The Royal Handel of the title of this Alpha release does not refer to music for the king specifically but to the Royal Academy of Music. Founded in 1719, this opera organization gave Handel his first major post in Britain when he was appointed the music director. He traveled back to Italy, returning to London with the singers and instrumentalists who would bring his music to life over the next two decades. He had rivals whom he eclipsed, Giovanni Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti, and they are represented on the program; it's striking how Handelian their music sounds in this context, even if the Handel arias have greater breadth.

The programme chosen for this CD by the eminent early music specialist Rinaldo Alessandrini and performed by members of his hand-picked ensemble Concerto Italiano illustrate most of the forms that instrumental music adopted in the course of the seventeenth century. Amongst the composers featured are Giovanni Gabrieli, Frescobaldi, Zanetti, and Torelli, as well as lesser known figures of the period including Giovanni de Macque, Evaristo dall’Abaco, and Giovanni Bononcini.

Bononcini was a contemporary of Handel and for the few years he stayed in London the two men were - presumably - friendly rivals, as both had operas staged in turn (together with a few other composers) at the newly formed Royal Academy of Music. Bononcini was an exponent of the Arcadian style of Italian opera, Handel the high dramatic. It is very much that pastoral, Arcadian approach that is on display in the music on this CD.

Facce d’amore, ‘Faces of love’ follows Jakub Józef Orliński’s first solo album, Anima Sacra, which moved Gramophone magazine to announce that “This is a voice with a big future.” It brings a switch from the sacred to the personal and passionate. As the Polish-born, New York-trained countertenor says, the programme – which includes eight world premiere recordings – comprises “operatic arias that tell a story, showing a musical picture of a male lover in the baroque era – not only the positive side, like joyful or reciprocated love, but also anger or even madness.” Spanning some 85 years of the baroque period, the arias on Facce d’amore are by Handel, Cavalli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Bononcini, Conti, Hasse, Orlandini, Predieri and Matteis. Orliński is again partnered by the instrumentalists of Il Pomo d’Oro and their Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev.

Giovanni Bononcini composed the four-part oratorio La Conversione di Maddalena for the Habsburg emperor Leopold I in 1701. The musician from Modena, at the time at the apex of his European fame, had at his disposal the best forces of the Imperial Chapel: four singers (two sopranos, a contralto and a bass) of top rate and an instrumental ensemble, limited to strings but adequately consistent to articulate a concert dialectic with tutti-concertino, including soloist pages for the violin, the cello and the viola da gamba.

Handels Queens features some of the most exquisite pieces of music written by G.F. Handel and his contemporaries for the two finest singers of the eighteenth century, Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni. Often wrongfully framed as rivals, these dazzling new recordings with Mary Bevan and Lucy Crowe reveal the distinctive yet versatile talent of the Italian vocalists. Led by London Early Opera Director, Bridget Cunningham, Handels Queens serves an example of the groups dedication to imaginative programming and outstanding period performance, placing them at the forefront of baroque research.

Muzio Scevola ("Mucius Scaevola", HWV 13) is an opera seria in three acts about Gaius Mucius Scaevola. The Italian-language libretto was by Paolo Antonio Rolli, adapted from a text by Silvio Stampiglia. The music for the first act was composed by Filippo Amadei, the second act by Giovanni Bononcini, and the third by George Frideric Handel. Collaborations of groups of composers were common in the 18th century, though this is the only one done in London. Bononcini had written the music for two earlier treatments of this story on his own, works dating from 1695 and 1710. The opera's initial run of performances began at the King's Theatre in London on 15 April 1721. A part of the second act and the third part composed by Händel is documented on the production of new port Classic being here.

Amore Doppio, or to give it its full title, "La costanza non gradita nel doppio amor d'Aminta" is a serenata from 1694 for three voices by Giovanni Battista Bononcini. The piece involves a dialogue between the shepherd Aminta and his two loves, the nymphs Filki and Dori. Torn between desire for both and unable to choose, he finally ends up with neither.

Hitherto unpublished works by the very popular late seventeenth- / early eighteenth- century Italian composers Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Bononcini - that's what Soprano Amaryllis Dieltiens and her continuo partner Bart Naessens found in the Brussels collection of François-Joseph Fétis, who was a famous musicologist in the nineteenth century. With their ensemble Capriola di Gioia they present many of these pieces recorded here for the first time ever. The quality of the compositions is on a par with those already known - an irresistible pleasure for friends of secular Baroque cantatas! Soprano Amaryllis Dieltiens has been acclaimed particularly by connoisseurs of Baroque singing.

The history of opera is inseparably linked with the biographies of singers; audiences have always been fascinated by both musical prowess and behind the scenes goings-on. The battle for prestige and fame was heated and passionate in the Baroque era, with legendary rivalries. Fiercely competitive, Cuzzoni and Bordoni were among the most acclaimed divas of the age, resorting to fisticuffs on stage. Present-day prima donnas Genaux, Prina, Nesi and Basso now follow in the footsteps of their fervid predecessors, presenting on disc a tongue-in-cheek survey of standout arias for mezzo soprano and contralto.

"Lava", "La Diva", "Bel Canto" - these are the names of some of Simone Kermes' highly praised and successful albums. Their new album "Inferno e Paradiso" is thematically about "Heaven and Hell" about "Virtues and Deadly Sins" - musically illustrated with 14 titles from four centuries from baroque to rock, from Bach to Sting, from Vivaldi to Led Zeppelin.

A delightfull combination of well chosen program materials and expert recording techniques. Sabrina Frey and her companion musicians are top notch performers that serve a concert with well worked ensemble and group interplay.
I found the playing of Sabrina Frey most interesting. She commands her recorder with consumate skill. The works played (including 2 premières) are by Scarlatti, Sieber, Corelli, Valentini, Bononcini, and Marcello. Masters of the baroque form.

As the rather extensive booklet notes by countertenor Flavio Ferri-Benedetti state, the Italian secular cantata was a byproduct of the so-called focus of the early 18th-century intellectual circles on good poetry based generally on classical themes. The result was a veritable torrent of smaller chamber works meant to highlight this literary genre, which had the effect of establishing it as one of the preferred vocal formats of the period. The settings were generally for voice and continuo, but here one finds a selection of works that include a full four-part accompaniment of strings. This allows for a fuller texture, making them more akin to brief opera scenes.

The young Czech soprano Hana Blažíkóva is one of the most exciting voices in the baroque scene. Conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Masaaki Suzuki and Vaclav Luks frequently invite her for CD recordings, concerts and tours. She regularly appears at renowned festivals including Prague Spring, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Resonances in Vienna and the Early Music Days in Regensburg.

Soprano Ulrike Hofbauer and Ensemble La Ninfea capture the beauty and passion of these works by the still grossly underrated Giovanni Battista Bononcini (1670-1747) and his younger brother Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677-1726).