Bridget Cunningham

Handel in Ireland, Vol. 1

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212047828
Catnr: SIGCD 478
Release date: 10 March 2017
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212047828
Catalogue number
SIGCD 478
Release date
10 March 2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

Bridget Cunningham marks St. Patrick's Day with a new harpsichord album that gives a glimpse into Handel's fascinating time in Dublin. In 1741, at the age of 56, following a financially difficult time in London and with fashions turning against Italian opera, Handel went to Dublin for nine months - a thriving musical city and the secon dlargest in the British Isles after London. The story of this fascinating trip is told in both music and detailed accompanying notes by harpsichordist and musicologist Bridget Cunningham. This disc is part of Cunningham's ongoing series with the ensemble London Early Opera, which has already seen releases of esveral volumes of Handel's music, including Handel in Italy and Handel at Vauxhall.
Een blik op Händels fascinerende tijd in Dublin
In 1741, na een financieel moeilijke tijd in Londen, een periode waarin Italiaanse opera uit de mode begon te raken, ging de toen 56-jarige Händel voor negen maanden naar Dublin – een bloeiende muzikale stad en de tweede grootste stad van de Britse Eilanden, na Londen. Het verhaal van deze fascinerende reis wordt muzikaal verteld door klavecinist en musicologe Bridget Cunningham.

Dit album maakt deel uit van Cunninghams ‘Händel in’ serie in samenwerking met het ensemble London Early Opera. Er zijn inmiddels al enkele volumes met muziek van Händel uitgebracht, waaronder Händel in Italy en Händel at Vauxhall.

Artist(s)

Bridget Cunningham (harpsichord)

Bridget Cunningham is an international conductor, prizewinning harpsichordist and musicologist who trained at the Royal College of Music and was awarded a Junior Fellowship to work in the Centre for Performance History and coach singers in the baroque style. As Artistic Director of London Early Opera, Cunningham is creating, researching and conducting an ongoing series of Handel recordings with Signum Classics exploring Handel the man, his music and his travels to capture musical snapshots of moments in his life. These new CDs are being released worldwide and include Handel in Italy Vol.1 & Vol.2, Handel in Ireland Vol.1 and Handel at Vauxhall Vol.1 & Vol.2 and handel’s Queens; “Handel has never sounded better” BBC Music Magazine 5 Stars, October 2019 Her solo harpsichord performances include playing for Prince Charles and the Royal Family at Buckingham...
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Bridget Cunningham is an international conductor, prizewinning harpsichordist and musicologist who trained at the Royal College of Music and was awarded a Junior Fellowship to work in the Centre for Performance History and coach singers in the baroque style.

As Artistic Director of London Early Opera, Cunningham is creating, researching and conducting an ongoing series of Handel recordings with Signum Classics exploring Handel the man, his music and his travels to capture musical snapshots of moments in his life. These new CDs are being released worldwide and include Handel in Italy Vol.1 & Vol.2, Handel in Ireland Vol.1 and Handel at Vauxhall Vol.1 & Vol.2 and handel’s Queens;

“Handel has never sounded better” BBC Music Magazine 5 Stars, October 2019

Her solo harpsichord performances include playing for Prince Charles and the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace, Maison Hine and Château de Hautefort in France, the London Handel Festival and a broadcast on Austria’s National Radio Stephansdom with pianist Angela Hewitt. She coaches The Handelians from London Early Opera and collaborates with the Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi and baroque dance groups including Mercurius Company and Les Plaisirs Des Nations performing with them at Yale University. She also gives lecture recitals and concerts at Art Galleries including the opening of ‘Watteau: The Drawings Exhibition’ at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Cunningham is a versatile conductor and harpsichordist and has performed at several prestigious venues and festivals including the Opera house Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, Yale University’s Center for British Art America and recently conducted Handel’s Semele, Bach’s Easter Oratorio and also Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, Serenade, Haydn Harpsichord and Violin Concerto and Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen in a Romantic and Gipsy programme at St Martin-in-the Fields, London for the Music of the Spheres Ensemble. She also directed a world premiere with London Early Opera written by Grace Evangeline-Mason commissioned by the BBC to celebrate the 300th Anniversary of Handel’s Water Music – broadcast live on the River Thames. Other broadcasts include BBC 2 Messiah, BBC 4 Vivaldi’s Women, Radio 4 Front Row and Radio 3 In Tune, SkyArts, RTE, RTP and a short film for Handel and Hendrix in London.


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Composer(s)

Georg Friedrich Händel

Georg Frideric Handel was a composer from the Baroque period. Handel wrote primarily music-dramatic works: 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets, which comes to a total amount of almost 2000 arias! Furthermore, he composed English, Italian and Latin sacred music, serenades and odes. Among his instrumental music are several organ concertos, concerti grossi, overtures, oboe sonatas and violinsonates, along with many solo works for harpsichord and organ.  Together with Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in the same year (1685), Handel is viewed as one of the greatest composers of his time. He was extremely prolific and wrote in total more than 610 works, many of which are still performed today.  Compared to his contemporaries Bach, Telemann...
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Georg Frideric Handel was a composer from the Baroque period. Handel wrote primarily music-dramatic works: 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets, which comes to a total amount of almost 2000 arias! Furthermore, he composed English, Italian and Latin sacred music, serenades and odes. Among his instrumental music are several organ concertos, concerti grossi, overtures, oboe sonatas and violinsonates, along with many solo works for harpsichord and organ.

Together with Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in the same year (1685), Handel is viewed as one of the greatest composers of his time. He was extremely prolific and wrote in total more than 610 works, many of which are still performed today.

Compared to his contemporaries Bach, Telemann and Scarlatti, Handel was by far the most cosmopolitan. When Handel was a child, his father, who was a surgeon at the court of Saxe-Weissenfels, imagined a juridical career for him. But his musical talents did not go unnoticed at the court, which forced the father to let him study music. In Hamburg, Handel befriended Mattheson. Together they visited Buxtehude, the greatest organ player of his time, in 1703 (two years before Bach did). At that time, Handel was already an excellent musician, but it wasn't until his stay in Italy - the land of opera - that his talents and skills truly started to flourish. Back in Germany, he received a position at the court of Hannover, where the noblemen had a connection to the British throne. Thanks to these connections, Handel decided to move to London, after which a puzzling history of intrigues and political games started. For example, it is unclear what the exact political message of his famous Water Music is, which was composed for a boat ride on the river Thames by King George. Initially, Handel focused on Italian opera during his stay in London, but from the 1730s onwards he started composing English spoken oratorios, with the celebrated Messiah at its peak.


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Francesco Geminiani

Born in Verona (Italy) in 1990, at the age of 15 he began the study of music choosing the saxophone as his main instrument. Mr. Geminiani showed from the very start a deep dedication towards the musical studies but even more impressive was his talent and prodigious ability to master the instrument in a matter of months. This innate talent brought him to perform at 16 years old with the city’s representative winds orchestra “Arrigo Boito” giving performances throughout the North Italian regions and Germany. During the same year he was accepted in the first internationally recognized Jazz program of Italy at “Conservatory E.F. Dall’Abaco”; being also the youngest student (16) that studied in an Italian jazz department. Mr. Geminiani...
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Born in Verona (Italy) in 1990, at the age of 15 he began the study of music choosing the saxophone as his main instrument. Mr. Geminiani showed from the very start a deep dedication towards the musical studies but even more impressive was his talent and prodigious ability to master the instrument in a matter of months. This innate talent brought him to perform at 16 years old with the city’s representative winds orchestra “Arrigo Boito” giving performances throughout the North Italian regions and Germany. During the same year he was accepted in the first internationally recognized Jazz program of Italy at “Conservatory E.F. Dall’Abaco”; being also the youngest student (16) that studied in an Italian jazz department. Mr. Geminiani obtained his first Diploma in jazz music and saxophone in 2010 presenting his thesis on legendary tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon that received the highest possible score from the present commission. At the beginning of 2008 he founded the quintet “Funkeys”, based in Verona this ensemble of young talented musicians performed extensively all over Italy. Among the many highlights of its existence the “Funkeys” had a yearly residency in Verona’s K59, performing twice a week, and were also chosen by award winner and famous movie soundtrack group (Austin’s power and Starsky and Hutch) “James Taylor quartet” to perform the opening act of their live concert in front of a public of thousands. In 2009 Mr. Geminiani gained international recognition winning the prestigious Siena foundation scholarship, being selected as the recipient by a jury of top-level international jazz exponents such as Franco D’Andrea, Avishai Cohen, Lionel Lueke, George Garzone and Pietro Tonolo. After obtaining his diploma in Verona, in 2010 Mr. Geminiani moved to Switzerland completing his studies at the “H.E.M.U. (Haute Ecole de Musique) of Lausanne”, where he successfully earned a Bachelor degree in saxophone and jazz music in only two years with the highest note for his recital and thesis that researched into the long history of the “suite” form. During his stay in the Helvetic Land he established himself as one of the most in demand saxophone players, performing at events such as “Ascona jazz”, “Verbier Jazz Festival” for three consecutive years, AMR jazz festival in Geneva and the biggest music festival in the world: Montreux Jazz Festival. He was selected to take part in the “2011 DKSJ All Star Band of Switzerland”, performing in all the main Swiss’ jazz clubs (Bird’s Eye, Chorus, Musikantine, Mehrspur); this ensemble reunited the very best instrumentalist resident in the country, a repertoire was commissioned specifically for the occasion to Rudi Mahall and a “DKSJ live at MusiKantine” recording was released soon after the national tour. 2012 was signed but several great recognitions; Mr. Geminiani was the recipient of the F. Jost foundation award with the following motivation: “In merit of his outstanding work as a performer and the huge contribute he brought to the Swiss musical scene”. Consequently he won in the same year the national “Zorzella Award”; an international jazz soloist competition held in Italy at the “Camploy Theatre”. In the summer of 2012 he auditioned for the prestigious “New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music”, where he obtained a full merit scholarship that enable him to move to New York City to accomplish his jazz and classical studies and dive into the active musical scene that only this city has to offer. In 2014 he obtained his Bachelor in arts with honorable mention earning a final GPA of 3.80. Since his move to the US, Mr. Geminiani level of musicianship evolved excelling in the performing arts as well as in the demanding and sophisticated discipline of composition. Under the guide of Grammy Award winner Gil Goldstein in 2014 he formed the Playwood chamber ensemble, for which he composed and arranged the entire repertoire successfully creating a unique blend of classical music and jazz that stands out for its originality. Within the last two years Mr. Geminiani led the band internationally performing Italy and Switzerland. In 2015 he released the album “Colorsound”, this work has been entirely recorded and produced in New York City with some of the best up and coming young musicians: Rick Rosato and Bass and Mark Schilders on drums. The trio has been heard in the New York and European jazz clubs during the winter tour in the end of 2015. Mr. Geminiani besides is work as a leader stands as in demand tenor saxophonist of its generation. Constantly performing and recording internationally, he has been touring Italy, Germany, US, Holland, France, Switzerland and Slovenia; performed along side some of the most well known jazzmen such as Kenny Wheeler, Eddie Henderson, Adam Birnbaum, Bill Stuart and Doug Weiss, and recorded several acclaimed albums in the last years. He has also be seen on stage in different NY’s clubs such as Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Cornelia Street Café, Rockwood, Shapeshifter lab, Smoke jazz club, Brooklyn raga massive, Arnold Hall, NuBlu, DROM; and Europe, Marian’s jazzroom, Montreux jazz Festival, Ascona jazz Festival, World Gymnaestrada festival, AMR Sud des Alpes, Bird’s Eye jazz club Basel, Cantina Bentivoglio.
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