Est 1923

Cantata d'Amore Italian Love Cantatas

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel, (Pietro) Alessandro (Gaspare) Scarlatti, Antonio Caldara

Label: Capriccio

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 72

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 10 703

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Venne voglia ad amore George Frideric Handel, Composer
Axel Köhler, Alto
Balázs Máté, Cello
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Raphael Alpermann, Harpsichord
Fra pensieri quel pensiero George Frideric Handel, Composer
Axel Köhler, Alto
Balázs Máté, Cello
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Raphael Alpermann, Harpsichord
Mi, palpita il cor George Frideric Handel, Composer
Axel Köhler, Alto
Balázs Máté, Cello
Christoph Huntgeburth, Flute
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Raphael Alpermann, Harpsichord
Sonatas for Flute and Continuo, Movement: B minor, HWV367b (Op.1:9) George Frideric Handel, Composer
Balázs Máté, Cello
Christoph Huntgeburth, Flute
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Raphael Alpermann, Harpsichord
(L')Armi crudeli e fiere (Pietro) Alessandro (Gaspare) Scarlatti, Composer
(Pietro) Alessandro (Gaspare) Scarlatti, Composer
Axel Köhler, Alto
Balázs Máté, Cello
Raphael Alpermann, Harpsichord
Vicino a un rivoletto Antonio Caldara, Composer
Anne Schumann, Violin
Antonio Caldara, Composer
Axel Köhler, Alto
Balázs Máté, Cello
Raphael Alpermann, Harpsichord
This is not Axel Kohler’s first solo recital disc, but it is the first to have come my way, and very welcome it is too. The German countertenor has already impressed me on a couple of occasions (most recently in Telemann’s Donner-Ode, 11/95), and his dark, mellifluous, soundly supported voice is well capable of imparting an appropriately fruity sense of longing to this languorous collection of Italian love cantatas. Notwithstanding the presence of so much Handel, the most substantial work here is Antonio Caldara’s Vicino a un rivoletto, a noble, movingly sustained piece whose two arias last more than ten minutes each and feature obbligato parts for violin and cello respectively. These are played with a tendency to sour intonation, it must be said, but they are nevertheless sensitively done and with considerable sympathy for the voice part.
There is an obbligato part, this time for flute, in Handel’s fine Mi, palpita il cor, and the flute also provides the disc’s only instrumental interlude in the form of a Handel sonata. Christoph Huntgeburth plays well enough, though I thought him just a little stiff compared to the others (his tone is also curiously hard and modern-sounding).
Throughout, the continuo section is alert and responsive to Kohler’s intelligent interpretative demands, and the end result is that these are performances of pleasing musicality. Be warned, however, that although there are insert-notes in English, the texts of the cantatas themselves appear only in Italian and German. There are also some clumsy edits at the beginning of the Scarlatti, one of which I take to be responsible for a highly implausible surge in volume 18 seconds in.'

Cantata d'Amore Italian Love Cantatas

Venne voglia ad amore

Fra pensieri quel pensiero

Mi, palpita il cor

Sonatas for Flute and Continuo, Movement: B minor, HWV367b (Op.1:9)

(L')Armi crudeli e fiere

Vicino a un rivoletto

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