Although George Frideric Handel was born in 1685 in Halle an der Saale, he is now admired above all as an English composer. But he was a cosmopolitan. He travelled with enthusiasm throughout Europe and lived in several different cities. In 1710, he moved to London. Here he devoted himself first and foremost to studying the English language, music, and culture – but he also composed constantly and very successfully. But read for yourself!
What is an Urtext edition based on if there is no surviving autograph? Which discoveries does a comparison of different sources allow – whether these are copies or printed editions, parts or scores? Where are mistakes always found? The musicologist Ernst Herttrich has edited works including Beethoven’s masses in Urtext editions for Carus. In his new edition of Haydn’s oratorio “Die Jahreszeiten”, he reveals what can be deduced from studying the different sources and why this edition is based on several sources.
When George Frideric Handel crossed the English Channel the first time in 1710, London was enjoying a huge economic upturn. The building boom altered the cityscape of the second largest city in Europe, with almost 630,000 inhabitants, the financial market grew and experienced the first stockmarket crash, the social contrasts were stark, but a simple musician such as Handel could die a rich man. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of today’s metropolis, we can still set out on a walk in the footsteps of Handel.
St. Paul is Philipp Schweizer’s favorite piece because the music and the content go hand in hand and are easily accessible to the listener. The confrontation between those who recognize Christ as the son of God (that is the Christians), and those who hold fast to the Jewish faith could scarcely be portrayed more thrillingly …
The favorite piece of Reiner Leister comes from Handel’s Alexander’s Feast with which Handel opened his oratorio season on 19 February 1736 at the Covent Garden Theatre, London. For Reiner Leister, it is here that the power and the emotional force of the music is absolutely clear and unambiguous.
The period in which the above-mentioned works were written was a very fruitful phase in Handel’s creative output. He composed the ode Alexander’s Feast in 1735/36, Israel in Egypt and Saul in 1738/39, and Messiah followed in 1741/42. Furthermore, during this period he composed not only the oratorio L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740), but also a further eleven (!) operas, including what is probably his best-known, Xerxes, and – as his very last opera of all – Deidamia in 1741.
