Handel: Israel in Egypt R3 20.05.16

[LeMartinPecheur]

Hmm, no thread on this so I'll start one...

Much as I enjoyed the broadcast my reason for doing so is a happenstance that befell me as I listened. After a tiring day I wasn't sure I'd stay awake for it and looked at my bookshelves wondering if I had a s/h score. I did, an ancient paperback Novello Pocket Edition, quite likely never previously opened by me

To my amazement I found it was marked "June 27th 1903 Crystal Palace" and the soloists' names are written against their parts as they crop up. Namely (dates from Wiki):
Sopranos - Ella Russell (1864-1935) and Clara Samuell (?-?)
Contralto - Clara Butt (1872-1936)
Tenor - Charles Saunders (1867-1917, listed online sometimes as The CORNISH Tenor - hurrah!!)
Baritones - Andrew Black (1859-1920) and Kennerley Rumford (1870-1957, Clara Butt's husband).

It was a teeny bit surreal listening to a male alto and imaging CB's fruity tones instead!

I'm guessing that this Crystal Palace concert might have been a Handel Festival - can anyone confirm or disprove? And does anyone know the choir(s) and conductor?

(There are no markings at all in the chorus parts, so perhaps the score belonged to a very conscientious Handelian in the audience?)

EDIT Hurrah, there was a Handel Festival at CP in 1903 but I don't know the dates: "Op. 4 No. 4 has seldom been heard in the long unpublished original version with an Alleluia Chorus as second part of the last movement. After the composers's death it was first performed at the Crystal Palace, London, during the Handel Festival of 1903;"

[mercia]

Advertisement for the festival says

Saturday 20 June, noon, Grand Rehearsal
Tuesday 23 June 2pm - Messiah
Thursday 25 June 2pm - selections from Solomon and Acis & Galatea + organ concerto (Walter Parratt soloist)
Saturday 27 June 2pm - Israel in Egypt

"chorus and orchestra of 4,000"

if you have access to online newspapers [e.g. The British Newspaper Archive - subscription costs] there are reviews of the Israel in Egypt concert in editions of 29 June. I've seen a birth date of 1858 for Clara Samuell but that might not be correct. Frederic Hymen Cowen conducted and he and August Manns gave speeches at the end.

http://admin.concertprogrammes.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/4775

visitors to the festival 81,848 up from 80,214 three years previously

[ardcarp]

Israel in Egypt has always been (or should I say used to be?) a favourite with choral societies because it is, er, full of choruses! It is quite different from any other Handel Oratorio in that respect, relying far less on soloists and recitative to 'tell the story'. Add to that such things as graphic depiction of the plagues (e.g. And there came all manner of flies), the parting of the Red Sea, use of trombones and double choruses, and one can understand its popularity.

For a 'cathedral' choir to tackle it is quite remarkable, as there is so much for the trebles to learn, often divisi, and it is quite a taxing sing. James O'Donnell must have been very sure of his current batch of choristers to consider doing it. But much of the choral work is exuberant and declamatory...just the sort of thing that might be delivered with relish by youngsters.

The performance did not disappoint. St James Baroque was excellent, and above all, J O'D did not take everything at breakneck (Barokneck?) speed. I passed a most enjoyable evening's listening, so thanks, WA.

[aeolium]

The performance did not disappoint. St James Baroque was excellent, and above all, J O'D did not take everything at breakneck (Barokneck?) speed. I passed a most enjoyable evening's listening, so thanks, WA.

I quite agree, and the choir was wonderful. A great evening, I thought, a lovely performance of one of Handel's finest oratorios.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Thanks very much mercia, most interesting!

It must have sounded much better with 4000 performers instead of the thin fare last night!

[ardcarp]

It must have sounded much better with 4000 performers instead of the thin fare last night!

It would certainly have sounded different! Can't quite agree about 'thin fare' unless you meant 'by comparison'. As to 'better', well, I'd love to be a fly on the wall of the time machine. (I did hear a performance with 4 combined choral societies, probably numbering 300-ish, with symphony-orchestra-size forces.) I think Israel in Egypt, despite its subject matter, is a very English oratorio, i.e. Handel writing for the choral tastes of contemporary London, building on the traditions of Blow, Croft and the like.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It must have sounded much better with 4000 performers instead of the thin fare last night!

Certainly it would have been a lot fatter, yes.

[Richard Barrett]

I think Israel in Egypt, despite its subject matter, is a very English oratorio, i.e. Handel writing for the choral tastes of contemporary London, building on the traditions of Blow, Croft and the like.

... and despite Handel's composing most of it on the basis of purloined materials by non-English composers: Stradella, Erba, Rameau, Kerll, Urio, Strungk, Zachow (has anyone here heard anything at all by Erba or Urio???) and of course his own previous incarnation as a composer of Latin church music...

[ardcarp]

... and despite Handel's composing most of it on the basis of purloined materials by non-English composers: Stradella, Erba, Rameau, Kerll, Urio, Strungk, Zachow (has anyone here heard anything at all by Erba or Urio???) and of course his own previous incarnation as a composer of Latin church music...

Yes, and Dixit Dominus (a wonderful piece from Handel's youthful Italian sojourn) could not be more different from his 'English' choral music. Of course he brought his genius to bear on whatever he wrote and wherever he wrote it, BUT Handel's 'English' choral style has a certain directness and simplicity of rhetoric which he copied, IMHO, from Westminster Abbey's and St Paul's house style...particularly the various Thanksgivings at St Paul's. It's my hobby horse, so I'd better shut up!

(But one could listen to, for instance, Croft's 'orchestral' anthems The Lord is King, O Give Thanks, The Lord is a Sun and a Shield........)

[LeMartinPecheur]

Can't quite agree about 'thin fare' unless you meant 'by comparison'.