Laurence Cummings

The muscular athleticism of his singing on this long-overdue debut solo album comes across just as strongly without his compelling stage-presence: the moustache-twirling virtuosity of villains... — Katherine Cooper, Presto Music, March 2020 More…

The six musicians featured on this disc are all principal players of the London Handel Orchestra. Their consummate musicianship is consistently delightful: sparkling violin-playing (often with... — Gramophone Magazine, September 2006 More…

One of the satisfying approaches to programming Handel arias is to get under the skin of a few chosen characters or singers. All the arias here were composed for the mezzo-soprano Durastanti... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

The voices of Rial and Zazzo are engaging on their own and evenly balanced in ensemble… excelling in the…composer's tenderly reflective music such as in the ravishing duet 'Io t'abbraccio'... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2008, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Cummings, a seasoned and sensitive Handelian, directs his firstrate period band with a vivid sense of colour, character and dramatic situation. The Göttingen cast is uniformly strong. — Gramophone Magazine, August 2022 More…

Ruby Hughes’s vocalism fits Frasi’s song perfectly…Cummings turns even the rawest musical material into gold…this disc is a treat, illuminating why Frasi and her music commanded a huge following. — BBC Music Magazine, May 2018, 4 out of 5 stars More…

The arias are without exception quite stunning and it is surprisingly fresh and has moments of real beauty and imagination. — Early Music Review, June 2014 More…

At its best, the music of Rodrigo has an invigorating freshness, its raw, sometimes gawky energy tempered by an Italianate melodic suavity that Handel had honed in his cantatas...Cummings directs... — Gramophone Magazine, December 2019 More…