Over the years we’ve heard a great deal from George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) at Staunton Music Festival, including several fully-staged operas. Tonight we sample vocal and instrumental music from throughout his long career, spanning early Italian works to the great Messiah of 1742. And before going further one may point out that Handel was perhaps the most well-known musician across continental and British Europe in the mid-18th century. Born 1685 in Halle in central Germany, young Handel received only modest compositional lessons. This was very much the era of “on-the-job training,” especially for church musicians, and Handel would continue to self-instruct as he gradually came into contact with more diverse styles. After leaving Halle in his 17th year, Handel spent several years in Hamburg before taking the “Grand Tour” south across the Alps. These years (1706-1710) were decisive in Handel’s growth as an artist, and they laid a foundation for later triumphs in London.

One of Handel’s earliest achievements in Italy was the sacred Dixit Dominus, a setting of Psalm 110 which he completed in Rome in April 1707. It was first performed for, and probably commissioned by, the noble Colonna family who maintained active ties with the papacy. The opening vibrant chorus in G minor typifies Handel’s growing comfort in merging older imitative writing with a more punctuated, theatrical idiom. We hear him essentially trying his hand at numerous compositional techniques: invigorating instrumental sequences, fugue, even the old Lutheran chorale tradition, complete with cantus firmus singing in the sopranos. Alternations between full chorus and solo voice also hint at the Italian concerto style he would have encountered daily in Rome. Many of these features recur in the later Gloria movement, which closes our first half. Handel opens the Gloria with vigorous, virtuosic scale runs as if simply adapting a Vivaldian concerto for the human voice. At “Et in saecula saeculorum” he begins a clearly defined fugue with staggered vocal entrances, and this stunning material continues until the end of the piece.

Just months later Handel dashed off his first brilliant oratorio (essentially an unstaged opera), Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, or The Triumph of Time and Disillusion. The material stayed with him. Fifty years later he was still tweaking it for a London revival in English. It also provides the most obvious example of Handel’s notorious self-borrowing: Trionfo’s glittering Overture was reused, note for note, just weeks later for La Resurrezione, albeit for a different audience. Il trionfo depicts an allegorical battle between Pleasure and Wisdom, who seek the attentions of Beauty. Handel relishes opportunities to both placate and dazzle his audiences, as in the tender aria “Io sperai trovar nel vero” and the coloratura duet for soprano and mezzo soprano, “Il voler nel fior.” Beauty’s fiery “Un pensiero,” taking Time to task for its fickleness, shows the level of soloists active in Rome, and Handel was only too eager to push them to new heights. “Lascia la spina,” sung by Pleasure, is accordingly sweet, ingratiating, and brief. This aria also appeared a few years later as the famous “Lascia ch’io pianga” in Rinaldo (1711). Completing this rapid survey of Il Trionfo is a sumptuous vocal quartet, “Voglio tempo.” At his best, Handel could write Italian melody with an ease and charm that even native composers failed to surpass.

Lest we think Handel devoted all his time to lavish operatic spectacle, it is worth remembering that he also composed numerous sets of solo and chamber works during these early years. Most follow the Italian forms cultivated by Corelli, whom Handel would have met personally during their time together in Rome. Corelli elevated the Trio Sonata, featuring two solo instruments with supporting basso continuo, to a genre capable of great expressivity. Tonight’s examples, all drawn from works in G minor to connect with the tonality of Dixit Dominus. Many of these efforts helped shape his growing command of solo keyboard repertoire, culminating with the creation of eight “Great” Suites HWV 426-433 published in 1720. We hear the last of six movements in the G minor suite, HWV 432, arranged for three harpsichords. This movement demonstrates the beloved passacaglia, a series of diverse variations over a recurring, reassuring harmonic pattern.


INTERMISSION


Handel crossed north over the Alps in early 1710, but he continued to think and create in an Italian style. He held a post at Saxony but received permission from the Elector of Hanover for a visit to the English capital. This was a time of changing politics in London, with Queen Anne – the last Stuart monarch – working to revive peace with France and the Holy Roman Empire. Anne was not an opera fan, but she engaged theater musicians on multiple occasions for palace celebrations. Upon his arrival in London, Handel quickly fell into her orbit. This may have been planned in advance, as it helped solidify relations between his old employer (the Elector of Hanover) and his new patron (the English queen), who were second cousins and both involved in peace talks.

In early 1713 Handel composed an Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne. The Queen was quite unwell at this time, and the work may never have been performed in her presence. Cast in nine movements, the Ode opens with “Eternal Source of Light,” launching the work in radiant passages given to tenor solo and trumpet. These soloists continue over into the following movement, where the full chorus eventually enters to glorify Anne as the prime architect of peace on Earth. This music also derives in part from earlier material that Handel composed for La Resurrezione, namely the tenor aria “Ecco il sol.” Clearly Italian connections were still very much in his mind. Indeed, one of the main attractions that London held for Handel was its Italianate “Queen’s Theatre” in the Haymarket district.

When Anne died in August 1714, Handel’s former Saxon employer became King George I of England. Handel smoothed the day of reckoning – he had never been officially released from his position in Hanover – by writing the dazzling Water Music at the king’s request. On 17 July 1717, King George and his retinue embarked on a river outing beginning at Whitehall and heading up the Thames to finish at Chelsea. Musicians were stationed on a second, less extravagant barge and performed Handel’s music several times during the trip. Like Music for the Royal Fireworks, Handel’s Water Music utilizes a massive orchestra. Reports suggest that 50 musicians performed at the premiere. Subsequently, the roughly 20 movements were divided into three suites based on a shared key: F, D or G major. Earlier editions often conflated various movements into a single work. Today the three separate suites have become staples of Baroque orchestral repertoire.

In London Handel also found time and interested audiences for his efforts in instrumental genres. Not all of the music was new, however. For instance, around 1725 he produced an Oboe Sonata in G Minor much in the style of late-17th-century Italian models. Never averse to recycling material, Handel may actually have begun this sonata while still a teenager in Hamburg. The market for instrumental music paled in comparison to demands for sacred and secular vocal music. Thus Handel would typically introduce instrumental works, such as organ concertos and concerti grossi, into his operas and oratorios as a way to “test the waters.” For example, Handel never wrote his organ concertos with a traditional performance in mind, at least in the way we experience concerts today. And while he is generally given credit for inventing the organ concerto as a genre, most of their initial performances came in the early 1730s as “incidental music” during his oratorios.

The Concerto in D Minor, Op. 7 No. 4 (ca. 1744) was first used in a performance at Covent Garden in February 1746 during an oratorio compiled in haste from previously written pieces. We hear the two outer movements, skipping the festive second movement (which is actually Telemann’s music!). Handel begins a powerful Adagio in D minor, noteworthy for the lengthy instrumental ritornello, brooding thematic ideas, and extended solo cadenza. The Presto finale also comes on strongly with a highly etched melody that listeners can hear in an earlier Concerto Grosso (Op. 3 No. 6), as well as the “Great Suite” in D Minor for solo keyboard (1720).

Throughout his long career, Handel tried to stay one step ahead of changing tastes. He got caught up in squabbles involving rival companies, and he often took on the role of producing and financing an entire operatic season himself, in addition to composing and directing the music. Numerous successes crowned his efforts during the 1720s and 1730s, first at the King’s Haymarket Theatre and then at Covent Garden beginning in 1734. At the former venue he produced Poro, re dell’Indie (1731), an opera seria based on a text by Metastasio. After a complete first season, it was revived on multiple occasions over the next decade, including exported performances to Germany. The story centers on Alexander the Great’s encounter with Porus, King of India, though the Macedonian’s role in the opera is less significant than in Metastasio’s original libretto. The focus shifts primarily to Porus. At the beginning of Act 2, he sings a moving duet with his wife, Cleofide, whom he suspects of harboring secret longing for Alexander. In “Caro! Dolce” the couple pour forth their emotions against a simple string accompaniment. Handel’s vocal writing luxuriates at the slow tempo, while the “walking bass” helps keep the action moving forward.

A few years later, for his second season at Covent Garden in 1736, Handel composed Alexander’s Feast. Again drawing elements from the life of Alexander, this ode offers a paean to music. The text is based on a John Dryden poem written to celebrate the feast day of Cecilia, patron saint of musicians. However, the feast in the work’s title refers to a banquet held not for Cecilia but rather one hosted by Alexander for his mistress, the Persian princess Thaïs. At this meal Alexander is driven through various moods and ultimately to violent, destructive acts all by the emotive power of the musical bard Timotheus. This theme – the power of music to influence people’s mindsets and actions – stemmed from antiquity, and Renaissance humanists were deeply excited by mentions of this connection in Plato, Aristotle, and others. In “Bacchus, ever fair and young” the god of wine is lauded with a boisterous bass aria and chorus. Handel opts to feature horns, which add welcome instrumental color but also restrain the music from taking bolder harmonic paths; only slight touches of chromaticism are heard at the mention of “pain.” Listeners may note a similarity here to the sound of Henry Purcell, and the lilting jovial chorus, sung in English, seems redolent of passages from the sailors’ chorus in Dido and Aeneas.

The final work on tonight’s program also captures the latest stage in Handel’s professional development. 1738 marked a turning point in his relation to English audiences, signaling Handel’s move away from Italian opera toward the English oratorio. Of his 40 Italian operas, only one was composed after 1738 even though he lived another two decades. A large part of Handel’s shift stemmed from financial matters. Conventional sources for funding – patronage and subscriptions – were running dry, and Handel knew it. Plans for a new opera season were scrapped in mid 1738. Still, Handel’s operatic muse could not be turned off quite so easily. He adapted to a rising interest for operatic music sung in English. He had already tried this approach with Esther (1732) and Athalia (1733), dramatic vocal works in English and based on biblical stories. These efforts culminated with Messiah in 1742. Charles Jennens penned the libretto, and Handel labored for barely a month in composing the music. In fact, such speed was quite common, and within a week of finishing Messiah he was already deeply engrossed on another oratorio, Solomon.

Despite Messiah’s subsequent fame, it was not enthusiastically received at first. Planned performances were curtailed, the music was revised and often excerpted to feature only select popular numbers. Over time, these favored movements allowed the work to enjoy a second life, being performed at festivals and church services across the continent. Today only a few numbers are generally heard, and their fame gives some false impressions of the total work. For instance, today Messiah literally overwhelms musical life around Christmas despite the fact that its libretto only briefly relates to Christ’s birth; it could equally be deemed a passion piece and presented around Easter. Further, the majestic “Hallelujah” chorus – far and away the most familiar music from the oratorio, even Handel’s global audio signature – is not the end of Messiah. It closes the second of three parts. The “Hallelujah” refrain is interspersed with passages from the Book of Revelation. It is set in D major and features both timpani and trumpets. Among its many outstanding qualities are the combination of adroit polyphony and strident homophony, even unisono passages – projecting a sense of unified voice among all people. Even though 35 years had passed since Dixit Dominus, a work of Handel’s youth in Rome, many of that work’s best achievements are still here on full display.

Staunton Music Festival plans to open the next summer’s festival with a complete, staged performance of Messiah, perhaps for the first time ever in Virginia. Save the date: August 15, 2025!

© Jason Stell, 2024