Vurdering: 5/5

"Choral & song choice: This production is a delight throughout. For Handel's greatest Italian cantatas, Emmanuelle Haïm brings together two stars: soprano Sabine Devieilhe ... and the young mezzo Léa Desandre. Haïm retains control by preparing both the scores and the sopranos' ornament, her vision giving this carefully wrought performance a fiery intensity ... Vocally the casting is perfect ... You might think you know these cantatas, but this is a performance to make you think again"

"Recording of the month - Editor's choice: Both singers have unblemished voices of beautiful quality: Sabine Devieilhe, as Aminta, pellucid and free-soaring, Lea Desandre with a dark flare in her high mezzo ... Le Concert d'Astrée, under Emmanuelle Haïm's animating direction, are far more than mere accompanists ... Playing with words as well as tones, the crucial cello continuo is always acutely alive to singers and text ... A disc that even amid fierce competition is a Handelian winner"

"Editors choices - November 2018: Devieilhe's agile, glittering high soprano is a known quantity (and she's certainly on marvellous form here, pinging out high C sharps with aplomb), but the real discovery of this gorgeous album for me was Léa Desandre, whose cool yet sensual mezzo put me very much in mind of the young Magdalena Kožená; the two combine to delicious effect in a gently erotic account of the pastoral cantata Aminta e Fillide"

"CDs des Monats: Schon mit den ersten Tönen der Introduzione von Aminta e Fillide ... gehen die Ohren weit auf. Hier wird leidenschaftlich, ja fetzig aufgespielt, immer klug und ganz dem Sinn der auskomponierten Affekte verpflichtet ... Le Concert d'Astrée unter Leitung von Emmanuelle Haim ... fügt damit eine weitere Perle hinzu ... Umso strahlender stehen die beiden Sängerinnen im Mittelpunkt. Sabine Devieilhes Stimme ist leicht, hat dabei jedoch Substanz und Charakter. In Aminta e Fillide gibt sie mit der Mezzosopranistin Lea Desandre ein bezauberndes Paar im Dialog ab ... Eine sehr erfreuliche Aufnahme"