SKU: TM.10262SET
Jolly Old in C; While Shepherds in Bb. American Carols.
SKU: TM.10262SC
SKU: TM.07271SC
Pearl Fishers (Klengel).
SKU: TM.07271SET
SKU: BA.BA04025-01
ISBN 9790006443222. 33 x 26 cm inches. Text Language: English.
Handelâ??s â??Semeleâ?, which premiered in February 1744, is based on an adapted version of William Congreveâ??s opera libretto titled â??The Story of Semeleâ?, originally published in 1706. However, neither Handel nor his librettist referred to â??Semeleâ? as an opera or an oratorio, which, according to the understanding at the time, would have required a biblical and/or Christian subject matter. Contemporary audiences also disagreed on the genre. The problematic classification as an oratorio has persisted into the present day, likely due to the edition labeled as such by Chrysander. The â??Halle Handel Editionâ? (HHA) distances itself from this classification and, considering the available sources, refrains from assigning a genre label.Congreve deviates from the mythological source multiple times in order to create tensions among the characters. The desired marriage between Semele and Athamas, whom she does not love, is an addition by Congreve to provoke the envy of her sister Ino, who desires Athamas herself. Therefore, Ino sees her own advantage in Semeleâ??s abduction by Jupiter. While Jupiterâ??s wife Juno decides to destroy Semele out of jealousy for his relationship with her, Jupiter brings Ino to his palace to console Semele. The vengeful Juno takes advantage of Inoâ??s presence and transforms into her likeness, persuading Semele to carry out a plan that later proves fatal. In the end, Ino emerges as the winner, as she is able to convince their father, Cadmus, to marry her to Athamas. The appearance of Apollo in the final scene to announce that Semeleâ??s immortal son Bacchus was saved from her ashes provides little consolation. However, this twist allows the drama to conclude with exuberant joy and a magnificent final chorus after the tragic scenes in the third act, culminating in the death of the protagonist.Handelâ??s autograph score shows significant deviations from and numerous revisions of the original version premiered. All surviving early versions, the musical movements deleted before the premiere, and the version of the December 1744, are given in the appendix to the HHA.
SKU: MN.56-0108
UPC: 688670221255. English, Latin. Psalms 142; Jeremiah 3:48, 52, 56.
Invictus: A Passion addresses one of the world’s most powerful stories through the lens of the modern world. The texts, written or inspired by women, describe not only human suffering and persecution but also the human capacity for love and humility in the face of tyranny. Composer Howard Goodall is uniquely suited to bring these texts to life with music of emotional clarity and sweeping force. This excerpt is scored for soprano solo, SATB choir and piano. This fourth movement of the larger work is inspired by the extraordinary story of Irena Sendler née Krzyżanowska, a Polish nurse and head of Å»egota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews in the Second World War, whose personal interventions saved the lives of approximately 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto, smuggling them to safety, acts of humanitarian bravery that eventually caused her arrest and torture by the Gestapo. She is honoured as Righteous Amongst the Nations at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. The Latin texts of this movement are taken from the Book of Lamentations (“My eye hath run down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My enemies have chased me and caught me like a bird, without cause…â€) and from Psalm 142, the Old Testament being the meeting-point of Sendler’s Catholicism and the Jewish tradition of those whose lives she saved. Duration 6:19.
SKU: BA.BA10721-90
ISBN 9790006568680. 27 x 19 cm inches. Text Language: Italian. Preface: Annette Landgraf. Text: Pamphili, Benedetto.
Handel composed his first Italian oratorioLa Bellezza ravveduta nel trionfo del Tempo e del DisingannoHWV 46a in 1707. It is based on an allegorical moral libretto written by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili who also commissioned this work.Disinganno (Illumination) and Tempo (Time) try to get the young, beautiful and frivolous Bellezza (Beauty) to recognise the true values of life and to act accordingly. The audience accompanies Bellezza in her spiritual development, in which she increasingly distances herself from Piacere (Pleasure) and listens more and more to Tempo and Disinganno.The oratorio contains some of the most beautiful music Handel ever composed. This includes the enchanting ariaLascia la spina, in which he uses the music of the sarabande from the operaAlmira, composed in Hamburg in 1704, and which then achieved immortal fame inRinaldo(1711) asLascia ch'io pianga.
SKU: CA.5505694
Text language: English. Text: Jennens, Charles.
George Frideric Handel is considered England's first and foremost composer of oratorios. Above all, the Messiah is regarded as the epitome of sacred music and in German-speaking countries it is also one of the most often performed works in the genre. The version of the Messiah which is most often performed today is a combination of various versions. Consequently, the present critical edition by Ton Koopman contains all the surviving alternative versions of the solo movements. A concordance makes it possible to assign these movements to those various performances of the work conducted by Handel between the Dublin premiere in 1742 and the London concerts which took place up to 1759. In accordance with the wishes voiced by many choral conductors and singers, the vocal score is available in separate English and German versions. Score available separately - see item CA.5505600.
SKU: CA.5030519
ISBN 9790007145477. Key: C major. Language: Latin.
The Missa Beatissimae Virginis Maria was composed ca. 1758-1760, between the end of his tenure as a singer in the choir of St. Stephen's in Vienna and the beginning of his first position as violinist and music director for the Bishop of Grosswardein. The scoring of SATB (for soli as well as choir) and church trio was augmented by two trumpets (clarini) and timpani, as well as two trombones. The latter instruments double the alto and tenor voices in tutti passages but in the Et incarnatus est they are also employed in an obbligato role. On the one hand, as an early work this Mass is in the style of the festive baroque tradition, as practiced in south-German regions until the middle of the eighteenth century; on the other hand it already shows the subjective inspiration which distinguished it from many of the mass settings by Haydn's contemporaries. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.5030500.
SKU: CA.5030549
ISBN 9790007223762. Key: C major. Language: Latin.
The Missa Beatissimae Virginis Maria was composed ca. 1758-1760, between the end of his tenure as a singer in the choir of St. Stephen's in Vienna and the beginning of his first position as violinist and music director for the Bishop of Grosswardein. The scoring of SATB (for soli as well as choir) and church trio was augmented by two trumpets (clarini) and timpani, as well as two trombones. The latter instruments double the alto and tenor voices in tutti passages but in the Et incarnatus est they are also employed in an obbligato role. On the one hand, as an early work this Mass is in the style of the festive baroque tradition, as practiced in south-German regions until the middle of the eighteenth century; on the other hand it already shows the subjective inspiration which distinguished it from many of the mass settings by Haydn's contemporaries. Score and part available separately - see item CA.5030500.
