[ Naxos / 2 CD ]
Release Date: Tuesday 10 July 2012
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
"Schwarz's 1991 Seattle Acis is disciplined but passe in sound, style and rhythmic gait. It skimps on Handelian delight, though its soloist quartet is decent." BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 **
Acis and Galatea, variously described as a pastoral, a 'little opera' and a masque, is one of Handel's most popular works. It is a delectable succession of pastoral airs, love-lorn lyrics, and sprightly or mourning choruses, spiced by the pungent and unforgettable interjection of the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, who destroys the idyll of the shepherd Acis and the nymph Galatea. Handel had first turned to the subject in a cantata written in Naples in 1708. His English work, formally a masque, went through several stages until this two-act version of 1739, written principally by John Gay and graced by Handel's exquisite music.