Handel: Carmelite Vespers 1707 available on January 21 2021 from Amazon for 5.75
Handel: Carmelite Vespers available on March 15 2015 from Base for 7.49
UPC bar code 724356157927 ξ2 registered November 02 2013
UPC bar code 724356157927 ξ1 registered February 19 2015
UPC bar code 724356157927 ξ3 registered September 27 2014
Product category is MUSIC CD - CD - Classical Audio
Manufacturered by Virgin Veritas
Product weight is 0.25 lbs.
Record Label: Virgin Veritas * Catalog#: 724356157927 CD Composer: Georg Friederich Handel / Conductor: Andrew Parrott / Orchestra: Taverner Choir / Soloist: Jill Feldman His own Lutheranism notwithstanding, Handel wrote some remarkable music for the Catholic liturgy while in Rome as a young man. In our era they've been performed in the concert hall--large-scale, multi-movement pieces such as the robust Dixit Dominus and the gracious Nisi Dominus in particular coming across as miniature oratorios. But they were, in fact, church music--as Andrew Parrott reminds us with this speculative reconstruction of a lavish 1707 Vespers service for which the young Handel provided music. The performance by Parrott and his Taverner groups is exhilarating. The Dixit Dominus in particular packs a real wallop. The contralto, tenor, and bass soloists do excellent work with their limited music, but Handel was obviously writing for star soprano castrati, and the real stars here are Parrott's three (female) soprano soloists. Jill Feldman wasn't in her best voice for this recording: her louder moments can sound a bit strained, but her softer singing is truly lovely and she rips through some forbidding coloratura. Emma Kirkby is, of course, a delight in Laudate pueri, and Emily van Evera sings superbly--her timing in the solemn opening and closing bars of the Salve Regina will have you on the edge of your seat. --Matthew Westphal
George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759): Carmelite Vespers 1707. Second Vespers of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (as it might have been heard in Rome in July 1707 and containing seven motets by Handel embedded in appropriate Gregorian chant). Performed by Jill Feldman, Emma Kirkby, Emily Van Evera, soprano; Margaret Cable, Mary Nichols, alto; Joseph Cornwell, tenor; David Thomas, bass; The Taverner Choir; The Taverner Players; directed by Andrew Parrott. Recorded in June 1987 at St. Augustine's, Kilbur..
James Peterson assertion of shrillness is unwarranted. This is a delightful recording; the soloists are superb and the chorus spot-on. My advice: buy it!
An interesting attempt at recreating the whole Vespers as it may have been (either Handel did not write a whole Vespers or it has not all come down to us). I liked the attempt: it really could have been that way.
