Andreas Scholl, Helen Guilmette, Ottavio Dantone; Accademia Bizantina - Handel: Il Duello Amoroso (2007)

Harmonia Mundi's release features four secular cantatas and a trio sonata Handel wrote during his sojourn in Italy during his early twenties. The cantatas range from the mini-opera Il duello amoroso or Amarilli vezzosa, which depicts a shepherd's vain courting of a resisting nymph, to solo works in which a narrator describes similar pastoral stories, most of which also end in rejection. In Il duello amoroso, soprano Hélène Guilmette joins countertenor Andreas Scholl, and their charming banter leaves the listener saddened that the shepherd's suit was so dismally unsuccessful. Guilmette's voice is pure and sweet, and her singing is persuasively dramatic. Scholl's voice is slightly veiled and white-sounding and has less of the clarity and sensuality that some of the finest countertenors, such as Philippe Jaroussky, possess. His singing is impeccably musical, though, and he has a fine and subtle sense of drama that breathes life into these cantatas. The listener's preference for a particular countertenor's timbre is very much a matter of personal taste, and the overall musicality of Scholl's performance may be entirely compelling for some listeners. Accademia Bizantina, led by Ottavio Dantone, provides the singers with immaculate and dramatically apt accompaniment, and the group shines when it takes center stage in the trio sonata. Harmonia Mundi's sound is characteristically warm, clean, and intimate, with good balance between the singers and instruments.