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BBC Music Magazine (09/2025)
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Harmonia Mundi  HAF8905347 

Code barres / Barcode : 3149020950067

Reviewer : Kate Bolton-Porciatti

Les Arts Florissants’s latest release, Nei giardini d’amore, leads us through the Baroque garden of love, a place where nymphs dally, lovers languish and vengeance quells the heat of passion.

Two major solo cantatas anchor the programme. Caldara’s Medea in Corinto is a dramatic tour de force whose carefree opening Sinfonia masks the smouldering fury to come. Carlo Vistoli brings both pathos and rage to Medea’s vehement outpourings, manipulating her treacherous melodic lines in a performance that combines vocal bravura with penetrating psychological insight.

Equally compelling is Hugh Cutting’s interpretation of Vivaldi’s Cessate, omai cessate. His youthful countertenor is beautifully controlled: warm, natural, expressive but never histrionic. His flawless Italian diction enhances every rhetorical turn of the feverish text.

Framing the cantatas are duets: Monteverdi’s Damigella tutta bella opens the album with infectious charm; Steffani’s La lotta d’Ercole con Acheloo brings taut, character-driven drama. Bononcini’s Sempre piango and Handel’s Caro autor di mia doglia showcase the singers in lyrical dialogues – Cutting’s restraint is the perfect foil to Vistoli’s more operatic approach.

Instrumental numbers, far from mere interludes, are superbly realised. Fontana’s Sonata settima echoes the vocal duets in its conversational idiom. The Andante from Handel’s C minor Trio Sonata throbs with yearning intensity, while Caldara’s Ciaconna delights with its playful repartee and hypnotic rhythms. William Christie directs these fresh and vibrant performances from the keyboard.

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