Rodelinda

"Recording of the week: Though Bicket's booklet-note describes the challenges posed by having his players spread out over an unusually wide area, the ensemble is every bit as water-tight and responsive as we've come to expect from this A-team over the decades ... In the Act Two pastoral 'Con rauco memoria' Davies delivers some of the most ravishing Handel-singing I've heard on disc ... Crowe captures Rodelinda's vulnerability and political savviness to perfection".

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"Bicket's cast is crammed with Handelian talent. Soprano Lucy Crowe sings the title role, always brilliant in precision and expressive power ... [Davies] invests every word, every note with intensity, and sends the dramatic temperature soaring at each entry ... The English Concert's playing is pliant, warm, elegant. If the rest of the project reaches this standard, we're in luck".

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"Editor's choice: The singing is first-rate, while Harry Bicket has an unerring ear for pacing and instrumental colour. He and the everresponsive English Concert relish without indulgence the sensuous beauty of Handel's textures ... Throughout the opera the players are always dramatic partners and animators, never mere accompanists ... Lucy Crowe acts vividly with her voice without ever compromising tonal beauty. Her phrasing is both graceful and subtle ... This new recording, more subtly directed and more consistently sung, now becomes my top recommendation for an opera that should be on any Handel lover's shortlist".