HANDEL Duets
Rosemary Joshua (soprano), Sarah Connolly (mezzo),
The English Concert / Harry Bickett.
Chandos Chaconne CHAN 0767
And so the deluge continues. The latest CD to wash ashore on the current tide-swell of early-music vocal recordings is a program of Handel duets sung by soprano Rosemary Joshua and mezzo Sarah Connolly on the Chandos Chaconne label. As with so many baroque discs that have appeared of late, this is a musically satisfying, sensibly selected program of musical riches that sounds entirely up-to-date in its historically-informed practice, yet wears its scholarship lightly on its sleeve. And, in terms of pure singing, the performances are lovely from beginning to end.
If this sounds like a case of damning with faint praise, it’s not entirely meant to. There’s simply a question of “sameness” that creeps into the listening experience that has partly to do with repertoire, partly with performing style. The duets here are drawn from both Handel’s English oratorios and his Italian operas, but the formula in each is essentially the same: two lovers (the mezzo part written for the castratos of Handel’s day) sing, gorgeously, of the (a) blissful or, (b) mortally threatened state of their romances, usually in repetitive, dramatically static text. Of course, Handel – like Vivaldi in his concertos and Bruckner in his symphonies – creates within those formulas wonders of subtly varied melody, texture and mood.
But when presented with performances as – what’s the word? – “polite” as are to be found here, the 12 duets quickly begin to sound interchangeable, which surely isn’t right. This is not to say that the cool shimmer of Joshua’s tone or Connolly’s rounded and beautifully weighted delivery aren’t very special indeed, or that these singers are disengaged from the basic character of each text. Just listen to the rapt close of ‘Io t’abbraccio’ from Rodelinda, or the softly erotic tinge in the Cesare-Cleopatra duet ‘Caro! Bella!’ from Giulio Cesare in Egitto, to hear them at their best. But what remains in the mind’s ear is their supple vocalism, the sensual dovetailing of their vibrato-less pianissimos, more than a sense of characters caught at heightened moments in drama.
Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by the emotional candor in this repertoire from singers like Cecilia Bartoli and Vesselina Kasarova, or, on Rosso, her recent disc of Italian baroque arias on DG, Patricia Petibon. We’ve certainly heard gutsier and more colorful approaches to Handel’s orchestral writing – by so many Italian and German ensembles not least – than what’s on offer here in Harry Bicket’s unfailingly poised and decorous – and, again, truly lovely – work with The English Concert. Taken in small doses, there are undeniable enchantments to be had on this CD. It just doesn’t tell the whole story.
