Curiously, the music on this disc is presented in reverse chronological order (Mozart, Gluck, Handel). Any slight reservations that one might feel at the beginning or in the middle are emphatically swept away when it comes to the end, for David Daniels is a magnificent interpreter of Handel and sings these arias with a freedom, a passion and a beauty of tone that he does not quite achieve in the later music. The dramatic recitative 'Inumano fratel', from Tolomeo, is declaimed with great force; Daniels uses the words (especially the consonants) as well as the notes to produce a performance of due rhetorical power, and both here and in the lamenting aria that follows his tone is ringing and finely focused. In the first of the Partenope arias the detail of Handel's complex line is etched with exemplary clarity; the second, another song of despair (as the hero Arsace thinks himself abandoned by his beloved), is done softly, almost romantically (in the best sense), with much expressive intensity; and the third is a tour de force, an angry piece full of rapid semiquavers thrown off with vitality and precision. This is model Handel singing, at one with the idiom and its expressive language. Much of the continuo accompaniment is assigned, happily, to a lute.
Gluck's 'Che faro' is finely sung, too, full and warm in tone, and with some very sweet legato, but I did find it a shade objective and sober for a character allegedly in desperation. The wonderment of 'Che puro ciel!' is, however, better caught, by both Daniels and the orchestra. Of the Mozart pieces, the Ascanio in Alba aria is done with due vigour. In the concert aria I found myself wishing for a rather sharper attack than a countertenor can readily provide, but something of the excitement of this piece is certainly caught. The two arias for Farnace from Mitridate that begin the disc - I have been working backwards - are cleanly sung, with some happy touches of phrasing (particularly at the little ornamental figures in 'Venga pur', done with a nice hint of wit), delicate, warm tone and sensible, effective cadenzas, but I have to say that the total result does seem slightly pallid for Mozart. But this is in sum a very enjoyable recital, of appealing music, done by one of the most distinguished countertenors around, and it can be firmly commended to anyone who admires fine countertenor singing.
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