Handel...The Harmonious Blacksmith Of Music

[vers la flamme]

400 pages for Havergal Brian and 5 pages for Handel is a crime... 

... anyway, I need some more Handel in my life... particularly interested at the moment in his choral music. I love the Coronation Anthems; I finally ordered a Messiah (Pearlman/Boston Baroque recording, which sounded great to my ears)—what are some other great choral works by Handel? Oratorios, cantatas, whatever you've got, I'll take it. Suggested recordings would also be appreciated.

I also really want to hear more of the concerti, especially the organ concertos. Who has made a good recording of these?

[Jo498]

There are lots of recordings of the organ concerti and while mostly comparably "light" music, they are hard to completely ruin. Sometimes acoustics are odd because of the church space and of course tastes in organs differ. I think that they are generally better with a small organ than with a huge church organ. Except for one concerto they are manualiter only and have also been recorded on piano and harpsichord.
My favorite is probably Harnoncourt/Tachezi but this is missing one or two concerti and two others are somewhat hard to find. If you find the twofer with op.4+7, I'd recommmend that. Koopman is complete and was available in several cheap versions, agains sometimes not all three discs.

The best orchestral collection are the concerti grossi op.6. Again dozens of recordings are available. My favorites are Harnoncourt and Hogwood.

The choral/vocal works are endless. They cover a wide range from anthems to quasi-operatic scenes with biblical or secular themes. Closest to the coronation anthems as representation music are probably the Dettingen and Utrecht Te Deum settings. The so-called Chandos anthems are beautiful and underrated and -recorded are about a dozen more intimate semi-private church pieces. (There is only one complete recording with Christophers on Chandos.) There is a bunch of Latin church music from his early years in Italy of which the Dixit Dominus is not unjustifiedly the most famous, a very gripping dramatic piece. Of the later English oratorios Israel in Egypt, Solomon and Belshazzar are maybe the most choir-centered. Others like Semele or Hercules are operas in all but name and language (but unlike the Italian operas they all have a bunch of choral passages as well).
Admittedly, some of these often fairly long (2-3 hours) pieces can be uneven (and especially older recordings are sometimes slightly abridged) but they all contain vast amounts of impressive music.

For starters, I'd try Dixit dominus (Minkowski or get Fasolis with Dettingen Te Deum to get this as well), Dettingen Te Deum and Jubilate (Preston on Archiv), Israel in Egypt (Parrott, in any case make sure to get the 3 part version), Solomon (Gardiner (slightly abridged) or McCreesh), Saul (Jacobs or Gardiner), Hercules (Gardiner or Minkowski)

And this is not even starting on the actual operas or the >100 Italian secular cantatas.

[vers la flamme]

There are lots of recordings of the organ concerti and while mostly comparably "light" music, they are hard to completely ruin. Sometimes acoustics are odd because of the church space and of course tastes in organs differ. I think that they are generally better with a small organ than with a huge church organ. Except for one concerto they are manualiter only and have also been recorded on piano and harpsichord.
My favorite is probably Harnoncourt/Tachezi but this is missing one or two concerti and two others are somewhat hard to find. If you find the twofer with op.4+7, I'd recommmend that. Koopman is complete and was available in several cheap versions, agains sometimes not all three discs.

The best orchestral collection are the concerti grossi op.6. Again dozens of recordings are available. My favorites are Harnoncourt and Hogwood.

The choral/vocal works are endless. They cover a wide range from anthems to quasi-operatic scenes with biblical or secular themes. Closest to the coronation anthems as representation music are probably the Dettingen and Utrecht Te Deum settings. The so-called Chandos anthems are beautiful and underrated and -recorded are about a dozen more intimate semi-private church pieces. (There is only one complete recording with Christophers on Chandos.) There is a bunch of Latin church music from his early years in Italy of which the Dixit Dominus is not unjustifiedly the most famous, a very gripping dramatic piece. Of the later English oratorios Israel in Egypt, Solomon and Belshazzar are maybe the most choir-centered. Others like Semele or Hercules are operas in all but name and language (but unlike the Italian operas they all have a bunch of choral passages as well).
Admittedly, some of these often fairly long (2-3 hours) pieces can be uneven (and especially older recordings are sometimes slightly abridged) but they all contain vast amounts of impressive music.

For starters, I'd try Dixit dominus (Minkowski or get Fasolis with Dettingen Te Deum to get this as well), Dettingen Te Deum and Jubilate (Preston on Archiv), Israel in Egypt (Parrott, in any case make sure to get the 3 part version), Solomon (Gardiner (slightly abridged) or McCreesh), Saul (Jacobs or Gardiner), Hercules (Gardiner or Minkowski)

And this is not even starting on the actual operas or the >100 Italian secular cantatas.

Awesome! Thanks for the very helpful post. I'm going to seek out Dixit Dominus (which I've heard before, but forgot about) and possibly one or two of those oratorios. As for the organ concertos I may let price/availability guide me at this point with how many recordings are out there.

[71 dB]

400 pages for Havergal Brian and 5 pages for Handel is a crime... 

Perhaps not a crime, but Handel is strangely overlooked in general.

... anyway, I need some more Handel in my life... particularly interested at the moment in his choral music. I love the Coronation Anthems; I finally ordered a Messiah (Pearlman/Boston Baroque recording, which sounded great to my ears)—what are some other great choral works by Handel? Oratorios, cantatas, whatever you've got, I'll take it. Suggested recordings would also be appreciated.

I also really want to hear more of the concerti, especially the organ concertos. Who has made a good recording of these?

I am hopeless in recommending recordings. I have tons of Naxos, McGegan (Susanna), Minkowski (Hercules), Solti (Messiah), Pinnock (Belsazar) ... and DVDs (most importantly Giulio Cesare/Christie/Glyndebourne!). McGegan (on Harmonia Mundi) is pretty convincing. Nowadays I am into Handel played on piano, 2 Naxos discs by Philip Edward Fisher. Danielle de Niese's arias CD on Decca is excellent... ...somehow I am not into Handel's cantatas that much, don't know why. Op. 6 is of course essential Handel. I have The Academy of Ancient Music on Harmonia Mundi. For Choral music Dettingen De Teum/Zadok the Priest/Organ Concerto 14 on Hyperion is solid. Perhaps what you are looking for?

[Jo498]

To be fair, I think there are one or two other Handel threads (maybe with a focus on particular sets of pieces) in the forum, but I am too lazy to search for them.

I do not have these recordings and I found them strange and not quite to my taste but Kirschnereit on cpo and Schirmer on Berlin? have recorded all or most of the Organ concerti on piano. Apparently some people are really fond of them.

[vers la flamme]

@71db.  That Hyperion disc does look good, but I just pulled the trigger on Simon Preston's Dettingen Te Deum and don't want to double up just yet. Too bad Hyperion releases can't be sampled online or I'd have had to give more thought to the competition.

@Jo, Handel "piano" concertos sounds interesting—I do love the Richter/Gavrilov recordings of the Suites on piano—but I'll likely stick to the organ versions for now.

Israel in Egypt sounds really good. If I get into both it and Messiah, will I be totally burnt out? Or are they quite distinguishable from one another?

[André]

Israel and Messiah are as different as could be. I took to Messiah instantly, decades ago. It took me a long time to appreciate Israel in Egypt.

[Jo498]

Both Messiah and Israel are both actually quite untypical as neither has acting persons and Messiah really has no action but only reflexion/commentary. Israel in Egypt has some of the most impressive choruses but overall it is a very uneven piece that was crammed together in a hurry with lots of borrowings from Handel himself or other composers. The whole first part (that is missing in some versions) is a re-texting of the funeral ode, thus turned into a lament of the Israelites for Joseph. Nevertheless because since Haydn people were usually most impressed by the choral music, I think it is not a bad piece to try.

If one wanted to classify the oratorios, it is roughly as follows (not mentioning each and every piece)

early Italian: La resurrezione, Il trionfo del tempo ed el disinganno - basically Italian opera/pastoral cantata with hardly any choral parts
German: Brockes-Passion (the attributed early St. John's passion is almost certainly not by Handel)
English with biblical theme and "acting roles": Esther, Saul, Solomon, Samson, Judas Maccabaeus, Joshua, Joseph and his brethren, Jephtha (Theodora belongs here, but it is the only one with a subject from early christian legend, not the bible)
without "acting roles: Messiah, Israel in Egypt
English "allegorical Ode", Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, Alexander's Feast, L'allegro, il moderato, il penseroso, Choice of Hercules
English "unstaged opera" with subject from classical antiquity: Acis and Galathea, Hercules, Semele

I think the Brockespassion can be safely skipped for a beginner but if you want to get an impression of the breadth, you could get one piece from each of the other groups although the early italian style could as well be covered by an anthology with a bunch of cantatas, especially if you like female solo singing.
Saul might be the most dramatic and varied of the biblical oratorios.
The very last group comprises also very different pieces. Acis is small scale and pastoral (of the secular pieces it must have been one of the most popular after Handel'S death as both Mozart and Mendelssohn re-orchestrated it for performances), Hercules is a dark psychological drama (not at all about the heroic deeds of Hercules but basically a jealousy tragedy), Semele maybe the most operatic of them (it has been successfully staged, check it out on youtube or elsewhere, at least snippets should be there.)

[71 dB]

I have the following oratorios/operas:

Acis and Galatea
Athalia
Belsazar
Deborah
Giulio Cesare
Il Trionfo del Tempo e della Verità
Saul
Semele
Teseo
The Messiah (two recordings)
Theodora

I don't know Israel in Egypt. Handel has got so many of these it's not easy to explore them all, especially as I prefer operas on DVD/Blu-ray rather than CD and these tend to be insanely pricy.

[vers la flamme]

Both Messiah and Israel are both actually quite untypical as neither has acting persons and Messiah really has no action but only reflexion/commentary. Israel in Egypt has some of the most impressive choruses but overall it is a very uneven piece that was crammed together in a hurry with lots of borrowings from Handel himself or other composers. The whole first part (that is missing in some versions) is a re-texting of the funeral ode, thus turned into a lament of the Israelites for Joseph. Nevertheless because since Haydn people were usually most impressed by the choral music, I think it is not a bad piece to try.

If one wanted to classify the oratorios, it is roughly as follows (not mentioning each and every piece)

early Italian: La resurrezione, Il trionfo del tempo ed el disinganno - basically Italian opera/pastoral cantata with hardly any choral parts
German: Brockes-Passion (the attributed early St. John's passion is almost certainly not by Handel)
English with biblical theme and "acting roles": Esther, Saul, Solomon, Samson, Judas Maccabaeus, Joshua, Joseph and his brethren, Jephtha (Theodora belongs here, but it is the only one with a subject from early christian legend, not the bible)
without "acting roles: Messiah, Israel in Egypt
English "allegorical Ode", Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, Alexander's Feast, L'allegro, il moderato, il penseroso, Choice of Hercules
English "unstaged opera" with subject from classical antiquity: Acis and Galathea, Hercules, Semele

I think the Brockespassion can be safely skipped for a beginner but if you want to get an impression of the breadth, you could get one piece from each of the other groups although the early italian style could as well be covered by an anthology with a bunch of cantatas, especially if you like female solo singing.
Saul might be the most dramatic and varied of the biblical oratorios.
The very last group comprises also very different pieces. Acis is small scale and pastoral (of the secular pieces it must have been one of the most popular after Handel'S death as both Mozart and Mendelssohn re-orchestrated it for performances), Hercules is a dark psychological drama (not at all about the heroic deeds of Hercules but basically a jealousy tragedy), Semele maybe the most operatic of them (it has been successfully staged, check it out on youtube or elsewhere, at least snippets should be there.)

I appreciate these suggestion. I will try and check out a handful of these, maybe after looking into the synopses of what they're about. You must be a pretty big Handel fan, then? It seems he is often unfairly neglected here and elsewhere. It would seem that he's a major, extremely prolific composer of high consistency. Everything I've heard of his has been great!

[Jo498]

I had a bunch of the more famous works (like Messiah, Concerti grossi) long before but then I was on a huge Handel binge ca. 2002-7 or so but I have to admit that I bought more operas and oratorios than I could really digest quickly enough and later on my interest waned somewhat. So there are quite a few I have never heard or only once. But yes, I am pretty big fan. With an abundance of recordings in the last 20 years or so one can hardly claim that Handel is underrated in general, but this forum here certainly has a different focus. And most similar internet places also tend to focus on (late) romantic and (early) modern orchestral music, sometimes with a minor on piano or opera. On a German language forum there are a bunch of Handelians who regularly attend the Göttingen or Halle festivals and have a much better and deeper knowledge than I do, but they are also only about 2-3 people.
He was extremely prolific but he could be uneven. This is often due to circumstance with editors publishing stuff that was not really ready for publication or arranged by the publisher or not even by Handel. (This concerns mostly some chamber and keyboard music.) Or that a new piece had to be ready within a few weeks, so some parts are basically pastich from other works (by Handel or someone else) and also that a full scale oratorio/opera had to be at least around 2 hours, better 3. (Alexander's Feast at about 90 min. was not a full evening's entertainment.)

A very attractive section that is still not so well covered and well known, are the early italian cantatas. They are shortish (typically 15-25 min.) and often like miniature opera scenes. So one gets great music without sitting through 2+ hours of opera or oratorio.

[asin]B00009W3RL[/asin]

[vers la flamme]

^I have one disc of Italian cantatas, w/ Emma Kirkby, Hogwood & the AAM. It's pretty good; I ought to spend more time with the music.

[Mandryka]

I also really want to hear more of the concerti, especially the organ concertos. Who has made a good recording of these?

I have one recording, an oldie, with Ernst Ansermet and Jeanne Demessieux. Just two of them.  It's nice, a pleasure to hear  -- I'll let you have it if you want, the sound is fine. I think the organ concertos were written to entertain the groundlings in the intervals of the operas.

I assume you've heard the concerti grossi. There's a similarly uninformed recording which I love, or rather loved the last time I heard it maybe more than 10 years ago, with Herman Scherchen in the driving seat.

I've never bothered with recordings of the operas, and I've seen two live -- the Peter Seller's production of Theodora (which is on DVD I think) and Acis and Galathea in a Jonathan Miller production  -- Acis and Galathea is a hoot, great fun.

[Jo498]

^I have one disc of Italian cantatas, w/ Emma Kirkby, Hogwood & the AAM. It's pretty good; I ought to spend more time with the music.

That's a nice disc as well. The Zadori on Brilliant (orig. Hungaroton) has some that are a bit more varied and dramatic (Delirio amoroso, maybe the most famous of them, Ero e Leandro and Agrippina). To be fair, while very good music, similar cantatas were written by the dozen by the somewhat older and contemporary Italians like Alessando Scarlatti, Caldara or Bononcini. And while Handel's have been the most successfully reanimated operas from the high baroque (only the few by Rameau come close, most of the others that have been tried have not really entered the repertoire) his real historical achievement is the English (or later also German) language oratorio, serious, popular and monumental that set the stage for similar works from Haydn to Elgar.

[vers la flamme]

That's a nice disc as well. The Zadori on Brilliant (orig. Hungaroton) has some that are a bit more varied and dramatic (Delirio amoroso, maybe the most famous of them, Ero e Leandro and Agrippina). To be fair, while very good music, similar cantatas were written by the dozen by the somewhat older and contemporary Italians like Alessando Scarlatti, Caldara or Bononcini. And while Handel's have been the most successfully reanimated operas from the high baroque (only the few by Rameau come close, most of the others that have been tried have not really entered the repertoire) his real historical achievement is the English (or later also German) language oratorio, serious, popular and monumental that set the stage for similar works from Haydn to Elgar.

Some call Handel the greatest opera composer of all time, but I suppose this is either hyperbole or just a niche thing from people who listen strictly to pre-classical music, which I can respect. I have long been curious about the world of baroque opera but I don't know that I'm ready to dive into it yet.

@Mandryka, I think I'll have to pass on that as I have a distaste for both Ansermet and Scherchen, though I do appreciate the offer. As for the operas, there are so many that I have no idea where to start. I know there's Giulio Cesare in Egitto that's supposed to be good, though it's quite massive. I don't know if I want to try and hear the whole thing yet.

[Jo498]

The opera seria was really dead, I mean it already smelled funny in Handel's time (with Gay/Pepusch's Beggar's opera being a successful parody), that's why he invented and focussed on English oratorio in the last ca. 20 years of his life. Even after the rediscovery of Monteverdi in the 1930s and the foundation of Handel festivals in Germany, the opera of Handel's time still had a bad rap and was hardly performed at all or often arranged (Caesar as a baritone etc.). Common opinion was still that Monteverdi had invented musical drama and then opera had degenerated into a circus for castrati and divas until Gluck and Mozart "rescued" it.
Now the last 30-40 years brought the re-establishment of high baroque (i.e. not Monteverdi) opera on stage, not merely on recordings, in a stable and growing niche and even in the standard repertoire although there are of course still many opera buffs who don't care about it (but then presumeably also a few who became sick of (late) romantic opera and prefer baroque).
Julius Caesar, Rinaldo and Alcina would be my recommendations of the operas, they have a good mix of drama and "big hits". But I admit that I usually also do not have the patience to listen to whole operas (but this goes for most operas, not merely baroque).

[vers la flamme]

The opera seria was really dead, I mean it already smelled funny in Handel's time (with Gay/Pepusch's Beggar's opera being a successful parody), that's why he invented and focussed on English oratorio in the last ca. 20 years of his life. Even after the rediscovery of Monteverdi in the 1930s and the foundation of Handel festivals in Germany, the opera of Handel's time still had a bad rap and was hardly performed at all or often arranged (Caesar as a baritone etc.). Common opinion was still that Monteverdi had invented musical drama and then opera had degenerated into a circus for castrati and divas until Gluck and Mozart "rescued" it.
Now the last 30-40 years brought the re-establishment of high baroque (i.e. not Monteverdi) opera on stage, not merely on recordings, in a stable and growing niche and even in the standard repertoire although there are of course still many opera buffs who don't care about it (but then presumeably also a few who became sick of (late) romantic opera and prefer baroque).
Julius Caesar, Rinaldo and Alcina would be my recommendations of the operas, they have a good mix of drama and "big hits". But I admit that I usually also do not have the patience to listen to whole operas (but this goes for most operas, not merely baroque).

Kind of an amazing story, no? What other composer has totally reinvented himself, later in life, after a long and successful flourishing in one genre, as a master of another completely different, more contemporary genre and style, resulting in even more success...? Accordingly, Handel was probably the only Baroque master to die wealthy, famous and well respected. Fascinating.

[71 dB]

Handel started composing oratorios instead of operas because he got fed up with arrogant diva-like singers and their crazy demands.

[vers la flamme]

Handel started composing oratorios instead of operas because he got fed up with arrogant diva-like singers and their crazy demands.

Hmm... Somehow I doubt that worked for him. The way I see it, a diva is a diva whether she's singing Italian opera seria or English sacred oratorio.

Favorite recordings of the Harpsichord Suites? I love my Gavrilov/Richter tag-team 2CD with the first eight (how many are there in total?), but that is of course piano. I have another disc by Anthony Newman on Sony, but I'm afraid I really dislike the sound of his instrument (maybe someone could tell me why...? I don't know much about harpsichords, but this one just sounds abrasive to my ears) as well as his zippy technique. Thoughts on Paul Nicholson on Hyperion? It can be had for cheap.

[Jo498]

If one looks at the details, Handel actually composed a few oratorios during the time when he was still mainly focussing on operas, e.g. Esther. This changed in the mid/late 1730s; from then on oratorios dominated and this was also related to economic success.
There were fewer divas (and I think hardly any castrati) in oratorios whereas in a typical opera seria one had at least two each top-billed castrati and women (who sometimes made more money from the venure than Handel himself did), so despite the choir and often a bit larger orchestra, it was cheaper and one saved also the stage gear etc.

I also found Newman a bit on the overly too fast and "shallow" side. The Nicholson has the advantage of the 6 fugues but it errs a bit in the opposite direction of being maybe not playful enough.

It is hardly possible to answer how many keyboard suites there are. The 8 from 1720s (426-433) are the only really "authorised" set where Handel himself had taken part in preparing the edition. Apparently he at least did not intervene in the publication of the 1733 (434-442) set containing 7 suites and 2 Chaconnes (the famous one 435 and another huge rambling one with 62 variations). But this later set was probably thrown together by the publisher, who added a minuet in g minor to the first B flat major suite that has nothing to do with the piece etc. Almost all of these pieces are actually from a much earlier time, many of them having been composed when Handel was around or not even 20. Then there are two small suites composed for Princess Louisa (447 and 452). Then there are about 10 more suites, or fragments of suites, most of them from a very early time as well as dozens of short pieces (and many more dozens attributed in late 18th century publications that are probably not by Handel).

Richter/Gavrilov play the 8 from 1720, 6 from 1733 (the Chaconnes and the 434 are missing) and the two late ones for the princess.

It's not complete, but for the best pieces of the 1733 set I think the Archiv disc with Pinnock (once re-issued in a midprice series) is very good. Generally, anything beyond the 1720 and the Chaconne are not easy to find although there are recordings. E.g. Sophie Yates or the one on Brilliant.