The abundant legacy of Gustav Leonhardt’s recordings for Telefunken’s Das Alte Werk series invites us to follow his trajectory as a performer from the early 1960’s onwards, a time when the new codes of early music had yet to be invented, when their success depended above all on the strength of conviction of the performer. Leonhardt’s was strengthened by dialogue: with a range of partners whose variety defies all preconceived ideas, with ancient instruments or modern copies of all types, with repertoires as diverse as Byrd, Purcell, Rameau, Johann Sebastian but also Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Not forgetting the 1970 Monteverdi LP, which has never been reissued since. The image of a pope of early music isolated in his tower and frozen in a school style does not last long after listening to this historical sum, extended here by the later series of recordings under the Virgin Veritas flag.

Handel's Messiah is increasingly performed in authentic Baroque style and with period techniques, and this version by conductor Anders Öhrwall, the Stockholm Bach Choir, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra falls in line with the trend. While there is no clear indication that the instruments are anything but modern, the orchestral sound is imbued with a glossy string sound and transparent textures supported by a basso continuo that includes both harpsichord and organ, and the choir's scaled-down size gives it the transparency associated with Baroque choral singing.

This is an attractive recording with a style very much suited to the unique repertoire on the program. These are not operatic duets but chamber pieces, to texts of mostly unknown poets, accompanied by a smooth continuo group consisting of cello, archlute, and director Robert King on keyboards. Many of them were written in Italy, early in Handel's career, but he returned to the form during his highly public years in the 1740s. The booklet makes much of the music's similarity to Handel's operatic language, and indeed some of the tunes here will be familiar. Sample the first part of Se tu non lasci amore, track 11, some of which turns up again in "O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?" from Messiah.

SEON (Studio Erichson) is a period music label by the legendary producer Wolf Erichson. Erichson founded the label in 1969 as one of the first labels dedicated only to authentic music. The recordings were made with the best available recording techniques of the time and still deliver a high quality product in line with today's standards. This special boxset offers all SEON CD reissues from the late 90s on 85 CDs in a limited edition boxset.

A warm welcome back for this 1977 recording of Handel’s most successful opera, which ran, in 1727, for an unprecedented 19 performances. Curtis and his team were visionary 20 years ago. Recitative is lively, declaimed rather than fully sung; vocal decorations sound spontaneous, period instruments are played with zest and polish – barely a sour note from the handful of strings; colours include a trio of oboes and bassoon and, accompanying Bowman in fine voice, a pair of horns for what Dr Burney described as ‘one of the best and most agreeable hunting songs that was ever composed’.

This recording of duets by the great composers of the Restoration is one of the gems of Hyperion’s catalogue. It features the celebrated countertenors James Bowman and Michael Chance at the peak of their powers, and the combination of their two voices with the sympathetic accompaniment of The King’s Consort creates something uniquely glorious. Purcell was a countertenor himself and in his writing for the voice produced some of his most felicitous music. John Blow, Purcell’s predecessor and successor as organist of Westminster Abbey, reached his compositional zenith with the extended duet (almost a small cantata) on the subjects of Purcell’s tragic early death and inextinguishable influence.

Couperin’s Trois Leçons de Ténèbres are amongst the small amount of the composer’s sacred music that was published during his lifetime. They are intensely personal, depicting the prophet Jeremiah’s bitter anguish in settings that are quite unique. Also included here are Couperin’s joyful motets Laetentur caeli and Venite, exsultemus Domino, and a remarkable Magnificat.

James Bowman must surely be the finest vocal interpreter of Purcell today. His grasp of sentiment, his sense of timing, and his enunciation, are unsurpassed…

'James Bowman is on impressive form and his admirers need not hesitate here' (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs) D'excellentes interprétations' (Ecouter, Voir, France) 'After hearing the first three notes of Cantata 170 my expectations of this recording were high. I was not disappointed' (Hi Fi News)

One of the leading experts in early music, Christopher Hogwood, leads the way as you hear the beautiful 17th-century theatre music of British composer Henry Purcell. The Academy of Ancient Music and the Taverner Choir perform Abdelazer; The Married Beau; Bonduca; Circe; Don Quixote; The Double Dealer; The Rival Sisters , and much more!

It is more or less axiomatic now that anything Graham Johnson turns his hand to will be perfectly realised, and here it proves once again to be the case. That he is accompanying eight of the finest voices in the young and middle generations of British singers can only have helped. Hyperion supplies full texts and a recorded sound of complete fidelity. These are, moreover, well filled discs. It is plain that nothing short of a strong recommendation will do.

The 2nd book of these Symphoniae, written in the dark years of the devastating 30 Years War and published in 1647, stands among his central body of works and holds many affecting and beautiful moments. The British recording being reviewed here presents the 2nd book in its order of publication, which is not structured as a coherent work end-to-end work but rather is organized by range and number of soloists, indicating that each of the symphoniae is a single piece standing on its own. Book II starts with the symphoniae for solo voice, works its way down the vocal range from soprano to bass, then proceeds on to the duets and trios and concluding with a few more ambitious works for a full set of vocal soloists.

Raymond Leppard's second and more renowned contribution to the modern revival of Cavalli: a classic among Baroque opera recordings which won the coveted Rosette award from the Penguin Record Guide. In 1651, seven years after Ormindo (also reissued by Eloquence in Leppard's recording, 482 9382), Cavalli and his librettist Faustini scored another hit with the hungry but demanding Venetian opera public with a tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The change that all of Ovid's central characters undergo is in this case suffered by the nymph Calisto, who is rejected by the goddess Diana, turned into a bear by the Furies and back into a human by Jupiter, who finally sets her among the stars in reward for her patience and her love. Writing as editor of the Musical Times in the summer of 1970, Stanley Sadie observed that.

Dioclesian is the tale of a simple Roman private, Diocles, who fulfils the prophecy of Delphia (a prophetess, and hence Dioclesian's alternative title) that one day he will become emperor. In the meantime, Diocles avenges the slaying of the previous emperor and becomes a hero. With ambitions realized he discovers the he has over-played his hand by responding to Princess Aurelia's advances in the place of a nice homely girl called Drusilla, whom he had agreed to marry. The prophetess, who happens to be Drusilla's aunt, plans his come-uppance before he realizes the emptiness of his aspirations, abdicates and returns to nature and Drusilla.

What can anyone add to the praise that has deservedly been heaped on Robert King and the King's Consort's 11 discs of the complete sacred music of Vivaldi? Can one add that every single performance is first class – wonderfully musical, deeply dedicated, and profoundly spiritual? Can one add that every single performer is first class – absolutely in-tune, entirely in-sync, and totally committed? Can one add that every single recording is first class – amazingly clean, astoundingly clear, and astonishingly warm? One can because it's all true and it's all been said before by critics and listeners across the globe.