Musica Sequenza - Sampling Baroque - Handel (2016) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

„The deaf have found their ears, -their eyes the blind“. It was with these words that an unnamed English poet hymned George Frideric Handel in 1724, hailing his unparalleled impact on London’s musical scene. Handel had first come to the English capital in 1710, at a time when Italian opera was largely neglected in Britain. Not until 1719 did the city’s nobility establish the first operatic venture, the Royal Academy of Music. It lasted for only nine seasons. Within the space of three decades Handel wrote almost forty operas, founding his own opera companies and often suffering financial ruin in consequence. The market for opera in 18th-century London was volatile.

Today’s music market is very different, although it is by no means easier for artists. Just as Handel helped one particular type of music to achieve its breakthrough in London, so today’s musicians seek to find an audience for their endeavours. Musica Sequenza brings together Handel’s operatic arias with new forms of musical technology and with the sounds of an urban 21st century. Handel’s melodies are his strength. Instantly memorable, they express the emotions of his operatic characters. Handel reused a number of them: there was no copyright in his day, nor could music be reproduced by technological means. Sampling and the phenomenon of universally available music did not exist in the Age of Baroque.

Ever since he was a child, the composer Burak Özdemir has been exploring the world of sound. He collects sounds, combining them, rendering them unrecognizable and testing their mutability by taking them to their furthest extreme. He knows about performing techniques on period instruments just as he is aware of the almost literally limitless possibilities of electronic music. Human feelings – love, pain, joy – are the same as they were in Handel’s day. In Baroque opera seria they were described as “affects”, with carefully delineated dividing lines between them. This is Burak Özdemir’s starting point. He brings electronic music into the equation as a chamber recitalist. Every aria has its own world of sound. Bizarre electronic sounds are brought face to face with the love songs of Handel’s operatic heroes. In this way timeless feelings can be heard with fresh ears.

TRACKLIST
01. Overture
02. Se pieta
03. Scherza infida
04. Vieni vieni
05. Midimelt (Interlude)
06. Lascia
07. What Passion Music Cannot Raise
08. Cara sposa
09. End Credits (Interlude)
10. Nel passar
11. From This Unhappy Day
12. Ah! Mio cor
13. Piangero
14. Larghetto
15. Hallelujah