Handel - Organ Concertos, Op.4: Ottavio Dantone, Accademia Bizantina
eac-rip: flac-img, cue, log, complete scans. rar, 3% rec.
1 CD - 378MB
DECCA - 2009 - 478 1465
...I was not only blown away by the playing of Dantone and the Academia Bizantina, but the way that their playing in turn transforms these works into an event. Their playing is energetic, bold and crisp without being dry: textures are very clear but without sounding thin or losing any momentum. Handel's preeminence as an opera composer comes to the fore in these versions more than the others I've heard, giving us truly dramatic effects and a real sense of interaction between the players, with Dantone's organ center stage. More so than any other performance of Handel's keyboard works (by the above mentioned soloists as well as Paul Nicholson's disc of harpsichord sonatas), this disc crystallized the idea of Handel the virtuoso shredding away at the keyboard...
01. Concerto No.3 in G minor, HWV291 - I. Improvvisazione - Adagio 06:19
02. Concerto No.3 in G minor, HWV291 - II. Allegro 03:32
03. Concerto No.3 in G minor, HWV291 - III. Adagio 01:28
04. Concerto No.3 in G minor, HWV291 - IV. Allegro (Gavotte) 01:52
05. Concerto No.2 in B flat major, HWV290 - I. Sinfonia a tempo ordinario e staccato - Adagio 01:06
06. Concerto No.2 in B flat major, HWV290 - II. Allegro 05:41
07. Concerto No.2 in B flat major, HWV290 - III. Adagio e staccato 01:10
08. Concerto No.2 in B flat major, HWV290 - IV. Allegro ma non presto 03:41
09. Concerto No.1 in G minor, HWV289 - I. Larghetto e staccato - Adagio 05:20
10. Concerto No.1 in G minor, HWV289 - II. Allegro 06:14
11. Concerto No.1 in G minor, HWV289 - III. Adagio 01:33
12. Concerto No.1 in G minor, HWV289 - IV. Andante 03:57
13. Concerto No.5 in F major, HWV293 - I. Improvvisazione - Larghetto 03:17
14. Concerto No.5 in F major, HWV293 - II. Allegro 02:32
15. Concerto No.5 in F major, HWV293 - III. Alla siciliana 01:33
16. Concerto No.5 in F major, HWV293 - IV. Presto 02:14
17. Concerto No.6 in B flat major, HWV294 - I. Andante allegro 04:24
18. Concerto No.6 in B flat major, HWV294 - II. Larghetto - Adagio 04:19
19. Concerto No.6 in B flat major, HWV294 - III. Allegro moderato 02:44
20. Concerto No.4 in F major, HWV292 - I. Allegro 03:45
21. Concerto No.4 in F major, HWV292 - II. Andante 05:55
22. Concerto No.4 in F major, HWV292 - III. Adagio 01:17
23. Concerto No.4 in F major, HWV292 - III. Adagio 03:25
Accademia Bizantina
Ottavio Dantone, solo organ & conductor
Stefano Montanari, violin
Marco Frezzato, cello
For intimacy and brio, there’s Ottavio Dantone and the five musicians of Accademia Bizantina… Poised in the Siciliano of the E major concerto, merry in the Allegro of the A major, strikingly confident in the whirlwind Presto of the F minor and dazzling in the Italianate Adagio of the D minor, the ensemble is faultless” The Independent on Bach Harpsichord Concertos. This is the second disc in the new L’Oiseau Lyre partnership with Accademia Bizantina and Ottavio Dantone; it promises to be a stunning contribution to commemorate the Handel celebrations in 2009.
Full of characteristic melodies and sonorous harmonies, Handel’s organ concertos op. 4 were composed in 1735-36, when Handel was in his prime. It is the first time the Accademia Bizantina and Ottavio Dantone have recorded these famous Baroque works.
As a point of difference, in two of the six concertos, Dantone also performs a solo prelude (improvisation) before the beginning of the concerto, as Handel did in performances. Recorded in Halle, Handel’s birth place, in the Sankt Bartholomäus Church, the church where many members of the Handel family got married.
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