The Handel Institute
The Handel Institute

The Stanley Sadie Handel Recording Prize 2010

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno

Glossa GCD 921525

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno (HWV 96)

Clori: Yetzabel Arias Fernández (soprano)
Tirsi: Roberta Invernizzi (soprano)
Fileno: Romina Basso (alto)

La Risonanza (on period instruments)
Fabio Bonizzoni (direction)

We are delighted to award first prize to Fabio Bonizzoni, La Risonanza and Glossa for their recording of Clori, Tirsi e Fileno. The cantata is performed rarely and has been recorded only twice before, but it is one of Handel’s most charming and accomplished Italian-period works. La Risonanza produces a delightful performance that presents all of the strengths and virtues we have come to associate with their recent explorations of Handel’s music. The orchestral playing is stylish, thoughtful and eloquent; the violin and lute obbligati are enchanting, and Bonizzoni’s well-paced direction from the harpsichord is exemplary. The three singers chosen for the parts of Clori, Tirsi and Fileno are superbly matched in taste and technical proficiency, but are also ideally different to enable clear and beguiling characterisation. La Risonanza and Bonizzoni are currently reaching towards the completion of their project to explore, perform and record all of Handel’s Italian cantate con stromenti – a fruitful collaboration with the Spanish early music label Glossa and several consultant musicologists. We hope that the critical and artistic success of their work encourages the artists and the label to continue exploring baroque vocal music.


The panel of judges also congratulate this year’s close runners-up: a fine performance of the neglected opera Faramondo conducted by Diego Fasolis (Virgin), Zefiro’s superb recording of the Music for the Royal Fireworks (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi), and a compelling recital of duets and arias performed by Sandrine Piau, Sara Mingardo and Concerto Italiano (Naïve). La Risonanza’s Olinto pastore (Glossa) also received several nominations. The panel hopes that all of the artists and labels nominated for this year’s prize will be encouraged to continue producing fresh insights into Handelian repertoire.


What is The Stanley Sadie Handel Prize?

It is an annual award given to one distinctive new recording of Handel’s music, chosen by a specially invited panel of respected scholars and journalists who each possess a special and informed interest in Handel’s music. The winner is carefully selected from a comprehensive list of new recordings of Handel’s music released during the previous calendar year. The winner must satisfy tough criteria: it needs to combine fine interpretive quality with a penetrating or valuable insight into Handel’s genius. Thus this Prize is an indication of a recording’s quality and the significance of its contribution to Handelian knowledge.

One of the prize’s founder panel members was the scholar, author and critic Stanley Sadie, and in 2005 the prize was renamed in his memory (its original title was the International Handel Recording Prize). We hope that this prize is warmly accepted as an appropriate legacy of Stanley’s unusual ease at mingling enjoyable journalism and superb scholarship together. In some respects it was influenced by the now defunct American Handel Society Recording Prize (1991–8), but in 2002 an international panel of judges inaugurated a broader forum to nurture recognition to a new recording of Handel’s music of noteworthy quality. This year’s winner was chosen by judges from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Britain.


 

This Year's Panel of Judges:

Ivan A. Alexandre (Diapason and Le Nouvel Observateur – Paris)
Nicholas Anderson (Producer and writer, BBC Music Magazine – Taunton)
Angela Baier (Handel scholar – Munich)
Sandra Bowdler (Festival Baroque Australia, Opera critic – Perth)
Hugh Canning (The Sunday Times, International Record Review – London)
Colin Coleman (Librarian, Gerald Coke Handel Collection at the Foundling Museum– London)
Mikhail Fikhtengoltz (Handel scholar and Arts Administrator – Moscow)
Matthew Gardner (Handel scholar, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität –  Heidelberg)
Philippe Gelinaud (Handel scholar, Opéra Magazine – Paris)
Lindsay Kemp (Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, BBC Radio 3, Gramophone – London)
Francis Knights (Editor of Early Music – Cambridge)
Michael Pacholke (Musicologist, Hallische Händel-Ausgabe – Halle)
Benedikt Poensgen (Göttingen Handel Festival)
Kimiko Shimoda (The Record Geijutsu – Kyoto)
David Vickers (Royal Northern College of Music, Gramophone, GFHandel.org – Huddersfield)
Carlo Vitali (Musicologist, Amadeus, Opernwelt, Musical America - Bologna)


The Candidate List

(*denotes recordings nominated by the panel during the first round of voting)

Theatre Works:

*Alcina
Il Complesso Barocco; Alan Curtis; DG Archiv

Alexander’s Feast
Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir and Orchestra; Collegium Carthusianum; Rolf Beck; Hänssler

Alexander’s Feast
Wiener Singakademie Kammerchor; Barucco; Heinz Ferlesch; ORF

*Alexander’s Feast (1739 version, including Ode for St Cecilia’s Day)
Collegium Carthusianum; Peter Neumann; Carus

Ezio
Il Complesso Barocco; Alan Curtis; DG Archiv

*Faramondo
I Barocchisti; Diego Fasolis; Virgin

Giulio Cesare
Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense; Wladyslaw Klosiewicz; Pro Musica Camerata

Giulio Cesare
Il Concento Ecclesiastico; Luca Franco Ferrari; Concerto

Israel in Egypt
Vocalensemble Rastatt; Les Favorites; Holger Speck; Carus

Joshua
London Handel Festival; Laurence Cummings; Somm

Messiah
Stuttgart Chamber Choir and Baroque Orchestra; Frieder Bernius; Carus

Messiah
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; The Academy of Ancient Music; Stephen Cleobury; EMI [also issued on DVD]

*Messiah
Polyphony; Britten Sinfonia; Stephen Layton; Hyperion

*La Resurrezione
Le Concert d'Astrée; Emmanuelle Haïm; Virgin

La Resurrezione
Contrasto Armonico; Marco Vitale; Brilliant Classics

Rodrigo
Al Ayre Espanol; Eduardo Lopez Banzo; Ambroisie

*Samson
NDR Chor; Festpiele-Orchester Göttinger; Nicholas McGegan; Carus

*Saul
Dresden Chamber Choir and Dresden Baroque Orchestra; Hans Christoph Rademann; Carus

Teseo
Staatsorchester Stuttgart; Konrad Junghänel; Carus

 

Sacred works:

Chandos Anthems (HWV 252, 254 and 256a)
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge; The Academy of Ancient Music; Stephen Layton; Hyperion

*Coronation Anthems
The Sixteen; Harry Christophers; Coro

Eternal Source of Light Divine and Dixit Dominus
Andreas Scholl, etc.; Vocalconsort Berlin; Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin; Marcus Creed; Harmonia Mundi

The People Shall Hear: Great Handel Choruses
The Bach Choir; The English Concert; David Hill; BIS

 

Cantatas:

Cantatas, vol. 1 [Delirio Amoroso, etc.]
Stefanie True (sop); Contrasto Armonico; Marco Vitale; Brilliant

*Clori, Tirsi e Fileno ('Le Cantate Italiane di Handel V' / 'Le Cantate per il Marchese Ruspoli Vol. 3')
La Risonanza; Fabio Bonizzoni; Glossa

La Lucrezia: Handel Italian Cantatas for alto and b.c.
Sonia Prina (alto); La Sfera Armoniosa; Ludi Musici

*Olinto, pastore ('Le Cantate Italiane di Handel VI' / 'Le Cantate per il Marchese Ruspoli Vol. 4')
La Risonanza; Fabio Bonizzoni; Glossa [also includes Duello amoroso and Alpestre monte]

Vocal recitals:

Alcina - Arias & Suites
Christine Schäfer; Berliner Barock Solisten; Rainer Kussmaul; Avi

Arie italiane per basso
Ildebrando D`Arcangelo (bass); Modo Antiquo; Frederico Maria Sardelli; DG

*Arie per basso
Lorenzo Regazzo (bass); Concerto Italiano; Rinaldo Alessandrini; Naïve

*Between Heaven and Earth[Italian and English arias from oratorio-style works]
Sandrine Piau (sop); Accademia Bizantina; Stefano Montanari; Naïve

Handel arias
Karina Gauvin (soprano); Tempo Rubato; Alexander Weimann; ATMA

“Handel” [opera arias]
Rolando Villazon (tenor); The Gabrieli Players; Paul McCreesh; DG

*“Handel”[opera duets and arias]
Sara Mingardo (alto); Sandrine Piau (sop); Concerto Italiano; Rinaldo Alessandrini; Naïve

Handel’s Harp [arias and instrumental works featuring harp]
Cyndia Sieden (sop); Maxine Eilander (harp); Seattle Baroque Orchestra; Stephen Stubbs; Atma

Handel Arias: Love and Madness
Johanette Zomer (sop); Bart Schneemann (ob); Musica Amphion; Pieter-Jan Belder; Channel Classics

*“La Diva: Arias for Cuzzoni”
Simone Kermes (soprano); Die Lautten Compagney; Wolfgang Katschner; Edel

“Love in Arcadia” [chamber duets and trios]
Juliane Baird (sop); etc.; Brandywine Baroque; Plectra

9 German Arias
Emma Kirkby; London Baroque; BIS [also includes the alleged Handel ‘Gloria’]

 

Orchestral / Instrumental:

*Concerti Grossi, Opus 6
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra; Paul Dyer; ABC

*Concerti Grossi, Opus 6
Il Giardino Armonico; Giovanni Antonini; Decca L’Oiseau-Lyre

*Music for the Royal Fireworks and Concerti per due cori
Zefiro; Alfredo Bernardini; Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (Sony)

*Organ Concertos, Opus 4
Accademia Bizantina; Ottavio Dantone; Decca L’Oiseau-Lyre

Organ Concertos, Opus 7
Richard Egarr; The Academy of Ancient Music; Harmonia Mundi (USA)

Al piacere del Signore G. F. Haendel [miscellaneous works played on two harpsichords]
Chani and Nadja Lesaulnier (harpsichords); ORF

Domestic Opera [Babell and Handel arrangements of operatic music for solo keyboard]
Hank Knox; Early-Music.com

Harpsichord Suites (1720)
Jory Vinikour; Delos

*Keyboard Works
Ragna Schirmer; Berlin Classics

Keyboard Overtures and Suites
John Kitchen; Delphian

Recorder Sonatas
Eric Bosgraaf (recorder); Franceso Corti (harpsichord); Brilliant

Solo sonatas, Opus 1
The Academy of Ancient Music; Richard Egarr; Harmonia Mundi (USA)

Trio Sonatas Op. 2
London Handel Players; Somm

*Trio Sonatas, Opuses 2 and 5
The Academy of Ancient Music; Richard Egarr; Harmonia Mundi (USA)

 

Special Category:

Dettingen Te Deum (arr. Mendelssohn)
Festpiele-orchester Göttingen; NDR Chor; Nicholas McGegan; Carus

Israel in Egypt (arr. Mendelssohn)
Das Kleine Konzert; Hermann Max; CPO

DVD:

Barockstar! [documentary]
Arthaus

Handel Commemoration
The English Concert; Händelfestpielorchester Halle; Howard Arman; Medici Arts

*Partenope
Royal Danish Opera; Lars Ulrik Mortensen; Decca

Semele
Zurich Opera House; William Christie; Arthaus

Tamerlano
Teatro Real Madrid; Paul McCreesh; Opus Arte


The International Handel Recording Prize was inspired by The American Handel Society's Recording Prize. The AHS Recording Prize was awarded on an annual basis between 1991-1998.


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