Dame Jane Glover, Music of the Baroque Chorus & Orchestra Handel Jephtha (2 CD)

The First American Recording of Handel's Final Masterpiece on 2CD!
With Libretto by Thomas Morell!
Reference Recordings proudly presents great baroque composer George Frideric Handel's final masterpiece: Jephtha, HWV 70! Recorded live in September 2022 by multi-GRAMMY®-award winning engineer Christopher Willis, conducted by Dame Jane Glover, and performed by Chicago-based Music of the Baroque Chorus & Orchestra. This marks the first American commercial recording of Jephtha, Handel's most sublime, emotionally intense work and an absolutely gorgeous baroque masterpiece.
Now in its fifth decade, Music of the Baroque is one of the leading professional ensembles in America devoted to 17th and 18th-century works. The Chicago Sun-Times writes, "Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra may be the big guys on the local classical music scene, but in terms of sheer quality of performance… Music of the Baroque inhabits the same stratosphere."
Acclaimed British conductor Jane Glover, named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year's Honours, has been Music of the Baroque's music director since 2002. Jane Glover has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia. She has worked with the period­ instrument orchestras Philharmonia Baroque and the Handel & Haydn Society. A Mozart specialist, she has conducted all the Mozart operas all over the world regularly, and her core operatic repertoire also includes Monteverdi, Handel, and Britten.

Features:

• Double CD
• Recorded Live in September 2022 by Multi-Grammy-Award Winning Engineer Christopher Willis
• Detailed Liner Notes
• Libretto by Thomas Morell
• Total Time: 132:42
• Made in USA

Musicians:

• Music of the Baroque Chorus & Orchestra
• Dame Jane Glover, conductor, harpsichord
• Andrew Megill, chorus director
• David Portillo, tenor (Jephtha)
• Lauren Snouffer, soprano (Iphis)
• Clara Osowski, mezzo­-soprano (Storgè)
• Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor (Hamor)
• Neal Davies, bass­-baritone (Zebul)
• Katelyn Lee, soprano (Angel)

Selections:

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Jephtha HWV 70
Disc 1
1. Overture
2. It must be so
3. Pour forth no more
4. No more to Ammon's god and king
5. But Jephtha comes, kind heaven
6. Virtue my soul shall stil embrace
7. 'Twill be a painful separation
8. In gentle murmurs will I mourn
9. Happy this embassy
10. Dull delay in piercing anguish
11. Ill suits the voice of love
12. Take the heard you fondly gave
13. I go, my soul
14. These labours past
15. What mean these doubtful fancies
16. If Lord, sustained
17. Tis said, Attend ye Chiefs
18. O God behold our sore distress
19. Some dire event hangs o'er our heads
20. Scenes of horror
21. Say, my dear mother
22. The smiling dawn of happy days
23. Such, Jephtha, was the haughty king's reply
24. When his loud voice in thunder spake
25. Glad tidings of great joy
26. Up the dreadful steep ascending
27. 'Tis well, haste, haste, ye maidens
28. Tune the soft melodious lute
29. Again Heaven smiles
30. Freedom now once more
31. His mighty arm
32. In glory high
Disc 2
1. Hail, glorious conqueror
2. Welcome as the cheerful light
3. Welcome though, whose deeds
4. Horror! Confusion!
5. Open thy marble jaws
6. Why is my brother thus afflicted?
7. First perish though
8. If such thy cruel purpose
9. On me let blind mistaken zeal
10. O spare your daughter
11. Such news flies swift
12. For joys so vast
13. Happy they
14. Deeper and deeper still
15. How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees!
16. Hide thou thy hated beams
17. A father, off ring up his only child
18. Waft her, angels, through the skies
19. Ye sacred priests
20. Farewell, ye limpid springs and floods
21. Doubtful fear and reverent awe
22. Rise, Jephtha, and ye reverend priests
23. Happy, Iphis, shalt thou live
24. For ever blessed be thy holy name
25. Theme sublime of endless praise
26. Let me congratulate
27. Laud her, all ye virgin train
28. O let me fold thee
29. With transport, Iphis
30. My faithful Hamor
31. All that is in Hamor mine
32. Ye house of Gilead