Marcus Creed, Andreas Scholl - Handel: Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, Dixit Dominus (2009)

This is an amazing production. No one especially knows (or seems to care about) Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, and yet it starts with one of the most gorgeous, serene, literally heavenly pieces of music from any period. The initial text, “Eternal source of light divine”, is set as a duet for countertenor–here the luminous Andreas Scholl–and solo trumpet (sound clip). There’s nothing quite like it, and the effect is as magical as it is timeless. It perfectly sets up the ensuing selection of arias and choruses celebrating Queen Anne’s birthday in 1713, and if you don’t know it you’re missing something very special.
Dixit Dominus dates from 1707, when the 22-year-old composer was still resident in Italy. It’s about as exciting a piece of choral music as we’re ever likely to hear. The text, Psalm 110, is bloody and bellicose, and at the point where the bodies of the heathen are piling up and God is smiting the heads of all nations (“Conquassabit capita in terra multorum”), Handel cuts loose with a choral war chant that Carl Orff or Stravinsky would have been proud to claim as their own (sound clip). That this is the same composer who conceived the opening of the Birthday Ode stands as an amazing testament to Handel’s genius, even at the start of his career.
The performances here, under Marcus Creed, are simply brilliant, with a virtuoso chorus in the Vocalconsort Berlin, and an array of ideal soloists. The Dixit Dominus, especially, requires vocalists of the highest caliber. It has been recorded many times, but never with this particular combination of sheer gusto and textual awareness. Add in spectacular sonics, and equally fine playing from the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the result captures the unique splendor and expressive range of Handel in 56 dazzling minutes of pure vocal gold. -- David Hurwitz