Georg Friedrich Händel was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period. Opera dominated Handel’s career, yet he was better known for his oratorios and instrumental works for several centuries. He forged a personal idiom by taking Italian traditions and adding elements of German counterpoint and dance forms from France. The result was a uniquely cosmopolitan style which, when Handel took it to London, would expand to embrace the musical legacy of the English Restoration composer Henry Purcell. Discover a compilation of famous Handel works featuring masterpieces by the great composer and wonderful musicians.

With Water & Fire, B’Rock Orchestra and Dmitry Sinkovsky present Handel’s Water Music alongside his Music for the Royal Fireworks. Both spectacular works were written for royal open-air ceremonies, and may well have been drowned out by the noise of pyrotechnics and the waves of the Thames. Still, after Handel’s lifetime, they quickly became audience favourites. B’Rock performs these captivating suites with an ensemble that approaches the ca. 50 musicians that Handel originally employed, conveying the pomp and splendour of the occasion while also highlighting the coloristic richness and refinement of the score.

The emphasis for this album is very much on youth and prodigious talent: at 25, Julia Lezhneva is ideally suited to the soprano arias of the young Handel, who arrived in Italy from Germany as a 21 year old at the beginning of the 18th century. She has the perfect partners in Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini whose recordings of music from the Italian baroque are celebrated for their “fizzing virtuosity” and “exquisite cushion of sound” (The Independent). For some tracks the orchestra is led by Dmitry Sinkovsky, the extraordinary Russian violinist and one of today’s most versatile Baroque musicians.

The Russian composer Sergey Akhunov (b. 1967) was educated at the Kiev State Conservatory, before he started his career as an oboe player. He subsequently gained experience in various musical styles and genres such as electronic music and rock. In the mid-2000s, he consistently turned to composing orchestral, chamber and vocal music, but also film music. This recording presents vocal music by Akhunov, including "Songs", which he wrote as a commission for La Voce Strumentale.