IN WAR & PEACE:

Harmony through Music

Arias by Handel, Leo, Purcell, Jommelli & Monteverdi

Joyce Didonato (mezzo-soprano); Il Pomo d’oro/maxim Emelyanychev

Erato 9029592846 79:00 mins

The concept of Joyce Di Donato’s latest album is simple. Almost every aria written between the 1640s and the 1750s could be said to be about tension and resolution, if not about war and peace per se. From Purcell’s Carthage and Mexico to Handel’s Israel, Rome and Egypt, and Monteverdi’s Ithaca, the clash of swords is the backdrop to a clash of words in which discord is inevitably resolved.

When contrasted with Anna Prohaska’s recital of half a dozen Baroque composers’ treatments of the stories of Dido and Cleopatra (reviewed November 2016), Didonato’s programme seems unfocused. Her execution, however, is not. Though the top of her voice is wiry under pressure, her coloratura is tightly sprung, her diction is flawless, and her phrasing of the often underrated poetry is sympathetic and sophisticated. The rarest gems are those from Leonardo Leo’s Andromaca (‘Prendi quel ferro, o barbaro!’ is a histrionic tour de force) and Jommelli’s proto-classical Attilio Regolo (‘Sprezza il furor del vento’ and ‘Par che di Giubilo’). The subtle shine Didonato brings to Susanna’s ‘Crystal streams’ (Susanna) and the firepower of a skilfully deployed chest register in Storge’s ‘Scenes of Horror’ ( Jephtha) have more lasting appeal, as does her venomous Agrippina. Il Pomo d’oro plays with Handelian zip under its new director, Maxim Emelyanychev.