Musica ad Rhenum - Apollo E Dafne the Alchymist - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Beyond it's musical riches, this medley of 1950s BBC radio broadcasts (from the Richard Itter Collection) opens a portal on England's post-war Handelian revival. It is no accident that all these performances involve Thurston Dart, as harpsichordist, conductor or musicologist. His energy inspired a generation of musicians to explore neglected works by Handel and a host of other baroque composers, in a lithe chamber style more appropriate to their work than the heavyweight, orchestral grandeur favoured by previous generations. The efforts of Dart and other performers featured here paved the way for those more radical, 'historically informed' performance practices, which swept all before them in later decades.

Carl Heinrich Graun, like other Italian-influenced or Italian-trained German composers of his time, composed Italian cantatas throughout his entire creative period. The three cantatas belong to a small group in Graun's output, for soprano. The greater part of his 38 positively attributed Italian cantatas were composed for tenor, and thus probably for his own voice. Graun's soprano cantatas were probably written in his Berlin years after Friedrich's accession to the throne in 1740, when virtuoso castrati and singers were available for the demanding solo parts. After successful albums with music by Fasch, Hertel and Molter, the ensemble Main-Barockorchester has now joined the Accent tag. Hannah Morrison is regarded as one of the most promising young sopranos of the early music scene.

Musica ad Rhenum - Dido & Aeneas / Pan & Syrinx [COMPACT DISCS] date 02/01/2011