Rachel Baptist: Ireland’s Black Syren Rachel Redmond, Irish Baroque Orchestra & Peter Whelan

• George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759): Samson, HWV 57, Sinfonia:
• 1Handel: Samson, HWV 57, Sinfonia: I. Andante03:16
• 2Handel: Samson, HWV 57, Sinfonia: II. Allegro01:37
• 3Handel: Samson, HWV 57, Sinfonia: III. Menuetto02:18
• L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55:
• 4Handel: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55: Mirth, Admit Me of Thy Crew03:44
• Alexander’s Feast, HWV 75:
• 5Handel: Alexander’s Feast, HWV 75: Softly Sweet in Lydian Measures03:25
• Alla Caccia "Diana cacciatrice", HWV 79:
• 6Handel: Alla Caccia "Diana cacciatrice", HWV 79: I. La Marche01:41
• 7Handel: Alla Caccia "Diana cacciatrice", HWV 79: II. Recitativo. Alla caccia00:34
• 8Handel: Alla Caccia "Diana cacciatrice", HWV 79: III. Aria. Foriera la tromba03:36
• 9Handel: Alla Caccia "Diana cacciatrice", HWV 79: IV. Coro. Alla caccia01:54
• Niccolò Pasquali (1718 - 1757): The Grand Festino, Overture:
• 10Pasquali: The Grand Festino, Overture: I. Allegro01:55
• 11Pasquali: The Grand Festino, Overture: II. Larghetto01:37
• 12Pasquali: The Grand Festino, Overture: III. Presto02:04
• The Triumphs of Hibernia:
• 13Pasquali: The Triumphs of Hibernia: Let Earth and Air and Ocean03:10
• Nymphs of the Springs:
• 14Pasquali: Nymphs of the Springs: Nature First Played Well Her Part07:02
• Francesco Geminiani (1687 - 1762): Concerto grosso in D Minor, H. 143, Op. 5 No. 12 "La Folia":
• 15Geminiani: Concerto grosso in D Minor, H. 143, Op. 5 No. 12 "La Folia"11:42
• Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695): King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V:
• 16Purcell: King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Fairest Isle05:29
• Total Runtime55:04

Info for Rachel Baptist: Ireland’s Black Syren

As champion of music from Ireland, Peter Whelan and his Irish Baroque Orchestra give a rare glimpse into a fascinating figure of the eighteenth-century Dublin music scene. Who was Rachel Baptist? Not much is known of the ‘Celebrated Black Syren’, other than she was a soprano of African descent and born in Ireland, sang regularly in Dublin, London, Liverpool and other cities, and performed alongside famed castrato Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci. The programme includes works that Baptist might have performed at the ‘Grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musick’ held in 1752, including arias by Handel, Pasquali (a couple of premiere recordings), Purcell and some additional instrumental pieces. The ‘resplendent’ Rachel Redmond ( The New York Times ) is the soprano.

Rachel Redmond, Sopran
Irish Baroque Orchestra
Peter Whelan, Dirigent

Rachel Redmond
studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. She went on to participate in William Christie’s training programme Le Jardin des Voix, appearing in this capacity with the ensemble Les Arts Florissants in Couperin’s Leçons de ténèbres, Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato and in works by Bach, Charpentier, Monteverdi, Mondonville, Purcell and Rameau.

She made her stage debut at Paris’s Opéra Comique in Lully’s Atys, and went on to appear in André Campra’s Les Fêtes vénitiennes in Paris, Toulouse and New York. She also sang Second Woman (Dido and Aeneas) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Leœna (La Belle Hélène) at the Théâtre du Châtelet. She was awarded the Breakthrough Award by The Times newspaper for her debut as Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with English Touring Opera.

Rachel Redmond is a regular guest at the Göttingen International Handel Festival and at the London Handel Festival, and has recently made debuts with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, and at the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing. In 2022 she sang in Handel’s Messiah under Jordi Savall at the Salzburg Festival.

She sang in Reinhard Keiser’s Brockes Passion and Carl Heinrich Graun’s Der Tod Jesu with the Netherlands Bach Society for NTR Radio’s ZaterdagMatinee series, and in Handel’s Dixit Dominus with the ensemble Il Gardellino and the Flemish Radio Choir at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Recent engagements have included Handel’s Esther with the ensemble Le Stagioni, Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Purcell’s Welcome to all the Pleasures and Handel’s Chandos Anthem No. 6 with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Messiah with the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Fortuna (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Baroque ensemble the Dunedin Consort and the Orquestra Gulbenkian, Scarlatti’s Telemaco with the Concerto de’ Cavalieri, Bach’s St John Passion with the Britten Sinfonia, Fauré’s Requiem with Polyphony at the Concertgebouw and various appearances with Les Arts Florissants and the Netherlands Bach Society. In the 2023/24 season Rachel Redmond will make her debut with the Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik in Messiah, and with the Irish National Opera as Aminta in Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade.

Booklet for Rachel Baptist: Ireland’s Black Syren