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Georg Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759) Semele: O, Sleep Why Dost Thou Leave Me? Semele: Endless Pleasure Scipione: Scoglio d'immota fronte Orlando: Quando spieghi Serse: Ombra mai fù Samson: To Fleeting Pleasures Make Your Court Rinaldo: Lascia ch'io pianga Rinaldo: Dunque, I laci d'un volto, Ah! Crudel Samson: Let The Bright Seraphim Giulio Cesare: V'adore pupile Giulio Cesare: Da tempeste il legno infranto Rodelinda: Ritorno, caro e dolce mio tesoro Lotario: Sommo rettor del cielo, d'una torbida sorgente Agrippina: Pensieri Agrippina: Bel piacere Alexander Balus: Calm Thou...Convey Me Renée Fleming (soprano) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Harry Bicket Recorded at the Colosseum, Watford, November 2003 SACD DECCA 475 6186 [70.22]

I enjoyed this recital very much. Fleming has a famously beautiful voice, subtly modulated, well equalized. She is equally impressive when the music sits low as when it takes her high. There are no breaks to reveal technical limitations and her singing is always pleasurable. I like the thicker sound she cultivates towards the chest voice and a touch – just a touch – of the Bartoli Effect in, say, Endless Pleasure, though she lacks the Italian’s daemonic change of colouration, aspirates and inability to relax the line. But Fleming’s lower voice can be formidably florid – sample Scoglio d'immota fronte – and quite capable of enough histrionic projection of its own. Compared with Bartoli, Fleming’s Lascia ch'io pianga is straighter; she doesn’t sing as softly as the Italian, but neither is her palette as self-consciously wide; there’s something of Bartoli’s trill there, though wisely I think Fleming avoids the chasm of dynamics and biting consonants that Bartoli parades. It courts, but doesn’t attain, mannerism. So yes I enjoyed the recital but there’s a ‘but’. I found much beautiful but as the recital progressed I felt a sense of generic singing. Compare her Ombra mai fù with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s. The differences are subtle but telling, as indeed is the fact that Fleming discards the recitative leading to it. Lieberson’s is a voice attuned with the utmost immediacy to the intimacy of the text and to language. Her relatively recent Handel recital on Avie shows her contemporaries how to inflect without exaggeration the better to convey emotion. The graft behind this is hidden from us but its effect is transformatory. With Fleming beauty for its own sake is more the message and in the end that is what limits real admiration for her otherwise impressive singing. I’d draw particular attention to Da tempeste il legno infranto and to Ritorno, caro e dolce mio tesoro where there doesn’t seem to be a necessary differentiation of tone and inflection. And whilst Let The Bright Seraphim is indisputably proficient (superb trumpeting from David Blackadder by the way) it’s not really thrilling. Harry Bicket is a practised hand at these things. I remember his work with David Daniels with especial admiration and he is thoroughly admirable here - and the sound quality is first rate. But in the end I was left slightly disappointed by Fleming. Jonathan Woolf Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

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