Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) releases the penultimate volume of an acclaimed project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra. This volume includes Mozart’s Concerto No. 7 for Three Pianos and Orchestra, performed here uniquely on three different types of keyboard instruments: by Robert Levin (tangent piano), Ya-Fei Chuang (fortepiano) and Laurence Cummings (harpsichord). It follows the release of the same concerto in Mozart’s own arrangement for two keyboards (Vol. 11) and is joined on this album by two other Piano Concertos composed in Salzburg in the early months of 1776.

The four Coronation Anthems, written for the coronation of King George II in 1727, were Handel’s first commission as a naturalised British citizen. Handel always matched his music to the occasion and the building for which it was written, and no occasion could be grander than a coronation. The music of these ceremonial anthems is quite straightforward, the real joy of these pieces stemming from the development of layer upon layer of texture through which Handel shows off his musical pyrotechnics. Zadok the Priest is in particular practically unbeaten in dramatic impact with its initial intensity building towards the ecstasy of the climactic choral entry.

On occasion of the 300th anniversary of the first performance of Handel’s Brockes-Passion in Hamburg (4 April 1719), Accent present a 2017 live performance at the Göttingen Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings conducting the Festivalorchestra Göttingen, the NDR Chor and an excellent cast of singers such as the Dutch soprano Johannette Zomer and the young German tenor Sebastian Kohlhepp (as Evangelist). Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ passion text is one of the most frequently set in the history of music and was the only German text used by George Frideric Handel as the basis for a large-scale sacred composition. The original score was lost but the surviving version, which was hand-copied by Johann Sebastian Bach, makes it possible for us to hear this 1719 oratorio today.

Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) continues an acclaimed project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra, with this eleventh volume of the series. Renowned pianists Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang join Laurence Cummings and AAM to present Mozart’s Concertos Nos. 7 and 10, the former of which is recorded here in Mozart’s own arrangement for two pianos. Also included is the Concerto Movement for Piano, Violin, and Orchestra, completed by Robert Levin.

One of the satisfying approaches to programming Handel arias is to get under the skin of a few chosen characters or singers. All the arias here were composed for the mezzo-soprano Durastanti or the castrato Carestini. Two less familiar arias from Ariodante put the popular 'Scherza infida' and 'Dopo notte' into a finer sort of context than usual for such programmes.

With a voice described as one of the most beautiful Britain has seen in a generation (International Record Review), Elizabeth Watts has established herself among the brightest talents performing today. In this selection of rarely heard Alessandro Scarlatti arias from his cantatas, oratorios and operas, she is joined by the acclaimed period instrument ensemble The English Concert led by Laurence Cummings.

The oratorio is based on the Biblical stories of Joshua, who led the Israelites as they took possession of the ‘promised land’ of Canaan and attacked Jericho. Interwoven in the story of military conquest is the love story between the young Israelite captain Othniel and Calab’s daughter Achsah. In the final scene, the Israelites triumph and praise Joshua, and Othniel is proclaimed worthy of marrying Achsah.

Susanna comes late in the sequence of Handel’s oratorios but in some ways the composer looks back in it to his experience of Italian opera. It largely comprises a sequence of arias (many in the repeated, da capo form of opera seria) as it relates the story from the Biblical Apocrypha of Susanna who is falsely accused of adultery and eventually vindicated through the clever judicial manoeuvrings of the young prophet Daniel.

The new Messiah! Or so ran the breathless March, 2001 headlines trumpeting the rediscovery of Handel’s Gloria. Well, not quite. The 16-minute, seven-movement work, written when the composer was a callow 22, certainly doesn’t rank among his great works–it’s no Messiah–nor was it exactly altogether lost. It was first mentioned in print in 1983, though the three extant copies’ attribution was then dismissed as inauthentic. (The liner notes offer a short chronicle of the scholastic fury surrounding the piece.)

‘Hermann of the Cherusci’ and the Varus Battle found their way into the German founding myth a long time ago. Arminius, whose Teutons roundly defeated three of Varus’ legions, was already described as the ‘Liberator of Germania’ by Tacitus. In Handel’s Arminio, the liberation battle is only the background against which the characters come to terms with themes like honour, duty, obedience, love and freedom. Arminio premiered in the Covent Garden Theatre on January 12, 1737 but disappeared from the London stage after only six performances.

Judas Maccabäus is one of Handel’s most impressive and successful works. More than 50 performances took place in Handel’s lifetime. The integration of the libretto with the conflict between the Scottish Jacobites under the leadership of the catholic Stuart pretender Charles Edward and the royalist government troops played a crucial role in this. The original libretto tells the story of the struggle of the Jews against the rule of the Seleucids. Handel portrays the plot with colourful arias, touching laments and exultant triumph choruses.

The king is dead! Berengario and Matilde are determined to seize power over Italy at all costs. To this end, they intend their son Idelberto to marry the newly widowed Adelaide. But the proud monarch has long since summoned Lotario, the noble German king, to her aid. The struggle for power begins… The Göttingen Handel Festival continues its close collaboration with the Accent label, which has already yielded great recordings of works like Siroé, Faramondo, Joshua, Susanna or Agrippina. The addition to the series of this May 2017 recording of Lotario is without doubt a very welcome one for all Handel lovers.

Laurence Cummings leads the FestspielOrchester Gottingen and a cast of superb soloists in a performance of Handel's opera Faramondo. The work was first performed in London in 1738. There were only eight performances and it was never revived during the composer's lifetime. The first modern production was in Halle in 1976, and several recordings have been made. Its convoluted plot is a story of revenge, intrigues, love and jealousy, backed by some of Handel's most sublime music.

Betrayal, revenge, inheritance conflicts and forbidden love at the Persian court: in 1728 this explosive mixture inspired Handel to compose the successful opera 'Siroe, Re di Persia', one of his last compositions for the Royal Academy of Music at the King’s Theatre. Handel based his work on the libretto by the famous poet Pietro Metastasio. In its first season 'Siroe' was performed on 18 successive evenings, but was never subsequently revived in Handel’s lifetime.

One of the most spectacular heroes of the Old Testament is Joshua, the successor to Moses, who caused the walls of Jericho to tumble down with that city's famous trombones. The Israelites' army conquered the promised land of Canaan under his leadership. This biblical story supplies the background to Handel's oratorio 'Joshua', premiered in 1748; it was supplemented by a love story involving the young captain, Othniel and Achsah, the daughter of an elder, by the presumed librettist, Thomas Morell. Thus the composer was able to include the entire spectrum of his musical expressivity: the magnificence of tympani and trumpets, joyful and jubilant choruses, virtuoso arias and moving love duets.