Handel: Concerti Grossi, Op. 3; Sonata a 5 : Harmonia Mundi Fr.

Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music start a new Handel recording project. Their first release is Handel's Concerti grossi, Op. 3 and the Sonata a 5. Richard Egarr is the new Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music. - $14.27

25 Handel Favorites : Vox (Classical)

- $1.72

Handel - Messiah / Ameling · A. Reynolds · Langridge · Howell · Marriner : Decca

Neville Marriner's 1976 account of the Covent Garden version of the score (1743), with the Academy and Chorus of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and soloists Elly Ameling, Anna Reynolds, Philip Langridge, and Gwynne Howell, is positively plush-sounding but nicely animated. I'd love to have this kind of string tone for, say, the Dvorák Serenade, but for Handel it may be just a bit much. --Ted Libbey - $9.56

Handel - Giulio Cesare (Glyndebourne Opera Festival 2006) : Opus Arte

I have always adored Handel's music but when I first saw this production at Glyndebourne, it was a real revelation. An extraordinarily beautiful staging with real drama, but also full of humour and a great deal of dancing - Bollywood style!

David McVicar's take on Giulio Cesare left me completely stunned - I have never felt so many different emotions during one performance - it made me both laugh and cry in equal measure. In one scene you are deeply touched by the genuine torment the singers express and in the next, without undermining the story or the music, you delight in the humour and are uplifted by the enchanting dancing that seems to fit so perfectly with Handel's lively rhythms.

The singing, acting and dancing of this all star cast is outstanding and is led by Sarah Connolly as a superb and very convincing Giulio Cesare. Danielle de Niese is a sexy, mesmerizing Cleopatra and a consummate singer/actress who steals the show (you can see more of her discussing this, her debut Glyndebourne performance, in the extra bonus features). William Christie draws rich and magical playing from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, revealing the dramatic, lively and tender layers in Handel's luscious music.

In the documentary feature McVicar says 'Entertainment is not a Dirty Word' and I absolutely agree with him. Opera was always meant to entertain and this production does just that! It is one of the few I can watch again and again and I highly recommend a night on the sofa with this DVD. - $34.67

Handel: Water Music; Music for the Royal Fireworks : Naxos

There's no dearth of fine recordings of these works on the market, but this recording goes straight to the top of the list. Kevin Mallon leads a Toronto-based, 34-person-group of period instrumentalists called the Aradia Ensemble: it's a terrific, ear opening show. The music is, above all, joyful, with dance movements galore and plenty of giddy pomp. Mallon has rethought the tempi, almost all of which, he feels, should be quicker than we're accustomed to hearing. These tempi work most of the time, and if, for example, you overlook the fact that at his tempi, the alla hornpipe of the Water Music Suite No. 2 and the Rigaudon of No. 3 could only have been danced by a dancer on speed, and just listen to how effortlessly entertaining the music is, you'll love it. He's not rigid in his fleetness, however--the final movement of Water Music Suite No. 1 is relaxed and he slows it down even further for its last few seconds, giving it the stature it requires.

Mallon also adds side-drum and tambourines to a couple of the movements, and they add jollity and jauntiness; only a whiner would object. When the trumpets and horns ring out they don't blare and say, in La Paix from the Royal Fireworks Music, when he uses transverse flutes (as suggested in the original manuscript but never before recorded that way), the effect is magical, rather than just mellow. Try the overture of the Royal Fireworks, with brass blasting, drums being banged with wooden-headed sticks, but all at a military tempo that implies forward propulsion rather than combative stodginess. This is both a bargain and a terrific reading. --Robert Levine - $3.98

Handel: Complete Violin Sonatas : Harmonia Mundi Fr.

- $6.16

Messiah (George Frederick Handel) London Philharmonic Orchestra : Sparrow

- $8.90

Greatest Hits HANDEL ~ Water Music, Largo, etc.. : Sony

- $4.74

Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 4 [Hybrid SACD] : Harmonia Mundi Fr.

- $15.79

Handel: Water Music Suites : EMI Classics

- $4.18