HANDEL: APOLLO E DAFNE; SILETE VENTI Karina Gauvin - soprano Russell Braun - baritone Les Violons du Roy Bernard Labadie Dorian Recordings, xCD-90288 Full Price

Completed in Hanover in or around 1710 on a work begun in Venice, Apollo e Dafne is described as the quintessential Italian dramatic cantata; with a subject drawn from mythology and a pastoral setting, it deals with the pangs of love in a text that is filled with powerful and evocative imagery and rhetoric. For a work by a man only in his early twenties, it shows a composer of utmost maturity: Handel displays a complete mastery of not only musical form, but also text-setting, musical imagery and, perhaps most importantly, dramatic characterisation. A sense of subtlety is present throughout the eighteen numbers: each character grows throughout, with Apollo maturing from the brash warrior of his opening recitative to a gentle pursuer. Dafne, on the other hand, turns from flighty innocence to cruel resolution.

Under the more-than-able direction of Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie, we are treated to a whirlwind performance of this romance, with orchestral playing that must be amongst some of the finest and most stylistically-aware to come from the American continent in recent years. Nothing is allowed to rest: tempi are upbeat, perhaps a little too much so for my taste, but, nevertheless, they create an impression of excitement throughout the performance that is only bettered by Gauvin and Braun's stunning techniques and sense of characterisation. Lesser mortals would have fallen by the wayside long before the duet 'Una guerra ho dentro il seno' comes to its final cadence where both would-be lovers are caught up in a passion that would make even the most ardent romantic novelist come out in a cold sweat. The text is complemented by a fiery accompaniment that serves only to heighten the affection of the music: both playing and singing is superb.

Complimenting Apollo is the Latin cantata Silete venti for solo soprano. Of the two works on the disc, this comes off the worst with some unfortunately shapeless playing from the orchestra in its slower movements. Again, Gauvin displays her superb technique, and her control in some of the long melismatic phrases is quite extraordinary. But one longs for a variety of tone and dynamic that is altogether missing here. Again the orchestral playing is balanced and dignified, but the cantata suffers from some profusely-long 'walking' basses that here do little other than plod - more articulation and shape would have provided the sense of perpetuum mobile that Handel is trying to create. Neither does a rather rich acoustic help the overall flow of the individual arias: the change to a slightly quicker tempo in 'Dulcis Amor, Jesu care', for example, is confused by too much resonance and takes several bars to successfully settle.

Overall, this disc is worthy of purchase if only for the superb performance of Apollo e Dafne: other recordings are intensely dreary by comparison. Keep well away if you still prefer your Handel sung by the Kathleen Ferriers of this world, but if you want a sprightly, exciting and dynamic performance, look no further.

John Woodford