GREAT HANDEL

 

1.    Where E're You Walk (SEMELE)

2.    Comfort Ye (JEPHTHA)

3.    Ev'ry Valley (MESSIAH)

4.    Fronde tenere - (recit)

5.    Ombra mai fu (SERSE)

6.    Cosi la tortorella OR Ecco il sol (LA RESURREZIONE)

7.    Love Sounds the Alarm (ACIS & GALATEA)

8.    Love in Her Eyes (ACIS & GALATEA)

9.    Happy We (ACIS & GALETEA / duet with Kate Royal)

10.   Scherza Infida (SAMSON)

11.   Doppo notte (ARIODANTE)

12.   Total Eclipse (SAMSON)

13.   As Steals the Morn (L’ALLEGRO / duet with Kate Royal)

14.   Hide though thy hated beams (recit)

15.   A father offering up his only child (recit)

16.   Waft her, angels, through the sky (JEPHTHA)

 

Ian Bostridge

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Harry Bickett

 

“Beyond a forgivable desire to rehabilitate the Handel tenor, I have tried in this recording to represent one essential but fugitive quality of Handel’s - his protean nature, his ability to recreate himself while remaining essentially the same.”  Ian Bostridge

 

Handel has always been an important part of Ian Bostridge’s singing life. The recording partly sprung from his early roots in singing the oratorios and his familiarity with past British singers who made the Handel tenor a cultural fixture.

 

The repertoire on this album is a mixture of English and Italian language arias from both opera and oratorios, some of which were originally written for castrati. The arias range from the famed Messiah aria ‘Ev’ry Valley’ and ‘Ombra mai fu’ (Serse) to the haunting ‘Total Eclipse’ (Samson).

 

Bostridge has commented that even Handel himself would not have minded him “stealing” arias for this album which were not originally written for the tenor voice, as octave transposition was a practise commonly used by Handel. For example he re-used the aria ‘Dopo Notte’, originally written by him for castrato voice in Ariodante, as a tenor aria in one of his later operas.

 

It is Bostridge’s aim to put the spotlight back on the Handel tenor with this album, whilst he also attempts to represent with the programme Handel’s “ability to recreate himself while remaining essentially the same”.

 

In two arias (‘Happy we’ and ‘As steals the morn’), Bostridge is joined by British soprano Kate Royal, who has been signed as an exclusive artist by EMI Classics and is releasing her debut recording on the label later this year.

 

The track ‘Where’re you walk’ is Handel’s most famous tenor aria and its direct melody is extremely easy on the ear. It is from Semele, which Handel wrote as an opera but which in its early productions was staged as an oratorio.

 

Once again, Bostridge has written the booklet notes himself, giving the listener insights into his personal views on Handel and the chosen arias.

 

EMI 3822432