ABC Classics has recently released a number of taster discs devoted to some big name composers, of which this Handel disc forms a part. They’re not exactly commonplace compilations, containing as they do a cunning amount of variety leavened with alternately big name and rising stars of the Australian firmament. In the former category of stars resides Yvonne Kenny and in the latter tenor David Hobson. All the contributions here are culled from existing discs so repackaging and rebranding is the name of the game.

Entry-level for this disc is therefore that of the avowed non-specialist. And someone finding his way into the repertoire will find that the disc covers a reasonable amount of ground – solo instrumental, orchestral, oratorio, operatic and the like – though not always in the most expected way. The Queen of Sheba for instance arrives courtesy of a guitar quartet. Wafting Angels is via the oboe not an expected tenor. Arrangements leaven the predictable with a certain amount of Antipodean tang.

So for instance Tim Beon has arranged the Passacaglia from the Harpsichord Suite in G minor for solo harp. Collectors will know the famous arrangement by Halvorsen for violin and viola, but the Beon ripples away nicely enough – an emollient to Halvorsen’s pugilistic masculinity. We also get the brief Giuliani guitar reworking of the theme of the Harmonious Blacksmith, all 1:16 of it. Elsewhere things are par for the course with no outlandish arrangements, simply extracted and conventional performances from the ABC catalogue.

This isn’t the place for detailed criticism but I still don’t like Kenny’s ornaments in Lascia ch'io pianga. I listened to her performance of it in her Handel disc from which this is extracted and the only thing I can say in my defence is that I’m at least consistent in my dislike. Tenor David Hobson essays Silent Worship, the Arthur Somervell adapatation of  Non lo dirò col labbro from Tolomeo. I’ve actually not heard anyone do this in English since Heddle Nash though the notes say that Ewan McGregor sang it in the film Emma to Gwyneth Paltrow’s filmic accompaniment. Since I saw the film this is very worrying and I need to eat more greens, obviously. Hobson has a very light lyric tenor and he sings this with tripping grace but not an ounce of Nash’s romantic ardour. Sara Macliver has a boyish soprano in her Messiah. The orchestral and other instrumental extracts are all pleasantly if unevenly done.

But I’m still not quite sure at whom this kind of compilation is aimed, apart from a newcomer to classical music. Maybe, in expanding appreciation of Handel’s compositional breadth, it also offers some pointers to the range of the ABC catalogue.

Jonathan Woolf   

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