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Handel Edition Volume 1 - Alcina & Orlando / Christe, Les Arts Florissants

Handel / Fleming / Dessay / Les Arts Florissants
Release Date: 02/17/2009 
Label:  Warner Classics   Catalog #: 469653   Spars Code: n/a 
Composer:  George Frideric Handel
Performer:  Kathleen Kuhlmann,  Renée Fleming,  Laurent Naouri,  Susan Graham,   ... 
Conductor:  William Christie
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Les Arts Florissants
Number of Discs: 6 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 5 Hours 59 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews

“Christie is very much concerned with a smooth and generally rich texture and with delicacy of rhythmic shaping. His management of the recitative could hardly be bettered and moments of urgency or of other kinds of emotional stress are tellingly handled. Sometimes he favours a rather sustained style in the arias, making the textures seem airless and heavy, and the lines within them too smooth. However, to set against it there's his exceptional delicacy of timing, his careful but always natural-sounding moulding of cadences and other critical moments in the score. Not many Handel interpreters show this kind of regard for such matters and it's a delight to hear Handel's music so lovingly nurtured; it also helps the singers to convey meaning. Read more The cast is very strong. The title-role is taken by a mezzo, Patricia Bardon, who draws a firm and often slender line, with that gleam in her tone that can so enliven the impact of a lowish mezzo – the famous Mad Scene is magnificent. The Sleep Scene, with very sweet, soft-toned playing of the violettemarine, is lovely. Hilary Summers offers a very sensitively sung Medoro, pure and shapely in line. Harry van der Kamp makes a finely weighty Zoroastro, with plenty of resonance in his lower register; the last aria in particular is done in rousing fashion. As Angelica, Rosemary Joshua's musicianship comes through in her attractive phrasing and timing. Rosa Mannion's Dorinda is no less full of delights, catching the character to perfection. Hogwood's lighter orchestral textures are appealing but the refinement of detail in the newer set is equally admirable.”

- Gramophone Classical Music Guide Edition, 2010
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Works on This Recording

1. Alcina, HWV 34 by George Frideric Handel
Performer:  Kathleen Kuhlmann (Alto), Renée Fleming (Soprano), Laurent Naouri (Bass),
Susan Graham (Mezzo Soprano), Natalie Dessay (Soprano), Timothy Robinson (Tenor),
Juanita Lascarro (Soprano)
Conductor:  William Christie
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Les Arts Florissants
Period: Baroque 
Written: 1735; London, England 
 Date of Recording: 06/1999 
Venue:  Live  Palais Garnier, Paris Opéra, France 
Length: 190 Minutes 57 Secs. 
Language: Italian 
2. Orlando, HWV 31 by George Frideric Handel
Performer:  Patricia Bardon (Mezzo Soprano), Hilary Summers (Alto), Rosemary Joshua (Soprano),
Harry Van der Kamp (Bass), Rosa Mannion (Soprano)
Conductor:  William Christie
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Les Arts Florissants
Period: Baroque 
Written: by 1733; London, England 
 Language: Italian 

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