Handel
Brockes-Passion, HWV 48
Elizabeth Watts, Ruby Hughes (soprano), Rachael Lloyd (mezzo-soprano), Tim Mead (countertenor), Robert Murray, Gwilym Bowen, Nicky Spence (tenor), Cody Quattlebaum, Morgan Pearse (bass-baritone); Choir and Orchestra of the Academy of Ancient Music/ Richard Egarr
Academy of Ancient Music AAM007 172:46 mins (3 discs)
Richard Egarr draws deeply felt, contrasting emotions Handel’s setting of Barthold Heinrich Brockes’s non-liturgical poetic Passion, scored for oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo, was premiered in Hamburg in 1719 but was not performed in England where its German text would have been of little general interest.
Following August Wenzinger’s recording in the mid-1960s, Handel’s Brockes-Passion suffered decades in the wilderness. Now, there are four competing versions, all of which do fairer justice to the piece than Wenzinger’s somewhat lustreless albeit pioneering endeavour. While…
