Christina Pluhar & L’Arpeggiata – Handel Goes Wild (2017) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

“Handel goes wild”, that’s putting it mildly: in Christina Pluhar’s album, he goes wild to quite some extremes! Indeed the Austrian harpist, theorbist, and lute player picked a handful of Handel’s (and a bit of Vivaldi’s) arias, concerto movements and overtures, and put them not only in the hands of baroque musicians of the L’Arpeggiata Ensemble, but also of half a dozen jazz musicians of various styles. The result is a reinterpretation, in turn gypsy, Klezmer, salsa, New Orleans jazz, lounge, blues and so on, that everyone can either love or hate depending on their own degree of adaptability. Undeniably using a clarinet and piano in this language can be confusing for some… But Pluhar’s approach is simple: Handel himself reused, reshaped, tinkered, disguised, ransacked and rewrote, using both the works of other composers and his own, always with his own personal approach and the most immediate style of his time. So why not do the same nowadays?! In any case, this mixture of baroque instruments and voices with 20th-century instruments and genres is breathtaking. The artists invited include clarinettist Gianluigi Trovesi, pianist Francesco Turrisi and bass player Boris Schmidt in the field of jazz, but also countertenor Valer Barna-Sabadus and soprano Nuria Rial.

Tracklist

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 – 1759)
1 Sinfonia (From Alcina, HWV 34) [Arr. Pluhar] 05:01
2 “Venti, turbini” (From Rinaldo, HWV 7b) [Arr. Pluhar] 05:40
3 “O sleep, why dost thou leave me” (From Semele, HWV 58) [Arr. Pluhar] 03:07

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741)
4 Improvisation on Concerto for Strings in G Minor, RV 157: I. Allegro (Arr. Pluhar) 04:14

Georg Friedrich Händel
5 “Cara sposa” (From Rinaldo, HWV 7b) 09:30
6 Semele, “Where’er you walk” (From Semele, HWV 58) [Arr. Pluhar] 03:37
7 Sinfonia, “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” (From Solomon, HWV 67) [Arr. Pluhar] 04:09
8 “Pena tiranna” (From Amadigi di Gaula, HWV 11) [Arr. Pluhar] 06:36
9 “Piangerò la sorte mia” (From Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17) [Arr. Pluhar] 05:37

Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger (1580 – 1651)
10 Canario (Arr. Pluhar) 04:54

Georg Friedrich Händel
11 “Verdi prati” (From Alcina, HWV 34) [Arr. Pluhar] 03:45
12 “Tu del Ciel ministro eletto” (From Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità, HWV 46b) [Arr. Pluhar] 03:48
13 “Mi lusinga il dolce affetto” (From Alcina, HWV 34) 06:38
14 Improvisation on “Lascia ch’io pianga” (From Rinaldo, HWV 7) [Arr. Duran & Turrisi] 03:48
15 “Ombra mai fu” (From Serse, HWV 40) [Arr. Pluhar] 05:02

Personnel
Céline Scheen, soprano
Valer Sabadus, counter-tenor
Gianluigi Trovesi, clarinet
L’Arpeggiata
Christina Pluhar, theorbe & direction

Download:

mqs.link_ChristinaPluharLArpeggiataHandelGesWild20172496Qbuz.part1.rar
mqs.link_ChristinaPluharLArpeggiataHandelGesWild20172496Qbuz.part2.rar