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Classical Clip of the Month Archive: /

Classical Clip of the Month for January 2014
(clickable links in the text are in bold)

  IMG: click picture to buy this CD
click picture to buy this CD


G. F. Handel

Italian Duets

Gillian Fisher, soprano
James Bowman, countertenor
The King's Consort

   

What better way to start the new year than with a light, festive Handel work? Messiah – a masterpiece which loses nothing despite, rightly or wrongly, being omnipresence this time of year, especially that little chorus number from the end of Part II – would seem to be an ideal choice. But rather than give you a sample from that warhorse, I offer a different work from the period: the Italian Duets. (Some of the duets were decades old, but the one sampled here dates from 1741, the same year as Messiah.) Perhaps no other composer in history liberally borrowed from himself (and, frankly, from many, many others) more than Handel. Viewed as recycling (in re himself), a compliment, hommage, or outright plagiarism (in re others), Handel certainly seemed to feel these borrowings were hardly verboten. The duet sampled is a classic example. The text may be hardly light and festive ("No, I do not want to trust you / blind Love, cruel Beauty"), but this duet was the basis of several Messiah pieces. I sample the opening of the duet, the basis of "For Unto Us a Child is Born," of course.


       

Launch date: 21 November 2001.
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