Presto Recording of the Week
9th February 2024

Magdalena Kožená (Alcina), Anna Bonitatibus (Ruggiero), Erin Morley (Morgana), Elizabeth DeShong (Bradamante), Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto), Alex Rosen (Melisso), Valerio Contaldo (Oronte)

Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski

Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre return to Handel with a complete recording of his opera Alcina.The title role is interpreted by Magdalena Kožená, who reunites with Les Musiciens and maestro Minkowski after a series of acclaimed baroque recordings.She is joined by an excellent cast of soloists, consisting of Erin Morley (Morgana), Anna Bonitatibus (Ruggiero), Elizabeth De Shong (Bradamante), Alois Mühlbacher (Oberto), Valerio Contaldo (Oronte) and Alex Rosen (Melisso).This studio recording transports the listener to Alcina’s enchanted island, and shows Handel at the peak of his power: the score is dramatic, lush and colourful as well as introspective and profound where the story requires it.

Since its foundation in 1982, and under the baton of its founder and musical director Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre have developed into one of the world’sbest period-instrument ensembles, with a vast discography. The ensemble returns to Pentatone after having presented Mozart’s Mass in C Minor in 2020.Alcina is star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená’s fifth album as part of her exclusive collaboration with Pentatone, after having presented the baroque cantatas recital album Il Giardino dei sospiri and the songs in chamber-musical setting project Soirée in 2019, as well as Nostalgia together with Yefim Bronfman (2021) and Folk Songs with the Czech Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle (2023). The other soloists all make their Pentatone debut.

"The four female voices deliver some of the most stylish and exhilarating Handel singing you’re likely to hear in one place today...at the heart of it all is Kožená, at the height of her powers as a vocal actress and fully at ease with the tessitura of a role usually assigned to sopranos. She charts Alcina’s psychological journey quite magnificently...All in all, this could well be a new reference recording for this rich and strange opera." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Music, 9th February 2024