SKU: BA.BA10700
ISBN 9790006550135. 33 x 26 cm inches. Text Language: English, Italian. Preface: Heinrich, Artie. Text: Gay, John / Hughes, John / Pope, Alexander / Giuvo, Nicola.
Handel set the myth about the love of the shepherd Acis for the sea nymph Galatea from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses†a total of three times: in the cantata “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo†HWV 72 (1708), the masque “Acis and Galatea†HWV 49a (1718) and finally the pasticcio-like serenata “Acis and Galatea†HWV 49b (1732) of which the original version is now made available in its complete form for the first time.A particular charm is provided by the use of two languages in the serenata. The work was originally conceived in English, as was required for the first performance. However, Handel’s Italian singers were criticised for their poor command of English, – so in the end, many numbers were sung in Italian. The extensive appendix to the vocal score includes the additional arias and newly composed movements for the versions used in the 1734 and 1736 performances.
About Barenreiter Urtext
What can I expect from a Barenreiter Urtext edition?
MUSICOLOGICALLY SOUND - A reliable musical text based on all available sources - A description of the sources - Information on the genesis and history of the work - Valuable notes on performance practice - Includes an introduction with critical commentary explaining source discrepancies and editorial decisions ... AND PRACTICAL - Page-turns, fold-out pages, and cues where you need them - A well-presented layout and a user-friendly format - Excellent print quality - Superior paper and binding
SKU: BA.BA04096
ISBN 9790006550098. 33 x 26 cm inches. Text Language: Italian. Preface: Terence Best. Text: Carlo Sigismondo Capece.
The Italian oratorio La Resurrezione (The Resurrection) was written during Handel’s time in Rome. It was performed on Easter Sunday 1708 with great splendour and extravagance by a large orchestra conducted by Arcangelo Corelli in the Palazzo Bonelli, the Roman palazzo of Handel’s patron the Marchese Francesco Maria Ruspoli. In its dramatic structure and characterisation of the protagonists, the work displays a striking affinity with Italian opera. Lucifer’s raging sixty fourth notes call to mind the demon characters in Venetian opera and Maddalena’s arias are so full of expressive power and virtuosity that Handel later incorporated one of them into his opera Agrippina. The unusual musical richness of this work and the virtuosic and masterly shaping of the arias make it a welcome addition to any concert programme.
SKU: BA.BA04051
ISBN 9790006443611. 33 x 26 cm inches. Text Language: English, German.
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: BA.BA04052
ISBN 9790006495702. 33.1 x 26 cm inches. Nicola Francesco Haym.
Handel began the composition of Tamerlano, one of the supreme masterpieces of Baroque opera seria, on 3rd July 1724. The libretto was an adaptation by Nicola Haym of Agostino Piovene's Tamerlano, Tragedia per musica, which had been set to music by Francesco Gasparini, and performed in Venice in 1711. When Handel dated the last page of the autograph on 4rd July the work appeared to be complete; but during the three months which passed before the premiere at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket on 31 October, so many alterations and revisions were made that a fresh performing-score had to be writtern very late in the proceedings, to replace an earlier one which is now 1ost.There were twelve performances between 31 October 1724 and 8 May 1725. Handel revived the opera only once, in 1731, for three performances. For this revival he marked in the performing score a number of cuts in the recitatives, which are reproduced in the present edition; there is more recitative in Tamerlano than in any other Handel opera.
SKU: BA.BA10726-01
ISBN 9790006575596. 33 x 26 cm inches. Text Language: Italian. Preface: Pacholke, Michael.
In the brief half-year period from August 14, 1736, to January 27, 1737, Georg Friedrich Handel achieved an unprecedented level of productivity in his opera compositions, creating three operas. Additionally, in March 1737, he also composed a largely new oratorio titled â??Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità â? (â??The Triumph of Time and Truthâ?) HWV 46b. The libretto of this oratorio closely corresponds to that of the oratorio â??La Bellezza ravveduta nel trionfo del Tempo e del Disingannoâ? (â??Beauty Reconciled in the Triumph of Time and Enlightenmentâ?) HWV 46a written in 1707. With â??La Bellezza ravvedutaâ?, Handel composed an allegorical and particularly dramatic oratorio right at the beginning of his oratorio compositions. In this work, there is no chorus inclined towards reflection. Not only do the four allegorical figures, Bellezza (Beauty), Piacere (Pleasure), Tempo (Time), and Disinganno (Enlightenment), listen to each other and react to the ideas presented by the others, but this prevailing dramatic principle of dispute is also found in the recitatives.In 1737, when reworking the oratorio material as â??Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità â?, Handel approached the task pragmatically. He needed a new non-dramatic work to fulfill the eveningâ??s program for his audience at the Covent Garden Theatre during the fasting season when theatrical performances were prohibited. Although he had excellent Italian vocal soloists, notorious for their pronunciation in Handelâ??s English oratorios and who naturally preferred singing in Italian, Handel found a solution. It was evident to Handel that, in response to the ban on performances of his Italian operas during the fasting season of 1737, he should promptly create a new oratorio in the Italian language but following the three-part â??Englishâ? oratorio form that he had developed in â??Estherâ? HWV 50b in 1732. Unlike in Rome in 1707, he had access to a chorus in London in 1737, and the English oratorio, with its substantial choral sections, a preference for concert-like rather than dramatic composition, and frequent inclusion of organ concertos loosely related to the narrative, was already established.The new volume of the HHA includes the original version of the 1737 premiere as well as all the surviving early and later versions (the latter being exceptional highlights) of individual musical pieces from â??Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità â?.
SKU: CA.3914000
ISBN 9790007171339. Text language: German.
Great Baroque church music full of color and powerful imagery! Sing to the Lord a new song! Sing, rejoice and praise his holy name with the trumpets and cornetts! And nature shall join in, the seas shall rage, and the whole world and the rushing waters rejoice. This is such an ideal text for Telemann: The voices rejoice and praise together with the horns, harp, and trombones; and the choir and instruments make the sea roar, the earthquake tremble and the rivers and mountains exult.
SKU: BA.BA11311
ISBN 9790006574650. 31 x 24.3 cm inches. Language: German. Preface: Schütz, Gudula. Text: Barthold Heinrich Brockes.
Handel composed his only oratorio in German between 1716 and 1717 basing it on the then popular Passion text by Barthold Heinrich Brockes entitled “Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus†(“The Story of Jesus, Suffering and Dying for the Sins of the Worldâ€). Handel’s affinity to opera is evident in the musical realisation of the emphatic text as he creates a synthesis between traditional Protestant church music and the depiction of human passion in the manner of opera seria.This edition is based on the corresponding volume of the “Halle Handel Edition†(BA 4021). The full score, parts and vocal score have been newly engraved. The piano reduction has been simplified and brought up to today’s standards, thus making it much more manageable to play.
SKU: BA.BA10722
ISBN 9790006567713. 31 x 24.3 cm inches. Text Language: English.
Following upon “Alexander’s Feast†(1736), in 1739 Handel produced a second setting of the “Ode to St Cecilia†(“Song for St Cecilia’s Dayâ€). At its première it was combined with “Alexander’s Feastâ€. Rather than a dramatic plot presentable in the theatre, the Ode, in its seven sections, offers a general hymn of praise to music and its impact. Accordingly, it largely consists of emotion-laden arias and festive orchestration.This edition, based on the Urtext from the “Halle Handel Editionâ€, offers the version heard at the first performance – the version preferred in today’s concert life. The foreword (Ger/Eng) provides many detailed notes on performance practice with regard to orchestration.
SKU: BA.BA05020-01
ISBN 9790006461813. 33 x 26 cm inches.
SKU: CA.1039700
ISBN 9790007187590. Language: German.
Johannes Brahms's Alto Rhapsody is published here in a new Urtext edition, modernised for present-day performance practice. It is based on the 2nd impression of the first printed edition, as this is regarded as the authentic musical text following the last revisions made by the composer. The musical setting of Goethe's poem Harzreise im Winter opens with a somber beginning, then by turning to divine powers, it arrives at a hopeful new level. The work - which was composed in connection with the marriage of Julie, the daughter of Brahms's revered Clara Schumann, in 1869 - impresses above all with its personal touch as well as its pioneering progressive harmonies and enormous compositional power, which still entice listeners into the concert hall.
SKU: CA.3912709
ISBN 9790007215774. Language: German.
Telemann's setting of Psalm 121 I lift up mine eyes to the hills reveals him to be an admirer of French music. Constructed on the example of a grand motet, each of the movements is patterned after the French model: the model of an overture for the first movement, the echoes of a chaconne in the second, the dotted gigue rhythms of the Canarie in the third. In addition there is the lively exchange between choir and solo ensemble, and much more. The music is full of poetic imagery, whenever the occasion arises, as at the very beginning with the words Ich hebe meine Augen auf, or in a later passage with the text Siehe, der Hüter Israel schläft noch schlummert nicht (Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep). Score and parts available separately - see item CA.3912700.
SKU: CA.3912714
ISBN 9790007215811. Language: German.
Telemann's setting of Psalm 121 I lift up mine eyes to the hills reveals him to be an admirer of French music. Constructed on the example of a grand motet, each of the movements is patterned after the French model: the model of an overture for the first movement, the echoes of a chaconne in the second, the dotted gigue rhythms of the Canarie in the third. In addition there is the lively exchange between choir and solo ensemble, and much more. The music is full of poetic imagery, whenever the occasion arises, as at the very beginning with the words Ich hebe meine Augen auf, or in a later passage with the text Siehe, der Hüter Israel schläft noch schlummert nicht (Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep). Score and part available separately - see item CA.3912700.
SKU: CA.3912712
ISBN 9790007215798. Language: German.
