Handel - Great Oratorio Duets - BIS: BISSACD1436 - SACD or download

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The duets selected here… form an attractive programme, especially when the two voices are as well blended and as perfectly in tune as Carolyn Sampson's and Robin Blaze's. …whether the mood is... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2006, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 3rd Apr 2006
Catalogue No: BISSACD1436
Label: BIS
Length: 70 minutes

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Handel: Jephtha, HWV 70, Act I

Work length6:27

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

These labours past

Track length6:27

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Handel: Joshua, HWV 64, Act III

Work length2:40

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$1.75

Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Oh peerless maid

Track length2:40

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Handel: Joshua, HWV 64, Act I

Work length2:55

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Our limpid streams

Track length2:55

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Handel: Belshazzar, HWV 61, Act III

Work length5:03

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Great victor, at your feet I bow

Track length5:03

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Handel: Susanna, HWV 66, Act I

Work length3:35

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

When thou art nigh

Track length3:35

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Handel: Susanna, HWV 66, Act III

Work length3:16

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

To my chaste Susanna's praise

Track length3:16

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Handel: Theodora, HWV 68, Act II

Work length5:43

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

To thee, thou glorious son of worth

Track length5:43

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Handel: Theodora, HWV 68, Act III

Work length6:04

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Streams of pleasure ever flowing

Track length6:04

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Handel: Solomon, HWV 67, Act I

Work length3:57

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Welcome as the dawn of day

Track length3:57

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Handel: Solomon, HWV 67, Act III

Work length3:31

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Ev'ry joy That wisdom knows

Track length3:31

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Excerpt, Handel: Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, HWV74

Work length4:46

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Kind health descends

Track length4:46

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Handel: Saul, HWV 53, Act II

Work length4:28

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

O fairest of ten thousand fair

Track length3:01

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At persecution I can laugh

Track length1:27

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Handel: Deborah, HWV 51, Act I

Work length4:47

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Where do thy ardours raise me!

Track length4:47

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Handel: Deborah, HWV 51, Act II

Work length3:56

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Smiling freedom, lovely guest

Track length3:56

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Handel: Alexander Balus, HWV 65, Act II

Work length3:28

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Hail wedded love

Track length3:28

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Excerpt, Handel: Alexander's Feast

Work length2:40

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Pt. II: Let's imitate her notes above

Track length2:40

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Handel: Esther, HWV 50b, Act II

Work length3:32

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Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Nicholas Kraemer
Recorded: January 2005
Recording Venue: St. Paul's Church, Southgate, London, England, United Kingdom

Who calls my parting soul

Track length3:32

$1.00

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$1.75

Reviews
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Reviews

May 2006

The duets selected here… form an attractive programme, especially when the two voices are as well blended and as perfectly in tune as Carolyn Sampson's and Robin Blaze's. …whether the mood is languid and sensual, as in Solomon, spiritual (Theodora) or consolatory (the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne), the performances, as well as Handel's music, are entirely apt.

2010

'Great Oratorio Duets'? It seems a strange concept at first – not many of these pieces have made an individual name for themselves just yet.
But then the point of this disc is evidently to bring together in mouthwatering partnership two of the most dulcet-voiced young Baroque singers Britain has to offer, and it does not take long to discover that that is a very good idea indeed. Carolyn Sampson's voice is bright and clear yet warmed by judiciously selected and moderated vibrato, while Robin Blaze has a more distinctively tangy sound, but they fit each other well and in their faultless display of Handelian style, lyricism and warmth they are in total mental and spiritual accord.
The music, meanwhile, does indeed have greatness. The vocal style of Handel's English oratorios does not recreate the virtuoso flashiness of the Italian operas but speaks in a more direct, lyrical manner, expressing with unimpeachable honesty all the sympathy and human understanding for which their composer is so revered. The majority here are love duets, but with what variety, from carefree (examples from Jephtha and Susanna) to chaste (Deborah) to ambiguously melancholy (Joshua and Saul). The forgiveness duet from Esther is indescribably tender (especially in this performance), the duet from Saul in which a love-drunk David is reluctant to leave when warned by his fiancée of approaching danger is effortlessly theatrical, and the two duets for the doomed lovers from Theo-dora are works of pure and noble genius. If the performances in these last do not quite reach the heartbreaking intensity of which Peter Sellars's Glyndebourne production proved them capable, it is hard to see how that could ever be achieved in a recital; Sampson and Blaze surely manage as well as anyone ever could. With intelligent, kind-hearted accompaniments from Nicholas Kraemer and the OAE, this is a truly beautiful Handel recording, a disc to give pleasure for years to come.

May 2006

Carolyn Sampson's voice is bright and clear yet warmed by judiciously selected and moderated vibrato, while Robin Blaze has a more distinctively tangy sound, but they fit each other well and in their faultless display of Handelian style, lyricism and warmth they are in total mental and spiritual accord. With intelligent, kind-hearted accompaniments from Nicholas Kraemer and the OAE, this is a truly beautiful Handel recording, a disc to give pleasure for years to come.

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