Handel: Roman Vespers
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Conductor: Michael KornPerformer: soprano Judith Bergen
Performer: soprano Benita Valente
Performer: contralto Maureen Forrester
Performer: tenor Jon Garrison
Performer: bass John Cheek
Performer: Philadelphia Singers
Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
Edition: Music CD
Audio: Latin (Unknown)
Format: Box set
Running Time: 113 unknown-units
Published: 1986
Music Label: RCA Red Seal
Music reviews of Handel: Roman Vespers
Music Review: "Fremat Lucifer inter adores . . . "
Rating: 5 Stars
"Fremat Lucifer inter adores; artibus astibus Ditis minas irredete." (Though Lucifer may rage at you from his flames, you [Carmelites] may laugh at the menacings of the Lord of Hell.)
However Lucifer might rage, this is a stunningly beautiful performance of Handel's Roman, or Carmelite, Vespers - the finest that I have heard.
The recording is clear and crisp and bright but . . . the sopranos' most beautiful runs are afflicted by a crackling distortion. I'm afraid it is in the recording - for I have played my disc on several systems, and the noise always is there. What a shame!
Still, the music is lovely, and the performance sends chills down my spine. I would not want to do without it. This is Handel's music at its best.
Handel aficionados will note, incidentally, that the much-loved air in the Suite in F major from Handel's "Water Music" of 1717 borrows from "Haec est Regina Virginum" of the 1707 Carmelite Vespers. (Compare Handel: Water Music track 5, with track 7 of this recording).
Whatever its flaws, I far prefer this recording to the one released first on EMI Reflexe, and re-released on Virgin Veritas, with Andrew Parrott conducting the Taverner Choir and Taverner Players - a recording of a performance that valiantely strives for historical accuracy but that sounds relatively dull, even muddy, by comparison to this one. (Compare on Virgin Veritas: Handel - Carmelite Vespers 1707 / Feldman · Kirkby · Van Evera · M. Cable · M. Nichols · Cornwell · Thomas · Parrott; and on EMI Reflexe: Handel: Carmelite Vespers, 1707).
Eric Alan Isaacson
Description of Handel: Roman Vespers
World Premiere Recording.Classical CDs
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