One favourite Handel record

[Barbirollians]

Just one - no cheating . Handel's music I seem to love more and more as I get older .

Given just one record it would be this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/9-German-Ari...9+german+arias- bought on cassette when I was 19 , then LP second hand when the cassette snapped and finally CD when I sourced one on ebay but now at last after 25 years back in the catalogue.

If you could have just one Handel record for your desert island what would it be ?

[Bryn]

Without a doubt, the Niquet SACD of the Royal Fireworks and Watermusics.

[Petrushka]

I've never really had much time for Handel but I love beyond words the Solti recording of Messiah http://www.amazon.co.uk/Handel-Messi...+messiah+solti

Excellent soloists, the amazing Chicago Symphony Chorus singing as if there lives depended on it and Solti and the Chicago SO providing a reading that culminates in a properly overwhelming Worthy is the Lamb and Amen. Solti's reputation may lead you to expect something very different from what you get here but this is one of my desert island discs without question and I hope I've not broken the 1 CD rule as this is actually two!

[Barbirollians]

Three very different Handel records - The Nine German Arias on EMI is, I think , one of Emma Kirkby's very finest records .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Just ONE???!!!

Well, as it's one of my favourites, and the one which I've played most recently - Manze's recordings of the Opus 6 Concerti Grossi.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This very difficult, but I'll choose the Handel Oboe Concerti with Leon Goossens.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B0000067UJ/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

[MickyD]

Just one is practically impossible for me! I agree about the Kirkby. Haven't heard the Niquet disc, but would like to. In the end I guess I would plump for Hogwood's "Messiah", as it was so revelatory when it first came out and still sounds so wonderfully fresh. But then there are all the operas...oh dear, no desert island for me, I fear.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But then there are all the operas...oh dear, no desert island for me, I fear.

I just hope Barbi doesn't find the memory stick containing all the other works hidden in my shoe before he sails away!

[BBMmk2]

Sir Colin Davis's recording on the LSO Live label of messiah, or that recording of Emma Kirkby et al in a collection of Handel's choral music on Decca, with the Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, Anthem for the Foundling Hospital etc etc.

[doversoul1]

I have special affection for
Faramondo : Choeur de la Radio Suisse, Lugano & I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Virgin/2166112

Probably a minor work and the resolution of the drama is a bit iffy but it was by this work/disc I learned how Baroque operas worked and became hooked on them.

But again, this doesn’t mean I could do without all the rest… Ah! domanda crudele...

ferneyhoughgeliebte
Make sure to hide something you could play on, too (I have a vague idea that there are more convenient options these days)

[verismissimo]

I think for me it would have to be Mackerras's ground-breaking Messiah from 1967 with Elizabeth Harwood, Janet Baker, Paul Esswood, Robert Tear, Raimund Herincx, Ambrosian Singers and the ECO.

[MickyD]

Sir Colin Davis's recording on the LSO Live label of messiah, or that recording of Emma Kirkby et al in a collection of Handel's choral music on Decca, with the Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, Anthem for the Foundling Hospital etc etc.

Yes indeed, the Foundling Hospital and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne disc from the AAM is very, very special...from the vintage years of L'Oiseau Lyre. At around the same time they also did a brilliant recording of "Alceste", another one to snap up if you don't know it.

[aeolium]

If the selection is to be literally one disc only, David Daniels' recording of arias with the OAE and Norrington gives a good idea of the range and genius of Handel's operatic writing. If box sets are allowed, I would have either Mackerras' superb recording of Judas Maccabeus or the set that first introduced me to the delights of Handelian opera ages ago, Joan Sutherland in Alcina and highlights of Giulio Cesare in Egitto, with the LSO under Bonynge and a cast including Luigi Alva and Mirella Freni! Not played or sung as it would be now but I thought it sounded wonderful.

[BBMmk2]

Yes indeed, the Foundling Hospital and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne disc from the AAM is very, very special...from the vintage years of L'Oiseau Lyre. At around the same time they also did a brilliant recording of "Alceste", another one to snap up if you don't know it.

yes I do have it!! :)

[Pulcinella]

Would it be cheating to burn my own CD?
If not, I'd couple that AAM Birthday Ode with Dixit Dominus (probably Preston, but I grew up with the Willcocks version); there might even be room to add one of the Concerti Grossi.