Harnoncourt Handel

Nikolaus Harnoncourt has received numerous international awards for his work: Nikolaus Harnoncourt is an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and the Konzerthausgesellschaft in Vienna (since 1992), he holds honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh and the Mozarteum music college in Salzburg, and is an honorary member of the Graz and Vienna colleges of music. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2002 and the Stockholm Polar Prize, and in 2005 he was honoured with the Kyoto Prize, the world's most important independent cultural award bestowed on outstanding international personalities from the arts and sciences. There are nearly 500 recordings in Nikolaus Harnoncourt's discography, which have been awarded all the major international Classical prizes, including a Grammy in 2002 for his recording of the St Matthew Passion

A brand-new label from one of the world's finest early music ensembles makes an auspicious debut with this stunning new recording of Handel's oratorio Belshazzar. Les Arts Florissants, led by the great William Christie, have launched their new label with the goal of expanding the ensemble's connection to the listening public on a scale far beyond the concert hall. Belshazzar was first performed in 1745, and was frequently revised. Christie has chosen what he considers to be the most successful of the various versions of Belshazzar, resulting in the restoration of the piece in all its splendor. The libretto's subject, which focuses on the decline of a once glorious society and the ephemeral nature of Empire, is especially relevant today. This deluxe set also includes a bonus essay by Jean Echenoz entitled In Babylon, printed separately on special paper and included alongside the regular booklet. This specially commissioned work draws the reader deep into the ancient, majestic city, the seat of power of Belshazzar the King.

These performances are very authentic, which essentially means misconceived from the start, and often downright unmusical. Using teeny tiny forces (only seven violins), and inaptly named Arte dei Suonatori, they lack just that: the art of making a pleasing sound. The loudest thing here is the continuo, consisting of harpsichord, organ, theorbo, and archlute. Its prominence and enthusiastic improvisational flourishes on what ought to be very subsidiary harmonic support destroy Handel’s balance of tone and wreck the interplay between concertino and tutti. Frankly, the whole approach is so stupid and unstylish that it’s very hard to believe that anyone could associate this kind of playing with “historically informed performance”. It’s like wearing all of your internal organs on the outside of your body, and just about as pleasant.

Händel Georg Friedrich was a German-English Baroque composer, who became internationally famous for his operas, oratorios, and concerti grossi. Handel was born in 1685, at Halle in Germany, in the same year when Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti were born.

George Frideric Handel - Organ Concertos, opp. 4 & 7
Classical, Baroque | 2 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 704 MB | RS | TT: 70:55, 77:52
Recorded: Feb. 1975, Casino Zögernitz, Vienna | Released: 2007 | ADD | Label: Apex 256469985
Herbert Tachezi - organ | Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Surprising as it may seem, these very distinguished accounts of the Handel Organ Concertos Op. 4 and Op. 7 are now more than 25 years old–yet they've more than stood the test of time, and indeed are still virtually unrivalled. Herbert Tachezi's performances always are fascinating to hear anew: note for example how he constantly stimulates interest with delightful ornamentation of melody lines, and the way he approaches caesuras in the texts with proper attention paid to their structural and harmonic settings. […] Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Vienna Concentus Musicus plays superbly, with a deftness of touch and technical clarity that perfectly suits the music. (Michael Jameson, classicstoday.com)