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Handel - Duetti da Camera

£14.51

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Label: Glossa

Cat No: GCD921516

Barcode: 8424562215160

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 7th April 2014

Works

Handel, George Frideric

A mirarvi io son intento, HWV178
Beato in ver chi puo, HWV181
Conservate, raddioppiate, HWV185
Fronda leggiera e mobile, HWV186
Langue, geme e sospira, HWV188
No, di voi non vuo' fidarmi, HWV190
Se tu non lasci amore, HWV193
Sono liete, fortunate, HWV194
Tanti strali al sen mi scocchi, HWV197
Troppo cruda, troppo fiera, HWV198

Artists

Roberta Invernizzi (soprano)
Marina De Liso (mezzo-soprano)
La Risonanza

Conductor

Fabio Bonizzoni

Works

Handel, George Frideric

Artists

Roberta Invernizzi (soprano)
Marina De Liso (mezzo-soprano)
La Risonanza

Conductor

Fabio Bonizzoni

About

George Frideric Handel’s 'Duetti da camera' from La Risonanza represent a welcome extension of the ensemble’s award-winning series of Handel solo cantatas on Glossa, and come with the luxurious vocal pairing of Roberta Invernizzi and Marina De Liso.

These chamber duets, scored for soprano and alto, were written across a period spanning four decades: first, after Handel’s move to Hanover in 1710, following his remarkable Italian compositional apprenticeship which yielded quantities of cantatas, motets and instrumental chamber works; next in the 1720s, when he was writing Italian operas and music for the Court in London; and lastly when he was composing English oratorios in the 1740s. Such vocal duos had become part of an established tradition, especially in Italy, during the late 17th century.

Soprano Roberta Invernizzi ,who has applied Italian grace and charm to many Glossa recordings (most recently 'La bella più bella'), is ideally matched by Marina De Liso, whose rich mezzo tones have made her another firm audience favourite across Baroque and Classical repertories.

--

The Europadisc Review

As the big multi-national record companies have scaled back their specialist activities in the early music repertoire, smaller labels have more than compensated for the loss. One of the companies that now rivals the past pre-eminence of Decca's L'Oiseau-Lyre and Deutsche Grammophon's Archiv Produktion is the Spanish-based Glossa Music, established in 1992. Theirs is a wide-ranging catalogue, always beautifully recorded and presented. Two of Glossa's most successful groups to date have been La Venexiana (in vocal music by Gesualdo and Monteverdi) and Fabio Bonizzoni's La Risonanza in a benchmark series of recordings of Handel's Italian cantatas featuring the sublime voice of star soprano Roberta Invernizzi.

On this new disc, Invernizzi and Bonizzoni join forces once more, together with mezzo-soprano Marina de Liso, in a highly attractive selection of Handel's Italian duets for two singers and continuo. Unpublished in Handel's lifetime and circulating among a close circle of connoisseurs, many of these works were composed for Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who as George II's consort became queen of Great Britain. (Handel would later write the funeral anthem The Ways of Zion Do Mourn for Queen Caroline's funeral.) Only after Handel's death, thanks to the pioneering efforts of the composer's first biographer John Mainwaring, did the duets find a wider audience, at a time when most of Handel's other output was ignored. Mainwaring clearly appreciated the quality and variety of music on display in these works, most of which fall into two or three movements, and Handel evidently did too, for he reused much of their music in his more public works.

Invernizzi and de Liso have ideally matched voices: athletic enough to cope with the demands of dazzlingly fast passagework, as in Troppo cruda or the closing sections of Tanti strali and A mirarvi, yet richly-textured in the lower registers. They are deeply affecting in the more reflective passages of Langue, geme, sospira, Se tu non lasci, and above all the meltingly beautiful extended second section of Fronda leggiera, which makes for a moving conclusion to a very special disc. The music is further brought to life by animated accompaniments from Bonizzoni himself at the harpsichord, together with Caterina Dell'Agnello on cello and Craig Marchielli on archlute and theorbo, adding a vast range of colours to music that might on the page look fairly straightforward.

For anyone who knows their Handel only from the oratorios, the operas and the more celebrated instrumental works, these performances will be real ear-openers, and they are worthy partners to the series of Italian cantatas already available on Glossa, taking us into the refined intimacy of Handel's closer circle. The ten duets on this disc represent about half of Handel's surviving Italian duets: more, please, and soon!