Handel - Acis and Galatea The Sixteen & Harry Christophers

• George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759): Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I:
• 1 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Sinfonia 03:20
• 2 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: O, The Pleasure Of The Plains! (Chorus) 05:40
• 3 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Ye Verdant Plains (Galatea) 00:44
• 4 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Hush, Ye Pretty Warbling Quire! (Galatea) 06:11
• 5 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Where Shall I Seek The Charming Fair? (Acis) 03:31
• 6 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Stay, Shepherd, Stay! - Shepherd, What Art Thou Pursuing? (Damon) 04:41
• 7 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Lo, Here My Love - Love In Her Eyes Sits Playing (Acis) 06:20
• 8 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Oh, Didst Thou Know The Pains - As When The Dove (Galatea) 05:57
• 9 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act I: Happy We! (Galatea, Acis) 02:51
• Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II:
• 10 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Wretched Lovers! (Chorus) 04:05
• 11 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: I Rage — I Melt — I Burn! (Polyphemus) 01:13
• 12 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: O Ruddier Than The Cherry (Polyphemus) 03:02
• 13 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Whither, Fairest (Polyphemus, Galatea) 01:02
• 14 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Cease To Beauty To Be Suing (Polyphemus) 05:18
• 15 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Would You Gain The Tender Creature (Coridon) 04:57
• 16 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: His Hideous Love - Love Sounds Th'alarm (Acis) 04:51
• 17 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Consider, Fond Shepherd (Damon) 06:34
• 18 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Cease, Oh Cease (Galatea) 00:25
• 19 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: The Flocks Shall Leave The Mountains (Galatea, Acis, Polyphemus) 02:18
• 20 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Help, Galatea! (Acis) 01:16
• 21 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Mourn, All Ye Muses! (Chorus) 03:11
• 22 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Must I My Acis Still Bemoan - 'Tis Done! (Galatea, Chorus) 04:18
• 23 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Heart, The Seat Of Soft Delight (Galatea) 03:48
• 24 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a, Act II: Galatea, Dry Thy Tears (Chorus) 03:11
• Total Runtime 01:28:44

Info for Handel - Acis and Galatea

Intimer Charme: Wenn auch der Reichtum von James Brydges, Earl of Carnavon und First Duke of Chandos auf recht zweifelhafte Weise zustande kam, so hat er sich als Mäzen Händels zumindest ein ehrenvolles musikhistorisches Verdienst erworben. So schrieb Händel für ihn u. a. die bis heute beliebte Masque Acis and Galatea, ein kleines Meisterwerk, das sich durch eine äußerst lebendige und differenzierte Charakterisierung der mythologischen Figuren auszeichnet. Für seine Einspielung mit The Sixteen hat sich Harry Christophers eingehend mit den Aufführungsbedingungen der Premiere von 1718 beschäftigt und unterstreicht so den intimen Charme des bezaubernden Stückes.

Jeremy Budd, Tenor (Acis)
Grace Davidson, Sopran (Galatea)
Mark Dobell, Tenor (Damon)
Simon Berridge, Tenor (Coridon)
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, Dirigent

Jeremy Budd
Born in Hertfordshire, Jeremy started out as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral in London before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Since finishing his studies he has been much in demand on the concert platform predominantly for his Baroque repertoire. Jeremy has worked with many of the foremost conductors in this field including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Harry Christophers, Paul McCreesh, John Butt, Bernard Labadie and Jeffrey Skidmore.

Notable performances have included a tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, an abridged performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in collaboration with Streetwise Opera and The Sixteen, the Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion at Symphony Hall with Jeffrey Skidmore and Ex Cathedra, Monteverdi’s Madrigals with Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo in Saffron Hall, Purcell’s King Arthur with Paul McCreesh and also a programme of Purcell Odes in the Wigmore Hall. Recently Jeremy has also performed Gibbons’ Verse Anthems with Fretwork and toured Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Masaaki Suzuki and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Grace Davidson
is an English soprano who specialises in the performance and recording of Baroque music. She won the Early Music Prize while studying singing at the Royal Academy of Music. Since then, she has worked with leading Baroque ensembles of our day, singing under the batons of Sir John Eliot Gardner, Paul McCreesh, Philippe Herreweghe and Harry Christophers. Her discography includes a decade of CDs with The Sixteen, many of which feature her as soloist and include Handel’s Jephtha (as Angel) and Dixit Dominus, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and ‘Pianto della Madonna’ from the Selva morale e spirituale and Bach’s Lutheran Masses. She has also recorded Fauré’s Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra on the LSO Label and her Pie Jesu was described as ‘matchless’ by Richard Morrison on BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library.

Mark Dobell
Originally from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Mark Dobell was a choral scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, where he read Classics. He later studied as a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, and was awarded the Clifton Prize for the best final recital.

Mark has worked as a soloist all over the world with renowned conductors including Harry Christophers, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington and Sir James MacMillan. His extensive concert and oratorio repertoire includes many of the major works of Handel, Bach and Mozart, as well as pieces by composers as varied as Monteverdi, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Britten, Jonathan Dove and Karl Jenkins.

Simon Berridge
was born in Hertfordshire and went on to pursue his music studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. He subsequently studied voice as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music.

Simon has worked with many of the leading British ensembles including The Sixteen. He has also worked with several European ensembles including Collegium Vocale of Gent and Les Arts Florissants.

His solo performances have included Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival, Bach’s Magnificat in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Handel’s Israel in Egypt in the Covent Garden Festival with The Sixteen, Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the London Handel Festival and the St John Passion (Evangelist and arias) performed live on Spanish Radio in the National Auditorium.

Simon’s operatic roles have included ‘Sandy’ in The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, ‘The Madwoman’ in Curlew River by Benjamin Britten, and the ‘Auctioneer’ in The Rake’s Progress.

Harry Christophers
stands among today’s great champions of choral music. In partnership with The Sixteen, the ensemble he founded almost 40 years ago, he has set benchmark standards for the performance of everything from late medieval polyphony to important new works by contemporary composers. His international influence is supported by more than 150 recordings and has been enhanced by his work as Artistic Director of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and as guest conductor worldwide.

The Sixteen’s soundworld, rich in tonal variety and expressive nuance, reflects Christophers’ determination to create a vibrant choral instrument from the blend of adult professional singers. Under his leadership The Sixteen has established its annual Choral Pilgrimage to cathedrals, churches and other UK venues, created the Sacred Music series for BBC television, and developed an acclaimed period-instrument orchestra. Highlights of their recent work include an Artist Residency at Wigmore Hall, a large-scale tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Stabat mater; their future projects, meanwhile, comprise a new series devoted to Purcell and an ongoing survey of Handel’s dramatic oratorios.

Harry has served as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society since 2008. He was also appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Granada Orchestra in 2008 and has worked as guest conductor with, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie. Christophers’ extensive commitment to opera has embraced productions for English National Opera and Lisbon Opera and work with the Granada, Buxton and Grange Park festivals. He was appointed a CBE in the Queen’s 2012 Birthday Honours for his services to music. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has Honorary Doctorates in Music from the Universities of Leicester, Canterbury Christ Church and Northumbria.

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