Dorothee Mields & Die Freitagsakademie - Handel's Tea Time (2020) [Hi-Res]

On her new album, the outstanding baroque soprano, together with the Swiss Early Music Ensemble "Die Freitagsakademie", presents works for soprano and chamber music by Georg Friedrich Händel. "Handel's Tea Time" combines the two cantatas "Venus & Adonis" and "Mi palpita il cor" with instrumental works as well as excerpts from the "24 English Songs" and the "9 German Arias". The cantatas are magnificent examples of Handel's musical expressive art of celebrating the human voice. The cantata "Venus & Adonis" HWV 85 is probably Handel's first composition in English. The cantata "Mi palpita il cor" HWV 132b, on the other hand, was written in Italy, but Handel revised it during his London years. In vocal music, too, Handel found time for more intimate genres and forms of expression beyond the grandiose arias and choirs. Over the years, this resulted in the "24 English Songs" and "9 German Arias". The programme is rounded off by a "Concerto a quattro" and a trio sonata for oboe and strings. In addition, the "Air and Five Variations" for harpsichord give an idea of what an incredible keyboard virtuoso Handel must have been. In homage to Henry Purcell, who had made London an opera metropolis before Handel, an aria from his semi-opera "The Fairy Queen" is heard at the end of the album.