Presto Editor's Choice
November 2022

Gramophone Magazine
January 2023
Editor's Choice

Lea Desandre (mezzo), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Thomas Dunford, Jupiter

Handel: Eternal Source of Light Divine (from Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, HWV74)
Handel: Theodora, HWV 68: With Darkness deep
Handel: The Choice of Hercules: Yet can I hear that dulcet lay
Handel: Hercules: Joys of freedom, joys of pow'r
Handel: As With Rosy Steps (from Theodora)
Handel: Despair no more shall wound me (from Semele)
Handel: Solomon: Will the Sun Forget to Streak?
Handel: Susanna: When thou art nigh...To my chaste Susanna's praise
Handel: O Lord, whose mercies numberless (from Saul)
Handel: Prophetic raptures swell my breast (from Joseph And His Brethren, HWV 59)
Handel: Thither Let Our Hearts Aspire! (from Theodora)
Handel: Suite No. 4 in D Minor, HWV 437: III. Sarabande
Handel: Semele, HWV 58, Act 2. "Prepare, Then, Ye Immortal Choir" (Semele, Ino), "Hence, Iris, Hence Away" (Juno)
Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth: Guardian angels
Handel: Fly from the Threat’ning Vengeance, Fly! (from The Occasional Oratorio)
Handel: You’ve Undone Me (from Semele)
Handel: Esther: Who calls my parting soul
Handel: No, No, I'll Take No Less (from Semele)
Handel: But Hark, the Heav'nly Sphere Turns Round (from Semele)
Handel: To thee, thou glorious son of worth (from Theodora)
Doug Balliett, Thomas Dunford: That's so You

Lutenist Thomas Dunford’s first project for Warner Classics is a complete Handel programme with his Ensemble Jupiter, and his longstanding musical partners Lea Desandre and lestyn Davies. The album stems from Dunford's desire to bring together these two sublime voices and tell a love story through Handel’s most beautiful spiritual music. During the pandemic, Thomas and Lea went through Handel's entire English-language oeuvre to build a narrative Dunford has dubbed ‘a Baroque West Side Story’. The album features arias from Semele, Theodora, Saul, Susanna, Esther, and more.

"This brilliantly-sung and played programme of sacred and secular Handel includes plenty of vocal fireworks in between the stretches of calm beauty - of which Desandre's 'As with rosy steps' and Davies's 'O Lord whose mercies numberless' stand out. Both singers excel in the excerpts from Semele, with Davies a neurotic, imperious Juno (the first time I've heard a countertenor in this role) and Desandre's bright, athletic mezzo easily encompassing the soprano heroine's stratospheric excursions in 'No, no, I'll take no less'." - Presto Music, November 2022.