Sinfonie and Arias from the late Baroque
Inés Lorans, Orchestra de Camera ‘Benedetto Marcello’, Mauricio Colasanti
53:02
Tactus TC 690003
This live recording of a recital of music by Porpora, Vivaldi, Handel, Tessarini, Jommelli and Araja features the voice of Franco-Spanish soprano Inés Lorans accompanied by the chamber orchestra ‘Benedetto Marcello’. Lorans is technically assured and has a pleasingly animated approach to the music, with some spectacular and deftly managed ornamentation as in her imaginative decoration of Tornami a vagheggiar from Handel’s Alcina. She sings some of the most celebrated arias of the period including the timeless Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo. In this, the orchestral forces are sympathetic and supportive, although elsewhere there is a slight feeling of ‘phoning it in’ from the ensemble, while intonation isn’t always entirely convincing – this is a live recording so perhaps there can be some excuse for the latter but certainly not the former. The Overture de La Stravaganza by the unfamiliar Carlo Tessarini fails to live up to its billing as demonstrating ‘musical creativeness, which never repeats itself’ – in this short example, creativity is in short supply, while repetition seems the order of the day. In short, this recording is a very mixed bag, and – in the highly competitive world of Baroque string playing – these lackadaisical performances just don’t cut it for me. This is a pity, as I think in different company and with a more consistently high-quality choice of repertoire the vocalist Inés Lorans would be much more convincing.
D. James Ross