What else can be traced and discovered from Handel’s lost music? Well, once again the Brook Street Band embark on their exciting quest with their fourth disc on AVIE, bringing music unheard since the time of Handel: English Cantatas and Songs.
Certain of the music is borrowed from well known works, such as the operatic masterpiece Giulio Cesare, but here the English songs are mostly original compositions which were probably intended for indoor performances in front of a very small audience..
For these vocal pieces the Band are joined by two great guests: Nicki Kennedy (soprano) and Sally Bruce-Payne (alto), both known soloists in the field of Early Music, Choral and Opera. It is also a special occasion for Sally Bruce-Payne who resumes a very successful career to the joy of those interested in lower, rounder voices in historical performances. A true must-have, not only for Handelians but also those with a thirst for high-quality vocal recordings.
‘The Brook Street Band has made a terrific recording of Handel’s Trio Sonatas’ Classic FM
‘I can’t see anyone disliking this CD’ Fanfare Magazine
‘The arrangements Handel never got around to making are so Handelian’ Gramophone
“Nicki Kennedy and Sally Bruce-Payne sing with an appealing appropriateness of scale… the Band is as deliciously poised and pertinent as ever.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009 ***
“Bruce-Payne achieves genuinely moving results in the first aria of To Lonely Shades. One might wish that Kennedy's renditions of the original English songs on disc 2 had a touch more ease, but the instrumental playing is intelligently musical throughout. The sound is sweet if a little "churchy". A curio, but one full of Handelian pleasures.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009
