Handel Coronation Anthems; Foundling Hospital Anthem
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel
Label: Argo
Magazine Review Date: 2/1995
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 440 946-4ZH
![](https://reviews.azureedge.net/gramophone/gramophone-review-general-image.jpg)
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Coronation Anthems |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
(The) Brandenburg Consort David Hill, Conductor George Frideric Handel, Composer Winchester Cathedral Choir |
Blessed are they that considereth the poor |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
(The) Brandenburg Consort Charles Brett, Alto David Hill, Conductor George Frideric Handel, Composer Gillian Fisher, Soprano John Elwes, Tenor Libby Crabtree, Soprano Winchester Cathedral Choir |
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel
Label: Argo
Magazine Review Date: 2/1995
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 440 946-2ZH
![](https://reviews.azureedge.net/gramophone/gramophone-review-general-image.jpg)
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Coronation Anthems |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
(The) Brandenburg Consort David Hill, Conductor George Frideric Handel, Composer Winchester Cathedral Choir |
Blessed are they that considereth the poor |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
(The) Brandenburg Consort Charles Brett, Alto David Hill, Conductor George Frideric Handel, Composer Gillian Fisher, Soprano John Elwes, Tenor Libby Crabtree, Soprano Winchester Cathedral Choir |
Author: Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
The opening of Zadok the priest is an extraordinary dramatic 'coup' by anyone's standards and one which David Hill finds enough resource to bring to life in an exciting manner though without driving the music towards the coarse and overblown. The opening arpeggios are a bit of a non-event, disappointingly short of that smouldering quality which can set the scene so expectantly. Elsewhere the orchestra, The Brandenburg Consort, are the designer baroque group par excellence for this repertoire; everything always sounds fresh, buoyant and agreeably shaped, if a touch chaste.
Indeed, politesse is what distinguishes this recording from Simon Preston's well-established performances from 1983 with the Choir of Westminster Abbey, which are distinctly more energetic and fiery. Little of Preston's sizzling dynamism is on offer here, though if Hill and his Winchester choir are tame in this respect, they are certainly more forthcoming in matters of articulation and phrasing whose natural graciousness gives the majority of My heart is inditing a shape both fitting and persuasive (though the opening movement shows that not all voices are of equal merit). In the end, as much as I admire Hill's genial and imaginatively musical readings, there is not, to my mind, enough of the gripping and unabashed ostentation in these works to counterbalance his lyrical instincts. The Foundling Hospital Anthem Blessed are they that considereth the poor, requires less of the former which is perhaps why it forms the most satisfying performance on the disc; the choir sing most beautifully throughout and of the soloists, John Elwes is particularly sensitive to Handel's setting of charitable texts.'
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