# Your favorite Handel cantatas?



## Dulova Harps On (Nov 2, 2018)

I've had the first part of Tra le fiamme (Il consiglio) (HWV 170) stuck in my head for days! Please help rid me of it by telling me your favorite Handel cantatas. I had listened to some of the La Risonanza CD's a few months back but can't remember which tracks I liked. Jauntier pieces I prefer than the slower arias.


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## cybernaut (Feb 6, 2021)

More genius from Michael Haydn. For me, the beauty of this is on par with J.S. Bach, Mozart, and the other greats.


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## cybernaut (Feb 6, 2021)

ugh...wrong thread. Apologies.


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## Dulova Harps On (Nov 2, 2018)

cybernaut said:


> ugh...wrong thread. Apologies.


No problem. I quite like M Haydn. Anyway everybody's probably too busy discussing the worthiness of Simon Rattle to answer my thread! :lol:


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## cybernaut (Feb 6, 2021)

Dulova Harps On said:


> No problem. I quite like M Haydn. Anyway everybody's probably too busy discussing the worthiness of Simon Rattle to answer my thread! :lol:


Well, I hope they arrive here at some point.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

There are about 150 or so of these cantatas, and I have only heard a fraction, maybe 20 or so. They range from about 10 min to more than 30 min and from only b.c. accompaniment to small orchestral (like tra le fiamme with recorder and gamba solos, IIRC). My favorite is the most famous one, Delirio amoroso". Other great ones are "Ero e leandro", Notte placida e cheta", "Agrippina condotta a morire", "Lucrezia".
There are anthologies with Kirky, Kozena, Dessay and others. Maria Zadori had a few more that once appeared on a Brilliant classics set (orig. Hungaroton), they are very good. There are also duets/scenes like Apollo e Dafne, not sure if they count towards this body of works.
Glossa apparently started to record all of them, not sure, how far they got.


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## Dulova Harps On (Nov 2, 2018)

Due to the overwhelming response to this thread I am now heading over to the Simon Rattle thread to discuss his hair.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

I don't know many Handel cantatas, but I enjoy _Tra Le Fiamme_ and _Il Delirio Amoroso_. My favorite aria from the little I know of his cantatas is from the former, _Voli per l'aria_.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

There is even a connection as Kozena recorded a pretty good disc with Handel cantatas before she became Ms. Rattle... I didn't even think of sacred cantatas, mainly the secular ones. Some of them might be a bit better known, Von Otter has a disc (although the longest piece is not by Handel but a certain Ferrandini), Kirkby on BIS, sometimes they are mixed with the early Latin church pieces (of which the best and only well known is the Dixit Dominus). Another somewhat overlooked body of work are the Chandos/Cannons anthems, absolutely wonderful music, a bit like smaller scale Bach cantatas and not "Italian" but already in the Italian/German/English mixed style that Handel brought to a more monumental scale in the later English oratorios.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Handel wrote over 100 cantatas, mostly when his genius was already showing in his 20s. There are numerous to choose from.


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