G. F. Handel – “As Steals the Morn” – from L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed Il Moderato
This is a ravishingly gorgeous duet that’s had the price of me many a time. The first time I heard it I wept, such is its beauty. In this recording, Mark Padmore’s singing here, alongside Lucy Crowe, is unutterably appealing. For me, Handel is Bach wearing his heart on his sleeve. Eat me…
*The Music*
From the oratorio “L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed Il Moderato” (“The Cheerful, the Thoughtful, and the Moderate Man”) HWV 55. It is a pastoral ode by George Frideric Handel based on the poetry of John Milton. However, “As Steals the Morn” (featured here) is adapted from Shakespeare’s Tempest, V.i.65–68.
Handel composed the work over the period of 19 January to 4 February 1740, and the work was premiered on 27 February 1740 at the Royal Theatre of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. At the urging of one of Handel’s librettists, Charles Jennens, Milton’s two poems, L’Allegro and il Penseroso, were arranged by James Harris, interleaving them to create dramatic tension between the personified characters of Milton’s poems (L’Allegro or the “Joyful man” and il Penseroso or the “Contemplative man”). The first two movements consist of this dramatic dialogue between Milton’s poems. In an attempt to unite the two poems into a singular “moral design”, at Handel’s request, Jennens added a new poem, “il Moderato”, to create a third movement.
*Text* (Shakespeare)
As steals the morn upon the night
And melts the shades away:
So Truth does Fancy’s charm dissolve
And rising Reason puts to flight
The fumes that did the mind involve
Restoring intellectual day
*Images*
I took these images of various places in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England (except the aerial shot of Arbor Low – a Neolithic Henge Monument, also in Derbyshire ((c) Webb Aviation)).
*Performance*
Mark Padmore – tenor
Lucy Crowe – soprano
The English Concert
Conductor – Andrew Manze
Label: Harmonia Mundi, from the Album: “As Steals the Morn (Handel Arias & Scenes for tenor)”.
Claudio Monteverdi Madrigal Hor che’l ciel e la terra
Céphale et Procris: Récitatif et air: “C’est ici que le beau Céphale… / Naissantes fleurs”…
Les Agrémens – Onderwerp
Provided to YouTube by IDOL
Céphale et Procris:
Récitatif et air: “C’est ici que le beau Céphale… / Naissantes fleurs” (Airs de l’Aurore) · Les Agrémens · Guy van Waas · Sophie Karthäuser
Grétry: Airs & Ballets
℗ Ricercar Released on: 2003-01-01 Composer: André Modeste Grétry
Auto-generated by YouTube.
Regine Crespin
Berlioz: Les nuits d’été – ‘Le spectre de la rose’
Michel Blavet: Flute Sonata in g minor op. 2/4, “La Lumague”
Michel Blavet (1700 – 1768)
6 Sonates mêlées de pièces, op. 2 Sonate IV en sol mineur “La Lumague” (op. 2/4) (Sonata No. 4 in g minor)
Adagio – “La Lumague” 0:13
Allemanda – Allegro 2:54
Ciciliana 5:53
Presto 8:39
Allegro – “Le Lutin” 11:17
Jed Wentz (flute)
Cassandra L. Luckhardt (viola da gamba)
Michael Borgstede (harpsichord)
Album
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