Search - George Frideric Handel, Gérard Lesne, Il Seminario musicale :: Handel - Lucrezia (Cantatas for solo countertenor) / Il Seminario musicale · Lesne

Sweet sounding trills

Alejandra Vernon | Long Beach, California | 07/10/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Most of this lovely music was written by a youthful Handel, when he lived in Rome in the first decade of the 18th century. The Pope had banned opera, so composers of that time wrote oratorios and cantatas instead, and as stated in the liner notes, the four cantatas on this CD were composed for the "Roman nobility who were deprived of opera".
The music has a clarity and simplicity to it, and considering this is Handel, whose music I think of as usually richly melodic, rather light in that aspect. There are no "catchy tunes" in these pieces, but nonetheless, they are still a delight.
In between the cantatas is an instrumental, the Sonata Opus 5, which was a compilation of pieces already written at the time, mostly between the years 1730-1735, and was published in 1739.Countertenor Gerard Lesne, who prefers to be called a contralto, started his career singing jazz and rock, but in his early 20's joined the Clemencic Consort, and has been singing music from the middle ages and baroque ever since. In 1985 he started Il Seminario Musicale, a group that uses historical instruments, and with them has been performing, recording, and garnering many awards.
His voice in incredibly agile, handling the many trills and fioriture with ease, and has a smooth and beautiful tone. Though this is not a CD of major Handel works, it will be enjoyed by anyone who is interested in baroque music played by traditional instruments, and the vocal mastery of Mr. Lesne. Total time is 70:03."