Harmonia Mundi: HMC901957

Il duello amoroso - Italian Cantatas

Eight years after his first Handel recital, Ombra mai fù, Andreas Scholl turns his talents to Handel's early chamber cantatas. The splendid Il duello amoroso offers the countertenor a chance to duet with young French-Canadian soprano Hélène Guilmette.

Andreas Scholl is possibly the most famous countertenor in the world. In 1998, his operatic debut at Glyndebourne in Handel's Rodelinda won unprecedented praise from the British press. His appearance on the Last Night of the Proms in 2005 awakened an entirely new audience to the countertenor phenomenon and sales of his 3CD Essential Andreas Scholl set hit the best-seller lists that Christmas. He made his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 2006 and the same year won the Singer of the Year Award at the Classical Brits. Also in 2006, Andreas Scholl sang the title role in Handel's Giulio Cesare at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and in Rome. This has now been released on a Harmonia Mundi DVD.

The soloists of the Accademia Bizantina, all natives of the Italian peninsula, were founded in Ravenna in 1983. They are directed by Ottavio Dantone, musical director since 1996, who brings expertise in historically informed performance, leading to its position as one of today's finest Baroque groups.

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Il duello amoroso - Italian Cantatas

0794881834020

HMC901957

Il duello amoroso - Italian Cantatas

Handel:

Amarilli vezzosa, HWV 82

Nel dolce tempo, HWV 135b

Mi palpita il cor (HWV 132c)

Vedendo amor, HWV 175

Trio Sonatas, Op. 5, no. 2

Andreas Scholl (countertenor) & Hélène Guilmette (soprano)

Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone

"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

Harmonia Mundi - HMC901957

(CD)

$16.99

Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days.

Press comments:

"Gorgeous music, superbly played and gorgeously sung." Hugh Canning, Classical CD of the Week, Sunday Times, 4 February 2007

"A beguiling recital of works that are still among Handel's best-kept secrets." Richard Wigmore, The Daily Telegraph, 10 February 2007

"Scholl's limpid counter-tenor voice on these romantic tales has an appealingly androgynous quality, and balances innocence with sophistication." Peter Culshaw, Observer Music Monthly, February 2007

"With stylish support from Canadian soprano Hélène Guilmette, and delicately-turned accompaniment from Ottavio Dantone’s Accademia Bizantina, Scholl’s performance underlines the beauty of Handel’s early cantatas" Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday, 18 February 2007

"ravishing" Anthony Holden, The Observer, 4 March 2007

"Scholl clearly relishes the young Handel’s unbridled exuberance: he coaxes, seduces, laments and rages…Director Ottavio Dantone responds to Handel’s every nuance, drawing lithe, capricious playing from Accademia Bizantina and highlighting the ever-changing musical spectrum to thrilling effect. We’re not spoiled for choice when it comes to recordings of these works but this is surely the most seductive of them." Kate Bolton, BBC Music Magazine, April 2007

"he sings with all his customary liquid beauty of tone, eloquence of phrase and expressive immediacy…Pleasure in this delectable recital is completed by the zestful, imaginatively coloured playing of Accademia Bizantina" Richard Wigmore, Gramophone recommends, May 2007

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