Recording

Handel: La Resurrezione

The English Concert

^{FIRST PUBLISHED 23 NOV 2023}

La Resurrezione, composed by Handel in his mid-twenties, and first performed on Easter Sunday in 1708, marked the climax of Handel’s time in Rome. The premiere featured none other than Handel directing from the harpsichord and Corelli leading the orchestra from the violin!

This oratorio details the events between and during Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In La Resurrezione, we can already see Handel’s mastery of musical technique in the arias and ensembles as he gives dramatic colour to the different characters in the story.

This recording by The English Concert features Lucy Crowe (Angel), Sophie Bevan (Mary Magdalene), Iestyn Davies (Mary Cleophas), Hugo Hymas (John the Evangelist), and Ashley Riches (Lucifer), conducted by Harry Bicket.

The Times:

…’the orchestra’s lively precision, rhythmic bounce and variegated colours: ideal tools for proper display of the endless imaginative subtleties woven into the instrumental score. As for the vocal forces […] I couldn’t detect a weak link’.

Find out more about La Resurrezione and buy a copy on The English Concert's website.

This project was supported by a grant from Continuo Foundation

Supported by Continuo Foundation

Keep reading

Friends in High Places | Amanda Babington

Best described as a delicate classical bagpipe, the musette’s patronage by Louis XIV meant that it became a novel plaything of composers, performers and makers seeking Royal favour.

Playlist: Early Music Fusion

Explore the fusion of Early Music with jazz, pop and rock music. Listen to Sting’s Dowland, Jacques Loussier’s jazz-inspired Bach, L’Arpeggiata’s take on music by Purcell and Handel, and Attila the Stockbroker’s fusion of punk rock and Renaissance music.

The Salt Road

In 1705, the 20-year-old Bach walked 270 miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck to sit at the feet of his hero Dieterich Buxtehude – one of music history’s great pilgrimages.