Handel: Song for St Cecilia’s Day

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Ludus Baroque presents its qualities with unusual vividness in this spacious and measured performance...the whole choral and orchestral tableau is marvellously realised here in an acoustic that... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2012, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 30th Jul 2012
Catalogue No: DCD34110
Label: Delphian
Length: 79 minutes

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Handel: Ode for St Cecilia's Day, HWV76

Work length54:03

$14.00

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$24.50

Ed Lyon (tenor), Mary Bevan (soprano)
Ludus Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Ludus Baroque Chorus
Richard Neville-Towle
Recorded: 8-10 August 2011
Recording Venue: Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh

Overture

Track length6:35

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$1.75

From Harmony, from Heav'nly Harmony

Track length2:57

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$1.75

From Harmony

Track length3:46

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$1.75

What Passion Cannot Musick Raise and Quell!

Track length9:32

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$2.60

$3.50

The Trumpet's Loud Clangour

Track length3:44

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March

Track length1:48

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The Soft Complaining Flute

Track length5:31

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Sharp Violins Proclaim

Track length4:23

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But Oh! What Art Can Teach

Track length5:33

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Orpheus Could Lead the Savage Race

Track length1:56

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But Bright Cecilia

Track length0:52

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As from the Pow'r of Sacred Lays

Track length7:26

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$2.60

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Handel: Concerto grosso, Op. 6 No. 7 in B flat major, HWV325

Work length14:01

$4.00

$5.20

$7.00

Ludus Baroque Chamber Orchestra
Richard Neville-Towle
Recorded: 8-10 August 2011
Recording Venue: Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh

I. Largo - II. Allegro

Track length3:52

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$1.30

$1.75

III. Largo, e piano

Track length2:39

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IV. Andante

Track length4:04

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V. Hornpipe

Track length3:26

$1.00

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$1.75

Handel: Look Down, Harmonious Saint, HWV 124

Work length11:44

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Ed Lyon (tenor)
Ludus Baroque Chamber Orchestra
Richard Neville-Towle
Recorded: 8-10 August 2011
Recording Venue: Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh

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Following the widespread critical acclaim of their debut recording, 'Alexander’s Feast', Ludus Baroque brings their celebrated verve to Handel's 'Song for St Cecilia’s Day'. Coupled with his miniature cantata for tenor, 'Look down Harmonius Saint', which Handel wrote to supplement performances of 'Alexander's Feast', and with the Concerto Grosso in B flat, written in his fruitful autumn of 1739, Handel approaches the setting of this second text by John Dryden with the same extraordinary vividness of detail and metrical virtuosity as Alexander’s Feast.

"What passion cannot music raise and quell?" - the answer is that it can raise and quell them all: martial, erotic, sacred … but as music had, in the beginning, been the divine principle of cosmic order, so, on the Final Day, it will be the force that dissolves the universe.

Reviews

December 2012

Ludus Baroque presents its qualities with unusual vividness in this spacious and measured performance...the whole choral and orchestral tableau is marvellously realised here in an acoustic that combines richness with presence. Superb vocal solos, too

November/December 2012

a blaze of glory … The instrumental roster includes some of the UK’s leading baroque specialists and the results are every bit as elegant as one might expect in support of a responsive chorus and a pair of outstanding soloists, ...conveying Dryden’s text as though their lives depended on it.

Awards Issue 2012

The ode receives an orderly performance. I wish there were double the number of string-players: the sonority of only six violins is insufficiently grand for the overture's opening...The unaffected 19-strong choir outweights the slimline orchestra at times....but kudos to Delphian for the intelligent choice of cover art reflecting Dryden's first stanza discussing the creation of the universe.

October 2012

Ludus Baroque acquits itself admirably...with instrumental exponents stylishly playing, whether in a group or in single contributions. The choral side produces fresh sounds...Bevan and Lyon serve the music laudably. She has a clean, limpid tone, which sits well in Handel's arias, smooth but not pale, shining but not glaring...Among [Lyon's] positive points are his natural singing and enunciation, his clean articulation of rapid notes and a pleasing tone.

12th August 2012

I warm to the conductor’s big-boned, exhibitionist Handel style and the youthful-sounding vigour of the choir. The basses are wonderfully resonant...Mary Bevan’s bright, tangy soprano gets the lion’s share of the solos, especially radiant in “What passion cannot music raise and quell?” and “Oh, what art can teach”

26th August 2012

Orchestrally and chorally, it has tremendous buoyancy. Solos for flute, organ and cello are artfully phrased, while soprano Mary Bevan and tenor Ed Lyon add zest to Handel's high-arching settings of Dryden's verse.

4th August 2012

The opening "Ouverture" showcases the group's vivacity and verve, before the poised tenor of Ed Lyon enters in "From Harmony, from Heav'nly Harmony"

22nd July 2012

Radiant soprano Mary Bevan is in glorious form in "What passion cannot music raise and quell?", while the chorus is outstanding throughout, singing with beautiful diction and a light, springy edge. And exciting Ed Lyon confirms his place as one of Britain's top baroque tenors

3rd August 2012

Every ingredient here fuses in harmony: Handel’s marvellous tunes, the young performers, John Dryden’s crisply effective words, the friendly acoustics of Edinburgh’s Canongate Kirk. Memorable music, delivered without frills: that’s all you really need.

Handel: Song for St Cecilia’s Day

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