Ah! mio cor: Handel arias

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…Magdalena Kožená beguiles and enchants throughout this captivating collection. The Czech mezzo's mature voice combines radiant purity with burnished intensity and…she negotiates Handel's quick-fire... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2007, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 15th Oct 2007
Catalogue No: 4776547
Label: DG Archiv
Length: 76 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

November 2007

Choral & Song Choice
Record Review

December 2007

Critics Disc of the Year

Handel: Alcina, HWV 34 / Act II

Work length10:48

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

Ah, mio cor

Track length10:48

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Hercules, HWV 60 / Act III

Work length6:30

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

Recit. acc: "Where Shall I Fly?"

Track length6:30

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Agrippina, HWV 6 / Act II

Work length7:30

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

Pensieri, voi mi tormentate!

Track length7:30

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto HWV 17 / Atto primo

Work length6:01

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

No. 12 Aria "Cara speme, questo core tu cominci"

Track length6:01

$0.85

$1.15

Excerpt, Handel: Joshua, HWV 64

Work length2:38

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

O Had I Jubal's Lyre

Track length2:38

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Ariodante HWV 33 / Act II

Work length11:39

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

"Scherza infida in grembo al drudo"

Track length11:39

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Theodora (1750) HWV 68 / Part II

Work length6:00

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

Sinfony - "With Darkness Deep" (Theodora) - Sc. II

Track length6:00

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula HWV 11 / Act II

Work length5:49

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

Desterò dall'empia dite

Track length5:49

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Orlando, HWV 31 / Act II

Work length7:45

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

"Ah Stigie larve! ... Vaghe pupille, non piangete, no"

Track length7:45

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Ariodante HWV 33 / Act III

Work length6:52

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

"Dopo notte, atra e funesta"

Track length6:52

$0.85

$1.15

Handel: Rinaldo, HWV 7a / Act II

Work length4:58

$0.85

$1.15

Magdalena Kozená (mezzo-soprano)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon
Recorded: 2006-03-30
Recording Venue: Toblach, Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel, Gustav Mahler Saal

"Lascia ch'io pianga"

Track length4:58

$0.85

$1.15

Reviews
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Reviews

November 2007

…Magdalena Kožená beguiles and enchants throughout this captivating collection. The Czech mezzo's mature voice combines radiant purity with burnished intensity and…she negotiates Handel's quick-fire show-pieces with dazzling bravura. The musicians of Venice Baroque respond to her incantations with thrilling energy and passion. All in all, the results are completely spell-binding.

2010

With most items familiar from previous Handel aria anthologies, on paper this looks full of tired clichés. Thankfully, the stirring and passionate execution of Handel's music is anything but dull routine. KoOená and her Venetian accomplices might not be giving us anything deeply perceptive but everybody involved sounds as if they are engaged with the music. In particular, the Venice Baroque Orchestra sound admirably absorbed in the dramatic world of each aria.
KoOená has a good stab at this, too, but does not quite capture the personality and situation of each character. Alcina's heartbroken first encounter of a man being beyond her seductive power in 'Ah! mio cor!' is ravishing but its slowly creeping pathos is not a natural opener for a disc like this, and KoOená – albeit passionate – does not capture the depth of Alcina's complex psychological condition. An extrovert 'Cara speme' does not quite fit Sesto's emotional self-inquiry.
KoOená is much better at conveying the scheming Agrippina's anxious plea to the gods and 'Scherza infida' is finely judged, its best passages not too far off the benchmark set by Janet Baker, Sarah Connolly and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (alas, it is let down by the staccato B section). The most convincing synthesis of musical outpouring and dramatic mood is Melissa's 'Desterò dall'empia dite' (from Amadigi).
In Dejanira's mad scene from Hercules, KoOená's affected vowels and hammed-up insanity rob it of the poignancy that understatement achieves much better; Dejanira is a distraught heroine, not a lunatic shrieking that the Martians have landed. A similar approach makes for an over-egged mad scene from Orlando. But despite the frequent limitation of one-dimensional characterisation, these appealing performances have strength and colour.

The voice that goes straight to the heart

Ah! mio cor

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