Program Notes
Somewhere in the world on any given day, an audience is hearing Georg Frideric Handel’s Messiah, perhaps the most universally loved composition for chorus and orchestra ever written.
In Europe, one is more likely to hear this oratorio in the spring, during the Lenten season leading to Easter. Handel himself conducted the première in April and usually presented the work at that time of year. In North America, however, ensembles most often present Messiah during the Advent and Christmas season. Our performance this evening features selections appropriate to this holiday season, with themes of expectation, celebration, good will and reconciliation.
Handel received the libretto from a frequent collaborator, Charles Jennens, in the summer of 1741. “Handel says he will do nothing next Winter,” Jennens wrote to a friend, “but I hope I shall persuade Him to set another Scripture Collection I have made for him, & perform it for his own Benefit in Passion Week.”
Whether because of Jennens’ persuasiveness or not, Handel delved into the project. He began work on August 22, 1741, and completed the entire composition in only 24 days.
Handel built his previous oratorios around strong characters and strong stories – Solomon, Samson, Saul, Julius Caesar. But London audiences were growing tired of Italian opera. Messiah was a departure: It has no characters. The chorus and soloists serve as majestic storytellers, providing narrative and commentary that propels the drama forward.
After completing Messiah, Handel accepted an invitation to travel to Dublin for a series of charity concerts. The première – April 13, 1742, in Dublin’s New Music Hall in Fishambe Street – was presented to a packed house. Gentlemen were asked not to wear swords, and women were encouraged to wear fashions without hoops, so that the hall could accommodate more people.
The performance was a tremendous success, as the Dublin Journal reported: (T)he best Judges allowed (Messiah) to be the most finished piece of music. Words are wanted to express the exquisite Delight it afforded to the admiring crowded audience. The Sublime, the Grand, and the Tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestic and moving Words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished Heart and Ear. It is but justice to Mr. Handel, that the World should know, he generously gave the Money arising from this Grand Performance, to be equally shared by the Society for relieving Prisoners, the Charitable Infirmary, the Mercer’s Hospital, for which they will ever gratefully remember his Name ...
The London première, nearly a year later on March 23, 1743, raised questions about the propriety of performing the work in a playhouse rather than a church. It was also the London performance that established a tradition that continues to this day, described by one observer: “When the chorus struck up ‘for the Lord God Omnipotent’ [in the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’], they were so transported that they all together, with the King, started up and remained standing till the chorus ended.”
Messiah was certainly the centerpiece of Handel’s prolific career. On April 6, 1759, the composer made his final public appearance, conducting Messiah in London. Eight days later, he was dead at the age of 74. His funeral, held at Westminster Abbey, attracted an estimated 3,000 mourners.
The French sculptor Louis Roubiliac created a monument to Handel and Messiah, dedicated at the Abbey three years later. The monument depicts Handel, score in hand. Overhead, an angel plays a lyre. The score is opened to the soprano solo that inaugurates Part III of Messiah: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”
This evening’s performance will follow Handel’s own design of the oratorio. Part I focuses on the grave and desperate situation of Israel. It focuses on prophesy, on the assurance of God’s eventual comfort and on attributes of the longed-for Messiah.
Handel’s choice of musical form reflects his thematic considerations. The voice of prophecy speaks through accompanied recitative, but contemplative moments like “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd” are cast in the more static form of an aria. Where the feeling of the text is collective, as in “His Yoke is Easy,” the singing is entrusted to the choral form of an anthem. The text of Part I is compiled from the books of Isaiah, Haggai, Malachi, Luke, Zachariah and Matthew.
Part II tells of the Messiah’s life on earth, his passion and death. The initial chorus “Behold the Lamb of God” anticipates the basic message of this part, yet the remainder deals with themes that forecast the deliverance and victory. The text of Part II is compiled from the books of John, Isaiah, Psalms, Lamentations, Hebrews, Romans and Revelations.
Part III focuses on the fundamentals of faith, the existence of God, the promise of eternal life, and eternal peace. The aria “I know that my Redeemer liveth” functions as a natural prologue for these themes. The middle section is dominated by the forecast of Judgment Day in the great aria “The trumpet shall sound the dead shall be raised,” and the entire work is crowned with a tremendous fugal “Amen.” Texts for Part III are from Job, Corinthians, Romans and Revelations.
– Andrew Clark
This Evening’s Performance
(Choral movements in boldface)
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