Natalie Dessay ~ Delirio (Handel Italian Cantatas)

George Frideric Handel (Composer), Emmanuelle Haim (Conductor), Le Concert d'Astree (Orchestra), Natalie Dessay (Performer), Atsushi Sakai (Performer), Stéphanie-Marie Degand (Performer), Patrick Beaugiraud (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Natalie Dessay, Atsushi Sakai, Stéphanie-Marie Degand, Patrick Beaugiraud
• Orchestra: Le Concert d'Astree
• Conductor: Emmanuelle Haim
• Composer: George Frideric Handel
• Audio CD (January 10, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Classics
• ASIN: B0009U5600
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,532 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rarely Heard Handel Performed with Great Style, March 19, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Natalie Dessay ~ Delirio (Handel Italian Cantatas) (Audio CD)

This is one of those albums for people who love Baroque music but who want to enter the realm of the lesser known works. Though Natalie Dessay has become a star on the opera stage, here she collaborates with Emmanuelle Haïm conducting Le Concert D'Astree in three cantatas for soprano and instruments. The result is a CD of enormous beauty and grace and one that deserves awards in every category of music making!

There are three works on this well engineered CD: 'Il Delirio Amoroso', 'Aci, Galatea e Polifemo,' 'Mi palpita il cor', and the aria 'Qui l'augel da pianta in pianta'. The recital opens with the 'Introduzione from Il Delirio Amoroso' in which Emmanuelle Haïm sets a buoyant and elegant mood for the rest of the recording. Natalie Dessay is in top form here, giving us a broader range of voice than we are used to hearing from this talented artist. She has a definite affinity for Handel and her approach to these rare works is gratifying in every way. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 06

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ideal Blend of Voice and Instruments on Handel's Prodigious Italian Cantatas, February 9, 2006

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Natalie Dessay ~ Delirio (Handel Italian Cantatas) (Audio CD)

French soprano Natalie Dessay has had to endure two major surgeries to remove nodes that were preventing her from fully reaching her stratospheric, two-and-a-half octave range. This supple dexterity is showcased nicely albeit briefly in her soubrettish turn as Morgana on the 2000 recording of the 1999 William Christie-conducted Paris Opera production of Handel's "Alcina". She also intertwined flawlessly with soprano Veronique Gens on "Ahi, nelle sorte umane" from the 2002 recording of Handel's Arcadian duets. Here, again under Emmanuelle Haim's direction of the period-authentic Le Concert d'Astree, Dessay performs in a deeper tone with more heft and color at the lower end, and the vocal change, if anything, has improved her interpretative skills in realizing the pastoral mythologies set to Handel's wondrous music composed during his youthful Italian sojourn when he was in his twenties.

Equipped with a cleaner, crisper voice than Cecilia Bartoli, Dessay produces a similar emotional intensity on the two cantatas featured here. Both written in 1707, they become vehicles for her to carry her own unique power and eloquence. Haim sets the stage beautifully by allowing her ensemble to play Handel's opening sinfonia with spirited solo turns on each of the featured instruments - oboe, cello, recorder and violin (played with virtuosity by Stefanie-Marie Degand). Five minutes later, Dessay enters and takes command of the first cantata, "Delirio amoroso" with the high point likely being the stunning aria, "Lascia omai le brune vele" with oboist Patrick Beaugiraud providing lively accompaniment during the key obbligato.

The second cantata, "Mi palpita il cor", is a more somber piece highlighted by Dessay's particularly adept performance of the two arias - the first about the possibility of rejection from a lover, "Ho tanti affanni in petto" and the concluding one, an about-face sung with complete abandon, about the gleeful anticipation of love, "Se un di m'adora". Regardless, the disc's unequivocal peak is the aria which bridges the two cantatas, "Qui l'augel da pianta in pinata" from "Aci, Galatea e Polifemo", where Dessay astonishes with her virtuosity in one of Aci's most dramatic passages. Overall this is a superb recording that matches a stellar voice growing more burnished over time with an impeccable ensemble. Handelians should be pleased.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE SUPERB NATALIE DESSAY DIGS NEW REPERTOIRE FOR HER WITH THE HELP OF HAÏM'S LIVELY CONDUCTING, January 24, 2006

By 

Ygor (Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natalie Dessay ~ Delirio (Handel Italian Cantatas) (Audio CD)

Some time ago, it was reported that Natalie Dessay was facing a vocal crisis, and I became quite worried at how her voice would sound after that. Now I know I had no real reasons to be worried, since the superb Natalie Dessay proved again what a great and intelligent artist she is. While Natalie Dessay has had to abandone a little her former lirico-leggero coloratura singing with an abundance of stratospheric high notes and superhuman agility, she has now gained an equally stupendous voice. It's now creamier and fuller than before, with a much improved low register and a richer middle register. She doesn't attempt the highest notes anymore (notice that highest notes for Dessay mean High G's and High A's, since she's still able to hit a wonderful High E Flat or High E), but her artistry seems to have deepend and matured. One of my greatest praises to her singing has always been Dessay's ability to convey the proper nuance and dramaticism to any melody she sings, even if it's a simple recitative. Now she seems to have reached the complete maturity of her artistry, and this album is a proof of that.

This is an album of Händel's Italian Cantatas, which are full of nuanced and fascinating music. They may not have the dramaticism of his later operas nor the depth of other sacred pieces by him, like Messiah, but they have that wonderful melodical creativity that Händel had. In "Un pensiero voli in ciel", Dessay shows her flowing legato in long coloratura lines with the accompaniment of lively, meaningful strings. The aria "Lascia omai le brune vele" contains some fascinating, unselfconsciously exuberant fioriture, which are sung by Dessay with stunning ease. She's also magnificent in the more lyrical and melancholic arias, such as "Per te lasciai la luce" or "Ho tanti affanni in petto", where it's amazing to hear the rich and expressive vocal colours and tones of Dessay's voice.

There are some people who criticize Emanuelle Haïm's always lively and exciting conducting. Those must be real purists, who prefer a flawless sound to an orchestral performance that shows all the dramatic and melodical nuances of the music. As I'm not a Baroque purist, I must say I'm a real fan of Haïm's conducting. She doesn't seem to care a lot about creating a perfectly homogeneous and transcendental sound, but rather creating a sound that excites the ears and is meaningful to the heart, and she always succeeds. In this way, her conducting is a perfect accompaniment to Natalie Dessay, whose superb voice is always used to favor the drama that imbues the music.

Definitely, this is one of the best Händel releases of the last years, and it's also a great success for Dessay, who digs new repertoire for her and proves to be ideal for it. I highly recommend this excellent album!