Search - Handel, Jones, Miles :: Handel: Agrippina / Gardiner [highlights]

Fragmented and Dissected

gobirds2 | New England | 01/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been listening to film scores for years. For the majority of those years many of us have had to settle for the selections that made it to the album from the actual film score. Contented? Not Quite! Thanks to the emergence of the film score as a legitimate cousin to `Classical' symphonic and/or choral compositions we are now getting recordings of `complete scores.' I think this can be attributed to the compositional and orchestral genius of Bernard Herrmann through his simple yet effective mastery of the human emotion. Turning that picture 180 degrees, I now find myself reciprocating and exploring music and compositions before the birth of the cinema. This CD: "Handel: Agrippina - Highlights" is a bit of a disappointment. I am no longer settling for just a section of the pie. I'll admit that the cover of this CD is rather appealing, but after listening to the music and reading the reviews I am left with a feeling of the glass being half empty. Highlights leave me yearning for the deleted parts and that brings me full circle and still not satisfied."