Well, it's happened again--another reference-recording shake-up. This new Solomon from Daniel Reuss, the RIAS Kammerchor, and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is now the one to own, and unless you're a collector of these things, the only one you'll need. And that's not to diminish the achievements of Gardiner or of the recent McGegan live production on Carus, but this performance and recording are so dynamic and vibrant, so present and powerful that you can't help but be swept up in the sheer glory and grandeur of one of Handel's greatest scores. Yes, Gardiner's 1984 Philips recording remains impressive, especially for the clarity and detail of the orchestra and the consistently strong, committed performances by all concerned; but this one is even more magnificent, the soloists just a notch more attuned to the drama, while the chorus and orchestra go beyond the performance of a series of "numbers" to really inhabit the scenes and effectively impart the character and mood of the story.

Sarah Connolly, who's already made her mark as a Handel singer, here an alto, elsewhere a mezzo (type Q10090 and Q8177 in Search Reviews), is one of the more commanding, darker-voiced Solomons on disc (the part was written for a mezzo), and she delivers the role with a confident, thoughtful, respectfully theatrical air that's always mindful of the character while fully exploiting Handel's abundant opportunities for purely lovely musical expression. And speaking of "lovely musical expression", Susan Gritton's "Beneath the vine, or fig-tree's shade", near the end of Act 2, is among the most beautifully sung Handel arias you'll ever hear, a show-stopping performance that you'll just have to repeat once or twice before moving on to the following chorus.

All the while, Daniel Reuss shows his affinity for this score by his absolutely "right" management of tempo and flow, of rhythmic cadence, of sonority and dynamic gradation. The contrasts--between, say, the aforementioned "Beneath the vine...", one of Handel's heart-rending gems, and the work's final, rousing chorus--are real and purposeful. The choruses--and these are some of Handel's finest--are properly inflected and sung with requisite technical discipline joined with the sort of buoyant, open-hearted spirit that's bound up in nearly everything Handel wrote, but that's rarely so affectingly realized. The same must be said of this excellent orchestra's performance, and it's all complemented by ideally balanced, vibrant, room-filling sound. This is one of those recordings that from the opening moments assures you that you won't be going anywhere--it's that good, it's that compelling, and it's absolutely essential. [11/16/2007]

--David Vernier