretation. This instalment contains five cantatas, four of which were composed in 1707 for Handel's principal Roman patron the Marquis Ruspoli (the origins of Notte placida e cheta are less clear). All of these pieces have been recorded before but never quite like this. Roberta Invernizzi is on sparkling form in the hunting cantata Diana cacciatrice and La Risonanza play with spirited elegance. The lion's share of the programme is sung by Emanuela Galli: Armidaabbandonata receives a performance that surpasses all previous versions (no mean feat – the discography includes good performances by Ann Murray, Emma Kirkby and Véronique Gens). Galli sings with intensely dramatic conviction yet never at the expense of poetic style or good taste, and is equally convincing whether revealing the eloquence of Armida's broken heart or conveying the viciousness of her anger at Rinaldo. Fabio Bonizzoni nurtures performances that illustrate the rhetorical power in Handel's music without ever over-egging the pudding: for instance, Galli's expression of the core question in Tu fedel? tucostante? is wonderfully convincing, and the softly duelling violins in 'Zeffiretti, deh! venite' are nothing short of perfection.”