Handel: La Resurrezione, HWV47

Continuing the Handel series from Le Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm is La resurrezione, composed during the young Handel’s period in Rome and first performed there in 1708. The work recounts the events of Easter and the solo singers portray Lucifer, Mary Magdalene, an Angel, St John the Evangelist, and St Mary Cleophas.

It calls upon a large orchestra, led and directed at the first performance by the master violinist Arcangelo Corelli. The role of Mary Magdalene, here performed by the lush-voiced young British soprano (and EMI Classics artist) Kate Royal, was sung at the first performance by the celebrated Margherita Durastanti, even though the Pope had forbidden female singers to perform in public.

In April 2009, Emmanuelle Haïm led a performance of La resurrezione at London’s Barbican Centre, part of a tour which also covered Paris, Dijon, Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Pamplona, Valladolid and Salzburg. The Guardian reported that: “Emmanuelle Haïm's understanding of the relationship between sense and sensuality in Handel has marked her out as one of his finest interpreters, and her performance with her own Concert d'Astrée was notable for its immediacy and expression. The playing had touches of magic as recorders and flutes comforted the uncomprehending saints, and flaring brass heralded the arrival of a new dawn … Camilla Tilling's joyous Angel let fly volleys of flamboyant coloratura … while the great Sonia Prina was vocally spectacular and immensely moving as Mary Cleophas.”

The Salzburg performance led the Salzburger Nachrichten to describe the “springy mastery” of the ensemble, “with sparkling accents from the trumpets, lute and gamba … A Baroque highpoint in an Easter Festival dominated by Romanticism.” Drehpunkt Kultur described Luca Pisaroni’s Lucifer as “dangerously honed” and Toby Spence as “a master of subtle ornamentation”. Overall, the ensemble of singers was “technically and stylistically at the peak of today’s Handel interpretation”, while Haïm herself “knows how to ignite her ensemble to such powerful effect and then to restrain the emotion once more, so that the force of expression never runs wild.”

This complements the judgement of Forum Opéra on Haïm's Virgin Classics recording of another Italian work by Handel, Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno: “Emmanuelle Haïm favours the chamber dimension of the work in an interpretation that is balanced, vivid, refined – but not precious – lively, but never aggressive. She prefers the power of suggestion and this puts the music at an advantage: she breathes and lets things run their natural course. Isn’t that the apogee of art? This Trionfo could become a classic.”

New recording.

2009 is the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death. This Brilliant Classics recording of his first oratorio is an important addition to this Handel Anniversary Year.

Contrasto Armonico are to record all Handel’s Italian cantatas for Brilliant Classics, and the recent release of Aci, Galatea e Polifemo received critical acclaim.

Booklet notes with full sung texts and translations

With this recording, Contrasto Armonico continues its recording project of Handel’s Italian vocal works. The first release in the series, of the serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, was enthusiastically welcomed. ‘Everything is shaped intelligently and tellingly’, wrote the American Record Guide; Fonoforum called it a ‘lustvoll’ recording and noted the ‘very elegant, fluid and resonant style’ of Contrasto Armonico’s playing. This second release in the series offers a new and passionate interpretation of the great Roman oratorio La Resurrezzione.

This is the first recording of the work to be made at the low Roman pitch of the time, with transposed winds; Contrasto Armonico is the first orchestra in modern times to explore this field and to apply it to a well-known work by Handel. Marco Vitale says: ‘I hope the result will show a hitherto unseen face to this significant and remarkable oratorio, allowing us to appreciate the kind of instrumental sonorities and balances one can only hear when the appropriate pitch and instruments for this music are used.’ In this Handel anniversary year of 2009 Contrasto Armonico and Brilliant Classics will continue their relationship with the release of the first volume of the complete Italian cantatas by Handel, which will focus on Roman cantatas, both with instrumental accompaniment as well as basso continuo, and therefore recorded, like La Resurrezione, at A = 392Hz.

A highly original and attractive set of sacred choral works by Handel, centred around the Passion/Easter period.

The Messiah needs no introduction, it is possibly the best loved choral work ever written.The Johannes Passion is lesser known, a dramatic and powerful depiction of the suffering of Christ.

The sacred oratorio La Resurrezione celebrates the rising of Christ in jubilant and festive mood. Superb performances by the Choir of King’s College Cambridge, the Capella Savaria, and the period performance of Contrasto Armonico conducted by Marco Vitale.

40 CD + CD Rom

A celebration of Handel’s multi-faced genius, featuring a generous selection of his instrumental and vocal output. Including the popular Water Music and Fireworks Music, The brilliant Concerti grossi Op. 3 and the complete Chamber Music.

Handel’s most beloved and successful genre, the Oratorio, is represented by such famous works as Judas Maccabeus, Semele,Theodora, Jephtha and of course the greatest of all: The Messiah.

Many performances by Baroque specialists playing on period instruments. Includes unique live recording on DVD of The Messiah by the King’s College Choir Cambridge.

Extensive linernotes and sung texts of the vocal works on a free CD-ROM.

A celebration of the pioneering early music label Archiv, offering 55CDs ranged across the label’s entire 66-year history. Beautiful presentation, original jacket sleeves and documentation to the customary high standards of the label.

In more ways than one, 2013 will be an Archiv Produktion year. The beloved Silver Label – the “Early Music Studio of Deutsche Grammophon”, as it was called for many years – is being revived in a big way, both in frontline and catalogue. In early April 2013 an event in Berlin is being held to mark this relaunch. New albums from choral group Tenebrae, Anna Prohaska and Giuliano Carmignola are being released in the first quarter to coincide with this occasion.

Simple, striking and strong: in gleaming silver with the large blue Archiv Logo embossed on all sides. A large onsert on the top and back of the box details contents and is illustrated with a packshot showing contents.

Original Jackets: starting with the austere yellow covers of the 1940s and 1950s gradually giving way to the great historical illustrations and images that featured up to the 1990s, when artists at last began to make an appearance (there were no artist photos in the 1950s!)

The 180-page full-colour book has articles by journalist Nicholas Anderson, and “memoirs” by former directors of Archiv, Prof. Andreas Holschneider and Dr. Peter Czornyj, and Executive Producer, Marita Prohmann.

The book features many rare photos from Archiv recording sessions, as well as other memorabilia.