G. F. HANDEL

 

Italian Cantatas Volume 5 Rome, 1707

 

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno

 

(Cor fedele, in vano speri) HWV 96

 

Roberta Invernizzi - soprano

Yetzabel Arias Fernández - soprano

Romina Basso - alto

La Risonanza / Fabio Bonizzoni (harpsichord & direction)

 

Recorded in Saint-Michel en Thiérache, France, in June 2008

 

In May 1707 George Frideric Handel entered into the service of the Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli, and under his protection, embarked upon a tremendous career. As well as making a name for himself as a spectacular virtuoso on the harpsichord and organ, through his plentiful concerts in the Roman academies, Handel lost no time in also becoming a highly sought-after composer through his felicitous and apparently inexhaustible inspiration. In addition to a significant number of cantatas for solo voice and basso continuo, Handel also involved himself in composing cantatas for larger numbers of voices, combining these with a large supporting orchestral group.

 

The score of Clori, Tirsi e Fileno is certainly a complex one, as much for its dramatic plotline as for its individually-chosen musical options: the result is a genuine opera in miniature, equipped with real refinement and lightness. Consequently, Clori, Tirsi e Fileno turns into an authentic laboratory in which Handel experiments with the most diverse musical and dramatic forms, obtaining by this method a capacity to elaborate that special language which was to locate it firmly within the glories of the theatre, from the past and the present.

 

“Fabio Bonizzoni ensures that the performances crackle with dramatic tension or plumb the depths of desolate melodic melancholy according to what Handel’s music demands, but the most impressive aspect of these performances is the conductor’s awareness of story-telling and judicious moulding of the musical flow. ..further testament to the marvellous subtlety and richness of Handel’s Roman music and contains Handel-singing, playing and direction of the absolute highest order...This lovingly prepared series promises to be of the utmost importance to Handel lovers.” Gramophone

 

Glossa GCD921525