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Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus & In furore iustissimae irae

Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus & In furore iustissimae irae


Handel:

Dixit Dominus, HWV 232

Vivaldi:

Dixit Dominus, RV807

In furore iustissimae irae, RV626

Lucy Crowe (soprano)


La Nuova Musica, David Bates

David Bates directs La Nuova Musica in a pair of contrasting settings of Psalm 109.

Handel's masterful and ambitious HWV282 was penned in 1707 during a youthful visit to Italy. Vivaldi's vivid and economical RV807 (his third Dixit Dominus) was long mistakenly attributed to Baldassare Galuppi; it probably dates from the early 1730s. Rounding out the programme is Vivaldi's dazzling motet for solo voice, "In furore iustissimae irae", featuring soprano Lucy Crowe.

“Bates wisely judges that the pace of the opening chorus [of the Handel] should be dictated by the singers' natural declamation of the line...I particularly appreciated Crowe's gorgeous soft singing” Gramophone Magazine, May 2013

Released or re-released in last 6 months

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Harmonia Mundi - HMU807587

(SACD)

Normally: $17.25

Special: $15.25

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Handel: Esther

Handel: Esther

First Reconstructable Version (Cannons), 1720


Susan Hamilton (Esther), Nicholas Mulroy (Mordecai), Matthew Brook (Haman), Thomas Hobbs (1st Israelite), Robin Blaze (Priest), James Gilchrist (Habdonah / Assuerus) & Electra Lochhead (Israelite Boy); Nicholas Wearne (organ continuo)

Dunedin Consort, John Butt

The Dunedin Consort’s highly anticipated new recording of ‘Esther - First Reconstructable Version (Cannons), 1720’ is the third recording in its hugely successful Handel series.

The Consort have set the bar high for this Handel performance with a Gramophone Award in 2007 for ‘Messiah’ and a BBC Radio 3 ‘Building a Library’ First Choice accolade for ‘Acis and Galatea’.

For Esther, director John Butt has reunited his award-winning team of soloists (Susan Hamilton - Esther; Nicholas Mulroy - Mordecai; Matthew Brook - Haman; Thomas Hobbs - 1st Israelite) plus well-known guest soloists Robin Blaze – Priest, James Gilchrist – Habdonah / Assuerus and Electra Lochhead - Israelite Boy.

The Dunedin Consort has established a reputation as the finest single-part period performance choir currently performing.

In 2011 Gramophone named the Dunedin Consort the 11th Greatest Choir in recognition of its ‘triple focus upon artistic revitalisation of over-familiar great works, meticulous musicological enquiry and the audiophile integrity of Linn Records' production values.’

The multi-award-winning Dunedin Consort has won praise for the natural style of its soloists (‘an authoritative bass and a superb contralto’ The Guardian) and renown for the virtuosity of its singers.

The Dunedin Consort has performed at music festivals in Scotland - including the Edinburgh International Festival and broadcasts frequently on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Scotland.

“Butt's direction combines spontaneous freshness with a care for expressive phrasing and precise colouring. The 11-strong chorus - the solo cast plus reinforcement - is vital incisive, packing a fair punch even in the ceremonial final chorus.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012

“the scholarship is only a means to an end, and is never allowed to get in the way of the wonderfully crafted music making. Textures are lean – 11 singers, including the soloists, 20 instrumentalists – but wonderfully precise, and the solo contributions, with soprano Susan Hamilton as Esther, are models of stylishness.” The Guardian, 17th May 2012 ****

“Butt's consort of soloists do this great music proud, sounding larger than their number would suggest...I'll return to this recording for the winning drive, dramatic conception and expressive phrasing of Butt's direction, his crack Baroque orchestra and his exceptional male cast” International Record Review, June 2012

“Paradoxically, a two-voices-to-a-part chorus achieves more immediacy than a larger choir, coupled with a stylish and delightfully intimate band. Yet again, Butt demonstrates that less can be more.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ****

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Linn - CKD397

(SACD - 2 discs)

$19.00

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Francesco Piemontesi: Recital

Francesco Piemontesi: Recital


Bach, J S:

Partita No. 1 in B flat major, BWV825

Brahms:

Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24

Handel:

Keyboard Suite, HWV 434 in B flat major

Liszt:

Fantasy & Fugue in G minor (J S Bach BWV542) for piano, S463

Vallée d'Obermann (Années de pèlerinage I, S. 160 No. 6)


Francesco Piemontesi (piano)

Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi, still only 27, is one of the most sought after young artists of his generation. In 2009 he was awarded a fellowship of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and was invited to join the BBC ‘New Generation Artists’ scheme. This recital beginning with Handel’s Suite in B flat shows his superb sonority.

“It's not just intelligent programme planning...that makes Piemontesi stand out; this is seriosuly classy pianism. Clarity of thought is complemented by clarity of touch, incisive intellect by a good dose of fantasy. The details are a joy...there's space to breathe and to dance...Spacious but clear recording quality enhances the lot.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 *****

“The Handel is alluringly played, segueing neatly into the Brahms. Piemontesi gives this a thoughtful, meticulously observed reading but seems inhibited when it comes to exploiting the full resources of the piano...The intimacy and desolation of "Valle d'Obermann" are sensitively characterised but again Piemontesi seems afraid to let go” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011

“Handel’s B flat major Suite, HWV 34, is incisive and positive, while clarity is not compromised by the wide tonal palette he displays in Brahms’s Handel Variations, Op 24. Bach’s B flat major Partita is articulated elegantly. A fine account of Liszt’s transcription of Bach’s G minor Fantasy and Fugue does its massiveness and thrilling contrapuntal intricacies utter justice.” Sunday Times, 31st July 2011 ****

“There's a real aristocratic sweep to this 27-year-old Swiss pianist's playing; the Handel suite from which Brahms extracted the theme of his Handel Variations is generously expressive...Piemontesi's unaffected Bach playing is recognisably all of a piece with his fundamentally unflamboyant approach to Liszt, which manages to present the rhetorical grandeur of Vallée d'Obermann truthfully, without exaggerating it in any way.” The Guardian, 30th June 2011 ****

“Piemontesi combines communicative panache with remarkable insight. He prefaces a virile, sensitive performance of Brahms’s Handel Variations with a stylistically discerning one of the Handel suite...[the Liszt pieces] provide further evidence of Piemontesi’s exceptional talent.” The Telegraph, 4th August 2011

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2012

Newcomer of the Year

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Avanti - AVANTI10342

(SACD)

$17.50

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 6 Nos. 1-12 HWV319-330

Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 6 Nos. 1-12 HWV319-330


“They must surely be one of the finest baroque ensembles now in existence.” Early Music News

“This is exemplary baroque string playing, and at its most tasteful.” The Consort

The Avison Ensemble is an outstanding period instrument orchestra who has been performing together for nearly 25 years. The Ensemble, directed by Pavlo Beznosiuk, gives a fresh and insightful performance of George Frideric Handel’s masterpiece Concerti Grossi Opus 6.

This recording encompasses Handel’s complete Concerti Grossi Opus 6, a work widely thought to be the definitive example of the concerto grosso and one of the composer's greatest contributions to the Baroque period.

Under the masterful direction of Pavlo Beznosiuk the Ensemble’s enviable precision and musical rapport is evident.

The period ensemble creates dazzling colour, the tones and textures bringing this popular Baroque masterpiece to life.

Formed in 1985, the Ensemble has attracted great critical acclaim. The Guardian commented: “I’d take the Avison Ensemble over Karajan…any day”.

The Avison Ensemble comprises some of Europe's leading baroque musicians, including artists from The Hague, Germany, France, Austria and London, with international soloists from all over the globe.

Pavlo Beznosiuk, the UK's foremost baroque violin virtuoso, is in demand as a soloist and orchestral leader performing regularly with the Academy of Ancient Music and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

“...a compendium of Handel's musical interests, at times blatantly operatic in style and material (Nos 7 and 8), occasionally as grave as the English oratorios (No 5), often dazzlingly Italianate (Nos 2, 6 and 10). Performed without the optional woodwind, this is a vivacious, highly detailed set.” The Independent on Sunday, 4th July 2010

“The Avison’s accounts under Pavlo Beznosiuk have a natural, easy virtuosity that will endear them to purists” Sunday Times, 8th August 2010 ***

“This fine ensemble, founded to investigate the previously unknown music of the Newcastle composer Charles Avison, takes on his London contemporary with tremendous panache...Pavlo Beznosiuk's virtuosity had me on the edge of my seat in the andante variations and the final allegro. But the Ensemble, too, plays with great tenderness.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2010 *****

“Beznosiuk is an excellent judge of textures and tempi, and his leadership of the concertino group…is authoritative and nuanced...I suspect that the Avison Ensemble's set shall remain rewarding long after the novelties of more precocious approaches have faded.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2010

“...this set has so much character, insight and understated drama that I felt as if immersed in a vast 12-act opera without words. Magnificent!” International Record Review, October 2010

GGramophone Awards 2011

Finalist - Baroque Instrumental

BBC Music Magazine

Orchestral Choice - September 2010

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Linn - CKD362

(SACD - 3 discs)

$25.00

(also available to download from $20.00)

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 7 Nos. 1-6, HWV306-311

Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 7 Nos. 1-6, HWV306-311


Richard Egarr (harpsichord, organs & direction)

Academy of Ancient Music

Handel's last great published set of instrumental concertos arrived posthumously in 1761. Played here on a chamber organ with real-time improvisations and enlarged continuo support, these magnificent concertos (including the beloved The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) show Handel at his glorious and compositional best, and allow a concentrated view of his style from the last 20 years of his life. Richard Egarr has worked with all types of keyboards and has performed repertoire ranging from 15th-century organ intabulations, to Dussek, Schumann and Chopin on early pianos, to Berg and Peter Maxwell Davies on modern piano. He is in great demand both as soloist and as accompanist for many of today's finest artists. As a conductor, Richard Egarr has presented a wide range of repertoire - from Baroque opera and oratorio to works by 20th -century composers. He is Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, with whom he has recorded Bach Harpsichord Concertos and Brandenburg Concertos.Together they are currently releasing a series of Handel's Opp.1-7, of which the Solo Sonatas Op.1, the Concerti Grossi Op.3 and Organ Concertos Op.4 are already available.

Organ Goetze & Gwynn (1998) based on the chamber organs of Richard Bridge and Thomas Parker (recorded with the kind permission of the Handel House Museum) CD2, tracks 11-15: Four-stop chamber organ by Robin Jennings (2005); Harpsichord CD2, tracks 8-9: Malcolm Greenhalgh, 2005, after a 2-manual Franco-Flemish original; CD2, track 10: Joel Katzman, Amsterdam, 1991, after Ruckers, Antwerp, 1638

“Anyone familiar with Richard Egarr's perky, exuberantly-ornamented take on Handel's Op. 4 concertos will know what to expect from this sequel. …the Academy of Ancient Music are intimate conversationalists, alert to every nuance of Egarr's abiding wit and pungent repartee. The chamber organ, (housed in Handel's Parish Church), is quite magnificent, vividly captured in Harmonia Mundi's SACD, and wonderfully exploited by Egarr's highly fertile imagination...” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 ****

“The rich-sounding AAM forces comprise 18 players, including oboes and bassoons; both their playing and Egarr's solo contributions are of an impeccably high order. …Egarr takes a bold, improvisatory approach to the concertos. The allegro movements are enlivened by rapid keyboard flourishes, liberal ornamentation...and delightful variants to the basic printed rhythms in the manner of French Baroque composers.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2009

GGramophone Magazine

Editor's Choice - October 2009

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Harmonia Mundi - HMU807447/48

(SACD - 2 discs)

$26.00

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

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