When the eighteen-year-old Georg Friedrich Händel arrived in Hamburg in 1703, according to his friend Johann Mattheson he knew "sehr wenig über Melodie": "Er komponierte so gut wie nichts anderes als Fugen". Fortunately, as a violinist in the orchestra of the Hamburg opera, Handel had every opportunity to broaden his horizons. Hamburg had a versatile opera culture, in which various national styles
… intertwined. In the instrumental parts the French style of Lully predominated. The CD "Handel in Hamburg" contains such instrumental parts from the operas "Almira, Nero, Daphne & Rodrigo" that Handel wrote during his Hamburg period. The performers are The Parley of Instruments conducted by Peter Holman. Oboist Frank de Bruin can be heard as a soloist in the "more
