| Compositeur: | Friedrich Haendel |
| Chef d’orchestre: | Trevor Pinnock |
| Orchestre: | The English Concert |
| Artistes: | DiDonato, Dessay, Cencic, Bostridge, von Otter, Jaroussky, Genaux, Blythe, Daniels, Auger, McGreevy, Custer, Bonitatibus |
| Format: | CD |
| Étiquette: | Virgin Classic |
| Date de parution: | 2009 |
This generous compilation is the product of a novel and amusing idea to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death. Excerpts from 11 operas and two oratorios recorded and released between 1986 and 2008 and spanning thirty-five years of Handel’s prodigious output, have been assembled to recreate a kind of facsimile opera typical of the 38 he wrote during his long and (mostly) successful career. It is an idea by no means entirely foreign or indeed to inimical to the composer himself; Handel frequently stitched together “pasticcios” from his works and some of his most celebrated creations are as much as 75% re-cycled musical material. Likewise, his star singers were used to producing an “aria di baule” (“trunk-aria”) as and when required, to be inserted willy-nilly into the opera being performed simply because it was a current favourite with the public.
Ralph Moore
Musicweb International – 09/06/2009