Prom 73: 8.09.16 - Handel: Coronation Anthems

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Prom 73: Handel – Coronation Anthems
22:15 Thursday 8 Sep 2016
Royal Albert Hall

George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthem 'Zadok the Priest'
George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthem 'My Heart is Inditing'
Georg Muffat: Armonico tributo – Sonata No. 5 in G major
George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthem 'Let Thy Hand be Strengthened'
Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestra Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 – Air (arr. L. Stokowski)
Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas – 'When I am laid in earth' (Dido's Lament) (arr. L. Stokowski)
George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthem 'The King shall Rejoice'

Academy of Ancient Music
Richard Egarr conductor

On 11 October 1727, George II was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. The House of Hanover's favourite composer was the natural choice to provide the music. Handel wrote four majestic Coronation Anthems for the occasion, the most famous, Zadok the Priest, designed to unleash its blazing choral entry just as George stepped into the Abbey's chancel.
The Academy of Ancient Music returns to the Proms to fill the Royal Albert Hall with all the regal splendour of Handel's Coronation Anthems and with Leopold Stokowski's equally grandiose upholstering of music by Bach and Purcell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07sxv6j

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm not in favour of "saturation" programming, but this one is different - broken up by other relevant items.

[underthecountertenor]

AAM performing Bach and Purcell arr. Stokowski made for a rather delicious double-take.

[doversoul1]

I somewhat doubt that Handel would be over the moon about this programme but still...

[BBMmk2]

Likewise, DS! I much rather have the originals, in this take. If they going to do this, do it properly, I think!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Likewise, DS! I much rather have the originals, in this take. If they going to do this, do it properly, I think!

Well, it's only ten minutes of Music that is going to be done improperly, Bbm. The rest is as proper as we can get in a Prom.

[underthecountertenor]

I somewhat doubt that Handel would be over the moon about this programme but still...

I'm not sure I understand why. None of Handel's music is billed as getting the Stokowski treatment. And my guess (which may be wrong, but may be right) is that he would probably have been quite relaxed about that sort of thing anyway. Or is it the 4 Coronation Anthems in one concert, with no other Handel, that you think he would have bemoaned?

[doversoul1]

I'm not sure I understand why. None of Handel's music is billed as getting the Stokowski treatment. And my guess (which may be wrong, but may be right) is that he would probably have been quite relaxed about that sort of thing anyway. Or is it the 4 Coronation Anthems in one concert, with no other Handel, that you think he would have bemoaned?

I meant something like ‘Oh no, not those again’.

[underthecountertenor]

I meant something like ‘Oh no, not those again’.

Oh I SEE! Sorry.

[oddoneout]

I'm going to be going against the general opinion here I imagine but for me this was a joyous and spirit-lifting concert - notwithstanding that Dido's Lament always makes me cry. All the music has happy associations, and the AAM luxuriating in the Stokowski arrangements was great fun - a glorious sound and a wonderfully OTT rendition.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm going to be going against the general opinion here I imagine but for me this was a joyous and spirit-lifting concert - notwithstanding that Dido's Lament always makes me cry. All the music has happy associations, and the AAM luxuriating in the Stokowski arrangements was great fun - a glorious sound and a wonderfully OTT rendition.

I agree. And the arrangements were not played "improperly". They are transcriptions, and were properly described as such.

[ardcarp]

Not having been present at either Christie's B Minor Mass nor this concert, I am in no position to judge how things came over in the RAH. But from what I heard on the radio, the AAM filled the space and made a bigger (better?) impact. Occasionally AAM's strings were a little overpowered by the wind, e.g. in the opening of Zadok, but again this might not have been the case in the Hall.

[seabright]

I'm going to be going against the general opinion here I imagine but for me this was a joyous and spirit-lifting concert - notwithstanding that Dido's Lament always makes me cry. All the music has happy associations, and the AAM luxuriating in the Stokowski arrangements was great fun - a glorious sound and a wonderfully OTT rendition.

Listeners were told that Richard Egarr was a great Stokowski fan, so much so that a few years ago he made a CD of Stokowski's baroque arrangements with the Brussels Philharmonic. It includes the "Dido's Lament" transcription, beautifully played by what the CD calls 'The Orchestra of Flanders' ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lII3VI8K0K8