Handel
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Musicians are big on postcards...But none are as beautifully written as those by Stephen Hough, a reliable scribe wherever he is in the world. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2026, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Handel: Alceste
RecommendedLucy Crowe (soprano), Benjamin Hulett (tenor) & Andrew Foster-Williams (bass-baritone)
Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn
Curnyn's delicious recording of the surviving score is amplified with a sinfonia from Admeto and a passacaglia from Radamisto. These fizzily, sexily swung orchestral additions emphasise the... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 14th May 2012
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2012, Opera Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2012, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2013, Opera Award Winner
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His technical strengths emerge clearly in the way in which he negotiates the switchback turns of Vivaldi’s ‘Cada pur sul capo’ (from Artabano), the cascading melodies of Porpora’s ‘Nocchier,... —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, April 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2023, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2023 Finalists, Finalist - Voice & Ensemble
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Vocal Music
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2023
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The ensemble is a coterie of some of the finest early musicians on the scene today – friends who evidently relish the art of musical conversation, the guiding ethos of the English consort tradition. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2024, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recording of the Week, 24th May 2024
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2024, Chamber Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalists 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Baroque Instrumental
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Special offer. Handel: Samson
RecommendedJoshua Ellicott (tenor), Sophie Bevan(soprano), Fflur Wyn (soprano), Mary Bevan (soprano), Jess Dandy (contralto), Hugo Hymas (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass), Vitali Rozynko (bass-baritone)
Dunedin Consort, John Butt
Butt has created the best Samson ever...These choral forces make for a vibrancy unique among Samson recordings…Butt’s deep grasp of both Handel’s rhetoric and of large-scale structure turns... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2019
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Baroque Vocal
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Critics' Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Finalist - Choral
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Choral
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Special offer. Handel: Agrippina
RecommendedJoyce DiDonato (Agrippina), Elsa Benoit (Poppea), Luca Pisaroni (Claudio), Franco Fagioli (Nerone), Jakub Józef Orliński (Ottone), Andrea Mastroni (Pallante), Carlo Vistoli (Narciso), Biagio Pizzuti (Lesbo), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Giunone)
Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
This Agrippina jostles for top place among the opera’s complete recordings. Joyce DiDonato is matchless in the title role, most other cast members likewise outstrip their rivals and their vocal... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 11th January 2020, Record of the Week
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Presto Recording of the Week, 31st January 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2020, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2020, Opera Choice
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (DiDonato)
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Conductor of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Winner - Opera
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Opera
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Grammy Awards, 63rd Awards (2021), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Special offer. Handel: Messiah
Hilary Cronin (soprano), Helen Charlston (mezzo), Alexander Chance, Nathan Mercieca (countertenors), Guy Cutting (tenor), Frederick Long, Edward Grint (bass-baritones), Irish Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Peter Whelan
My spirits were uplifted almost throughout the recording. A current of gentle zephyrs refreshes every bar of the music...Complementing the instrumental vitality is the invigorating choral singing... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, April 2026, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, May 2026, Choral Choice
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Special offer. Handel: Theodora
RecommendedLisette Oropesa (Theodora), Joyce DiDonato (Irene), Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian (Didymus), Michael Spyres (Septimius), John Chest (Valens), Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
This is now the benchmark Theodora; it is optimally cast, dramatically intense and luminously beautiful. Its world-class principals use their fine vocal qualities to deepen their characters.... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 28th October 2022
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2022, Recording of the Month
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Sunday Times, 10 Best Classical Albums of 2022
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2023, Winner - Choral
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Female Singer of the Year (Oropesa & DiDonato)
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Male Singer of the Year (Spyres)
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Conductor of the Year
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Special offer. Handel: Serse
Emily D’Angelo (Serse), Lucy Crowe (Romilda), Paula Murrihy (Arsamene), Mary Bevan (Atalanta), Daniela Mack (Amastre), Ariodate (Neal Davies), William Dazeley (Elviro), The English Concert, Harry Bicket
With his ravishing, hilarious and profound recording of Serse, conductor Harry Bicket once again puts all rivals in the shade...The suave assurance of Bicket and the English Concert is expressed... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 10th June 2023, Record of the Week
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2023, Recording of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2023, Opera Choice
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a maddening, fascinating and often bewitching disc —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
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Gramophone Awards, 2017, Finalist - Recital
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International Classical Music Awards, 2017, Winner - Baroque Vocal
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