Customer Reviews

George Frideric Handel: Acis and Galatea

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once again Linn Records, John Butt, and the Dunedin Consort have delivered
a wonderful Hybrid SACD set of Baroque music. The soloists who are veterins of both the Handel Messiah and Bach St. Matthew Passion recordings which also come highly recommended, bring the characters of this Handelian Masque to brilliant life. The musicians really play the dickens out of the music. John Butt leads the whole thing with good taste and while showing plenty of scholarship, also shows plenty of heart too. A great performance and a great recording from the Consort and Linn
Records.

I had great pleasure revisiting this delightful Handel composition. Tightly constructed with a succession of delightful arias, this pastoral opera is a treat from start to finish.

This release in the Linn label is the "Original Cannons Performing Version (1718). Although I am sure there are differences to be found here and there, I suspect the average listener (myself included) would not notice any great variations compared to other recorded editions.

As to the performance, I found it highly satisfactory. The orchestral playing under the direction of John [..]is alert, bright and breezy. The singing is also highly accomplished, with the exception of Nicholas Mulroy's Acis. His voice has a somewhat jarring tone which, though not bad, requires some getting used to.

The SACD sound, while on the dry side, has admirable clarity and transparency.
I would chose this issue in preferance to the well performed but less clearly recorded Gardiner version.

Handel's "Acis & Galatea," his first major English-language dramatic work, is superb music from start to finish, and is superbly served by this splendid new recording from the enterprising Scottish ensemble the Dunedin Consort & Players under director John Butt. While there have been other fine versions of Handel's original (and preferable) chamber version - only 5 singers (soprano, 3 tenors, bass) and a small group of instruments - Butt has thought anew about the evidence of the manuscript sources and the expressive possibilities of such intimate forces. And while there are no major textual changes - the most important is the restoration of the character of "Coridon" (Tenor 3) who is assigned "Would you gain the tender creature" - every number shows signs of fresh thought, both musical and dramatic, and the results are lovely. This extends to the casting: soprano Susan Hamilton's light, pure voice gives Galatea a poised and innocent, almost adolescent quality, and contrasts sharply (though blending well) with Nicholas Mulroy's virile, more overtly passionate Acis; thus the ultimate incapatibility of immortal sea-nymph and mortal shepherd (think Rusalka or Andersen's Little Mermaid) is highlighted. Matthew Brooks's giant Polyphemus is rightly semi-comic, beautifully sung and fully of witty inflections. Both supporting tenors are excellent. But it's the overall sense of real teamwork (the choruses are gloriously done) and Butt's well-judged leadership, not least in how one numbers leads into the next, plus the fine instrumental work, that make this so satisfying. I think this will be a version of "Acis" to live with.

Whilst the other soloists are very fine, the fact is that tenor Nicholas Mulroy sounds old enough to be Galatea's father, if not her grandfather. A very strange choice.