Julia Lezhneva (soprano) Il Giardino Armonico Giovanni Antonini (conductor) Tracklist Disserratevi oh porte d’Averno (from La Resurrezione) Lascia la spina (from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) Agrippina: Overture Salve Regina, HWV 241 Pensieri, voi mi tormentate! (from Agrippina) Un pensiero nemico di pace (from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) Felicissima quest'alma from Apollo e Dafne Come nembo che fugge col vento (from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) Pure del cielo intelligenze eterne (from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) Tu del ciel ministro eletto (Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) Dixit Dominus, HWV 232: Tecum principium Per dar pregio all'amor mio (from Rodrigo) The emphasis for this album is very much on youth and prodigious talent: at 25, Julia Lezhneva is ideally suited to the soprano arias of the young Handel, who arrived in Italy from Germany as a 21 year old at the beginning of the 18th century. She has the perfect partners in Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini whose recordings of music from the Italian baroque are celebrated for their “fizzing virtuosity” and “exquisite cushion of sound” (The Independent). For some tracks the orchestra is led by Dmitry Sinkovsky, the extraordinary Russian violinist and one of today’s most versatile Baroque musicians. The music encompasses the best of Handel’s operatic and religious works from his years in Florence and Rome: the operas Rodrigo and Agrippina and the oratorios Il Trionfo and La Resurrezione as well as the complete Salve Regina and soprano solo from Dixit Dominus. Best known is the radiant “Lascia la spina” from Il Trionfo and its later incarnation as “Lascia ch'io pianga” from the opera Rinaldo. The recording was made in the famously musical and historic Italian city of Cremona in the beautiful auditorium of the Museo del Violino.