Georg Friedrich Haendel (1685-1759)
Cantate "Diana Cacciatrice", HWV 79
Cantate "Alpestre Monte", HWV 81
Cantate "Olinte pastore arcade alle glorie del Tebro", HWV 143
Cantate "Tu fedel? Tu costante?", HWV 171

Carlotta Colombo, soprano
Maria Dalia Albertini, soprano en écho
Marta Fumagalli, contalto
Ensemble Fantazyas
Roberto Balconi, clavecin, direction

C’est à Rome qu’Haendel trouva l’inspiration pour composer ces cantates profanes, genre particulièrement en vogue à l’époque dans la ville papale. Alternant récitatifs, airs et introduction instrumentale, elles réunissent une, deux ou trois voix féminines accompagnées de deux violons ou plus et d’une basse continue. « Diana Cacciatrice » (1707) a la particularité de s’y voir ajouter une trompette et une partie de soprano en écho symbolisant le thème de la chasse entre sonneries et poursuites figurées accentuant le discours dynamique et allègre de l’œuvre. « Alpestre Monte » (1707) se teinte d’un lyrisme sentimental et mélancolique en accord avec le thème de l’amour non-partagé. « Tu fedel ? Tu constante ? » (1707) évoque la trahison amoureuse avec une protagoniste alternant airs vengeurs et lyrisme grâcieux. « Olinto pastore arcade alle glorie del Tebro » (1708), œuvre plus conséquente, est une allégorie militaire et conquérante écrite en l’honneur du marquis Ruspoli, mécène de Haendel et protecteur de Rome. Le dynamisme de l’écriture et l’expression contrastée des sentiments témoignent dans ces œuvres de l’excellence de l’art dramatique et lyrique qui s’épanouira dans les futurs opéras d’Haendel. Ces qualités sont ici superbement rendues par des interprètes remarquables au service d’une délicieuse musicalité. (Laurent Mineau)

Four little-known pastoral cantatas by the young Handel in new and stylishly Italianate recordings. In 1706, 21-year-old Handel arrived in Italy as a prodigious celebrity, already having caught the eye and won the patronage of the Medici family in Florence. Further honours and rewards were heaped on him when he moved to Rome the following year and came under the sponsorship of the most cultured and influential of the city’s noble families. It was for them that he wrote a string of secular cantatas, on time-honoured and popular themes of arcadian and amorous bliss. These Roman cantatas have received more attention from scholars and performers in recent years, but the four presented here are still relatively unfamiliar, beginning with the brief, hunting-themed Diana cacciatrice HWV79. This cantata’s striking feature is an aria with echo soprano and trumpet solo, while Alpestre monte is an anguished tale of betrayal and suicide, including a pair of ravishing arias (again for soprano). Faithfulness is once more the vexed question posed by the album’s best-known cantata, Tu fedel? Tu costante? The searing purity of Carlotta Colombo’s soprano makes her a worthy successor to distinguished early-music specialists who have taken on the work, including Emma Kirkby. Conceived on a grander scale, Olinto pastore arcade alle glorie del Tebro is scored for three solo singers, to present an allegorical discussion between the shepherd Olinto, the river Tiber and the embodiment of Glory, concerning how the humble shepherd (a veiled allusion to Handel’s patron at the time) will restore Rome to her ancient greatness. The singer and conductor Roberto Balconi founded Fantazyas in 2000 as a flexible ensemble of instruments and voices specialising in Italian music of the 17th and 18th centuries. They have toured across Europe and Japan, and here they make their debut on Brilliant Classics.