Handel: Neun Deutsche Arien

A stroke of luck for us: the cycle of “Nine German Arias” is a real gem. It is perfect in its form down to the last detail, thrifty and yet striking in its use of resources, and a compositional masterpiece. As a rule, a large choir and full orchestra fortissimo makes a much more immediate impression than an aria with only four executants. The present album is a new production by artistic husband and wife Eilika and Bernhard Wünsch. They have devoted themselves since 2011 to the genre of the Lied in particular and established the Musikhaus am Bielstein, near Göttingen in central Germany, in 2019. It is there – in their in-house studio – that they deepen their involvement in Lieder and in vocal and chamber music in general. The year 2019 thus saw the birth of an exceptionally successful concert series that soon earned the reputation of “hidden treasure” worth discovering. In their concerts, Eilika and Bernhard Wünsch revive the 19th-century tradition of inviting musicians into their own home and playing rarely heard works while cladding well known compositions in new garb, arranging songs for participation by one or two instrumentalists. The concept of bringing the audience in close touch with the personal and social aspects of composers’ and lyricists’ life and times is one that has won over many new listeners to classical music.