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Handel opera/cantata box sets

18K views 93 replies 10 participants last post by  Josquin13 
#1 ·
My Baroque odyssey of recent months has led me in a strange roundabout way to Handel (the quirkiness of having arrived at Handel via Couperin, Charpentier, Mondonville, Delalande, Lully, Rameau, Durante and Purcell rather tickles me), most particularly his vocal music, which I've blithely been ignoring all my life on the assumption that it wasn't 'my kind of thing'. I now find it's very much my kind of thing after all, so I've been dutifully studying the Penguin and Gramophone Guides to see where to go, and which recordings to get.

First up for consideration was Alcina, in the famous version by Christie and Les Arts Florissants with a star-studded cast (Fleming, Graham, Dessay), thus:



(available here for £41)

But ... this recording has been reissued as part of the Warner 'Handel Edition' in a 6 CD box, thus:



Now this is available for a mere £19 here, AND you also get Orlando, in the highly regarded Christie version, thrown in for good measure. Orlando, bought separately on Amazon, would knock you back another £41 (see here). So in this reissued box set, we get both works for £19, instead of £82 when bought separately.

There's a snag of course. Although there is a booklet in the 6CD box, which has an effective keyed synopsis for each work, it has no librettos (unlike the original issues). However, £63 for two librettos doesn't seem like good value.

The good news is that the librettos can be downloaded from the Warner website, and printed out - which is what I've done. I don't like this much - I'd far prefer to have the librettos in booklets contained within the sets; but the really important thing is that the librettos are available in an accessible form that works. And the final outcome is that by buying the box, and making do with the online material, these two superb recordings/performances can be had at about £3 per disc.
 
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#3 ·
Well, I can't get enough of this stuff. It's like eating chocolates - once I start, I can't stop. I've only listened to about half of Alcina so far, but I'm tending to leave a disc in the player pretty much all the time while I'm pottering about doing things, without following the plot properly. I can't believe how accessible this music is - how easy to enjoy, and such marvellous tunes.

Truth is, that this Alcina alone is worth £41 of anyone's money, so I don't think you need to shed too many tears over the price you paid.
 
#7 ·
OK, this is not a box set, but I need some help here:



I have yet to read anything about this CD that doesn't declare it to be near perfection. "This may be the finest recital of Handel arias ever recorded" says the Gramophone reviewer, awarding it their highest rating. I've been steeping myself in Handel during the last few weeks with the greatest pleasure, and so I settled to listen to this with more than the usual buzz that accompanies a new purchase.

Well (admittedly after only one listening), I don't get it. An awful lot of this CD seems to consist of something rather like fast virtuoso yodelling. I can see that it's astonishingly clever; I can see that maybe no one else can do such things so well as Sandrine Piau does on this CD; but I can't see why I might want to listen to it for more than 10 minutes (if that). When I compare this with the heavenly singing of Sophie Daneman in (say) Acis and Galatea, I just don't understand.

I'm not going to give up. I am going to persist, grit my teeth, ignore the headache, and try my damnedest to love it as I should. But if someone could give me a word or two of encouragement, I'd be mighty glad of it ....
 
#8 ·
I'm not going to give up.
Well, today I feel rather silly. On a second listening I discovered (a) that there is far less on this disc of what I call 'yodelling' than I thought there was; and (b) that there's quite a lot of marvellously evocative singing on it. What went wrong yesterday? I don't know. The wrong sort of biorhythms? Got out of the wrong side of the bed? Too high expectations?

Whatever the reason, I was talking rubbish. It's true that there's more 'yodelling' than I'd like, but there's lots and lots to enjoy as well. My apologies, Mme Piau.

Memo to self: Listen at least twice before posting about new music....
 
#14 ·
No, a 'key' recording has a little key symbol by it to draw attention to it as their top recommendation. The 'rosette' is a special award given to a recording by a single member of the reviewing team who has a particularly high regard for it (which may not necessarily be shared by others, I suppose).
I see. I only have a very old penguin guide (mid-90's I guess) where they didn't yet use the key symbol.
 
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#16 ·
Here are a couple of irresistibles that I'm awaiting in the post:





OK, they aren't box sets, but this still seems the best place to put this post. The de Niese seems irresistible because I've been so overwhelmed by her in the Glyndebourne Giulio Cesare DVD, though reviews have been a bit cautious about this collection.

By contrast, I remember reading a review of the Kozena collection somewhere (MusicWeb?) where the reviewer found her treatment revelatory. So I'm going to give both a try (is anyone familiar with them?), and add them to my Sarah Connolly and Sandrine Piau collections of Handel arias.
 
#17 ·
Oh Crikey, I shall bankcrupt myself at this rate. I've just discovered this:



Trouble is, I'm guzzling Handel tunes like lollipops at the moment, so I can't resist this collection of duets. Gramophone award it their highest rating (three discs) as well as their 'diamond' (unrivalled) rating. I've listened to a few 30 second snippets - far too short of course - but what I heard was ravishingly beautiful - for my money, there's nothing quite so exquisite as a mezzo and soprano voice entwining with each other. So, Ms DiDonato and Ms Ciofi, I'm very much looking forward to your arrival.

Meanwhile, I really must comment once more on the fabulous singing of Sophie Daneman in the Acis and Galatea set:



Her performance of the aria 'As when the dove' is so haunting - I just can't get it out of my head.
 
#18 · (Edited)


I've been listening to Ms de Niese, who arrived today. Fascinating. So much of what I hear is coloured by what I already know. For example, when she begins, singing the electrifying 'Da Tempeste' from Giulio Cesare, it's impossible not to see her as she was in the famous Glyndebourne performance, swaggering back and forth across the stage, with mock salutes, sexy and cheeky bounces, and the rest. Once you've seen that, you can't merely hear her. I can't, anyway.

There's a second influence, too. Having watched her chatting away on the Glyndebourne DVD, and having enjoyed sharing her bubbling enthusiasm for what she does, there's a tendency simply to like her so much that it's not possible to listen in an unbiased way.

Put simply, I love this CD of Handel arias. I think sometimes there's a certain subtlety lacking. Her 'Lascia ch'io pianga', for instance, doesn't explore the delicacies, the nuances, as completely as I might hope for if it were someone else singing. And yet I'm happy to accept this version because it's hers; because this is the way she's chosen to sing it. Really, sometimes listening to music involves some very intricate psychology, and no mistake.

If you're wanting to hear Handel arias sung as well as they can be sung, then maybe this isn't the CD for you. But if you want to spend 70 minutes in the company of Danielle De Niese, being seduced, charmed, excited, thrilled, and generally being exposed to an irresistible musical personality, then you'll love this, for its limitations as well as its (at its best) tremendous strengths.
 
#20 ·
Thanks for this - that's a heartwarming review. I think the reviewer has been drawn in just as I was, but he expresses more precisely what I was trying to say: "She lacks the ability to sing absolute pianissimo--to spin a line in an ethereal way (as in otherwise fine versions of "Lascia ch'io pianga" and "Piangero...")"; yes, that's true, but the point is (as he recognises) - it doesn't actually matter. Well, it might matter for the technical purist - but if you want warm, empassioned, committed, living (and sexy) singing, than this is it.
 
#21 ·
I'm liking this CD by Danielle more and more, the more I listen to it. Well, 'liking' is too mild a word by far - it makes me laugh, sigh, dance, conduct the orchestra, and jolly well feel better about the world. I haven't quite found myself attempting her cheeky thigh-slapping trick yet, but I'd certainly describe this package as - (Tapkaara, where are you?) - a whole heap of fun; but the richest, most life-enhancing, most lasting fun imaginable.

For comparison, the Ciofi and Di Donato album of Handel duets arrived this morning, and I played a bit of it, and I know I'll love it in due course, but I soon realised that what I really wanted, then and there, and indeed here and now, was the warmth and life of Danielle's stuff, so I did a quick replacement..... Since then, it's been spinning almost all day. Fabulous. You need one of these, Gaston, and if you don't love it I'll eat my hat.

(PS I don't have a hat.)
 
#22 ·
I'm liking this CD by Danielle more and more, the more I listen to it. Well, 'liking' is too mild a word by far - it makes me laugh, sigh, dance, conduct the orchestra, and jolly well feel better about the world. I haven't quite found myself attempting her cheeky thigh-slapping trick yet, but I'd certainly describe this package as - (Tapkaara, where are you?) - a whole heap of fun; but the richest, most life-enhancing, most lasting fun imaginable.

For comparison, the Ciofi and Di Donato album of Handel duets arrived this morning, and I played a bit of it, and I know I'll love it in due course, but I soon realised that what I really wanted, then and there, and indeed here and now, was the warmth and life of Danielle's stuff, so I did a quick replacement..... Since then, it's been spinning almost all day. Fabulous. You need one of these, Gaston
Yes, I guess I'll have to.:) You're a good salesperson, Alan. If they had some people like you at Decca, EMI, DG, Phillips and HM the record industry would be flourishing, I'm sure.
and if you don't love it I'll eat my hat.

(PS I don't have a hat.)
In that case I will settle for the £5 million. ;)
 
#28 · (Edited)
And look at this stinker of a review on MusicalCriticism.com, here.

If it's as bad as Dominic McHugh says, why am I loving it so much?

Footnotes:

1. I've just been listening to the bit where he says she's out of tune at 3.54 in the ninth track, but it sounds to me like an expressive slide which perfectly expresses the chilling idea of pitilessness, actually (which after all is what she's singing about).

2. He talks about the final cadence in 'Dolce Riposo' leaving her 'cruelly exposed' - but I can't hear what he's talking about. The whole of that aria is sung with such feeling that it makes me melt inside.

3. Then again, he questions 'whether de Niese's voice is really distinctive enough for the recording studio'. Distinctive enough? I could recognise her voice on this CD if it was playing in an adjacent street, at the bottom of a well. What can he mean?

4. Where I can understand his comments, is when he talks about the excessive forwardness of the voice recording, the 'over-vigorousness' and so on. That affected my first impression of this collection (see #18 above); but that was before I realised this recording is, above all, an expression of character. It's her personal take on Handel, not for the purist. I think that's why it so divided the customers on Amazon.com. It's Baroque-and-roll.
 
#29 ·
I'm posting too much in this thread, but that's because there's so much to say. I've been listening to Alcina - the Fleming/Graham/Dessay/Christie recording - and I can't get past Act I - I just keep playing Dessay's aria 'Tornami a vagheggiar' over and over, without proceeding to Act II. This is breathtaking stuff, don't you think? Her singing sounds as if she's drawing music from the air and just passing it on to us. The decoration (which tends to make me squirm a bit, sometimes, when it's overdone) is so natural, like the singing of birds or the murmur of leaves in a light breeze.

To turn from Dessay's version, which I might think of as perfection in a way, to de Niese's version, is to encounter a completely different vision of the music; equally sincere, equally heartfelt, and equally convincing. Where Dessay is the epitome of the light-as-air naturally precise coloratura soprano, De Niese is sexy, rich, sensual and full of joy. I think it's fabulous to have two such different, equally authentic, approaches to the same piece.
 
#32 ·


I'm starting to feel as if I'm in danger of becoming someone who gushes over every CD purchase at present; but the truth is that most of my recent purchases generate that kind of enthusiasm. There are a lot of collections of Handel arias around (so many that I've read at least one review actually lamenting their commonness), but maybe not so many collections of Handel duets. I suppose this is primarily because there are a lot fewer Handel duets than Handel arias, but this disc makes me regret that imbalance. Ciofi and Di Donato sing with voices that seem perfect foils for each other. My guess (it's only a guess, because I know nothing of technique) is that this is highly accomplished singing in a technical sense; but if so, it's achieved with no loss of expression whatsoever.

OK, like all such collections, the music is ripped out of context and thereby loses in dramatic impact; but when the result is as beautiful, as exquisite, as powerful, as this, it just makes no sense to protest. If I were out to choose the five most beautiful CDs I've heard during the last year, this would be among them.
 
#35 ·


I've just been listening to it again. It's a lovely Spring day - lots of sunshine, and almost but not quite warm enough to take a portable stereo and an opera set out into the garden. So I ate my lunch by the window, looking out into the garden, and listening again to Acis and Galatea. If you're wanting something profound and serious, this is not it. But if you're looking for something that suits a sunny spring day, that has the feeling of the open air, warm breezes, murmuring brooks and rustling leaves, all with a slightly sensual undercurrent, then this is it.

Polyphemus is a daft brute, but his presence is necessary and not without humour; the choruses are perfect, to these ears; and Sophie and Patricia are ... well, Sophie and Patricia - no one else is comparable. The tunes are a delight, and there are several wonderful highlights. I can't think of anything better to listen to on a bright Spring day. And even though the plot doesn't touch us in the way it would if these were 'real' people, the mythic character means it still does touch us in other, less recognisable, but still profound ways.
 
#36 ·
Well, my goodness. By all accounts the recording of Ariodante with Lorraine Hunt, under Nicholas McGegen, made in the 1990s, is a bit of a winner. It seems to have gone out of print for a while, but then was re-released in 2007 (perhaps because Lorraine Hunt died the previous year?). So I decided to buy one, and it came through the letter box this morning. What a bundle of family fun! This sort of thing sets the standard for box sets, and I thought I'd share my pleasure in opening it.

First off, there's the box - which seems a bit thicker than normal. Here's the front and back:



Then we open the box: big thick booklet with elegant cover, notes and libretto on the left, and a rather interesting-looking folder on the right, containing the CDs:



So we take the folder out of the box and start to open it:



... and here it is fully opened:



But the fun isn't over. As each CD is removed from its holder, it reveals beneath it a couple of drawings of two of the characters from the opera:



Oh yes, and it sounds pretty good, too.
 
#38 ·


Well, it's that time of year when we get glimmers of what we hope is to come; the sun's been out all day, and in the afternoon it was warm enough to sit out in the garden with the portable CD player, headphones, mug of hot chocolate, a chunky Kitkat, and ... Ariodante, Act I.

Really, Handel goes on amazing me. What a towering giant the man was. The music is superb, and the performances wonderful; the only possible complaint is that Lorraine Hunt is so brilliant as Ariodante that she tends to put the rest of the cast in the shade a bit - which they really don't deserve, for they are very good indeed. A sneak preview of Act II suggested that was going to be even better; but that's for another day.
 
#39 ·
HALF PRICE HANDEL

I was browsing idly among Handel CD sets on Amazon and came across a recent recording of Parnasso in Festa (2CDs), recently released by Hyperion, applauded by Gramophone and greatly reduced in price as a special Amazon offer.



No samples, though. Maybe they had some on the Hyperion website, I thought, so off I went.

Well yes, Hyperion had lots of samples, but even better, I discovered they have a Handel half-price sale on at the moment! I could buy (post free) direct from Hyperion for significantly less than Amazon's special offer price. So I registered on their website and deposited a copy of Parnasso in Festa in my basket - whereupon I was informed that if I spent another £6 I could have an additional 10% discount. Well, must be worth a look, I thought, and soon sniffed out this 2 CD set:



So I chucked it into the basket, to be told that there was also a way of getting a 15% extra discount if I bought something else. But I was already spending money I didn't have, so enough was enough.

If you want to help yourself to some excellent, highly acclaimed less-than-half-price Handel, here's where to go:

Hyperion's Handel Half Price Sale
 
#40 ·
There's so much brilliant Handel out there that it would be easy to become rather gushing about it all (some might raise an eyebrow at the word 'would be' and replace it with 'has been'); but Ladies and Gentlemen, the party is OVER. Here are a couple of warnings.

First, this:



The music is superb, except, except ... for the voice of Diana Moore. I've found only good reviews of this recording, but I must say that Diana Moore has a degree of non-stop extreme vibrato that I find increasingly hard to handle as the music unfolds. Since she sings the role of Apollo, and Apollo has rather a lot of singing to do, if her voice troubles you, then that's an awful lot of trouble in store. There are times when her vibrato reminds me of machine gun fire. So please, listen to some samples before you buy this. If you don't have a problem with so much vibrato, then you'll love this set. If you do ... I suggest looking elsewhere.

Second, this:



This 3CD set has a lot going for it. It's Christie; it's Les Arts Florissants; it's Sophie Daneman. What more can you want? And really, it seemed fine until I got to the aria 'As with rosy steps the morn'. It's sung by Juliette Galstian, as Irene, and I thought, this is quite pretty, but - hang on - I've heard this aria before, and the last time I heard I was almost moved to tears. Then I remembered that I'd seen Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson singing it on Youtube; here she is:

Lorrain Hunt-Lieberson

I can't begin to express the gulf between this performance and Juliette Galstian's. It's not just that they're different; it's that one reaches to the heart of the music and the other just sings the notes. This aria ought to be one of the highlights of this piece, and it's really quite a damp squib.

So be careful if you're looking for a Theodora. This one, for all its other merits, is a bit of a let-down for me.
 
#44 ·
Alan, once again you pull from the depths of the tenebrous pit that is Youtube a gem of extravagant beauty.

I'm far from qualified enough to be able to say this, but I think that is one of the best female voices I've ever heard. Especially efficacious was her ability to maintain the same level of emotion despite the dynamic level.

Thank you.
 
#42 ·
It's a powerful reminder, to me, of the fact that what we hear is determined as much by the performer as by the composer; the difference in this case is so large that it took me a while to be sure that it was the same piece of music.

Have you heard her version of 'With darkness deep?', also from Theodora? I find the passages with the long, slow, gently modulated notes extraordinarily moving.

With darkness deep - Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson
 
#43 ·
Just when I thought I was in for a smooth financial ride this month, this turned up:



It's entirely fabulous. The recording goes back to the early 1980s, but it's been reissued on Hyperion's budget label and thank goodness for that. I've been listening to these three cantatas all day. I love the intimacy of them - the small-scale, chamber feeling is really beguiling, and yet they can really rock&roll when they need to. The two sopranos sing with a crystalline quality that seems perfectly suited to the music; the playing seems first rate. Everyone on the recording seems to be loving what they're doing. I knew nothing of these early chamber cantatas before, but they have all the freshness of morning in them, and interspersed among them are tunes I know from the later work - appearing here, and delightfully in a different context, for the first time.

I want more. I want more! Well, there is more. First, the same folks have made a companion CD also on Helios. Second, there's a project under way by Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza to record all these cantatas. The first 5 volumes are already available and highly acclaimed, and there's a sale on at Prestoclassical where they can all be bought at much reduced prices for the next couple of weeks. I have already dipped a toe - alright, several toes - into the water. Is there no end to this man GFH? Is there no end to these temptations? Will they be the ruin of me?
 
#46 ·
Thanks for all the info on Handel opera/oratorio box sets-- I like many of the ones mentioned-- esp. the Wm. Christie and Hyperion ones & that Ariodante of McGegan/Lorraine Hunt (Hunt's solo album of Handel arias is also very good IMO). Also that Ciofi/Di Donato
duet album I think is fantastic :)!! Recently I'm enjoying the new 'Alcina' on Archiv Records, though it has somewhat light and sedate orchestrations/accompaniment by Alan Curtis & Il Complesso Barocco. Some fantastic singing I think. Esp. from DiDonato, Maite Beaumont
and Karin Gauvin. The best singing I've heard from Gauvin in fact. I also like DiDonato's 'Furore' album of Handel arias-- if as title implies, they're all 'dramatic' ones, and also
(maybe surprise for this repertoire), Angelika Kirchschlager's 'Handel Arias' album. There're
really so many fine recordings of Handel the past 10/15 years-- almost a glut, or
'embarrassment of riches' anyway!

Ed
 
#47 ·
There're
really so many fine recordings of Handel the past 10/15 years-- almost a glut, or
'embarrassment of riches' anyway!

Ed
Yes, there's been a major turnaround in Handel's fortunes for the last two decades or so. Although he's always been considered one of the greats up until relatively recently only his half a dozen or so most popular works were recorded with any regularity. But the same is true for the other baroque composers too. Bach is the only one who's works were recorded extensively in the pre-authentic instruments period.
 
#48 ·
Handel's early Italian cantatas hardly count as 'opera box sets', I know - but even so I'm going to include them under the umbrella of this thread, partly because they are effectively musical dramas on a chamber scale, and partly because so often ideas emerge here that one recognises as the germs of subsequent operatic arias. I've made a start, listening to the Bonizzoni recordings on the Glossa label, beginning with volume 2:



The material is new to me, as are the performers; but so far, listening to Armida abbandonata, I'm enchanted by what I'm hearing. The cantata begins in an extraordinary manner, with single soprano voice set against an agitated violin accompaniment - as if the curtain has just risen on action that we've interrupted, as it were. So we're plunged into following a trail of footprints, wondering what the heck is going on, until suddenly the mood shifts, and Armida gives in to her tiredness. She's been on the trail of her unfaithful lover for a while, it seems. We can feel the sad exhaustion as she continues her song now with only harpsichord accompaniment, and there are a few moments where a recognisable famous theme, already known through a later opera, breaks through: it's used here in seminal fragmentary form with wonderful effect as she sings, 'you part and leave me prey to pain'.

This one cantata, lasting only about 15 minutes, single-handedly makes nonsense of the idea that Baroque music is devoid of emotion. We're driven relentlessly through Armida's full spectrum of emotions as she passes from anxiety, through sadness, to anger; from anger to uncertainty, and finally to a kind of pleading regret. The singing, insofar as I'm any judge (not very far, I admit) seems faultless; the instrumental work work sympathetic and delicate, yet violent and vigorous when need be. I could almost be converted from a lifelong aversion to the harpsichord to a wholehearted acceptance of it, so well does it match and complement the singing.

That's just the first cantata on this CD. There are four more on it. And there are four more CDs in this series (still growing) to explore.... This is fabulous stuff. I could drown in this music.
 
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