Handel: Apollo e Dafne, Concerto grosso op. 3/2, Overture, Suites

Brown, Andrea Lauren, Reize, Andreas, Woerner, Dominik

CPO 777228

The highly atmospheric baroque Waldegg Castle once again serves as the perfect setting for a special musical event – this time with a performance of Handel’s cantata Apollo e Dafne. The cantus firmus consort – under the experienced leadership of Andreas Reize – presented this dramatic cantata on historical instruments at the castle and in this way conveyed the musical spirit of Handel’s time with the greatest possibility authenticity. This Apollo e Dafne is now heard on cpo together with four other compositions by Handel, including two suites from the lost opera Die verwandelte Daphne. The classical-dramatic structure of the work with its exposition, climax, and catastrophe demonstrates the great importance attached by Handel to the exploitation of theatrical resources – far from the sphere of his Arcadian idyllic cantatas. The first part presents Apollo and Daphne, with Handel already here breaking through the usual sequence of recitative and aria by having the two protagonists meet directly without a mediating recitative. And even the duets are assigned theatrical functions. A chaconne from the ballet Terpsichore is heard at the end of the CD; Handel reused it in many of his works, including the opera Radamisto.

CD x 1

CPO

9/27/11

761203722822