Search - George Frederick Handel, Edward Brewer, Brewer Chamber Orchestra :: Glorious Handel Soprano Arias

Baird is Tops

01/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't know just how many of these wonderful performances by the Handelian soprano have been extracted from actual full CD recordings, but clearly some are unique to this album and if one likes Baird as much as I do, who cares!!
The Faramondo arias here are for the title character and on the complete recording (also with fine conductor Rudolph Palmer) she sings the soprano lead, not the castrato assignment--so this is a first, I believe.
The cover art is a little misleading--nothing the wonderful artist gives us here exactly fits the Marilyn Monroe look, but her singing is entirely glamorous, so--again--whatever it takes to induce a listener to buy this...whatever! The singer is at once clean of sound and diction, exact with ornamentation and yet passionate as well in her involvement with the music. An American treasure. Kudos also to the conductor for the lively and sympathetic accompaniments. Bravo to all, in fact."