ENDLESS PLEASURE
This carefully curated journey through Handel’s London operas incorporates some of the composer’s most memorable arias and duets, from the virtuosic brilliance of Rinaldo’s “Venti, turbini” to Ariodante’s hauntingly anguished “Scherza infida”. The music is interspersed with a highly entertaining selection of contemporaneous readings (optional but recommended), transporting the audience to the colourful world of one of opera’s very greatest composers.
| Sample Programme | |
| Handel | Aria, “Venti, turbini” from Rinaldo (1711) |
| Recitative and Aria, “Ah, spietato! e non ti muove” from Amadigi (1715) | |
| Aria, “Dolce bene di quest’alma” from Radamisto (1720) | |
| Recitative and Aria, “Bel contento già gode quest’alma” from Flavio (1723) | |
| Recitative and Aria, “Piangerò la sorte mia” from Giulio Cesare (1724) | |
| Aria, “Se’l mio duol non è sì forte” from Rodelinda (1725) | |
| Arioso, “Se m’è contrario il Cielo” from Riccardo Primo (1727) | |
| Duet, “Tutta contenta or gode quest’alma” from Tolomeo (1728) | |
| Interval | |
| Duet, “Caro amico amplesso” from Poro (1731) | |
| Recitative and Aria, “Scherza infida” from Ariodante (1734) | |
| Aria, “Di’, cor mio, quanto t’amai” from Alcina (1735) | |
| Aria, “Vedi l’ape” from Berenice (1737) | |
| Duet and Aria, “L’amerete?… Se bramate d’amar” from Serse (1738) | |
| Duet, “Ama; nell’armi e nell’amar” from Deidamia (1741) | |
| Aria, “Endless pleasure, endless love” from Semele (1744) |
Forces: 3/4 soloists (soprano, soprano, mezzo-soprano, optional speaker), 0.0.0.0. – 1.2.0.1. strings, harpsichord
Where’er You Walk
Released on Signum Classics in 2016
“there’s a guileless beauty of tone in Clayton’s Handel … he is a stylish but not slavish Handelian … led by Matthew Truscott, the string playing is reliably silky, well articulated and quick-witted, with musky obbligato solos from bassoonist Philip Turbett and oboist James Eastway.”
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
“Clayton’s tenor has been getting steadily stronger and more muscular over the past few years, and there’s more evidence of that here…with the added bonus of a cameo from soprano Mary Bevan (‘As steals the morn’) and the skilled support of Ian Page and The Orchestra of Classical Opera it’s a very attractive package.”
GRAMOPHONE
