Handel: At persecution I can laugh (from Saul)

May 2006

****

“The duets selected here… form an attractive programme, especially when the two voices are as well blended and as perfectly in tune as Carolyn Sampson's and Robin Blaze's. …whether the mood is languid and sensual, as in Solomon, spiritual (Theodora) or consolatory (the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne), the performances, as well as Handel's music, are entirely apt.”

2010

“'Great Oratorio Duets'? It seems a strange concept at first – not many of these pieces have made an individual name for themselves just yet.
But then the point of this disc is evidently to bring together in mouthwatering partnership two of the most dulcet-voiced young Baroque singers Britain has to offer, and it does not take long to discover that that is a very good idea indeed. Carolyn Sampson's voice is bright and clear yet warmed by judiciously selected and moderated vibrato, while Robin Blaze has a more distinctively tangy sound, but they fit each other well and in their faultless display of Handelian style, lyricism and warmth they are in total mental and spiritual accord.
The music, meanwhile, does indeed have greatness. The vocal style of Handel's English oratorios does not recreate the virtuoso flashiness of the Italian operas but speaks in a more direct, lyrical manner, expressing with unimpeachable honesty all the sympathy and human understanding for which their composer is so revered. The majority here are love duets, but with what variety, from carefree (examples from Jephtha and Susanna) to chaste (Deborah) to ambiguously melancholy (Joshua and Saul). The forgiveness duet from Esther is indescribably tender (especially in this performance), the duet from Saul in which a love-drunk David is reluctant to leave when warned by his fiancée of approaching danger is effortlessly theatrical, and the two duets for the doomed lovers from Theo-dora are works of pure and noble genius. If the performances in these last do not quite reach the heartbreaking intensity of which Peter Sellars's Glyndebourne production proved them capable, it is hard to see how that could ever be achieved in a recital; Sampson and Blaze surely manage as well as anyone ever could. With intelligent, kind-hearted accompaniments from Nicholas Kraemer and the OAE, this is a truly beautiful Handel recording, a disc to give pleasure for years to come.”

May 2006

“Carolyn Sampson's voice is bright and clear yet warmed by judiciously selected and moderated vibrato, while Robin Blaze has a more distinctively tangy sound, but they fit each other well and in their faultless display of Handelian style, lyricism and warmth they are in total mental and spiritual accord. With intelligent, kind-hearted accompaniments from Nicholas Kraemer and the OAE, this is a truly beautiful Handel recording, a disc to give pleasure for years to come.”