Lux et Umbrae; Robert Crowe; Annette Fischer; Julia Nilsen-Savage; Sigrun Richter; Michael Eberth - In Handel's Shadow - Vocal Music by his Rivals in Eighteenth-Century London

The figure of George Frideric Handel cast a long shadow over musical London in the first half of the eighteenth century, casting many of his contemporaries - fine composers themselves - into centuries of obscurity. This recording throws light into forgotten corners and discovers some glittering gems, some of them demanding dazzling vocal fireworks from their performers. Several of these composers set scenes from Classical mythology or Old Testament narratives - but they also explore the underside of the Baroque psyche in one of David's darkest psalms and in a representation of Arcadian madness.