Est 1923

Handel Clori, Tirsi e Fileno

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel

Label: Harmonia Mundi

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 76

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: HMU90 7045

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, 'Cor fedele' George Frideric Handel, Composer
Drew Minter, Alto
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Jill Feldman, Soprano
Lorraine Hunt, Soprano
Nicholas McGegan, Conductor
Paul O'Dette, Lute
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, an extended cantata, is one of the products of Handel's months in Rome at the palace of the Marquis Ruspoli. He was 22 years old when he wrote this delectable piece, which tells a pastoral tale of love—Clori cannot make up her mind whether it is Tirsi or Fileno whom she truly loves, and keeps each of them expectant, but they come to know what is happening and all amicably agree to love, to suffer and to hope. It presents the young Handel at his freshest, most inventive, most alluring. There are six arias and a duet in the first part, a duet, six arias and a trio in the second, among them are several colourful pieces (including an aria with divided violas and recorders, without violins and a most appealing archlute solo) and a coupie of quite dramatic ones—the second duet, for example, a lively quarrel on Tirsi's discovery of Clori's faithlessness.
With three good singers the piece can hardly fail. I enjoyed above all the soprano Lorraine Hunt, whose full tone and natural warmth of expression, coupled with a sure and agile technique are ideal for this music. Jill Feldman, as Tirsi, has less depth of tone but her voice is aptly chosen for the higher of the two lovers, presumably a castrato part originally; she is a very rhythmic singer, again happily agile, as indeed she needs to be for the angry aria in the second part, ''Tra le fere'' which Nicholas McGegan takes at a cracking tempo (indeed the cellos sound a bit smudgy). And I relished too her playful touches of ornamentation and her subtle timing in her last aria, ''Un sospiretto''. Drew Minter isn't vocally quite as sharply defined as the sopranos but there is much that is very musical in his arias, which include both the ones I referred to above with fanciful instrumentation; the one with violas and recorders might have done even better at a marginally livelier tempo. I do not always like the staccato playing or the perfunctory endings that McGegan often favours, and here and there he might have let the music speak a shade more naturally. But this is a delightful disc that I can recommend with no real reservations.'

Handel Clori, Tirsi e Fileno

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, 'Cor fedele'

Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music. 

Stream on Presto Music | Buy from Presto Music

Gramophone Print

  • Print Edition

From £6.67 / month

Subscribe

Gramophone Digital Club

  • Digital Edition
  • Digital Archive
  • Reviews Database
  • Full website access

From £8.75 / month

Subscribe

                              

If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.