"You could light a bonfire and more with the gusto"

Image (c) Craig Fuller

First published 20 March 2025

Audiences and critics have hailed “crack Baroque ensemble” Arcangelo’s performances at the 2025 London Handel Festival, marking the group’s debut at the Festival and the first of its annual presentations as Principal Ensemble in Residence.

Arcangelo and its Artistic Director Jonathan Cohen gave three concerts headed by the Festival’s opening concert on 7 March of L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato HWV 55 at Handel’s own church, St George’s Hanover Square. On Tuesday 11 March, the five young artists of Arcangelo’s New Ensemblists scheme presented a self-devised programme at the Foundling Museum. Concluding the residency, on Friday 14 March soprano Emőke Baráth made her London Handel Festival debut with a virtuoso recital of arias from Giulio Cesare HWV 17, Alcina HWV 34 and Theodora HWV 68, supported by a hand-picked Arcangelo chamber ensemble led by Zefira Valova. The Arcangelo residency also included an open rehearsal, a chamber masterclass with student ensembles from the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, and talks by Handel scholar Dr Ruth Smith and Arcangelo Chair of Trustees Sir Nicholas Kenyon.

Audience enthusiasm for Arcangelo’s opening residency was boisterous, with unprompted applause during L’Allegro, and sustained bravos for Baráth’s recital. Critical reviews reflected the prevailing mood. The Guardian hailed Arcangelo’s “dazzling opening to the London Handel Festival” and the “keen dramatic instincts [of Jonathan Cohen] ensuring bright tempi while knowing just when to give his singers room to spread their wings… you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.” The Times focussed on the quality of the instrumental ensemble: “You could light a bonfire and more with the gusto of Cohen’s musicians, whether beavering through Handel’s dancing rhythms or navigating the solo turns in the work’s many pictorial displays.” “To make Moderation seem thrilling might seem impossible”, concluded the Daily Telegraph, “but these wonderful performers managed it.”

The residency offered a prominent platform to all artists involved, especially London Handel Festival debutants led by all five Arcangelo New Ensemblists.

Arcangelo Artistic Director Jonathan Cohen said:

“It has been a great pleasure for Arcangelo to appear at the London Handel Festival for the first time, and for us to be able to celebrate Handel’s music so intensively with so many great artists. I am especially pleased to have been able to introduce some of my favourite musical collaborators to LHF audiences for the first time. The welcome we have received from the LHF and in particular from our concert audiences has been warm and generous, and makes me all the more excited for our future plans with the Festival.”

London Handel Festival Director Greg Batsleer said:

“On behalf of all of us at LHF, a huge and heartfelt thanks to Arcangelo for such a fantastic and thrilling first residency. It’s fair to say that the performances have been some of the finest we have seen at the Festival and we’ve been inundated with comments and messages from supporters saying the same thing.”

The 2025 London Handel Festival continues until 10 April 2025. Tickets are available now from london-handel-festival.com