Vox Orchester, Lorenzo Ghirlanda – Purcell & Locke: Orchestral Works (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:59 minutes | 1,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi
Founded in 2015 by Swiss conductor and trombonist Lorenzo Ghirlanda, the German-based Vox Orchester is made up of around twenty young professional musicians from ten different countries, who have all grown up learning instrumental techniques and modes of playing characteristics of baroque music. Lorenzo Ghirlanda’s credo is that listening – and playing – ancient music is like discovering “new music”, because the young musicians’ fervour safeguards them from any form of routine or preconception. And it is precisely in this spirit that the Vox Orchester’s musicians author this album dedicated to Purcell and Locke’s music written for Shakespeare’s plays. While his texts have long conquered the entire planet, English music has often remained confined within the island’s borders. Recorded in 2018 in the auditorium of Radiotelevisione svizzera in Lugano, this music is the work of two English composers, prior to Handel’s arrival in London. Ghirlanda and his musicians’ interpretation aims to highlight the international nature of baroque music at that time, and more precisely the Italian influence Monteverdi, and later Corelli, had on European productions. – François Hudry
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Vox Orchester – Händel: Alexander’s Feast or The Power of Music (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:26:28 minutes | 2,76 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi
Among the most successful works written by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) in London is his ode “Alexander’s Feast or The Power of Music”. Handel composed this piece as an homage to Saint Cecilia. At its premiere in 1736, 1300 listeners, including the royal family, celebrated Handel’s contrasting, melancholic as well as exciting piece for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra. The Vox Orchester & Chor, that specializes in historical performance practice, presents the complete recording of Handel’s masterpiece under the direction of Lorenzo Ghirlanda. With this album, the young, international cast of the Vox Orchester continues its preoccupation with English Baroque music after its celebrated recording of works by Henry Purcell and Matthew Locke. The solo parts are sung by excellent singers: Marie Sophie Pollak (soprano), Tobias Hunger (tenor) and Krešimir Stražanac (bass baritone). Inspired by the English choral tradition, the Alexander Festival tells the story of the Alexander the Great, who is moved to great deeds by the power of music: The work describes a festival that Alexander the Great gave together with his lover Thaïs in the conquered city of Persepolis. The musician Timotheus sings and plays his lyre, evoking various moods in Alexander, until he is finally inspired to burn down the city.
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