Arianna Savall, Petter Udland Johansen, Die Freitagsakademie, Katharina Suske - Händel & Purcell: If Love's A Sweet Passion (2026) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III: If love’s a sweet passion (Soprano, Tenor)
02. King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: How blest are shepherds (Shepherd)
03. Solomon, HWV 67, Act III: May peace in Salem ever dwell! (Queen of Sheba)
04. Solomon, HWV 67, Act III: Will the sun forget to streak (Queen of Sheba)
05. Esther, HWV 50, Act I: Tune your harps to cheerful strains (1st Israelite)
06. Amadigi di Gaula, HWV 11, Act I: Il crudel m’abbandona (Melissa)
07. Amadigi di Gaula, HWV 11, Act I: Ah! Spietato! (Melissa)
08. L' Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato, HWV 55, Act III: As steals the morn upon the night (Soprano, Tenor)
09. Terpsichore, HWV 8b: Chaconne
10. Giulio Cesare, HWV 17, Act II: Che sento? Oh Dio! (Cleopatra)
11. Giulio Cesare, HWV 17, Act II: Se pietà di me non senti (Cleopatra)
12. Semele, HWV 58, Act II: Where’er you walk (Jupiter)
13. Semele, HWV 58, Act II: I must with speed amuse her (Jupiter)
14. Acis and Galatea, HWV 49, Act I: Ye verdant plains and woody mountains (Galatea)
15. Acis and Galatea, HWV 49, Act I: O didst thou know the pains (Galatea)
16. Acis and Galatea, HWV 49, Act I: As when the dove laments her love (Galatea)
17. Acis and Galatea, HWV 49, Act II: ´Tis done, heart (Galatea)
18. Acis and Galatea, HWV 49, Act II: Heart, the seat of soft delight (Galatea)
19. Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: Thy hand, Belinda (Dido)
20. Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: When I am laid in earth (Dido's Lament)
21. King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: How happy the lover (Soprano, Tenor)

With If Love’s a Sweet Passion, soprano Arianna Savall, tenor Petter Udland Johansen, and the Freitagsakademieunder the direction of Katharina Suske present a carefully curated selection of vocal and instrumental works by Henry Purcell and George Friederic Handel. The album illuminates essential aspects of Baroque affect, stylistic hybridity and dramatic rhetoric. Its program brings together Purcell’s distinctly English musical language - marked by rhetorical clarity and subtle chromatic inflection - with Handel’s Italianate, operatically expansive melodic writing and his masterful shaping of musical character. This recording unites two central Baroque traditions - the English ’consort style’ of Purcell and the Italianate dramaturgy of Handel - within a coherent artistic and dramaturgical framework.