George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759) The Messiah (Highlights) George Frideric Handel was born in Halle in 1685. His elderly father, barber-surgeon to the...
George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)
The Messiah (Highlights)
George Frideric Handel was born in Halle in 1685. His elderly father,
barber-surgeon to the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, entertained natural prejudices
against the choice of music as a profession for his young son, the second child
of his second wife, and Handel enjoyed an education that led him, after his
father's death, to a brief period of study at the University of Halle in 1702.
The following year he moved to Hamburg, joining the opera there, at first as a
string-player, then as harpsichordist and composer. Success in Italian opera in
Hamburg coupled with the doubtful musical prospects the city offered, persuaded
Handel to try his fortune in Italy, where he spent the years between 1706 and
1710, confirming his generally Italianate style of composition in works for the
theatre, the church and private entertainment.
In 1710, rejecting an offer from the ruler of Innsbruck, Handel accepted the
position of Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, the future King George I of
England, and immediately took leave of absence for the staging of his opera
Rinaldo in London, where Italian opera was gradually gaining a place. Two years
later he was back in London for good, concerned in particular with the
composition, management and presentation of Italian opera. During the following
thirty years he wrote nearly forty Italian operas for the London stage, to which
he devoted a considerable part of his working life.
Early oratorio may be seen as a by-product of opera as it developed at the
turn of the sixteenth century in Italy. England was late in its grudging
acceptance of opera and had shown little interest in oratorio, as it had
developed in other countries during the seventeenth century. Handel had written
Italian oratorio in Rome. His first attempt at the new form of English oratorio
carne in 1732 with his setting of an adaptation of Racine's biblical drama Esther,
described by one hostile critic as a "Religious Farce", and certainly
a very profitable one to its composer. English oratorio combined the musical
delights of Italian opera, with a text in English and a religious subject that
might appeal to the Protestant conscience. Since oratorio was not staged, there
was also a considerable saving in the cost of production.
Of all English oratorios Handel's Messiah has always been the most
overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of all his oratorios and the
most purely sacred in its choice of subject, the Messiah, a compendious
version of the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection. The text, by
Charles Jennens, drew extensively on the Authorized Version of the Bible, and an
additional attraction has always been the large number of choruses included, a
larger number than in any other of Handel' s oratorios.
Messiah was written with Handel's usual speed in 1741 for performance in
Dublin, some of it rehearsed briefly by inadequate singers in Chester, as he
made his way to Holyhead to embark for the voyage. The first performance was
given at the New Music Hall in Fish-amble Street, Dublin, on 13th April, 1742,
in aid of charity. The first London performance took place in Lent 1743 at
Covent Garden, but the work failed to please, in part because of reservations
that some held about the suitability of such a sacred subject for a theatre. Messiah
only achieved its lasting success after performances in 1750 in aid of the
Foundling Hospital, established ten years earlier by Captain Thomas Coram. At
his death in 1759 Handel left a fair copy of the score and all parts to the
Hospital, an institution that continued to benefit from annual performances of
the work.
Keith Anderson
The Scholars Baroque Ensemble
The scholars Baroque Ensemble was founded in 1987 by David van Asch with the
idea of complementing the "a capella" work of the vocal ensemble THE
SCHOLARS. This group, consisting also of the soprano Kym Amps, counter tenor
Angus Davidson and tenor Robin Doveton, has had worldwide success during the
last twenty years.
The members of THE SCHOLARS BAROQUE ENSEMBLE are all specialists in the field
of Baroque music and play original instruments (or copies) using contemporary
techniques, singers and players work together without a director to produce
their own versions of great masterpieces such as the St. John Passion by
Bach, the 1610 Vespers by Monteverdi, Dido and Aeneas and The
Fairy Queen by Purcell, the Messiah and Acis and Galatea by
Handel, all of which are being released by Naxos. Concert performances by the
ensemble have been highly praised by critics and audiences alike.
The artistic aim of the ensemble goes far beyond that of so-called
"authenticity"; more important is the clarity and vitality achieved by
the use of a minimum number of players and singers per part, normally only one
(as in this recording), which was common practice in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.