Special offer. Handel: Eternal Heaven
Lea Desandre (mezzo), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Thomas Dunford, Jupiter
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, November 2022
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2023, Editor's Choice
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Female & Male Singer of the Year, Conductor of the Year, Solo Vocal
Desandre’s pure, warm core and skilled application of vocal colours make her lyricism seductive, while her warp-speed passagi are simply astonishing. Countertenor Iestyn Davies delivers the...
Special offer. Handel: Eternal Heaven
Lea Desandre (mezzo), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Thomas Dunford, Jupiter
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Editor's Choice, November 2022
-
Gramophone Magazine, January 2023, Editor's Choice
-
Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Female & Male Singer of the Year, Conductor of the Year, Solo Vocal
Desandre’s pure, warm core and skilled application of vocal colours make her lyricism seductive, while her warp-speed passagi are simply astonishing. Countertenor Iestyn Davies delivers the...
About
Lutenist Thomas Dunford’s first project for Warner Classics is a complete Handel programme with his Ensemble Jupiter, and his longstanding musical partners Lea Desandre and lestyn Davies. The album stems from Dunford's desire to bring together these two sublime voices and tell a love story through Handel’s most beautiful spiritual music. During the pandemic, Thomas and Lea went through Handel's entire English-language oeuvre to build a narrative Dunford has dubbed ‘a Baroque West Side Story’. The album features arias from Semele, Theodora, Saul, Susanna, Esther, and more.
Contents and tracklist
Spotlight on this release
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Thomas Dunford and Lea Desandre on Songs of Passion
23rd Dec 2025
The lutenist and mezzo discuss their Presto Award-winning album of music by Dowland and Purcell, their own first encounters with both composers as teenagers, and some of the friends and family-members who played a part in the project.
Awards and reviews
-
Presto Editor's ChoiceNovember 2022
-
Gramophone MagazineJanuary 2023Editor's Choice
-
Opus Klassik Awards2023Nominated - Female & Male Singer of the Year, Conductor of the Year, Solo Vocal
February 2023
Desandre’s pure, warm core and skilled application of vocal colours make her lyricism seductive, while her warp-speed passagi are simply astonishing. Countertenor Iestyn Davies delivers the intimate, precise, effortless vocalism for which he’s renowned, and when he and Desandre duet, their euphony is sublime
January 2023
This is an album that reaches deep into Handel’s genius – looks like there’s life in the format yet.
November 2022
This brilliantly-sung and played programme of sacred and secular Handel includes plenty of vocal fireworks in between the stretches of calm beauty - of which Desandre's 'As with rosy steps' and Davies's 'O Lord whose mercies numberless' stand out. Both singers excel in the excerpts from Semele, with Davies a neurotic, imperious Juno (the first time I've heard a countertenor in this role) and Desandre's bright, athletic mezzo easily encompassing the soprano heroine's stratospheric excursions in 'No, no, I'll take no less'.
