My latest CD purchase could well be dedicated to lovers of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel, and the soprano voice. The contrast between Bach and Handel has always fascinated me; born within six weeks and 180 km of each other, their music is strikingly differentiated on this recent CD from Sabine Devieilhe, with Pygmalion directed by Raphaël Pichon. Bach alternates with Handel, with just one interlude from the band (the Sinfonia from the cantata BWV 199 – which I am sure I once played in my youth arranged as the first movement of a violin concerto).
All 84 minutes of music are first class. The singing is superb (I love Devieilhe's voice), the band plays wonderfully, and the recording (Erato) is first rate. What strikes me is that Bach uses the soprano voice as another instrument; Handel, as a composer attracted to opera and Italian music, revels in the soprano voice. No wonder so many singers love the music of Handel! Bach has you nodding approval; Handel has your foot tapping. Not too many CDs I fall in love with at first listening. But the combination of Bach, Handel, and Devieilhe is completely irresistible. Devieilhe sings mainly in German, with a couple of Handel pieces in Italian and, to my ears, she is excellent. Bach's cantata BWV 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen is a favourite of sopranos. I have it sung by Emma Kirkby, Christine Schäfer, Carolyn Sampson, Elizabeth Watts, and Maria Stader, some of whom screech a bit; it's a bit tough competing with a trumpet. Sabine does not screech, and the strident trumpet is well balanced.
A sour note to end with? As so often with Warner – an American company – there are glamorous photos of Sabine, but not one picture of the two eminent composers. Probably the Warner production team had never heard of the two “song arrangers”.
