大象传媒

This week of programmes looks at Handel鈥檚 life and work during an important decade of his life. The 1730s saw Handel create some of his best-loved works, but also saw him fall out with singers and patrons in London, endure a stroke and attendant poor mental health, and mourn the death of one of his chief supporters, Queen Caroline.

In this episode, Donald Macleod explores how Handel鈥檚 recovery from a stroke, along with the rapprochement with many of his previous performers, led to his creative rejuvenation.

Handel鈥檚 financial situation was still precarious, to the extent that his friends staged a benefit concert in his honour at the King鈥檚 Theatre. He composed Serse, one of his greatest later operas, which prefigures Mozart鈥檚 Da Ponte operas; he became a founder member of the Royal Society of Musicians, and was celebrated in stone, his statue being unveiled in Vauxhall Gardens.

Opera: Serse, HWV 40
Aria: Crude Furie degl鈥檕rridi abissi
Recitative: Perfidi! E ancor osate
Aria: Caro voi seite all鈥檃lma
Chorus: Ritorno a noi la calma
Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano (Serse)
Giovanni Furlanetto, bass (Ariodate)
Lawrence Zazzo, countertenor (Arsamene)
Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, soprano (Romilda)
Silvia Tro Santafe, mezzo-soprano (Amastre)
Antonio Abete, bass (Elviro)
Sandrine Piau, soprano (Atalanta)
Les Arts Florissants Chorus
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, conductor

Oratorio: Saul, HWV 53
Funeral March; Chorus: Mourn, Israel, mourn thy Beauty lost; Chorus: Gird on thy Sword, thou Man of Might (Act 3)
RIAS Chamber Chorus
Concerto K枚ln
Ren茅 Jacobs, conductor

Organ Concerto in F major, 鈥淭he Cuckoo and the Nightingale鈥�, HWV 295
I. Larghetto
II. Allegro
Simon Preston, organ
English Concert
Trevor Pinnock, conductor

Trio Sonata in F major, Op. 5 No. 6, HWV 401
IV. Allegro
V. Minuet: Allegro moderato
VI. Andante
London Handel Players

Oratorio: Israel in Egypt, HWV 54
Chorus: He gave them hailstones for rain
Chorus: He send a thick darkness over all the land
Chorus: He smote all the first-born of Egypt
Chorus: But as for His people, He led them forth like sheep
Taverner Choir
Taverner Players
Andrew Parrott, conductor

Produced by Iain Chambers