Handel: The Choice of Hercules

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Release Date: 1st May 2002
Catalogue No: CDA67298
Label: Hyperion
Length: 65 minutes

In stock

Usually despatched within 1 working day

Early Music - up to 35% off selected titles

Special offer ends: 04/06/2024

Handel: The Choice of Hercules

Work length48:30

$26.40

$36.00

Susan Gritton (soprano), Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Charles Daniels (tenor)
King's Consort, King's Consort Choir
Robert King

I. Sinfonia

Track length1:18

$1.10

$1.50

No 02. Accompagnato. See Hercules! how smiles yon myrtle plain (Pleasure)

Track length2:42

$1.10

$1.50

No 03. Air. Come, blooming boy (Pleasure)

Track length2:19

$1.10

$1.50

No 04. Air. There the brisk sparkling nectar drain (Pleasure)

Track length2:36

$1.10

$1.50

No 05. Solo and Chorus. While for thy arms that beauty glows (Pleasure)

Track length2:36

$1.10

$1.50

No 06. Recitative. Away, mistaken wretch, away! (Virtue)

Track length0:30

$1.10

$1.50

No 07. Air. This manly youth's exalted mind (Virtue)

Track length5:31

$1.10

$1.50

No 08. Recitative. Rise, youth! exalt thyself and me! (Virtue)

Track length0:17

$1.10

$1.50

No 09. Air. Go, assert thy heav'nly race (Virtue)

Track length2:52

$1.10

$1.50

No 10. Recitative. In peace, in war (Virtue)

Track length0:18

$1.10

$1.50

No 11. Solo and Chorus. So shalt thou gain immortal praise (Virtue)

Track length1:46

$1.10

$1.50

No 12. Recitative. Hearst thou, what dangers then thou must engage? (Pleasure)

Track length0:27

$1.10

$1.50

No 13. Solo and Chorus. Turn thee, youth, to joy and love (Pleasure)

Track length2:32

$1.10

$1.50

No 14. Recitative. Short is my way, fair, easy, smooth and plain (Pleasure / Hercules)

Track length0:39

$1.10

$1.50

No 15. Air. Yet, can I hear that dulcet lay (Hercules)

Track length4:19

$1.10

$1.50

No 16. Air. Enjoy the sweet Elysian grove (Attendant on Pleasure)

Track length2:18

$1.10

$1.50

No 17. Recitative. Oh! whither, reason, dost thou fly? (Hercules)

Track length0:15

$1.10

$1.50

No 18. Trio. Where shall I go? (Hercules / Pleasure / Virtue)

Track length1:47

$1.10

$1.50

No 19. Recitative. Mount, mount the steep ascent (Virtue)

Track length0:40

$1.10

$1.50

No 20. Air. Mount, mount the steep ascent (Virtue)

Track length1:02

$1.10

$1.50

No 21. Chorus. Arise! mount the steep ascent

Track length2:08

$1.10

$1.50

No 22. Recitative. The sounds breathe fire celestial (Hercules)

Track length0:15

$1.10

$1.50

No 23. Air. Lead, goddess, lead the way! (Hercules)

Track length4:49

$1.10

$1.50

No 24. Chorus. Virtue will place thee in that blest abode

Track length4:34

$1.10

$1.50

Greene, M: Hearken unto me, ye holy children

Work length16:47

$8.80

$12.00

Peter Harvey (bass), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Charles Daniels (tenor)
King's Consort, King's Consort Choir
Robert King

No 1. Solo. Hearken unto me, ye holy children

Track length3:02

$1.10

$1.50

No 2. Chorus. Magnify His name

Track length1:32

$1.10

$1.50

No 3. Chorus. And in praising Him you shall say

Track length2:45

$1.10

$1.50

No 4. Solo. To be a father to the fatherless

Track length1:43

$1.10

$1.50

No 5. Duet. Therefore shall he receive a glorious kingdom

Track length1:42

$1.10

$1.50

No 6. Recitative. How is he numb'red

Track length0:34

$1.10

$1.50

No 7. Solo. His name shall endure for ever

Track length2:18

$1.10

$1.50

No 8. Chorus. Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers

Track length3:11

$1.10

$1.50

About
Explore

About

Robert King follows up his recent, resplendent, critically acclaimed reconstruction of the Coronation of King George II (CDA67286) with some more Handel, this time in the form of his lesser-known one-act dramatic cantata, The Choice of Hercules. When Handel introduced English oratorios to London in the 1730s, he did not confine himself to sacred subjects, exploring also Classical myths, with texts based on Roman and Greek literature. The Choice of Hercules marks Handels last realisation of a Classical tale. It started life in 1749 as music for Alceste, but the Covent Garden production was cancelled, leaving Handel with an hour of superb music on his hands. By the summer of 1750 he had adapted several numbers and added new ones, and in 1751 it premiered as an additional New Act concluding a performance of the ode Alexanders Feast. Much of the music from the original conception (the story of a loyal wife who dies to save her husband and is subsequently rescued from the Underworld by Hercules) transferred easily to its new guise, for example the noble opening Sinfonia, originally intended to mark Hercules return from the Underworld, now entirely apt for the entrance of the young Hercules in the new drama. Hercules choice is thus: on the verge of manhood, he is contemplating his future when two women appear to him. One, Vice, eager and seductive, shows him a path which seems to offer easy progress to a life of indolent pleasure. The other, tall and beautiful and identified as Virtue, warns Hercules that what is truly good can only be obtained through hard effort; and only then can Hercules gain supreme glory. Also on this disc is an anthem by Maurice Greene, a contemporary of Handel, and by all accounts an arch rival, particularly when Handel was chosen above Greene by George II to write the new anthems for his coronation. Full marks to Robert King who has assembled yet again a formidably superb collection of artists to perform this particularly attractive repertoire.

Offer,Handel: The Choice of Hercules

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue