Some of Handel’s most magnificent and regal choral writing is collected on this CD. The most popular work on it, by far, is the Coronation Anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’. Both the Coronation Anthems and the ‘Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne’ were written for monarchs and the opening of the ‘Ode’ with its trumpet […]
Mozart was brought up at the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, and the music of the Roman Catholic liturgy was central to his early experience. Salzburg had its own ecclesiastical musical traditions, dating back well into the seventeenth century with such men as Andreas Hofer, Heinrich Biber and Georg Muffat; more immediately relevant to […]
As one of music’s greatest recyclers, Handel would have earned untold respect in our time. That he managed (largely) to achieve this so felicitously, so that whether you were listening to an aria in the context of an English oratorio or an Italian cantata it seemed intuitively ‘right’, is tribute to his skill. This collection […]
The take-over of Hungary and Czechoslovakia by their respective Communist governments a few years after the end of World War II had one curious side-effect: it proved to be the greatest event that ever occurred in the world of Haydn scholarship. In Hungary, the vast Esterházy Archives, previously closed to all except the very occasional […]
A beautiful collection of Purcell favourites, both from recent times with artists of the calibre of Emma Kirkby and Christopher Hogwood, to such Purcell champions of the mid-20th century as Benjamin Britten, whose rousing arrangement and performance of the ‘Chaconne in G minor’ is here included.
In September 1790, following the death of his princely employer, court composer Haydn and his entire orchestra were sacked. As he was considering this change in circumstances, Haydn received an unexpected visit from Johann Peter Salomon, a German impresario based in London, who made him a tempting offer: an opera, six symphonies and twenty other […]
One of the key recordings ever made of French court music, this seminal recording returns to the catalogue, now with each item and/or movement individually indexed. The offerings encompass both suites and cantatas. The music – written both for and around the court life of Versailles (1697 – 1747) – is sophisticated and elegant, taking […]
Completed in 1719 and first performed in 1733, Handel’s opera seria Orlando is widely recognised as one of the eighteenth century’s greatest operas. One of the work’s most acclaimed recordings is that of Christopher Hogwood, with a stellar line-up of Baroque vocal specialists, including James Bowman, in the title role and Emma Kirkby and David Thomas. […]
More than 250 years of music celebrating the reign of the great British monarchs CD 1 – HANDEL: Coronation Anthems Handel’s four uplifting Coronation Anthems, including the epic Zadok the Priest with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and his beautiful Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, with its celestial invocation for trumpet and counter-tenor, ‘Eternal […]
