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.

Soprano Francesca Aspromonte and violinist Boris Begelman present an all-Handel programme exploring the vicissitudes of love, together with Arsenale Sonoro. On Un’alma innamorata, Aspromonte urges us to take ownership of our amorous infatuations, rather than blaming it on Cupid’s arrows. The programme consists of several worldly cantatas with violino concertante – including the famous Mi palpita il cor and a world premiere recording of S’un dì m’appaga la mia crudele – interspersed with instrumental sonatas. The overall chamber-musical approach of Un’alma innamorata increases the emotional impact of the tragic heroines depicted by Aspromonte.

On her second PENTATONE album Maria & Maddalena, star soprano Francesca Aspromonte explores the Two Marys in oratorios by Lulier, Bononcini, Leopoldo I d’Asburgo, Caldara, Perti, Handel and Scarlatti, partly in new editions, documenting the extremely bloom of the genre in the years around 1700.