Handel: Alpestre monte, HWV81

“there is a marvellous flamboyance to these youthful works...Crowe is fully equal to their demands, showing an imaginative sensitivity to Handel's melodic shapes, even if a few low notes take her beyond her best range. She's alert, too, to the music's harmonic implications...Bicket proves an astute accompaniment [sic], allowing Crowe all the time she needs to turn corners...The English Concert make a fine showing, their trumpets resplendent” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

“She has added luscious chest tones to her bright soprano in recent seasons, and consistently delights in Handel’s gloriously youthful music, which includes an early variant of the famous aria from Rinaldo, Lascia ch’io pianga. Bicket’s English Concert supplies luxury, stylish accompaniments.” Sunday Times, 4th December 2011

“With her vernal light lyric soprano, grace of line and vivid response to mood, Lucy Crowe proves well-nigh ideal in this conspectus of music from Handel's Italian years...Crowe's delectable singing is complemented by fresh, rhythmically buoyant and, where needed, virtuoso playing from the English Concert, who on their own give sparkling performances of three instrumental numbers from [Handel's] astonishingly fertile Italian sojourn.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“Crowe follows the young composer’s flights with musical and emotional fidelity, in tones from tender to sharply penetrating. She uses her voice with quasi-instrumental freedom, but also with the kind of micro-inflection that the voice can make so much more potent and heart-piercing than any instrument. Harry Bicket and the players of the English Concert are hand-in-glove partners to the vocal wizardry.” Irish Times, 16th December 2011 ****

“With this recital, Crowe cements her star status in the Baroque world. Her technique is dazzling (hearing her diminuendo and crescendo on a high A in a trumpet-and-drums aria from La Resurrezione is a joy in itself), her voice is pure and fresh, and she's a natural communicator...this is a fascinating and beautifully performed portrait of a genius composer flexing his wings.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2012 ****

“It is one of the special pleasures of the Glossa series to encounter much-loved arias in their original formats...Bonizzoni’s direction and the superb playing of La Risonanza are state-of-the-art Handel.” Sunday Times, 7th February 2010 ****

“Passionate as well as poetic, Fabio Bonizzoni's interpretation draws us irresistibly into Handel's affective states. The vocalists and the band are of the same high standard. …Roberta Invernizzi commands a dazzling upper range and tosses off demanding coloratura passages with careless ease, Romina Basso's rich range of colours reminds us why Baroque audiences preferred the castrato alto over the tenor voice... Solo instrumentalists stand out as much as do solo vocalists, and their ensemble is flawless.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 *****

“Best of all, La Risonanza's subtle and cultivated style produces a revelatory performance of Alpestre monte. Its conclusion, "Almen dopo il fato mio", is the gorgeous final testament of a suicidal lover; Fernández, Bonizzoni and his band combine to produce an exquisite melancholy. ...La Risonanza deserve to win many friends for yet another absorbing treasure-trove.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2010

“All three singers are seductive, especially Roberta Invernizzi, effortlessly impressive no matter what’s thrown at her ...In all three works the instrumental playing and intimate, luminous recording, approaches perfection.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 16th February 2010

"A delightful selection; a record which I will play again and again." - Robert Hugill, MusicWeb International