Conductor Diego Fasolis and his Coro della Radio Svizzera always can be counted on for a very good show, and this one, featuring two well-known if not necessarily top-drawer Handel works, is no exception. The early Dixit Dominus, with its Vivaldian “De torrente in via” movement and other Italian stylistic elements, is appropriately lively and crisply articulated in the fast sections and fully indulgent of the slow passages, allowing us to hear in gorgeous detail the promising signs of Handel’s germinating genius. Likewise, the performances in the Dettingen Te Deum (written to celebrate the British/Hanoverian victory over the French at Dettingen) are exemplary–indeed, as we’ve come to expect from these forces, the chorus is absolutely first rate, and if you don’t mind some solo singing (expecially from the soprano I and alto in the Dixit Dominus) that’s a bit heavier than we’re used to these days, this release is just about perfect. The soloists in the Te Deum–particularly the three men–are finely polished and warmly expressive, artful Handel interpreters.
This orchestra reminds me, in its strong rhythmic impetus and overall energy and ensemble precision, of Quebec’s Les Violons du Roy, which in my book places it among the world’s top baroque-music orchestras; likewise the choir, one of Europe’s unheralded gems, which is unsurpassed in this repertoire. There are some especially fine choruses and a couple of luscious arias among the less-inspired movements in these two works, and if you’re looking for solid, catalog-worthy performances of any of it, you won’t go wrong here. If only the engineers/producers would have chopped off the inexplicably reluctant, anemic applause at the recording’s end–it only detracts from a fine listening experience, and besides, it’s the only evidence that the disc was made from concert performances (from the mid-1990s).
