G.F. Handel – Recorder Sonata in A minor (HWV 362) – Allegro – Isabel Favilla & Giulio Quirici

Isabel Favilla, recorder @isabelfavilla Giulio Quirici, theorbo @GiulioQuirici Isabel (recorder & bassoon) and Giulio (theorbo & guitar) started playing together in 2012 and performed countless duo recitals ever since. In this intimate settings their instruments can be appreciated at their most beautiful, in all the expressivity and delicacy so typical of baroque music. Isabel and Giulio tour internationally and joined forces on several critically-acclaimed CDs (both their last two albums received “5 Diapasons” in 2019). They won first prize and public prizes at the Händel Competition (Göttingen) and Van Wassenaar Competition (Utrecht) with Radio Antiqua. More recently, they were artists in residence at the Concertgebouw Bruges: “Extremely successful interpretation: in addition to the lively, loose, ample, supple playing with an ever-new and fresh vivacity in the fast movements, the basso continuo is magnificently realized”. Bertrand Abraham – Clicmusique “I don’t know what to praise more – Favilla’s gloriously sonorous tone, the grace of her wonderful ornaments, the always absolutely coherent tempi, her incredible sprezzatura and delicacy of agogic shaping or – not to forget – the truly “speaking” congenial continuo …” Markus Zahnhausen – Klassik Heute “This intimate chamber music gets exactly the right approach here. Highly recommended for every recorder lover” Marcel Bijlo – Klassiek Zaken George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel’s music forms one of the peaks of the “high baroque“ style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age. Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. In 1737, he had a physical breakdown, changed direction creatively, and addressed the middle class and made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742), he never composed an Italian opera again. His orchestral Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks remain steadfastly popular. One of his four coronation anthems, Zadok the Priest, has been performed at every British coronation since 1727. Almost blind, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man, and was given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey. Handel composed more than forty opere serie over a period of more than thirty years. Since the late 1960s, interest in Handel’s music has grown. The musicologist Winton Dean wrote that “Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order.“ His music was admired by Classical-era composers, including Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.