29209

Handel arias - Love and Madness

Zomer, Johannette
Schneemann, Bart

Handel

Awards

Classics Today 9/9

Toccata: CD des Monats

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No (In stock)		$22.96

Details

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Bart: Handel, that master creator of goosebumps, can juggle emotions with the greatest of ease; he can make you happy, melancholy, resigned, exuberant. A composer who can make two completely different beings, an oboe and a soprano, fall in love, is one of the great ones.

Johannette: After my first collaboration with Bart (Blake Songs by Vaughan Williams, ccs 18598 ), what struck me was the way our two instruments, oboe and voice, completely fused together. Bart’s way of making music is so pure, so honest, that making music with him in these dialogue-arias raises my singing to a whole new level.

HANDEL: THEATRE COMPOSER TO HIS VERY BONES

In London, a visitor to Westminster Abbey can find the grave of a famous Englishman with a German name: Georg Friedrich Händel. He set forty operas on the London stage, as well as more than fifteen oratorios and other large-scale vocal works. As the Hanover kings George I and II ruled over England, Händel, the giant from Saxony, dominated the English musical scene with his operas and oratorios from 1711 until his death. And in many an English salon his sonatas and concerti grossi were eagerly performed, even a century after his death. Händel died at the age of 74 after a rich and eventful life. That was in 1759. Three thousand mourners accompanied England’s most famous musician to his final resting place. Three years after his funeral, the celebrated monument by the sculptor Roubiliac was erected. And twenty-five years after his death, Westminster Abbey was the scene of a commemorative performance of his Messiah. Literally hundreds of singers and orchestral musicians took part. And later on in London there was a gigantic performance with no fewer than 3000 singers.

Händel, a child of his time, was fascinated by the poignant human dramas and emotions exemplified by Greek and Roman classical myths, dramas, and poetry. A theatre composer to his very bones, he devoted himself to the portrayal of human psychology. He had a special interest in those moments when the human psyche is at its most vulnerable: moments of indecision, struggle, despair, fury, abandonment, betrayal, unhappy love, conflict with friends, enemies, and fate, or longing for the oblivion of death.

Händel’s operas were beloved, and they drew audiences in London because of their recognizable depiction of these emotions: the contemplation of suffering fascinates, moves, and soothes the individual observer’s own personal suffering. Lamentations or explosions of fury, written for an injured, despairing, or abandoned woman, were even deliberately inserted by the composer as high points in an evening-long operatic performance. And with his unusually expressive and virtuosic music, Händel strove to fascinate his audience with a constant supply of new stimuli, spurring them, by means of powerful discharges of emotion, to experience a vast range of feelings.

But Händel’s prima donnas kept London abuzz with their public rivalries, love affairs, and scandals. The battle between Cuzzoni and Bordoni was not confined to their efforts to gain the lion’s share of audience acclaim: the two had vicious shouting matches in Italian on stage which ultimately degenerated into scratching, biting, hair-pulling, and tearing each other’s costumes to pieces. It was in 1727 that one of their shared performances ended in one of the greatest scandals of operatic history. The English Royal family and countless other great personages witnessed the spectacle. Down came the curtain, and that was the end of that year’s opera season. Händel, unlike his prima donnas, was a lifelong bachelor who carefully kept his social and private lives separate; nevertheless he was alternatively branded a lady-killer, a womanizer, asexual, and celibate. He was left to pick up the pieces.

Händel mastered the art of the opera during his ‘grand tour’ through Italy. Italy was not only opera’s native land, but also the Mecca of the oratorio, the sonata, and the concerto. The young composer had traveled there from Hamburg in 1706, and he remained for some five years, becoming wildly popular as a virtuoso harpsichordist and organist. He met Corelli, Caldara, and Alessandro Scarlatti; he engaged in a competition with Alessandro’s son, Domenico, on the harpsichord. Händel was idolized by artistically inclined cardinals and noble patrons in Rome and Naples, all of whom commissioned operas, cantatas, oratorios, concerti, and sonatas from him. Italy was where he experimented as he wrote his Italian cantatas, virtual operas in miniature form. Four of them are recorded on this CD.

The oboe was an instrument especially beloved by Händel. It is the unifying element in the anthology of arias and cantatas recorded here. Even before he departed for Italy, in 1704, Händel composed a Concerto in g minor for this pastoral wind instrument; it is one of his earliest surviving instrumental compositions. Here we can listen to the singing reed in varying settings, both musical and emotional: high, low, melodious, mournful, but also furious and virtuosic. Händel presents the player with every opportunity. Particularly enchanting are the operatic moments when the oboe and the soprano voice twine intimately around each other, as they do in “Dolce riposo”, from Teseo, in which the lovesick Medea is comforted by melancholy oboe passages. It is yet another glorious example of Händel’s loving musical empathy.

Clemens Romijn

Additional Information

Set Product as New from Date	Aug 31, 2009
Main artist	Zomer, Johannette Schneemann, Bart
Composer	Handel
Inlay	• Chi t’intende? Berenice’s aria from ‘Berenice’ • Morirò Medea’s aria from ‘Teseo’ • Concerto a quattro • Lascia ch’io pianga Almirena’s aria from ‘Rinaldo’ • Oboe concerto in G minor • Ah! Spietato Melissa’s aria from ‘Amadigi’ • Cantate fragment ‘Languia di bocca lusinghiera’ • Dolce riposo Medea’s aria from ‘Teseo’ • Io sperai Bellezza’s aria from ‘Il trionfo del Tempo’ • Scherza infida! Ariodante’s aria from ‘Ariodante’ • Cantata ‘Mi palpita il cor’ - Adagio/Aria • Introduzione from cantata ‘Delirio amoroso’ • Caro, vieni a me Costanza’s aria from ‘Riccardo Primo’
Biography	The Dutch soprano Johannette Zomer began her studies at the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam in 1990 with Charles van Tassel, after having worked as a microbiology analyst for several years. In June 1997 she was awarded her Performance Diploma. Since then she has received coaching by Diane Forlano (London), Claudia Visca (Wuppertal) and Marlena Malas (New York). Her repertoire ranges from medieval music through all music of the baroque and classical eras, including opera, but also Lieder, French Romanticism and Contemporary music. The prestigious ‘Gramophone’ magazine said of her: “A new voice to watch”. Johannette’s concert appearances are also many and various. She has worked with Baroque specialists such as Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt, René Jacobs, Reinard Goebel and Paul McCreesh, but has also worked with conductors including Kent Nagano, Daniel Harding, Ivan Fischer, Marcus Creed and Valery Gergiev. In 2008 she made her debut with both the Concertgebouw Orchestra (in the Matthew Passion conducted by Ivan Fischer) and the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg (in the B minor Mass under Ivor Bolton). Further she regularly gives recitals accompanied by theorbo player Fred Jacobs or fortepiano specialist Arthur Schoonderwoerd. In October 1996 Johannette made her opera debut as Tebaldo in Verdi's Don Carlo with the Nationale Reisopera. Since then she has made regular appearances in roles including Belinda, Pamina, La Musica, Euridice, Dalinda and Ilia, and also as Amanda in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. In January 2009 she made her debut at the Netherlands Opera in a new production by David Alden/Ivor Bolton of Cavalli’s Ercole Amante. www.johannettezomer.com Bart Schneemann was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1954. He completed his studies in The Netherlands with Han de Vries in 1977. His early gained orchestra experience led to his appointment as principal oboist of the celebrated Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductor Valery Gergiev). He held this position until 1996 when he decided to focus on building a career as a soloist. As music director, he restyled and increased the artistic range and possibilities of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble which is recognized as being one of the best wind ensembles in the world. With them he concretizes and records extensively and the commission a large quantity of composers to write works especially for them. Bart Schneemann is a master in various fields of music. This fact, among other aspects, made him the unanimous winner of the prestigious 3M Music Laureate Prize in 1991. From 1995 - apart from playing his modern instrument - he started to play his baroque oboe more and more and started to rethink his way of playing the vast baroque oboe repertoire. He is now equally comfortable on both instruments. Apart from playing the standard repertoire, he plays a huge amount of contemporary works. His virtuoso and musically sensitive playing has attracted the attention of many first rate contemporary composers. Several of them have written works especially for him including Tristan Keuris, Wolfgang Rihm, John Zorn, Theo Verbey, Giia Kantcheli and Kevin Volans. Bart has performed as a soloist with conductors like Valery Gergiev, Edo de Waart, Hartmut Haenchen, Thierry Fischer, Lev Markiz, Frans Brüggen, Roy Goodman and Ton Koopman. Apart from playing, he holds the position of oboe professor at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Musica Amphion, founded by harpsichordist/recorder player Pieter-Jan Belder, focuses on the performance of 17th and 18th century orchestral- and chamber music on original instruments. The concertmaster is Rémy Baudet who holds a similar post with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Frans Brüggen) The musicians of Musica Amphion are all members of important baroque orchestras of the moment such as the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Netherlands Bach Society, Les Musiciens du Louvre and the Academy of Ancient Music. Most of them enjoy successful solo careers as well. Musica Amphion has performed as part of the Dutch Netwerk voor Oude Muziek, the Early Music Festival Utrecht, the Festival Classique in the Hague, the Bach Festival in Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and many smaller venues in Holland and abroad. Musica Amphion is regularly performing in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with soloist such as Michael Chance and Lisa Larsson. Musica Amphion has recorded extensively during the last few years. Among their recordings are Bach's Musikalisches Opfer, harpsichord concertos by W.A. Mozart, Telemann's Tafelmusik (complete) and the complete works (10cd box) of Arcangelo Corelli. Recently Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos were released as well as the concertos for 2, 3 and 4 harpsichords by Bach. A recording for the Quintone label with keyboard concertos by Bach family members was received very enthusiastically by the press. It was awarded a “10” in the CD magazine Luister, being described as “ the most appealing baroque CD in a very long time” (Kasper Jansen, NRC) Musica Amphions lates CD series, the complete chambermusic by Henry Purcell was highly appreciated by the international press (Diapason, Times, TOM) www.musica-amphion.nl Pieter-Jan Belder (1966) studied recorder with Ricardo Kanji at the Royal Conservatium of the Hague, and harpsichord with Bob van Asperen at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium. He graduated in 1990 and since then has persued a flourishing career as a harpsichordist, clavichord player, organist, forte-pianist and recorder player. He has played at many international festivals, such as the Barcelona Festival de Musica Antiga, the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, the Berlin Tage für Alte Musik, the Festival van Vlaanderen, the Klara Festival, the Festival Potsdam Sans Souci, the Sacharov Festival in Nizhny Novgorod, and the Leipzig Bachfest . In 1997 Pieter-Jan Belder was awarded the third prize at the Hamburg NDR Music Prize harpsichord competition. In 2000 he was winner of the Leipzig Bach harpsichord competition. In 2005 he made his debut as a conductor in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, conducting Musica Amphion. He has made over 100 CD-recordings, most of them solo and chamber music productions.. Since 1999 Belder has been working on his integral recording of the Scarlatti keyboard sonatas, which has been released in 2007. In 2009 his recording of Bach’s Welltempered Clavier has been released on the Brilliant Classics label Currently Belder works on the recording of the complete keyboard works by the Spanish composer padre Antonio Soler.
Awards	Aangenaam Klassiek - best selling cd Cd des Monats: Toccata
Quotes	(...) het is een genoegen om deeltjes uit cantates en aria’s uit minder bekende opera’s van Handel te horen. (...) (...) Schneemann speelt wonderschoon barokhobo en Musica Amphion begeleidt alles voortreffelijk. Luister (…) Johannette Zomers stemkarakter heeft de ideale versmelting met de beurtelings warme en pregnante, maar altijd speciale klank die Bart Schneemans barokhobo oplevert. (…) (...) Het resultaat is zo puur dat het bijna de indruk geeft van een wel heel bijzondere ongereptheid, Händels grote liefde voor de hobo leverde vele dankbare partijen op die onder de handen van een grote instrumentalist als Bart Schneemann uitgroeien tot een flonkerend en zinderend cantabile dat de schoonheid van de menselijke stem kan evenaren. In de snelle passages dartelt en buitelt het instrument dat het een lieve lust is. Zo speels horen we dat toch maar zelden. Het is een en al klankschoonheid, met dan daar bovenuit en tussendoor de vocale juwelen die Johannette Zomer kwistig rondstrooit. Ze maakt meesterlijk gebruik van het gevarieerde affect en ze is ronduit fascinerend in de manier waarop ze haar frases binnen de dramatische opbouw modelleert. Haar fabelachtige techniek laat nog ruimte voor feilloze articulatie in de lastigste virtuoze passages (zoals in 'Mi palpita il cor'). En wie haar van haar sublieme legatostijl wil genieten is daar natuurlijk het bekende 'Lascia ch'io pianga' uit Rinaldo. Opus Klassiek (...) je hoort haar stem en zijn hobo versmelten, en dan weer in de dialoog elkaar van repliek dienen. Soepel, krachtig en weemoedig, al naar gelang de teneur van de specifieke aria (...) Akkoord (…) prachtige en wendbare stem die ontroert door de altijd meeresonerende lichte melancholie. Als ze zingt is het alsof er aan het eind van een warme dag bij zacht maanlicht een aangenaam briesje begint te waaien (…) Parool (…) De musici zijn aan elkaar gewaagd, met een gouden evenwicht tusssen gelijkgestemdheid en contrast. Het ensemble biedt gelegenheid het muzikaal ademende detail op te zoeken. Dat gaat zeer mooi. Beide solisten laten zich op hun aanvalligst horen Elsevier Liefde tussen hobo en sopraan. Zomer en Schneeman zijn meesterlijk op dreef met het over en weer elkaar de bal toespelen. De vocale wondertjes worden afgewisseld met instrumentale hobo-muziek. Trouw (…) Johannette Zomer displaying solid, centered tone and confident expressive character... shows her ability to command the opera stage, allowing us without any visual cues to experience the song's full emotional impact, enlivened by the virtuosic support of the Musica Amphion orchestra (…) (…) Zomer and Schneemann work very well together--two special voices, unique in timbre but united in interpretive style and concept. And the sound is Channel Classics' usual first-class production. If we're lucky these two superb musicians will find another good excuse to get together..." Classics Today Scheemann's playing on the baroque oboe is experienced and accomplished. Zomer is a splendid singer, whose clear, suave singing and spot-on technique I have long admired (…) (…) Belder and his period-instrument group… give stylish ensemble upport." American Record Guide (...) The singing of the Dutch soprano, a distinguished performer of the Baroque and 18th Century, is no less marked by technical skill: her cool tones and fine control accommodate with untroubled ease the various expressions of pathos, fury, celebration and seduction collected here. (…) BBC Music Magazine A delicious, new, fun recital... Early Music News Superlative über Superlative also, wenn es um Händel geht. Es gibt momentan eine lupenreine, fehlerfreie und entwaffnend logische, musikalisch richtige und emotional ergreifende Einspielung mit Arien aus Händel-opern. Beinahe 75 Minuten herrlichste Interpretation warten auf Hörerinnen eund Hörer, eine der rundesten Aufnahmen, die mir bei meiner Arbeit bisher untergekommen sind! Jojannette Zomers Sopranstimmetimbre und das Timbre der Barockoboe Bart Schneemanns umschmeicheln spielen mit einander, sind manchmal kaum mehr zu unterschieden, necken sich, ergänzen sich, vollkommnen sich. So muss das klingen, nur so! Wow! Cd des Monats: Toccata (…) It’s refreshing to hear Zomer’s less ‘operatic’ voice, with plenty of early music expertise, tackling arias with emotional affinity an stylish eloquence. Schneemann’s oboe playing is an ideally lyrical partner (…) (…) this recital offers plenty to enjoy!! Gramophone Johannette Zomer en Bart Schneemann gaan een dialoog aan met elkaar in duetten van Händel alsof zij totaal versmelten en verliefd zijn op elkaar. Johannette zingt de aria’s werkelijk prachtig en heeft een beheerste frasering en een fraaie timing voor de hartstocht en diepte van Händel en bezit de perfecte techniek voor deze barokmuziek. Haar heldere sopraan is prachtig zuiver en heeft een vaste klank, die zij vaardig mengt met een gedoseerd en expressief vibrato. Haar dictie is helder en de coloraturen zijn strak. Kortom, een onberispelijk instrument voor deze Händelaria’s. Opvallend is dat zij bescheiden is met haar versieringen bij de da capo’s. De hoboïst Bart Schneemann heeft een mooie egale toon en maakt fraaie lijnen met zijn barokhobo. Hij heeft een fluwelen klank en een prachtig legato. Opera Wereld Het bekende ‘Laccia ch’io pianga’ heb ik werkelijk nooit mooier gehoord. (...) De sopraan en de hobo vullen elkaar op een fantastische manier aan en zijn voortreffelijk op elkaar afgestemd en ook Musica Amphion geven op onnavolgbare manier partij. HVT
Format	No
Running time	74.50
Year of release	2009
Number of cd's	1

Number of cd's:

Year of release:

2009

Running time:

74.50

Quotes:

(...) het is een genoegen om deeltjes uit cantates en aria’s uit minder bekende opera’s van Handel te horen. (...)
(...) Schneemann speelt wonderschoon barokhobo en Musica Amphion begeleidt alles voortreffelijk.
Luister

(…) Johannette Zomers stemkarakter heeft de ideale versmelting met de beurtelings warme en pregnante, maar altijd speciale klank die Bart Schneemans barokhobo oplevert. (…)
(...) Het resultaat is zo puur dat het bijna de indruk geeft van een wel heel bijzondere ongereptheid, Händels grote liefde voor de hobo leverde vele dankbare partijen op die onder de handen van een grote instrumentalist als Bart Schneemann uitgroeien tot een flonkerend en zinderend cantabile dat de schoonheid van de menselijke stem kan evenaren. In de snelle passages dartelt en buitelt het instrument dat het een lieve lust is. Zo speels horen we dat toch maar zelden. Het is een en al klankschoonheid, met dan daar bovenuit en tussendoor de vocale juwelen die Johannette Zomer kwistig rondstrooit. Ze maakt meesterlijk gebruik van het gevarieerde affect en ze is ronduit fascinerend in de manier waarop ze haar frases binnen de dramatische opbouw modelleert. Haar fabelachtige techniek laat nog ruimte voor feilloze articulatie in de lastigste virtuoze passages (zoals in 'Mi palpita il cor'). En wie haar van haar sublieme legatostijl wil genieten is daar natuurlijk het bekende 'Lascia ch'io pianga' uit Rinaldo.
Opus Klassiek

(...) je hoort haar stem en zijn hobo versmelten, en dan weer in de dialoog elkaar van repliek dienen. Soepel, krachtig en weemoedig, al naar gelang de teneur van de specifieke aria (...)
Akkoord

(…) prachtige en wendbare stem die ontroert door de altijd meeresonerende lichte melancholie. Als ze zingt is het alsof er aan het eind van een warme dag bij zacht maanlicht een aangenaam briesje begint te waaien (…)
Parool

(…) De musici zijn aan elkaar gewaagd, met een gouden evenwicht tusssen gelijkgestemdheid en contrast. Het ensemble biedt gelegenheid het muzikaal ademende detail op te zoeken. Dat gaat zeer mooi. Beide solisten laten zich op hun aanvalligst horen
Elsevier

Liefde tussen hobo en sopraan.
Zomer en Schneeman zijn meesterlijk op dreef met het over en weer elkaar de bal toespelen. De vocale wondertjes worden afgewisseld met instrumentale hobo-muziek.
Trouw

(…) Johannette Zomer displaying solid, centered tone and confident expressive character... shows her ability to command the opera stage, allowing us without any visual cues to experience the song's full emotional impact, enlivened by the virtuosic support of the Musica Amphion orchestra (…)
(…) Zomer and Schneemann work very well together--two special voices, unique in timbre but united in interpretive style and concept. And the sound is Channel Classics' usual first-class production. If we're lucky these two superb musicians will find another good excuse to get together..."
Classics Today
Scheemann's playing on the baroque oboe is experienced and accomplished. Zomer is a splendid singer, whose clear, suave singing and spot-on technique I have long admired (…)
(…) Belder and his period-instrument group… give stylish ensemble upport."
American Record Guide

(...) The singing of the Dutch soprano, a distinguished performer of the Baroque and 18th Century, is no less marked by technical skill: her cool tones and fine control accommodate with untroubled ease the various expressions of pathos, fury, celebration and seduction collected here. (…)
BBC Music Magazine

A delicious, new, fun recital...
Early Music News

Superlative über Superlative also, wenn es um Händel geht.
Es gibt momentan eine lupenreine, fehlerfreie und entwaffnend logische, musikalisch richtige und emotional ergreifende Einspielung mit Arien aus Händel-opern. Beinahe 75 Minuten herrlichste Interpretation warten auf Hörerinnen eund Hörer, eine der rundesten Aufnahmen, die mir bei meiner Arbeit bisher untergekommen sind! Jojannette Zomers Sopranstimmetimbre und das Timbre der Barockoboe Bart Schneemanns umschmeicheln spielen mit einander, sind manchmal kaum mehr zu unterschieden, necken sich, ergänzen sich, vollkommnen sich. So muss das klingen, nur so! Wow!
Cd des Monats: Toccata

(…) It’s refreshing to hear Zomer’s less ‘operatic’ voice, with plenty of early music expertise, tackling arias with emotional affinity an stylish eloquence. Schneemann’s oboe playing is an ideally lyrical partner (…)
(…) this recital offers plenty to enjoy!!
Gramophone

Johannette Zomer en Bart Schneemann gaan een dialoog aan met elkaar in duetten van Händel alsof zij totaal versmelten en verliefd zijn op elkaar. Johannette zingt de aria’s werkelijk prachtig en heeft een beheerste frasering en een fraaie timing voor de hartstocht en diepte van Händel en bezit de perfecte techniek voor deze barokmuziek. Haar heldere sopraan is prachtig zuiver en heeft een vaste klank, die zij vaardig mengt met een gedoseerd en expressief vibrato. Haar dictie is helder en de coloraturen zijn strak. Kortom, een onberispelijk instrument voor deze Händelaria’s. Opvallend is dat zij bescheiden is met haar versieringen bij de da capo’s. De hoboïst Bart Schneemann heeft een mooie egale toon en maakt fraaie lijnen met zijn barokhobo. Hij heeft een fluwelen klank en een prachtig legato.
Opera Wereld

Het bekende ‘Laccia ch’io pianga’ heb ik werkelijk nooit mooier gehoord.
(...) De sopraan en de hobo vullen elkaar op een fantastische manier aan en zijn voortreffelijk op elkaar afgestemd en ook Musica Amphion geven op onnavolgbare manier partij.
HVT

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