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| |  | arranged by Mozart
For the most festive hours of the year - G.F.Händel's Messiah arranged by Mozart. Enjoy this wonderful oratorio, the majestic sound and the great choir excellent interpreted by Helmuth Rilling and his Gächinger Kantorei, the Bach- Collegium Stuttgart and an ensemble of well known soloists. Enjoy this unique recording on two CDs. | | | (also available to download from $21.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Jan Kobow (tenor), Martin Wolfel (alto), Siri Karoline Thornhill (soprano), Kay Stiefermann (baritone) Hannover Boys Choir, L'Arco Baroque Orchestra, Jorg Breiding | | | (also available to download from $21.00) | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Jean-Claude Malgoire: A Haendel Edition
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| |  | Special Edition 3CD Set: Double CD plus Special Edition Bonus Disc of Handel
Hot on the heels of their landmark appearance on BBC Four’s Sacred Music programme Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble The Sixteen are releasing a brand new recording of Handel’s Messiah. On this disc The Sixteen and Harry Christophers are joined by four soloists, all revered Handelians who have had a long association with the choir - Carolyn Sampson, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Mark Padmore and Christopher Purves. Indeed, Carolyn, Mark and Christopher all sung as members of the choir before embarking on successful solo careers. The Sixteen has performed Messiah over 150 times and over the years the two have become synonymous with one another. Arguably the most famous oratorio ever written and certainly Handel’s best known work, Messiah needs little introduction. Composed in a staggering 24 days, Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1742 where it received a rapturous welcome. Harry Christophers first conducted Messiah in 1985 and has been celebrated by audience and critics alike for his gripping and inventive interpretations ever since. Over the years ‘The Sixteen’s Messiah’ has become almost legendary with audiences flocking to performances year after year and, of course, Harry’s interpretation of this great masterpiece has changed and developed. This exceptional new recording demonstrates an accomplished expertise, honed over the past 23 years. “Smoothly yet energetically planed on the period instruments of the Sixteen orchestra and impeccably refined chorus, the text is lovingly caressed rather than ebulliently dramatised. The Hallelujah chorus is no rambunctious run, Part II's “lift up your heads” didactic rather than celebratory. Floating over the top are Carolyn Sampson's porcelain soprano, and the alto Catherine Wyn Rogers, whose He was Despised acquaints us with grief indeed.” The Times, 9th August 2008 **** “Three of the four outstanding soloists - fine Handelians all - cut their teeth in the choir, and Catherine Wyn-Rogers has been a regular soloist. Crucially they don't stand apart, regally dispensing arias between familiar chorus; pre-eminently this is an 'ensemble' Messiah with everything (including the superb instrumental playing and imaginatively realised continuo) directed towards the unfolding of an involving theological narrative.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 ***** “The Sixteen's choral singing has clarity, balance, shapely moulding of contrapuntal lines and plenty of unforced power. This fine team performance is a safe recommendation for anyone wanting to acquire an all-purpose "period" Messiah.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008 “a Messiah of splendid vitality and authority, a summation of Christophers’s and The Sixteen’s Handelian enterprise.” International Record Review “Over the past few decades Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have performed Messiah about 150 times. This new Coro recording presents them to better advantage than their uneven 1987 version for Hyperion: the choir remains excellent 21 years later but the orchestra and soloists are a vast improvement. Only one member of the choir and two orchestral players repeat their roles in the 2008 performance, and the violin section has swelled from seven to 12, which helps to produce a stronger theatrical sound. Christophers's interpretation nowadays is just over four minutes longer than it was in 1987, so there are no radical changes in his overall pacing, but taking a few things a notch slower suggests an increased confidence and maturity.
The contribution from the oboes is more telling and to the fore than one usually hears, although the prominence of the organ as a continuo instrument is seldom convincing (nor is the use of theorbo accompaniment in recitatives).
The Sixteen's choral singing has clarity, balance, shapely moulding of contrapuntal lines and plenty of unforced power. When necessary, resonant homophonic grandeur is achieved without pomposity. The contrast between the playful and solemn parts of 'All we like sheep' is wondrously realised, and the soft sections of 'Since by man came death' are breathtaking.
Three of the soloists earned their spurs as members of The Sixteen. Mark Padmore, a choir member in 1987 and here making his third (and best) Messiah recording as a soloist, could be a little lighter in 'Comfort ye', but his evangelical communication of words is highly effective in 'Thy rebuke hath broken his heart'. Carolyn Sampson and the orchestra's violins relish an equal dialogue in 'Rejoice greatly', and her coloratura sparkles with clarity and assurance.
Christopher Purves sings 'For behold, darkness shall cover the earth' more softly than one usually hears, and 'The trumpet shall sound' is lyrical and suave (with splendid obbligato from Robert Farley).
Christophers conducts with finesse and integrity. This fine team performance is a safe recommendation for anyone wanting to acquire an all-purpose 'period' Messiah.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Harry Christophers thinks he has conducted the work more often than any living Handelian and it shows in this lush, refined, meticulous reading, with superb soloists” The Guardian, 28th September 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | (re-orchestrated by Eugene Goossens)
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | JS Bach: St Matthew Passionand Handel's Messiah as bonus DVD
3 CD & DVD (NB the DVD in this set is erroneously labelled as the St Matthew Passion - in fact it is a performance of Messiah) A DVD of Messiah is included next to the 3CD audio version of the St Matthew Passion. The Choir owes its existence to King Henry VI, who envisaged the daily singing of services in his magnificent chapel. Recording made in 1994 in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge. First-rate line-up of singers, with one of the great choirs of the world. Downloadable sung text available on www.brilliantclassics.com. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | ed. Julian Herbage
This landmark recording of Messiah dates from 1961, and was Boult’s second for Decca – the first made in 1954. Both versions use Julian Herbage’s revised edition which erased many of the 19th-century accretions and bad habits that had clung to this famous score like barnacles to a ship’s hull. Today, ‘period practice’ – the pioneering work of musicologists trying to strip away centuries of ‘improvement’ to get at the composer’s original ideas and intention – is the norm for such music. When first released, the recording claimed to use ‘authentic orchestration’. Although modern instruments were used, the number of players involved would approximate to the number used by Handel – although the string section is rather big! It is worth remembering that Handel, ever the showman, would use vast forces if at all possible. Julian Herbage made his edition in 1935, and feared it had been destroyed during the Blitz in 1942. Happily it survived, and he refined and merged his earlier edition with a later version used here. Recording made in 1961 Full sung text and essay “David Ward is first-rate in his sensible and sensitive interpretation of ‘The people that walked in darkness’, sung with great restraint and beauty of tone. The tortuous vocal line is a severe test of any bass singer, but Ward’s intonation is never at fault. Sir Adrian Boult arouses his assembled forces to great brilliance in ‘For unto us’, and just as skilfully he gives a hushed and moving performance of the Pastoral Symphony.” Gramophone Magazine, November 1961 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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