Anthony Lewis, New Symphony Orchestra - George Frideric Handel: Semele (2018)
Anthony Lewis, New Symphony Orchestra - George Frideric Handel: Semele (2018)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 357 Mb | Total time: 137:25 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Eloquence | 482 5055 | Recorded: 1956
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 357 Mb | Total time: 137:25 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Eloquence | 482 5055 | Recorded: 1956
Jennifer Vyvyan is the star of Handel’s Semele in an early recording of the opera conducted by Anthony Lewis and recorded for L’Oiseau-Lyre in 1956; this pioneering Handel recording of the 1950s in a new digital remastering, released on Decca CD for the first time.
The scholar and conductor Anthony Lewis was one of the early luminaries of the L’Oiseau Lyre label which became, over time, the early-music imprint of Decca. Drawing on his experience of conducting and staging Baroque opera both at the Barber Institute in Birmingham, and with the English Opera Group in London, he made recordings which have become milestones in the discography of Purcell and Handel.
The Eloquence release of Lewis directing Purcell’s masque The Fairy Queen (ELQ4827449) in 1957 was given an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone (December 2017), where it was welcomed as ‘a long overdue reissue’: ‘the first time his ground-breaking recording has been available in modern formats … The shifting moods of comedy, tragedy, charm and sense of spectacle are transparent throughout Lewis’s congenial performance.’ The same qualities infuse Semele.
The cast is led by one of Britten’s favourite singers and a company member of the English Opera Group, Jennifer Vyvyan, whose pellucid soprano and exemplary technique were celebrated in 2017 by a series of Eloquence reissues including ‘Songs of England’ (482 5045), ‘Mr. Bach at Vauxhall Gardens’ (ELQ4825387) and scenes and arias by Haydn and Mozart (ELQ4825049).
Listeners who have grown up with period-instrument recordings may find themselves surprised and, like Gramophone’s first reviewer, ‘delighted’ by the sure sense of Handelian style exhibited by both singers and players, guided as they are by the sure and lively hand of Lewis. Ultimately, though, this is Vyvyan’s recording, from the haunting unease she brings to her opening ‘O Jove, in pity teach me’, with its wide, dissonant leaps, to Semele’s sublime death scene, to which Vyvyan brings that directness and emotional truth which was a hallmark of all that she sang.
‘Miss Vyvyan […] warms up and it must be said that she negotiates the florid passages of the mirror aria [‘Myself I shall adore’] with almost uncanny lack of labour, which sounds very nice. Her tone is as limpid and the line as steady as a “wonderboy” cathedral treble and all in all her performance grows in stature as it proceeds and in human warmth too.’ - Gramophone, August 1955
‘Competent singing well stylized without importunity (and in places transcending competence), a direction in general spirited, and a union of effort in a lofty cause create a feeling of authority not to be questioned.’ - High Fidelity, May 1956
Performer:
Jupiter - William Herbert (tenor)
Cadmus - George Pragnell (bass)
Semele - Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)
Athamas - John Whitworth (countertenor)
Ino - Helen Watts (contralto)
Somnus - George James (bass)
Apollo - Robert Ellis (tenor)
Juno - Anna Pollack (contralto)
Iris - Brenda Griffith (soprano)
Saint Anthony Singers
New Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Anthony Lewis
Tracklist:
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Semele, HWV 58
CD1:
Act I
01. Overture
02. Behold! auspicious flashes arise
03. Daughter, obey
04. Ah! me! - O Jove!
05. See she blushing turns her eyes
06. Why dost thou untimely grieve?
07. Avert these omens
08. Again auspicious flashes rise
09. Cease your vows
10. Ah, wretched Prince
11. See! Jove's priests
12. Hail Cadmus!
13. Endless pleasure…
Act II
14. Overture
15. Awake, Saturnia
16. Hence, Iris, hence away
17. Oh sleep, why dost thou leave me?
18. Let me not another moment
19. Lay your doubts and fears aside
20. With fond desiring
21. Ah me! why sighs my Semele!
22. Too well I read her meaning
23. Now Love that everlasting boy invites
24. By my command
25. Where'er you walk
CD2:
01. Dear Sister
02. But hark! The Heavenly Sphere
03. Prepare then, ye immortal choir
04. Bless the glad earth
Act II
05. Overture
06. Somnus, awake
07. Leave me, loathsome light
08. Dull God
09. More sweet is that name
10. My will obey
11. Thus shap'd like Ino
12. Myself I shall adore
13. Thus let my thanks be pay'd
14. Rich odours fill the fragrant air
15. Come to my arms
16. I ever am granting
17. Speak what you desire
18. Ah, take heed
19. No, no, I'll take no less
20. Ah, whither is she gone?
21. Ah me, too late I now repent
22. Oh, terror and astonishment
23. Sinfonia: Apollo come
24. Happy shall we be
Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
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William Herbert, George Prangnell, Jennifer Vyvyan, John Whitworth, Helen Watts, George James, Robert Ellis, Anna Pollak, Brend / Semele (Disc 1)
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==== Log checksum CA663C013074F6C5DC7D5D0525269D7A65383FA531C6816476162C94894121E6 ====
Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
EAC extraction logfile from 12. June 2020, 0:55
William Herbert, George Prangnell, Jennifer Vyvyan, John Whitworth, Helen Watts, George James, Robert Ellis, Anna Pollak, Brend / Semele (Disc 2)
Used drive : ATAPI iHAS124 F Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
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==== Log checksum AFB1C825039B804AA8EC2FACC5962F20F8E81A6869CBBCCD75EEE6F84B15F2A2 ====
Anthony Lewis, New Symphony Orchestra - George Frideric Handel: Semele (2018)
Thanks to the original releaser