Handel

[Mario]

Unless I’m mistaken, Handel is a composer not THAT often mentioned on this forum. I wonder why?

What little I know of his music, I adore! I’m no expert, but it seems to me that this composer never wrote an angry note in his life.

Just acquired Trevor Pinnock’s boxed set with the English Concert on the Archiv label (“The Complete Orchestral Recordings” 11 CDs).

All wonderful stuff!

Whether these are definitive recordings I have no idea, but I don’t see why anyone should feel disappointed.

Mario

[Pulcinella]

Unless I’m mistaken, Handel is a composer not THAT often mentioned on this forum. I wonder why?

What little I know of his music, I adore! I’m no expert, but it seems to me that this composer never wrote an angry note in his life.

Just acquired Trevor Pinnock’s boxed set with the English Concert on the Archiv label (“The Complete Orchestral Recordings” 11 CDs).

All wonderful stuff!

Whether these are definitive recordings I have no idea, but I don’t see why anyone should feel disappointed.

Mario

I'm sure you'll know 'Why do the nations so furiously rage together' from Messiah; that's pretty angry stuff (but I know what you mean ).

I don't think you could stay miserable for long if you've got some Handel on.
Then there's all the choral music, oratorios, and operas waiting for you, as well as the keyboard suites.
Enjoy!

[LMcD]

I'm sure you'll know 'Why do the nations so furiously rage together' from Messiah; that's pretty angry stuff (but I know what you mean ).

I don't think you could stay miserable for long if you've got some Handel on.
Then there's all the choral music, oratorios, and operas waiting for you, as well as the keyboard suites.
Enjoy!

Perhaps messages about Handel could be posted on the 'Composers' sub-forum, where he currently does not feature.
I have a set of Concerti Grossi (Harnancourt) and a few other pieces on compilation CDs or sets, including 'The Harmonious Blacksmith' and extracts from operas, but that's about it.
I Do hope that this doesn't lead to the purchase of a significant number of recordings to add to my groaning shelves!

[Bryn]

Agreed regarding resiting this thread.

Beethoven was a big fan of Handel's music. This may have been a controversial night at the Proms, but I loved it, as I had previously loved the CD, then SACD, of the same works with the same forces:

plus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic8gqPgO57c

[cloughie]

Perhaps messages about Handel could be posted on the 'Composers' sub-forum, where he currently does not feature.
I have a set of Concerti Grossi (Harnancourt) and a few other pieces on compilation CDs or sets, including 'The Harmonious Blacksmith' and extracts from operas, but that's about it.
I Do hope that this doesn't lead to the purchase of a significant number of recordings to add to my groaning shelves!

Handel with care. Do you remember the Peddlers’ with vocals put to Largo from Xerxes?

[Mario]

My apologies – only just returned to the forum and didn’t know about the “Composers” sub-thread – can a kind moderator move the thread please?

Didn’t know about LvB’s fondness to GFH's music – thanks Bryn!

We don’t get many viewings of the Proms out here, so again Bryn, thanks for the link. Maybe I’ll start searching YouTube for some more.

Best wishes,

Mario

[Bella Kemp]

With regard to the 'never wrote an angry note in his life,' perhaps we might therefore pair him with Haydn, who seemed to be of a similar disposition. They would have been delightful guests to have staying for Christmas.

[gurnemanz]

During lockdown I really enjoyed two Handel streams:
Bristol Old Vic semi-staged Messiah.
The Met's Agrippina. Marvellous entertainment. Great to look at, well sung and hilarious. Feb 2020, so must have been one of the last productions before the house closed.

I only quite recently got the Op 6 Concerti Grossi - good value twofer on L'Oiseau Lyre from Christopher Hogwood with Handel and Haydn Society.

Another favourite is also a twofer - the Keyboard Suites on EMI from Svjatoslav Richter and Andrei Gavrilov.

A few years ago we visited the museum at his Brook St residence in London. Well worth seeking out. Now re-opened, I see, and linked with the flat of Jimi Hendix - his next-door neighbour a couple of hundred years later.

[Quarky]

With regard to the 'never wrote an angry note in his life,' perhaps we might therefore pair him with Haydn, who seemed to be of a similar disposition. They would have been delightful guests to have staying for Christmas.

Another pairing might be with Telemann : https://tempestadimare.org/blog/the-...relationships/

We seem to hear even less about Telemann than Handel. One possible issue?::

"Handel and Telemann appreciated each other’s music as well as their friendship. Telemann showed it by, for instance, producing Handel’s operas in Hamburg. And Handel showed his appreciation for Telemann’s music by borrowing or, some might say, stealing it.

Borrowing—or stealing—is one of the most vexed concepts in modern-day appreciation of 18th-century music. It was endemic in the baroque era, though. Almost all baroque composers borrowed in some form, including Telemann. They borrowed from themselves, reusing tunes or passages or even entire movements from earlier pieces and reworking them into something new. And they borrowed from their colleagues—not necessarily with acknowledgement or consent. Handel was one of the biggest practitioners (or malefactors, depending on how you look at it) of both."

[cloughie]

During lockdown I really enjoyed two Handel streams:
Bristol Old Vic semi-staged Messiah.
The Met's Agrippina. Marvellous entertainment. Great to look at, well sung and hilarious. Feb 2020, so must have been one of the last productions before the house closed.

I only quite recently got the Op 6 Concerti Grossi - good value twofer on L'Oiseau Lyre from Christopher Hogwood with Handel and Haydn Society.

Another favourite is also a twofer - the Keyboard Suites on EMI from Svjatoslav Richter and Andrei Gavrilov.

A few years ago we visited the museum at his Brook St residence in London. Well worth seeking out. Now re-opened, I see, and linked with the flat of Jimi Hendix - his next-door neighbour a couple of hundred years later.

I wonder if Hendrix ever twigged the link - Arrival of the Queen of Sheba or Largo might have adapted well to his guitar style - or maybe the Royal Fireworks with his axe on fire!

[gurnemanz]

How strange it is that he and Bach never met, being almost exact contemporaries and the greatest German composers of their day. They were born in the same year not far apart geographically and Bach spent most of the last years of his life in Leipzig, only a few miles from Halle where Handel was born and grew up.

[Richard Barrett]

this composer never wrote an angry note in his life.

But what actually is an angry note? Handel's operas do contain a fairly large number of arias raging about something or other, but in his time music wasn't concerned with the expression of the composer's emotions in a way that it became for example with Beethoven. I like Handel's instrumental music quite a lot when in the mood, his vocal music less (although I did go through a craze for it at one time), but it does often seem a bit facile in comparison for example with Bach's more intricate structures.

[MickyD]

These vintage recordings featuring choral works by Handel with the AAM, Hogwood and the choir of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford are well worth having - now on a twofer which costs very little. Some of the finest music and recordings of this composer that I know.

If you like the sounds of Hogwood's version of 'Messiah', this is in the same vein. An absolute must for me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Utrecht-Jubilate-Georg-Friederich-Handel/dp/B000024A05/ref=sr_1_24?dchild=1&keywords=Handel+Hogwood&qid=1600339258&s=music&sr=1-24

[cloughie]

These vintage recordings featuring choral works by Handel with the AAM, Hogwood and the choir of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford are well worth having - now on a twofer which costs very little. Some of the finest music and recordings of this composer that I know.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Utrecht-Jub...=music&sr=1-24

At a glance those recordings have a look of the parson’s egg about them - I could listen to Emma forever but my ears can only take the sound of countertenors in small doses.

[MickyD]

At a glance those recordings have a look of the parson’s egg about them - I could listen to Emma forever but my ears can only take the sound of countertenors in small doses.

When the countertenor is James Bowman, I see no cause for alarm!