“Time will tell if this one becomes the definitive take on an extraordinary masterpiece, but let there be no doubt to anyone: the golden age that Minkowski and Kožená embodied in the mid-nineties continues to this day.“
Our wonderful Vice President Artists & Repertoire – Renaud Loranger – recommends Handel: Alcina, with Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski, Magdalena Kožená, Erin Morley, Alois Mühlbacher, Anna Bonitatibus, Elizabeth DeShong, Valerio Contaldo & Alex Rosen.
“I am often reluctant to single out any one of our releases, or of my own concert programs for that matter, concerned that it might be perceived as preference expressed – the question unavoidably arising: “surely you must have bigger crushes”…? – or else favourites picked. This, however, is different.
It started one cold winter evening in Grenoble, almost five and a half years ago, the sound of it not much louder than a late-night murmur at first, on the heels of rather taxing yet rewarding Mozart sessions with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. What should we do next? We had toyed with various ideas on the symphonic front, none of them really taking off. Might the label consider recording full operas with the group, given the breadth of the enterprise, and the comparatively heavy costs associated? Marc had once mentioned that Handel’s Alcina was an opera he dreamt of carving in marble, and indeed no genius instinct was necessary to intuit that it could become a crowning jewel in his storied and incredibly vast discography. « Et si on arrivait à convaincre Magdalena, là vraiment, ce serait le rêve absolu… ». The absolute dream became a distinct possibility hours later. When probed, Kožená responded immediately: “Any time!”.
Fast-forward to February 2023 and the acoustically immaculate Auditorium de Bordeaux, where the dream became a reality after a series of pandemic-related stop-starts. As with any achievement of comparable magnitude, this one has magic dust spread all over it. The phrase “summit meeting” gets thrown around a lot, but this is the textbook definition of it, if there is any: the reunion, long overdue on record, of two legendary artists whose career paths are intimately interwoven, the conductor’s nurturing hand ever essential to this particular mezzo’s spectacular rise to stardom, almost three decades ago; an anticipated role debut for her, amongst a group of world-class singers who simply outdo one another; and Minkowski’s incomparable orchestra, so wholly and profoundly at home in the handelian idiom, forming much more than a bedrock for glorious voices, their performance so finely layered and richly textured that it simply scintillates throughout, in a myriad of instrumental colours. They are equal protagonists in an exquisitely theatrical and contrasted interpretation.
It was through Marc and Les Musiciens’ fabled Handel, Gluck and Rameau albums – more often than not featuring Magdalena – that I first discovered Baroque opera. Time will tell if this one becomes the definitive take on an extraordinary masterpiece, but let there be no doubt to anyone: the golden age that Minkowski and Kožená embodied in the mid-nineties continues to this day.
Renaud Loranger, Vice President Artists & Repertoire
