Handel oratorios

[cygnusdei]

I've been on a Handel binge - recently I bought recordings of these works:

Il Trionfo del Tempo e della Verita, HWV 46b
Athalia, HWV 52
Saul, HWV 53
Hercules, HWV 60
Solomon, HWV 67
Jephtha, HWV 70
Alexander's Feast, HWV 75

and I had already had Israel in Egypt, HWV 54 and of course Messiah, HWV 56.

I realized that apart from the ubiquitous Messiah I was not familiar with the rest of Handel's large scale vocal works (if you don't count Dixit Dominus, HWV 232). Anyway, I've been listening to the CDs in my car whenever I'm driving. My general impression so far is that, there is a reason why Messiah is so popular - these other works don't strike me as nearly as effective, be it from musical, thematic, or length perspective. This could change though, as I listen more (I haven't opened the Jephtha CDs yet). So far the one that stands out musically is the HWV 46b, perhaps it helps that the recording (Martini on Naxos) features excellent soloists and gorgeous acoustics. The Saul recording (Gardiner) has really really dry acoustics that detracts from the otherwise uniformly excellent performance.

Historically, I read that originally Handel came to London as a composer of Italian operas. But as these fell out of fashion, he reinvented himself as a composer of English oratorios, for which he was much beloved by the public.

I probably will get the other oratorios as well (e.g. Esther, Samson), and maybe after that the operas!

[richard black]

Sure, Messiah is am outstanding part of Handel's output, but over the years I've grown to love many of his other works quite deeply. A composer who can grow on one slowly, I find.