Handel: L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato Paul McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort & Players

• Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759): Concerto grosso G-Dur, Op. 6 Nr. 1, HWV 319
• 1I. A tempo giusto01:14
• 2II. Allegro01:44
• 3III. Adagio02:33
• 4IV. Allegro02:37
• 5V. Allegro02:39
• L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55: Part I
• 6Accompagnato: Hence, loathed Melancholy (Tenor)02:03
• 7Accompagnato: Hence, vain deluding joys (Soprano)00:51
• 8Air: Come, thou Goddess fair and free (Treble)01:41
• 9Come rather, Goddess, sage and holy (Soprano)02:54
• 10Air: Haste thee, nymph (Tenor, Chorus)02:14
• 11Air: Come and trip it (Tenor, Chorus)02:26
• 12Accompagnato: Come, pensive Nun (Soprano)01:01
• 13Arioso: Come, but keep thy wonted state (Soprano)02:02
• 14Recitative: Hence, loathed Melancholy (Tenor, Treble)00:27
• 15Air: Mirth, admit me of thy crew (Treble)04:04
• 16Accompagnato: First and chief, on golden wing (Soprano)00:55
• 17Air: Sweet bird (Soprano)13:28
• 18Recitative: If I give thee honour due (Bass)00:10
• 19Air: Mirth, admit me of thy crew (Bass)02:26
• 20Air: Oft, on a plat of rising ground (Soprano)03:23
• 21Recitative: If I give thee honour due (Tenor)00:14
• 22Air: Let me wander not unseen (Tenor)01:43
• 23Air: Or let the merry bells ring round (Treble, Chorus)03:45
• Concerto Grosso in E Minor, Op. 6, No. 3, HWV 321
• 24I. Larghetto01:19
• 25II. Andante01:25
• 26III. Allegro02:36
• 27IV. Polonaise: Andante04:56
• 28V. Allegro, ma non troppo01:31
• L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55: Part II
• 29Accompagnato: Hence, vain deluding Joys (Soprano)01:25
• 30Air: But oh, sad virgin (Soprano)06:00
• 31Recitative: Thus, Night, oft see me (Soprano)00:38
• 32Populous cities please me then (Bass, Chorus)03:20
• 33Air: There let Hymen oft appear (Tenor)02:08
• 34Accompagnato: Me, when the Sun begins to fling (Soprano)00:53
• 35Air: Hide me from Day's garnish eye (Soprano)03:48
• 36Air: I'll to the well-trod stage anon (Tenor)01:59
• 37Air: And ever against eating cares (Treble)03:01
• 38These delights if thou canst give (Tenor, Chorus)03:19
• 39Recitative: But ley my due feet never fail (Soprano)00:52
• 40There let the pealing organ blow (Soprano, Chorus)01:58
• 41These pleasures, Melancholy, give (Soprano, Chorus)04:39
• Organ Concerto No. 7 in B-Flat Major, Op. 7, No. 1, HWV 306
• 42I. Andante09:16
• 43II. Largo e piano03:32
• 44III. Fuga: Allegro02:38
• 45IV. Organo ad libitum: Adagio00:31
• 46V. Bourree: Allegro02:33
• L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55: Part III
• 47Accompagnato: Hence! Boast not, ye profane (Baritone)00:31
• 48Air: Come, with native lustre shine (Baritone, Chorus)05:51
• 49Air: Come, with gentle hand restrain (Soprano)01:34
• 50Recitative: No more short life they then will spend in straying (Tenor)00:38
• 51Air: Each action will derive new grace (Tenor)02:04
• 52As steals the morn upon the night (Soprano, Tenor)06:20
• 53Thy pleasures, Moderation, give (Chorus)02:51
• Total Runtime02:20:40

Info for Handel: L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

The Gabrieli’s first Handel recording in over a decade is particularly special, recreating in painstaking detail the very first performance of L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, given in 1740, with additional instrumental repertoire including a Handel organ concerto and two concerti grossi.

With a reputation as peerless Handelians, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & players bring meticulous research to every performance and recording project, and are joined on this disc by a stunning selection of soloists.

"This is quite simply life-enhancing music making, a glorious achievement in every respect." Early Music Today

"McCreesh’s superb Gabrieli Consort and Players present all this…with flair, a pristine sense of style and infectious energy." The Times, May 2015

"It’s a joy to hear the Gabrielis give us Handel again. The attention to detail, the vibrant tone, the briskly invigorating tempi, and the seamless ensemble are everything you could wish for." (Hi-Fi Plus)

"The choral elements are scrupulously handled by the Gabrieli Consort, and the soloists are choice. Gillian Webster is the light, bright soprano, Laurence Kilsby the delightful treble tenor Jeremy Ovenden brings his words to life, while Peter Harvey provides a solid baritone and Ashley Riches a confident bass." (BBC Music Magazine)

"Who captured this country’s pastoral tradition better than Vaughan Williams? … Handel’s ravishing score, realised to perfection by Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli, evokes these scenes with colourful precision … A glorious recording." (The Observer)

"McCreesh finds all the expressive opportunities in a blissful production, at times breathtakingly beautiful." (Choir & Organ)

Gillian Webster, soprano
Laurence Kilsby, treble
Jeremy Ovenden, tenor
Peter Harvey, baritone
Ashley Riches, bass
William Whitehead, organ
Gabrieli Consort & Players
Catherine Martin, leader
Paul Mccreesh, conductor

Paul McCreesh
is the founder and Artistic Director of Gabrieli which he established in 1982 and with whom he has toured world-wide and made many award-winning recordings. McCreesh is well-known for the energy and passion that he brings to his music-making, and is especially enthusiastic about working with young musicians and broadening access to classical music; he works regularly with youth orchestras and choirs and is active in building new educational initiatives whenever possible.

McCreesh has guest conducted many of the major orchestras and choirs across the globe, including most recently the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Verbier Festival orchestras, and Berlin Konzerthausorchester, whom he returns to this season to conduct Berlioz Grande Messe des Morts. McCreesh also enjoys regular and ongoing collaborations with Saint Paul and Basel Chamber Orchestras, conducting choral projects with both orchestras in 2016/17, the latter at Menuhin Festival Gstaad.

From 2013-2016 he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon) with whom he conducted a wide range of music from the classical period through to the nineteenth and twentieth century, focusing in particular on symphonic repertoire, oratorio and opera in concert, working closely with the world- renowned Gulbenkian Choir. In 2016/17, McCreesh returns to the orchestra twice to conduct Elgar The Dream of Gerontius and a programme of Satie, Saint-Saëns and Beethoven featuring Gautier Capuçon.

McCreesh has established a strong reputation in the opera house and has conducted productions at the Teatro Real Madrid, Royal Danish Opera, Opera Comique, Vlaamse Opera and at the Verbier Festival. In 2015/16 he conducted Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bergen Opera, and returned to Vlaamse Opera for a production of Idomeneo.

In 2011 McCreesh launched his own record label, Winged Lion, in collaboration with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, Signum Classics and the Wratislavia Cantans Festival, where he was Artistic Director between 2006 and 2012. To date they have made seven recordings, most recently Handel L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, released in 2015. Other highlights include Britten War Requiem (BBC Music Magazine Award 2014), Mendelssohn Elijah (Diapason d’Or Award 2013), Berlioz’s gargantuan Grande Messe des Morts (BBC Award 2012), and a reworking of his earlier Gabrieli disc, A New Venetian Coronation 1595 (Gramophone Award 2013). The Winged Lion recordings build on his large catalogue of recordings with Deutsche Grammophon, which includes the Gramophone Award-winning Haydn Creation.

Gabrieli Consort
are a choir and period instrument orchestra founded and led by Artistic Director Paul McCreesh. We perform and record great choral, vocal and instrumental repertoire from the renaissance to the present day for the widest possible audience, cultivating an international reputation for excellence, innovation and ambition. Our mission is to educate the public, in every sense – to be standard bearers for the highest quality of performance, to explain, illustrate and illuminate the guiding principles behind our performance ideals and to offer first-class performance opportunities to young people through our bold and ambitious education programme, Gabrieli Roar.

Gabrieli’s interpretations strive to recreate the original performances of musical works as far as possible, in the belief that historical performance ideals and knowledge of the old world are essential for creating music anew. We seek to engage with and to explore the links between music from all periods. Through lively music-making, committed research and the production of ground-breaking recordings, Gabrieli’s mission is to challenge common and accepted perceptions of classical music, and to re-invigorate and innovate in order to sustain the relevance of these great pieces of art in the twenty-first century.

This album contains no booklet.