Composer: George Frideric Handel
Performer: Lea Desandre, Iestyn Davies, Jupiter
Conductor: Thomas Dunford
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Erato
Catalogue: 5419719677
Release: 2022
Size: 1.58 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, HWV 74
01. “Eternal Source of Light Divine”
Theodora, HWV 68, Act 2
02. “With Darkness Deep, as Is My Woe” (Theodora)
The Choice of Hercules, HWV 69
03. “Yet, Can I Hear That Dulcet Lay” (Hercules)
Hercules, HWV 60, Act 2
04. “Joys of Freedom” (Dejanira, Iole)
Theodora, HWV 68, Act 1
05. “As With Rosy Steps the Morn” (Irene)
Semele, HWV 58, Act 3
06. “Despair No More Shall Wound Me” (Athamas)
Solomon, HWV 67, Act 3
07. “Will the Sun Forget to Streak” (Queen of Sheba)
Susanna, HWV 66, Act 3
08. “To My Chaste Susanna’s Praise” (Joacim, Susanna)
Saul, HWV 53, Act 1
09. “Oh Lord, Whose Mercies Numberless” (David)
Joseph and His Brethren, HWV 59, Act 3
10. “Prophetic Raptures Swell My Breast” (Asenath)
Theodora, HWV 68, Act 3
11. “Thither Let Our Hearts Aspire!” (Theodora, Didymus)
Suite No. 4 in D Minor, HWV 437
12. III. Sarabande
Semele, HWV 58, Act 2
13. “Prepare, Then, Ye Immortal Choir” (Semele, Ino)
Semele, HWV 58, Act 2
14. “Hence, Iris, Hence Away” (Juno)
The Triumph of Time and Truth, HWV 71, Act 3
15. “Guardian Angels, Oh, Protect me” (Beauty)
Occasional Oratorio, HWV 62, Pt. 1
16. “Fly from the Threat’ning Vengeance, Fly!”
Semele, HWV 58, Act 1
17. “You’ve Undone Me” (Ino, Athamas)
Esther, HWV 50b, Act 2
18. “Who Calls My Parting Soul from Death?” (Esther, Ahasuerus)
Semele, HWV 58, Act 3
19. “No, No, I’ll Take No Less” (Semele)
Semele, HWV 58, Act 2
20. “But Hark, the Heav’nly Sphere Turns Round” (Ino)
Theodora, HWV 68, Act 2
21. “To Thee Thy Glorious Son of Worth” (Theodora, Didymus)
22. That’s so You
Lutenist Thomas Dunford’s first project for Warner Classics is a complete Handel programme with his Ensemble Jupiter, and his longstanding musical partners Lea Desandre and lestyn Davies. The album stems from Dunford’s desire to bring together these two sublime voices and tell a love story through Handel’s most beautiful spiritual music. During the pandemic, Thomas and Lea went through Handel’s entire English-language oeuvre to build a narrative Dunford has dubbed ‘a Baroque West Side Story’. The album features arias from Semele, Theodora, Saul, Susanna, Esther, and more.
It’s hard to imagine a better cast than the two stunning voices of mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and countertenor Iestyn Davies, who take this ambitious Handel programme to a whole new level. Drawing from the English composer’s most beautiful pages (Theodora, Hercules, Solomon, Semele), the two singers take us to a little-known world; a dimension previously almost invisible to the human ear. The words of Shakespeare quoted in the epigraph of the libretto perfectly sum up the emotions that grip the listener when listening to this sumptuous recording: ‘and when love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes Heaven drowsy with the harmony’. This ‘harmony’ can be heard in every vocalisation, every burst from the orchestra—the splendid Jupiter ensemble directed by Thomas Dunford. They lead us on an explorative adventure through the richest depths of baroque music, where the theorbo spins its dreamy arpeggios, and the viol sounds almost mystical. The ensemble injects this programme with life and power. Handel has hardly ever sounded so topical.