LISTEN

Purcell Dido & Aeneas

“I just thought this was so brilliant from the first note... you keep hearing imaginative flourishes from them which just drive everything forward and underpin the singers in the most wonderful way.”

— BBC Radio 3 Record Review

Released by Pentatone and featuring Fleur Barron, Matthew Brook, Giulia Semenzato, Tim Mead, Nicky Spence, David Bates and La Nuova Music

Handel’s Unsung Heroes

Our new recording in which the instrumentalists of Handel’s operas are put centre stage. Traditionally restricted to an “invisible” existence in the orchestra pit, La Nuova Musica’s obbligato instrumentalists – violinist Thomas Gould, oboist Leo Duarte and bassoonist Joe Qiu – are now in the limelight.

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

“… a subtle, vivid and detailed performance of Gluck’s original 1762 Orfeo ed Euridice at St John’s by David Bates and La Nuova Musica was just as intense and pleasurable – and a reminder how under-performed Gluck is.”

– Opera Now

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater and Bach: Cantatas

“La Nuova Musica, under David Bates, sound lush and languid in two of Bach’s alto cantatas (BWV 54 & 170). They let phrases sigh and breathe and supply a decent amount of bass under properly expressive melodic lines.”

– The Guardian

Couperin: Leçons De Ténèbres

For his Leçons de Ténèbres, a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, “Couperin le Grand” fused devotional expression with a dramatic performing style embodied here by sopranos Lucy Crowe and Elizabeth Watts. Two Trio Sonatas and a Stabat Mater by Sébastien de Brossard round out this luminous programme.

A Royal Trio: Arias by Handel, Ariosti & Bononcini

The Royal Academy of Music commissioned and premiered some of the finest 18th-century operas, including Handel’s Giulio Cesare. Renowned American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo is joined by La Nuova Musica and David Bates for a snapshot of the Academy’s hits circa 1725, featuring arias by Handel, Ariosti, and Bononcini.

Sacrifices: Charpentier, Carissimi and Brossard

David Bates leads La Nuova Musica in “Sacrifices,” a program of intensely dramatic oratorios from the middle Baroque: Giacomo Carissimiʼs Historia di Jephte; Marc-Antoine Charpentierʼs Sacrificium Abrahae and Le Reniement de saint Pierre, interspersed with instrumental music by Sébastien de Brossard.

Dixit Dominus: Handel and Vivaldi

David Bates leads La Nuova Musica in a pair of contrasting settings of Psalm 109 for harmonia mundi USA. Handel’s masterful and ambitious HWV 282 was penned in 1707 during a youthful visit to Italy. 

Handel: Il Pastor Fido

For its harmonia mundi USA debut, La Nuova Musica and David Bates present a true rarity: the original 1712 version of Handel’s second London opera, Il Pastor Fido.