Ensemble Marsyas - Handel: Apollo e Dafne - BBC Music Magazine

Performance  4*
Recording 5*

Begun in Venice as the 25-year-old Handel prepared to depart Italy, the dramatic cantata Apollo e Dafne is an obvious choice for Ensemble Marsyas's first venture into vocal music. It oozes the sort of vibrant woodwind writing that is meat and drink to bassoonist Peter Whelan's crack band created in 2011 to champion virtuoso 18th-century wind music. Moreover, throw a stylishly turned account of the wind-engorged overture to Il pastor fido into the mix, plus the bonus of two little-known arias for fruitily pungent pairs of oboes, horns and a bassoon, and the voices are almost reduced to walk-on parts before singing a note.

By the clock longer than many an early Haydn or Mozart symphony, the six-movement Overture proves a fulsome upbeat, its scale threatening to engulf the cantata, but the segue is neatly done, allowing Callum Thorpe's Apollo to introduce himself with the virile heft of the all conquering god he perceives himself to be. Eight arias and two duets later it will all end in tears as the object of his desire is turned into a laurel bush to evade his advances. The heroic bluster of 'Spezza l'arco' beautifully sets up Dafne's oboe-gilded first number which is exquisitely shaped and coloured by Mhairi Lawson (no wonder Apollo is smitten); and, swapping his bassoon for the harpsichord, Peter Whelan directs with a stylish verve that never once takes its eye off the dramatic ball. Just occasionally both singers sound a touch pushed, but laurel wreaths all round – especially to Ensemble Marsyas who all but steal the show.