Composer: George Frideric Handel
Performer: Christopher Lowrey, Matthew Newlin, Ana Maria Labin, Gwendolyne Blondeel, Andreas Wolf, Chœur de Chambre de Namur
Orchestra: Millenium Orchestra
Conductor: Leonardo García Alarcón
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Ricercar
Catalogue: RIC449
Release: 2023
Size: 2.77 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Solomon, HWV 67
CD 01
Act I
01. Ouverture
02. Your Harps and Cymbals Sound
03. Praise Ye the Lord
04. With Pious Heart
05. Almighty Pow’r
06. Imperial Solomon
07. See, From the Op’ning Skies
08. Sacred Raptures
09. Throughout the Land
10. Bless’d Be the Lord
11. What Though I Trace
12. And See, My Queen
13. Bless’d the Day
14. Thou Fair Inhabitant
15. Welcome as the Dawn of Day
16. Vain Are the Transient Beauties
17. Indulge Thy Faith and Wedded Truth
18. My Blooming Fair
19. Haste To the Cedar Grove
20. When Thou Art Absent From My Sight
21. With Thee Th’ Unsheltere’d Moor I’d Tread
22. Search Round the World
23. May No Rash Intruder Disturb Their Soft Hours
Act II
24. From the Censer
25. Prais’d Be the Lord
26. When the Sun O’re Yonder Hills
27. Great Prince, Thy Resolution’s Just
28. Thrice Bless’d That Wise Discerning King
29. My Sovereign Liege
30. Thou Son of David
31. Words Are Weak
CD 02
Act II
01. What Says the Other
02. Thy Sentence, Great King
03. Withhold the Executing Hand!
04. Can I See My Infant Gor’d
05. Israel, Attend To What Your King Shall Say
06. Thrice Bless’d Be the King
07. From the East Unto the West
08. From Mom To Eve
09. See the Tall Palm
10. No More Shall Armed Bands
11. Beneath the Vine
12. Swell the Full Chorus
Act III
13. Symfony
14. From Arabia’s Spicy Shores
15. Ev’ry Sight These Eyes Behold
16. Sweep, Sweep the String
17. Music, Spread Thy Voice Around
18. Now A Diff’rent Measure Try
19. Then At Once From Rage Remove
20. Draw the Tear From Hopeless Love
21. Next the Tortur’d Soul Release
22. Thus Rolling Surges Rise
23. Thy Harmony’s Divine
24. Pious King and Virtuous Queen
25. Thrice Happy King
26. Golden Columns
27. Praise the Lord
28. Gold Now is Common
29. How Green Our Fertile Pastures Look
30. May Peace in Salem Ever Dwell!
31. Will the Sun Forget To Streak
32. Adieu, Fair Queen
33. Ev’ry Joy That Wisdom Knows
34. The Name of the Wicked
Handel’s oratorio Solomon is now regarded by its performers and its listeners as one of his greatest compositions. This was not, however, always the case. Solomon was not performed outside of London during Handel’s lifetime, an unusual occurrence during his British career. The work had therefore enjoyed only a limited success, although we may well wonder why, when oratorios sung in English had been so successful until then. Could it have been the obvious lack of theatricality in the libretto, or the public’s growing indifference to the genre? Or was he afraid to alienate the Anglican church, given the rumours of lines with erotic connotations in the first and third acts? Here, Leonardo García Alarcón and his singers and instrumentalists offer us a flamboyant version of the work that would certainly have won over the most hesitant of London listeners in 1749!