In the 1730s, many composers tried their luck in London, where many other treasures were in preparation: Geminiani revolutionized instrumental writing with his famous treatise on interpretation and presented an amazing version of La Folia; his pupil Avison orchestrated concertos by Scarlatti, and Porpora ventured away from opera to rediscover the vocality of the cello with one of the most beautiful concertos of that period. Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella treat us to a frenzied and poetic night in London. They meet Vivaldi, Hasse, Scottish composer James Oswald and virtuoso cellist Giovanni Battista Cirri. Guest artists Sandrine Piau and Lucile Richardot take on magnificent vocal pieces by Geminiani and Handel – Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni would have been seriously envious, that’s for sure! © Aparté

After having embodied numerous heroines in her various recital albums, Sandrine Piau now embodies the powerful and wounded women depicted by Handel. "The wings of desire will have burned too quickly for these magicians who, like Icarus, fell from their pedestal due to the complete disrespect of their flight", explains the French soprano who admits to being particularly attracted to these "magnificent losers". The enchantresses on this album form a multifaceted female portrait. On the eve of the new lockdown in the autumn of 2020, Jérôme Correas and his musicians of the Paladins orchestra were racing against time to bring this new recording to life. It was performed at the Théâtre de Poissy, near Paris, the very place where Sandrine Piau recorded her very first recital.These virtuoso, aggressive, tender and moving arias by one of the great masters of opera present us with the tearful expressions of women. This particularly intense rite of passage brings together characters as different as Adelaide, Cleopatra, Lucrezia, Alcina, Melissa, Morgana and Almirena. Sandrine Piau reflects their complaints and despair with beauty. © François Hudry/Qobuz

The Akademie für Alte Musik reveals its performance of Handel’s first six concertos from Opus 6 in true chamber music spirit, which sometimes brings Handel’s universe closer to that of his continental counterpart, Georg Philipp Telemann, whose work has often been played and recorded by the Berlin ensemble musicians (including several indispensable albums for the French label Harmonia Mundi). For this magnificently recorded first part of their Handel trilogy, which includes the two opuses 3 and 6, recorded in the Nikodemuskirche in Berlin between September 2018 and February 2019, the Akademie für Alte Musik paints rich, striking colours (already showcased in their album Water Music) while remaining attentive to polyphonies and phrasing. This record is a real pleasure throughout, and perhaps even more compelling than their recent album Water Music. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz

Beware the pen of a critic. When in 1720 an arrangement of Domenico Scarlatti’s 1714 opera Amor d’un’Ombra e Gelosia d’un’aura arrived at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, Charles Burney’s pen was gently damning. “Though there were many new pleasing passages and effects”, proclaimed London’s esteemed writer on all things musical, “those acquainted with the original and happy freaks of this composer in his harpsichord music, would be surprised at the sobriety and almost dullness of the songs”; and over the ensuing centuries, critical opinion has largely persisted with the line that Scarlatti’s best work is to be found not among his vocal or instrumental works, but instead among the 555 harpsichord sonatas he wrote for the Portuguese Queen of Spain, María Bárbara. Now though, here is a multi-genre Scarlatti programme from Bertrand Cuiller and his period instrument ensemble Le Caravansérail, its aim to enable the listener to reach his or her own conclusion as to Scarlatti’s wider worth. Although with repertoire and performances as fine as these, it’s perfectly clear which side Cuiller wants us to come down upon. Not least he opens with a piece of shameless wooing: the famous Sonata in G major, K. 144, but heard not on harpsichord but instead from harpist from Bérengère Sardin in a performance of melting warm fragility and hope-filled nobility. Then with that still ringing in your ears comes one of the few surviving examples of Scarlatti’s sacred music, the Stabat Mater in C minor with its rich, ten-voice texture supported by basso continuo accompaniment alone; and instantly your ears are locking on to that continuo section’s harp-reminiscent archlute, and thus becoming extra-alive to the accompaniment’s poeticism, even as the clear-toned voices unfurl over it and entwine around each other, themselves bringing definition and lucidity to even the score’s most lavishly contrapuntal vocal writing. Onwards and there’s a D minor instrumental feast: violinist Leila Schayegh’s sombre, expressive reading of the Sonata, K. 90, one of a few harpsichord sonatas that appears to present the option of choosing a solo instrument on the melodic line; then, following a nimbly urgent ensemble reading of Charles Avison’s “concerto grosso” transcription of another harpsichord sonata, Cuiller himself bringing gossamer-weight lyricism to Harpsichord Sonata, K. 213. As for the secular vocal works, the numbers from Amor d’un’Ombra e Gelosia d’un’aura more than hold their own here, thanks to soprano Emmanuelle de Negri and countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian’s committed performances, while an album highlight is the lilting melancholic expression brought by de Negri to ”Pur nel sonno almen tal’ora vien colei” from the Cantata “Pur nel sonno almen” – composed to a Metastasio poem that appears to have been given to Scarlatti by star countertenor Farinelli, and thus inevitably sounding like a composer inspired to give his best. In short, in the case of Cuiller versus Burney, it’s a win for Cuiller. Also, indeed, for Scarlatti. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

This triple SACD set of George Frederick Handel's Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, is an exquisite offering of Baroque music at its best, as well as an excellent demonstration of the principles of historical practices. Jan Willem de Vriend leads the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam in authentic period style performances, and the ensemble scintillates with the bright sonorities of 18th century winds, strings, and continuo, produced by some of the Netherlands' finest musicians. De Vriend leads from the violins, and the soloists are regular members of the consort, so there is a unity of purpose and a consistency of playing style that come from long association in the group. This is particularly critical in the concerto grosso form, for the separation of the concertino and the ripieno is not especially great, and interchanges between the groups are trade-offs of material, rather than dramatic contrasts of musical content. The playing is uniformly clean and precise, and the reproduction is crystal clear, so every note is audible. The 12 concerti grossi are presented in numerical order and divided equally over the three SACDs, so the presentation is straightforward. Anyone looking for a place to turn after hearing Handel's Water Music or the Music for the Royal Fireworks should consider trying Op. 6, and this recording is an admirable choice.© TiVo

This album is devoted to Handel's concertante music for solo oboe, of which only a few concertos have survived. He was particularly fond of the instrument and assigned many solos to it in his oratorios, operas, concerti grossi and sonatas. He is even reported to have said of his early oboe works: "I used to write like the D-v [Devil] in those days, but chiefly for the oboe, which was my favourite instrument". His some 20 concertos for a solo instrument are mainly for the organ and include just one violin concerto and three oboe concertos (HWV 301, HWV 302a and HWV 287). The latter, featured here, is the best known, as it also appears transcribed for other instruments. Further concertos for oboe have been attributed to Handel by the musicologists Fritz Stein as Fulvio and Sandro Caldini: one in E-flat major and two more, both presented here in world-premiere recordings, in C minor. The 6 Concerti grossi Op. 3 form the first printed collection of Handel’s orchestral compositions. Formerly known as the "oboe concertos", the volume was published by John Walsh in 1734 – not necessarily on the composer’s own initiative – from a variety of pieces composed over a period of some 20 years. The orchestration in the Walsh edition is particularly unconvincing, with numerous octave doublings and a virtual absence of elements typical of the concertante style. Vincent Bernhardt has therefore proposed a new instrumentation, organised according to the principle of dialogue between groups that characterises the concertante language of this period. An improvised theorbo prelude precedes the work. To extend Handel's oboe repertoire the artists have fashioned two concertos, for oboe and oboe d’amore, out of eight selected movements that are essentially built on castrato arias from the operas, a practice in line with the pasticcios created in Handel’s day. © Brilliant Classics

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Willem De Fesch was born in Alkmaar in 1687. He deserves an honorable place alongside such greats as Vivaldi and Handel, as his works sound at least as colorful, playful, inventive and sparkling as those of his contemporaries. Sometime after 1700 his parents returned with him to Amsterdam. By then, the city had become an epicentre of music publishers. Many Italian composers published their work in the city; Vivaldi made public appearances and in 1729, Pietro Locatelli even opted to move there. In 1708, De Fesch was appointed violinist in the orchestra of the Amsterdam City Theatre. He composed a lot of music for stage performances himself, such as the concerts in C and A minor of this recording. As far as we know, orchestral works only started to appear again in 1741: the audibly matured Opus 10, also on this recording. © Challenge Records

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