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Last October, I reviewed The King's Consort performing with Carolyn Sampson at Wigmore Hall in Handel's Nine German Arias and found it a little wanting.
With the benefit of repeated listenings and an excellent studio performance, I find myself warming to the CD version of the concert's programme. This release of these delightful works certainly deserves its place in Hyperion's existing line-up of exemplary recordings by the same artists.
Carolyn Sampson comes across spectacularly well on disc. Her beautiful sweet-toned soprano is ideally suited to the baroque repertoire and here, as in the other Hyperion releases such as Handel's Ode to St Cecilia, she excels. The performance is well-integrated, both within the ensemble and between instruments and voice, in a way that it wasn't in the concert hall.
The programme is laid out as for the live performance, with pairs of arias interspersed with three of Handel's oboe sonatas (HWV363a, HWV357 and HWV366). They complement each other well, the latter (with Alexandra Bellamy as soloist) providing soothing breaks between the arias, which were not written as a cohesive cycle anyway.
The opening song Die ihr aus dunkeln Grüften (You who from dark vaults) startles with its combination of Handel's distinctive sound and that of the German tongue, more easily associated with the cantatas of J S Bach. After a while, we're clearly in Handel territory, not as florid or virtuosic as his opera writing, often as gentle and pious as Bach's religious works, but always full of inventiveness and lovely melodies.
The texts are based on poems by Barthold Heinrich Brockes and extol the virtues of nature and God's creations. All but one are in operatic da capo form and there is a resemblance to themes from some of the contemporary operas.
The ensemble consists of Jonathan Cohen on cello, Lynda Sayce on theorbo and Robert King on harpsichord and chamber organ, with outstanding violin accompaniment for the arias by Stéphanie-Marie Degand. The oboe solo is beautifully played by Alexandra Bellamy throughout the sonatas.
I hesitate to suggest that a recording is better than the live experience but, given that Robert King won't be performing live for a while, recommend this as an excellent example of his undoubted musical skills.
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