This "new Baroque festival" consists of a pair of concerts, recorded live at the Staatsoper in Berlin, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Baroque opera group
Le concert d'Astree
and its director,
Emmanuelle Haim
, and devoted to raising money for brain research.
Haim
notes the wide range of Baroque repertory the group has taken on over those 20 years and explains that the musicians have narrowed those down to five composers:
Purcell
,
Campra
Handel
Rameau
, and
Vivaldi
. These show
's versatility, both as a conductor and as a judge of talent, for excepting perhaps
and
(the latter is present only with a single aria from
Judith triumphans
), these require entirely different musical approaches and really different kinds of singers. The anthology approach here might serve listeners who haven't heard much from
; it will also be a nice keepsake for those who are already fans. Note that in the suite of dances from
's
Les boreades
, the conductor is none other than
Simon Rattle
, who has longstanding connections with this group; these are deliciously graceful. The sound from the Staatsoper loses a bit of immediacy, but it's nothing for which the supremely communicative
can't compensate. ~ James Manheim