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Label Signum Classics |
UPC 0635212047927 |
Catalogue number SIGCD 479 |
Release date 08 September 2017 |
London Early Opera continue their programme themed around a typical evening’s entertainment at the 17th & 18th century Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, with a second collection of works by George Frideric Handel and contemporary composers of the day (John Stanley, Thomas Gladwin, John Lampe and Johann Adolph Hasse). Featuring performances by soloists Claire Bessant, Mary Bevan, Benjamin Bevan, Eleanor Dennis, Charles MacDougale, Nicky Spence and Greg Tassell, the programme evokes the carnival of music and entertainments that amused visitors in these London gardens for nearly 200 years.
The booklet notes feature images and expert commentaries on the Vauxhall Gardens by author David E. Coke and as well as conductor and musicologist Bridget Cunningham.
London Early Opera are leading exponents of baroque research as they work closely with musicologists, historians, editors and researchers finding new interesting programmes, unrecorded music which feature detailed historical performance practice.
LEO link dramatic music and singing with narration and art history to create magical performances in their oratorio and concert performances.
They have recently recorded discs of Handel at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and Handel in Italy with multi Grammy winning producer Chris Alder and singers Sophie, Mary and Ben Bevan, Eleanor Dennis, Greg Tassell, Kirsty Hopkins, Claire Bessent, Charles MacDougal.
The group is directed by harpsichordist, conductor and early music specialist Bridget Cunningham and they have performed to acclaim at several major venues including Southwark Cathedral, Grosvenor Chapel and St James’ Church, Piccadilly and across France.
London Early Opera offers concerts, operas, educational workshops, lecture recitals and recordings and collaborate on other projects such as their recent recording of George Butterworth.
Bridget Cunningham is a
prizewinning harpsichordist,
musicologist and an international,
versatile conductor who trained at
the Royal College of Music where
she was awarded a Fellowship.
This celebratory recording is part
of an important larger series of
her albums with Signum Classics
– many of which include world
premiere recordings.
As Artistic Director of London
Early Opera, Cunningham is a
leading exponent of baroque music
and created these outstanding
recordings with many international
singers such as Sophie Bevan, Lucy
Crowe and Mary Bevan, baroque
musicians and historians. Albums
include Handel’s Eight Great
Harpsichord Suites, Handel in Italy,
Caio Fabbricio HWV A9
, Handel at
Vauxhall, Handel in Ireland and
Handel’s Queens which have been
reviewed with international acclaim
and shortlisted for a Gramophone
Award nomination in 2020;
“Handel has never sounded better”
(Handel’s Queens) ★★★★★
BBC Music Magazine, 2019
“Bridget Cunningham is just such
a player... Her feeling for dance
rhythms is infectious and her
ability to entertain unassailable”
(Handel’s Eight Great Harpsichord
Suites) ★★★★★ 5 stars BBC Music
Magazine, 2022
Cunningham’s harpsichord
performances include playing at
the London Handel Festival, Maison
Hine Cognac, Victoria International
Festival, Gozo as well as for the
Royal family at Buckingham
Palace. She has performed at the
Innsbruck Festival, Yale University,
St John’s Smith Square, Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, Handel Hendrix
Museum, St George’s Hanover
Square, the Foundling Museum
and St Martin-in-the-Fields. She
regularly collaborates with baroque
dance groups and has a passion for
combining the artworld with music. Cunningham is a keen advocate
for directing baroque music from
the harpsichord. As well as her
numerous performances including
several of Handel’s operas, Bach’s
Easter Oratorio, Vivaldi’s Gloria and
a 400th anniversary performance of
Monteverdi’s Vespers at Southwark
Cathedral, she has also directed
a world premiere for BBC Radio 4
with London Early Opera written
by a BBC Inspire Young Composer of the Year, Grace Evangeline-
Mason, for the 300th Anniversary
of Handel’s Water Music.
She has appeared on several BBC
Radio and TV broadcasts including
BBC Radio 3 In Tune, BBC 2 Messiah,
BBC 4 Vivaldi’s Women, Radio 4
Front Row and SkyArts, RTE, RTP
and Radio Stephansdom.
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.