Search - Handel, Mackerras, Lewis :: Richard Lewis - Handel: Arias, Folksongs / Sargent, Mackerras, London SO

Richard Lewis was an outstanding lyric tenor of the 1950s whose voice had enough steel in it to do justice to heavier roles. His Handel is outstanding, done with more feeling than we're used to from today's exponents of the "historically authentic" movement. Here he gives us a lovely collection of Handel's finest tenor arias, sung with feeling and tonal beauty. Lewis is touching in "Total Eclipse" from Samson and tender in "Waft her, angels" from Jeptha, and his rendition of "War, he sung" from Alexander's Feast is among the very best. The filler is a dozen folk songs burdened by cloying arrangements, but they can't dim Lewis's world-class Handel. --Dan Davis