Prom 39 (16.08.20) Handel: Saul

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The sole work in tonight's concert is one of Handel’s most dramatic and poignant biblical oratorios, Saul, performed complete by leading period-informed collective the Gabrieli Consort & Players, under Paul McCreesh. The cast is led by British bass Neal Davies as the mad king of Israel, with star German counter-tenor Andreas Scholl as his psalm-singing successor.

Davies, Scholl and McCreesh had recorded Saul with the Gabrieli Consort & Players in 2002, for a disc described by BBC Music Magazine as ‘overwhelming’. It was later made First Choice on BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library. Experience the work live in this exhilarating performance from the 2003 Proms season.


Handel: Saul

Neal Davies (Saul)
Andreas Scholl (David)
Deborah York (Michal)
Susan Gritton (Merab)
Mark Padmore (Jonathan)
Paul Agnew (High Priest/Witch of Endor)
Jonathan Lemalu (Ghost of Samuel)
Gabrieli Consort & Players
Paul McCreesh (conductor)

(From the BBC Proms 2003, 24 August)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Just for the record, this concert is being introduced by Martyn Handley. In this instance, the BBC has chosen one of the very best, but the policy of supplanting the original (mostly rather good) presenters with today's mixed bag is suspect to say the least.

[bluestateprommer]

Another in the series of just-before-the-deadline archival Proms listens, and another 1st-ever listen for me, not just for this particular performance, but for the work itself. Very good performance (with perhaps one moment that sounded slightly scrambled, unless somehow it was written that way), so for Handel fans who haven't already checked this one out, not much time left to do so.

Per EA's point, the original presenter was Penny Gore, and a fair chunk of her original presentation comes through in this re-broadcast, at the beginning and between Parts 2 and 3. Martin Handley had a nice quarantine interview after Part 1 with Paul McCreesh.