MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Crotchet

 

George Frideric HANDEL (1685–1759)
Operatic Duets
Poro (1731)
1. Duetto: Caro amico amplesso!  [2:06]
Rinaldo (1711)
2.
Duetto: Scherzano sul tuo volto [3:43]
Rodelinda (1725)
3. Recitativo: Non ti bastò, consorte … Duetto: Io t’abbraccio [7:21]
Silla (1713)
4. Recitativo: Mio diletto, she pensi? … Duetto: Sol per te, bell’idol mio [5:58]
Sosarme (1732)
5. Duetto: Per le porte del tormento [7:45]
Faramondo (1737)
6. Recitativo: Del destin non mi lagno … Duetto: Caro, tu m’accendi [6:49]
Atalanta (1736)
7. Recitativo: Amarilli? … Duetto: Amarilli? Oh Dei! Che vuoi? [6:14]
Muzio Scevola (1721)
8.
Duetto: Vivo senz’alma, o bella [2:35]
Orlando (1733)
9. Duetto: Finché prendi [2:01]
Poro
10. Recitativo: Perfidi! Ite di Poro … Cavatina: Se mai più sarò geloso [2:48]
11. Recitativo: Macedoni guerrieri … Aria: Se mai turbo il tuo riposo [5:42]
12. Sinfonia to Act 3 [0:58]
Serse (1738)
13. Duetto: Gran pena è gelosia! [1:49]
Poro
14. Recitativo: Lode agli Dei … Duetto: Se mai turbo il tuo riposo [6:20]
Admeto (1727)
15. Duetto: Alma mia, dolce ristoro [4:25]
Flavio (1723)
16. Duetto: Ricordati, mio ben [4:02]
Teseo (1713)
17. Duetto: Addio, mio caro bene [2:50]
Patrizia Ciofi (soprano); Joyce Di Donato (mezzo)
Il Complesso Barocco/Alan Curtis (harpsichord)
rec. 14–19 June 2003, Montevarchi, Italy
Sung texts and English translations enclosed
VIRGIN CLASSICS 5181792 [73:35]

 

Experience Classicsonline


Still rather superb.
No. Forget the implied qualification; just still superb. Recorded in 2003 and first issued the following year this disc shows that Ciofi and Di Donato are something of a dream pairing. And with Alan Curtis at the harpsichord and directing Il Complesso Barocco, and with a sequence of ravishing – often lesser known - duets then you have a disc of Alpha status. Its reappearance here is greatly to be welcomed. 

 

What makes things so masterful is the combination of lithe and alert instrumental contributions, a vital harpsichord sound space, expressive or avid B sections, expertly realised tempo decisions, finely judged da capo ornaments and most of all the pairing of Ciofi’s superfine soprano with the castrato-intended roles taken by Di Donato’s fuller mezzo. The voices are powerfully complementary.

 

One should add a concentrated sense of characterisation to the brew. Note the urgency of the recitative in the sole example from Silla. And to amplify the matter of control of B sections, listen out for the elastic eloquence in Scherzano sul tuo volto from Rinaldo, an especially captivating example but just one among many. Similarly my reference to instrumental contributions could have been tailor made to describe the violin solo in Sosarme’s  Per le porte del tormento where the two singers’ phrasing is not simply warm and lyric but perfectly controlled. The sense of the natural arc of a phrase is something that comes over time and again in this recital; I can’t think of a single case where a phrase sounded ungainly or where a phrase ending tapered disappointingly. Natural buoyancy of rhythm helps but the overriding impression is of true musicality at work.

 

The voices fall over each other with precision and great naturalness in Atalanta’s Amarilli? Oh Dei! Che vuoi? where the sense of dramatic tension, once unleashed, remains constant to the very end. There are five extracts from Poro of which the highlight is Se mai turbo il tuo riposo with its opportunities for both reflective intiamcy and dcemonstrative assertion.

 

But really to showcase these particular examples is to render less than adequate praise to the recital as a whole.

 

Jonathan Woolf

 

see also Review by Göran Forsling

 

 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.