2011 | EAC LOG FLAC+CUE | 2CDs + booklet | 519MB
GERMANICO - Serenata a sei by G.F. Handel [?]
performed by
Sara Mingardo, alto (Germanico)
Maria Grazia Schiavo, soprano (Agrippina)
Laura Cherici, soprano (Antonia)
Franco Fagioli, coountertenor (Lucio)
Magnus Staveland, tenor (Celio)
Sergio Foresti, bass (Cesare)
Ensemble e Coro Il Rossignolo
(on period instruments)Ottaviano Tenerani, dir.
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I admit that until recently I didn't know about the existence of this recording, the title of this work doesn't appear in any official catalogs of Handel's works.
I decided to present only one recording today, to concentrate more on it and form own opinion, if it really could be Handel's composition.
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The following text is a fragment of the commentary of one of the Amazon users in which he presents the history of finding the manuscript of this work:
"Could it really be possible that a major work by Handel has remained completely forgotten for three hundred years to be only now rediscovered?
Director Ottaviano Tenerani was carrying out research in the library of the "Luigi Cherubini" Conservatory of Florence in early 2007 when he came across a manuscript of a hitherto unknown and untitled composition with a storyline referencing the historical character of the Roman general Germanicus, which bore the legend "Del Sgr. Hendl" at the top left of the front page. All the catalogues created since the stock was transferred to that library reference the manuscript, at least as far back as 1929. No other copies of the work nor any other references to it have been found.
Tenerani has however concluded the following based on his own and others' research:
- The manuscript, from examination of its handwriting and the paper itself, dates to the early 18th century.
- The hand which wrote "Del Sgr. Hendl" is the same as that which wrote the rest of the manuscript (apart from an extra violin part added to a couple of arias in another hand - the modified variants of these are tacked on at the end of the second disc as extras), so could not be a later misattribution nor forgery. No-one would misattribute a work to a completely unknown 21 year old. The spelling "Hendl" is consistent with the Italian spelling of his name at the time.
- Comparison with the types of paper used by Handel and his copyists, along with their watermarks and staves, as well as comparing with those of stylistically similar composers, confidently places the manuscript within Handel's Italian stay of 1706-1709/10, indeed to the time of his first stay in Venice or Florence in 1706, as the manuscript is entirely on Venetian paper as used for his earliest Italian works, and Handel used up one lot of paper before obtaining another, a fact which has been used to date a number of his works.
- The style of the work itself is consistent with Handel's early manner.
If this is true, then this could well be Handel's first composition in Italy."
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Musicologist Marco Vitali gave his own opinion, in which he proves why, in his opinion, it is NOT a composition of Handel:
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2011/05/handel_true_or_.php
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A document showing the history of finding the manuscript and a relation from recording this composition (unfortunately only in Italian):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao97IVcSus0
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Recording: Villa San Fermo, Lonigo, Vicenza, Italy, 11/2010
TT: 88'20''
