Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalists 2024

Sunday Times
20 Best Classical Albums of 2024

Nardus Williams (soprano)
The Dunedin Consort, John Butt

Ero e Leandro "Qual ti riveggio, oh Dio", HWV 150
Tra le fiamme, HWV170
Armida abbandonata, HWV 105
Handel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, HWV 46a: Tu del ciel ministro eletto

Handel's arrival in Rome seems to have had a miraculous influence on his development as a composer. Something about the eternal city ignited the most productive period of his entire career: there Handel worked with some of the greatest musicians of the age and enjoyed the favours of major patrons of the arts. There he also witnessed the clerical aristocracy's sensual enjoyment of those very luxuries, excesses, and trappings of beauty that they professed to deny in their sermons. In Handel in Rome, Dunedin Consort and its director John Butt set out to convey Handel's response to this stimulating and somewhat paradoxical environment with three Italian cantatas. Winner of the Rising Talent award at the 2022 International Opera Awards, Nardus Williams is the star soprano.

"This is effectively a debut recital recording for the soprano Nardus Williams, and she is outstanding… her voice giving the impression that it’s about to come unmoored and yet remaining absolutely, thrillingly secure." - The Guardian