Nicki Kennedy, Sally Bruce-Payne, Brook Street Band - Handel’s English Cantatas (2008)

The cover of this exceedingly British release promises something more than you actually get, but it does offer some unusual items for the confirmed Handel lover. As well, it offers any listener a taste of the world of arrangements in which Baroque music circulated after it had fulfilled its intended function. You may wonder how you managed to miss Handel's English cantatas for all these years. It's because he didn't actually write any; the three cantatas for soprano, alto, and small ensemble (two violins and continuo) appearing on these two discs consist of arias, many in the pastoral mode, from three Handel operas (Flavio, Ottone, and Giulio Cesare) retexted in English by an unknown author, presumably not Handel himself, whose grasp of English, probably his fourth langauge, was shaky. The texts are new, not translations of the original arias. All are about love and flirtation, often drawing on mythological sources. They have a doggerel-like quality in spots ("Strephon, cease, no more pursue me; should I trust you, you'd undo me"), but for the audiences that heard them (or sang them at home) they would have fit the music well enough to feel natural. Soprano Nicki Kennedy and alto Sally Bruce-Payne relax and have some fun with the lightweight texts, which is the right approach to take even though the word "cutesy" might apply. Sample the aria "Foolish swain, at length grow wiser" (track 2) from the cantata So Pleasing the Pain Is to test your tolerance level. Baroque cellist Tatty Theo, who formed the Brook Street Band and is responsible for the pleasantly warm instrumental accompaniments, also provided the booklet notes and argues, based on key arrangement and other factors, that Handel may have been involved in these productions to a point where they can be considered genuine Handel works. The program is rounded out with a group of miscellaneous English songs that are also of debated authenticity but do seem to bear the stamp of his style in most cases. Mostly for Handel fans but an unusual concept, carried through effectively.