Academy of Ancient Music & Cambridge Handel Opera • John Weldon: The Judgement of Paris (CD)

Academy of Ancient Music
Cambridge Handel Opera
Julian Perkins director

Thomas Walker
Jonathan Brown
Helen Charlston
Kitty Whately
Anna Dennis
Anna Cavaliero
Aksel Rykkvin

Beautifully recorded ... not only is this a set to treasure, it has the most engaging and comprehensive set of booklet essays you’ll find in a midsummer day’s march. Editor’s Choice, Limelight Magazine

‘Perkins gets enormous buy-in from his band, made up of top Early Music instrumentalists. The drama of their drunken slides, caressing soft lines and rollicking compound rhythms at times wittily exceeds that of vocal parts. The power and precision of the chorus conveys the shock of Weldon's textural contrasts. But the palm must go to Perkins himself, whose conducting brings out the finest details of Weldon's beautiful, tongue-in-cheek and previously unrecorded score.’ BBC Music Magazine

AAM and Cambridge Handel Opera Company (CHOC) follow their Gramophone-nominated recording of Eccles’ Semele with a world-premiere recording of John Weldon’s masque The Judgment of Paris.

In 1700 the Earl of Halifax decided England needed all-sung opera. He offered a ‘Musick Prize’ of 100 guineas for the best setting of the libretto of The Judgement of Paris by William Congreve, with entries by composers like John Eccles and Daniel Purcell. Weldon’s setting, which won the competition but was never published, is recorded here for the first time.

Released as a hardback mediabook, the CD is accompanied by a host of fascinating essays written specially by historians, musicologists and other experts – finally giving this winning masque the attention it deserves.

AAM046 • Released 2025