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Handel: The Choice Of Hercules - THE KING'S CONSORT / ROBERT KING

Handel: The Choice Of Hercules - THE KING'S CONSORT / ROBERT KING

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€7,95 EUR
€7,95 EUR
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Robert King follows up his recent, resplendent, critically acclaimed reconstruction of the Coronation of King George II (CDA67286) with some more Handel, this time in the form of his lesser-known one-act dramatic cantata, The Choice of Hercules.

When Handel introduced English oratorios to London in the 1730s, he did not confine himself to sacred subjects, exploring also Classical myths, with texts based on Roman and Greek literature. The Choice of Hercules marks Handel’s last realisation of a Classical tale. It started life in 1749 as music for Alceste, but the Covent Garden production was cancelled, leaving Handel with an hour of superb music on his hands. By the summer of 1750 he had adapted several numbers and added new ones, and in 1751 it premiered as ‘an additional New Act’ concluding a performance of the ode Alexander’s Feast. Much of the music from the original conception (the story of a loyal wife who dies to save her husband and is subsequently rescued from the Underworld by Hercules) transferred easily to its new guise, for example the noble opening Sinfonia, originally intended to mark Hercules’ return from the Underworld, now entirely apt for the entrance of the young Hercules in the new drama.

Hercules’ choice is thus: on the verge of manhood, he is contemplating his future when two women appear to him. One, Vice, eager and seductive, shows him a path which seems to offer easy progress to a life of indolent pleasure. The other, tall and beautiful and identified as Virtue, warns Hercules that what is truly good can only be obtained through hard effort; and only then can Hercules gain supreme glory.

Also on this disc is an anthem by Maurice Greene, a contemporary of Handel, and by all accounts an arch rival, particularly when Handel was chosen above Greene by George II to write the new anthems for his coronation.

Full marks to Robert King who has assembled yet again a formidably superb collection of artists to perform this particularly attractive repertoire.

The Choice of Hercules HWV69[48'18]
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No 1: Sinfonia[1'18]
2
No 2, Accompagnato: See Hercules! how smiles yon myrtle plain (Pleasure)[2'42]
Susan Gritton (soprano)
3
No 3, Air: Come, blooming boy (Pleasure)[2'19]
Susan Gritton (soprano)
4
No 4, Air: There the brisk sparkling nectar drain (Pleasure)[2'36]
Susan Gritton (soprano)
5
No 5, Solo and Chorus: While for thy arms that beauty glows (Pleasure)[2'36]
Susan Gritton (soprano), King's Consort Choir
6
No 6, Recitative: Away, mistaken wretch, away! (Virtue)[0'30]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
7
No 7, Air: This manly youth's exalted mind (Virtue)[5'31]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
8
No 8, Recitative: Rise, youth! exalt thyself and me! (Virtue)[0'17]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
9
No 9, Air: Go, assert thy heav'nly race (Virtue)[2'52]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
10
No 10, Recitative: In peace, in war (Virtue)[0'18]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
11
No 11, Solo and Chorus: So shalt thou gain immortal praise (Virtue)[1'46]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), King's Consort Choir
12
No 12, Recitative: Hearst thou, what dangers then thou must engage? (Pleasure)[0'27]
Susan Gritton (soprano)
13
No 13, Solo and Chorus: Turn thee, youth, to joy and love (Pleasure)[2'32]
Susan Gritton (soprano), King's Consort Choir
14
No 14, Recitative: Short is my way, fair, easy, smooth and plain (Pleasure/Hercules)[0'39]
Susan Gritton (soprano), Robin Blaze (countertenor)
15
No 15, Air: Yet, can I hear that dulcet lay (Hercules)[4'18]
Robin Blaze (countertenor)
16
No 16, Air: Enjoy the sweet Elysian grove (Attendant on Pleasure)[2'18]
Charles Daniels (tenor)
17
No 17, Recitative: Oh! whither, reason, dost thou fly? (Hercules)[0'15]
Robin Blaze (countertenor)
18
No 18, Trio: Where shall I go? (Hercules/Pleasure/Virtue)[1'47]
Robin Blaze (countertenor), Susan Gritton (soprano), Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
19
No 19, Recitative: Mount, mount the steep ascent (Virtue)[0'40]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
20
No 20, Air: Mount, mount the steep ascent (Virtue)[1'02]
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
21
No 21, Chorus: Arise! mount the steep ascent[2'08]
King's Consort Choir
22
No 22, Recitative: The sounds breathe fire celestial (Hercules)[0'15]
Robin Blaze (countertenor)
23
No 23, Air: Lead, goddess, lead the way! (Hercules)[4'49]
Robin Blaze (countertenor)
24
No 24, Chorus: Virtue will place thee in that blest abode[4'23]
King's Consort Choir
Hearken unto me, ye holy children[16'47]Maurice Greene (1696-1755)
25
No 1, Solo: Hearken unto me, ye holy children[3'02]
Robin Blaze (countertenor)
26
No 2, Chorus: Magnify His name[1'32]
King's Consort Choir
27
No 3, Chorus: And in praising Him you shall say[2'45]
King's Consort Choir
28
No 4, Solo: To be a father to the fatherless[1'43]
Charles Daniels (tenor)
29
No 5, Duet: Therefore shall he receive a glorious kingdom[1'42]
Robin Blaze (countertenor), Charles Daniels (tenor)
30
No 6, Recitative: How is he numb'red[0'34]
Peter Harvey (bass)
31
No 7, Solo: His name shall endure for ever[2'18]
Peter Harvey (bass)
32
No 8, Chorus: Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers[3'11]
King's Consort Choir
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