Background Image Background Image Background Image
background image

CHAN 0788
StarStarStarStarStar Rating
Log in to be the first to review this disc
Background Image Background Image Background Image
background image
Chaconne Logo
CHAN 0788

Handel: Alceste

Released Date:
01 May 2012

Recorded in 24 Bit / 96Khz

 Originally recorded in 2011
Artists:

Early Opera Company


Christian Curnyn


Andrew Foster-Williams

bass-baritone

Lucy Crowe

soprano

Benjamin Hulett

tenor

Venue:

St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London



Producer:

Rachel Smith



Engineer:

Ben Connellan



Record Label
Chaconne

Genre:

Opera


Orchestral & Concertos

Total Time - 63:02
Background Image Background Image Background Image
background image
Customers who bought this album, also bought...
CHAN%200745.jpeg
Handel: Semele
CHAN%2010743.jpeg
Debussy: Complete Works for Piano
CHAN%200773.jpeg
Handel: Flavio, Re de' Longobardi
LM%207404.jpeg
Jon Vickers sings Handel's 'Samson'
CHAN%205102.jpeg
Stephane Deneve conducts Debussy
CHAN%2010752.jpeg
Bartok: Works for Violin and Piano, Volume 2
CHAN%200583.JPEG
Handel: Apollo E Daphne
CHAN%200681.jpeg
Hummel: Mass in D major/ Mass in B flat major/Alma virgo
CHAN%200667.jpeg
Haydn: Missa Cellensis

Scroll Scroll
background image
SELECT YOUR MUSIC FORMAT FROM THE OPTIONS BELOW*
onquestion marklosslessquestion markoffquestion mark 
*if you purchase a higher level format, we include the lower formats free of charge
Please Note: On Mp3 format an unavoidable click may be heard on segue track breaks, to avoid this issue please select lossless or better
 
DOWNLOADS
Buttonbooklet
   
Select Complete Single Disc for
 

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL

(1685-1759)
   
 

Alceste, HWV 45

 63:16  
  Incidental music to the play by Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)  
  Music texts probably by Thomas Morell (1703-1784)  
1 1 Ouverture. [ ] - Allegro - A tempo ordinario 5:04
2 2 Grand Entrée 1:57
3 3 Accompagnato (Tenor). 'Ye happy people' 0:22
4 4 Soli and Chorus. 'Triumph, Hymen, in the pair'. Andante allegro 2:34
  Elizabeth Weisberg soprano  
  Sian Menna mezzo-soprano  
5 5 Solo (Soprano) and Chorus. 'Still caressing, and caress'd'. Allegro 2:34
6 6 Air (Tenor). 'Ye swift minutes as ye fly'. Allegro 3:27
7 7 Chorus. 'O bless, ye pow'rs above'. 2:00
8 8 Air (Soprano). 'Gentle Morpheus, son of light'. Largo e mezzo piano - 'That when bright Aurora's beams'. Andante - Largo - Air 8:07
9 Sinfonia from Admeto, re di Tessaglia, HWV 22 1:18
10 9 Air (bass). 'Ye fleeting shades, I come'. Andante 4:19
11 10 Chorus. 'Thrice happy who in life excel'. Larghetto 1:57
12 11 Air (Tenor). 'Enjoy the sweet Elysian grove'. Allegro, ma non troppo 5:14
13 Passacaille from Radamisto, HWV 12a 4:42
14 Si replica il Coro precedente 'Thrice happy' 1:58
15 12 Air (Soprano). 'Come, Fancy, empress of the brain'. Allegro, ma non troppo - Adagio 5:33
16 13 Symphony and Accompagnato (Tenor). 'He comes, he rises from below' 1:25
17 14 Chorus. 'All hail, thou mighty son of Jove!' Allegro 2:10
18 15 Symphony. Larghetto 1:55
19 16 Recitative (Tenor). 'From high Olympus' top, the seat of God' 0:44
20 17 Air (Tenor). 'Tune your harps, all ye Nine'. Larghetto 1:44
  Segue il Ballo  
21 18 Ballo Primo. Un peu lentement 1:48
22 19 L'Ultimo Ballo 0:56
  Entra il Coro ultimo  
23 20 Chorus. 'Triumph, thou son of Jove' 1:14
   
 Lucy Crowe soprano
 Benjamin Hulett tenor
 Andrew Foster-Williams bass-baritone
 Christian Curnyn
  7 and 8 November 2011  


This recording of Alceste is performed by the Early Opera Company and Christian Curnyn, whose other Handel recordings for Chandos have all received glowing accolades: Semele, for instance, was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and one of the Records of 2007 in The Sunday Times. The recording of Flavio was nominated for a Gramophone Award in 2011, in the Baroque Vocal category.
 In Alceste, Admetus, the terminally ill King of Thessaly, is promised by Apollo that he can defer his premature death if another person volunteers to die in his place. Alcestis, the beloved wife of Admetus, bravely sacrifices herself to die in his place. The hero Hercules visits his grieving friend Admetus, resolves to travel to Hades, overpowers Pluto, returns Alcestis to the world of the living, and restores her to Admetus.
 The production of Alceste was initially envisaged as an expensive collaboration between the Scottish-born novelist and playwright Tobias Smollett, the Covent Garden company of actors and singers, the theatre owner and manager John Rich, the prestigious composer Handel, and the elaborate scenery designer Giovanni Servandoni. However, soon after full rehearsals began, Alceste was aborted permanently for reasons that are unclear. One theory to explain the cancellation is that the lavishness of the production became too expensive for Rich to risk box-office failure – another is that the temperamental Smollett quarrelled violently with the theatre owner, who might have responded by cancelling the production. Whatever the reason behind the cancellation, Smollett’s abandoned script for the play was lost, and only Handel’s incidental music survives today.
 Although Handel never performed his music for Alceste, he characteristically found plenty of practical uses for it.  He adapted several sinfonias, choruses, and arias to form the majority of the music for The Choice of Hercules, and several other numbers were later used in revivals of Belshazzar and Alexander Balus.

                            Opera Award Winner

BBC Music magazine Awards 2013


“...Crowe is simply glowing in her soprano functions, notably the two Calliope airs. Hulett makes a very strong and admirable showing here... The choral and instrumental forces are superb here, and the sound is quite full in Chandos’s updated engineering...”

Barker – American Record Guide – September/October 2012


                           **** - Exceptional

Carlo Vitali - Musica magazine - September 2012


“...It’s a delicious disc with some quite surprising stuff.”

Robert Thicknesse – Opera Now magazine – September 2012
 
 


"...The orchestra and chorus of the Early Opera Company are on good form and Curnyn keeps the piece flowing. This ensures that there are no longueurs. The chorus impress with their brilliant yet keenly defined delivery and these qualities are also to be found in the orchestra... if you haven’t yet made the acquaintance of Handel’s personable score, then this is the time to do so and this is the recording to go for." 

Robert Hugill - MusicWeb-International.com - 26 July 2012


“...There’s a real sense of ceremonial majesty in the choruses, and the solo singing is exceptionally fine. Benjamin Hulett tackles his exacting coloratura numbers with great elegance, while Andrew Foster-Williams has fun as Charon... Best of all, though, is Lucy Crowe, who gets to sing Gentle Morpheus, Son of Night, one of the most beautiful things in Handel’s entire output.”     ****

Tim Ashley – The Guardian – 13 July 2012


                   ****    Excellent

"Beautiful sound..."

Jérémie Bigorie - Classica magazine - July/August 2012


       Gramophone Choice
“... On this new recording Christian Curnyn and his trim period band give full value to the music’s sensuous charm, phrasing alluringly in the slower numbers and keeping the rhythms lithe and springy. Bass-lines are always vitally shaped. The 12-strong chorus sings with the youthful freshness and the three soloists are ideally chosen. Andrew-Foster Williams is incisive without bluster in Charon’s balefully cheerful ‘Ye fleeting shades’. Benjamin Hulett is both mellifluous and athletic in his three arias, while Lucy Crowe displays her nimble coloratura technique in the frolicking ‘Come fancy’, and brings a limpid purity of line to ‘Gentle Morpheus’. First-rate Chandos sound and presentation ... complete and hour of hedonistic Handelian delight.”

Richard Wigmore – Gramophone magazine – August 2012
 


"...The sound is excellent ... The playing is exemplary and indeed often virtuosic - the work of the two trumpeters in particular... The small choir makes a lovely, well-tuned and balanced sound. Their diction is excellent. Tenor Benjamin Hulett sings in the best tradition of British handelian tenors ... being fleet and light yet virile of tone... The main vocal attraction is the chance to hear up-and-coming soprano Lucy Crowe in several extended arias ... I commend the musicality of the olayers and the two main singers ..."

Ralph Moore - Musicweb-International.com - 25 June 2012


                          Opera Choice
Performance *****      Recording *****

“Alceste enchants with fleet strings and polished soloists”

Anna Picard – BBC Music magazine – July 2012


“...This new Chandos release offers a welcome chance to appreciate the music of Alceste in its original, never realised, guise....  Pick of the bunch is the ravishing ‘Gentle Morpheus, son of night’, in which Calliope (goddess of poetry) consoles Admetus, sung with affecting tenderness here by Lucy Crowe to sumptuously lilting accompaniment from the Early Opera Company orchestra under conductor Christian Curnyn... Curnyn’s lively and sensitive approach makes a strong case for this little-known score.”

Graham Rogers – BBC Music web-site Review – 25 May 2012


       “CD of the Week”

“...Curnyn’s choral and orchestral forces on sparkling form, the disc offers more than an hour of Handelian delight.”

 Hugh Canning – The Sunday Times – 13 May 2012




No User Reviews Found.