In my review of Lorenzo Regazzo’s Handel “Arie per basso” (Naïve, A/09) Iexpressed the hope that the under-explored Handelian bass repertoire could be presented with a greater variety of musical styles and performed with greater versatility of characterisations. Ildebrando D’Arcangelo has a resonant, dark and powerful voice, not unlike Regazzo’s, and blusters through his programme without conveying any difference between dramatic personalities and situations (and he usually sings with a few shades more vibrato than comfortably matches Modo Antiquo’s period instrumentalists). D’Arcangelo’s selection, prepared with assistance from musicologist Francesco Lora, overlaps with some of Regazzo’s programme but Modo Antiquo and Federico Maria Sardelli field an orchestra large and exotic enough to offer flutes, horns (“Voli colla sua tromba” from Ariodante) and trumpets galore, thus offering a much more appealing range of instrumental colours than the narrow palette that restricts Regazzo.

In the booklet-note D’Arcangelo rightly praises Handel’s dramatic power but there isn’t much evidence of the composer’s melodic suaveness in these performances. D’Arcangelo’s lowest notes in “Fra l’ombre e gl’orrori!” (Aci, Galatea e Polifemo) are excellently done but the rest of Polifemo’s notes are less steady. The temptation to include a dreary trawl through “Ombra mai fù” should have been firmly resisted. Even worse, it is extremely unwise to perform the final part of Apollo e Dafne, only to plunge from the scene’s middle section into Achilla’s “Tu sei il cor di questo core” (Giulio Cesare) instead of proceeding to Apollo’s cathartic lament (“Cara pianta”, which is excluded). The lurch from Apollo’s pursuit of the nymph to Achilla’s attempt to seduce Cornelia is profoundly unsatisfactory and scarcely credible. Some of Modo Antiquo’s playing (Apollo’s “Mie piante correte”) is uncharacteristically out of tune and below par. A few moments are exhilarating but on the whole this is disappointing.