Georg Friederich Händel (1685-1759)
- Horn Concerto in F (1715)
Performers: Mеir Rіmon (1946-1991, horn); Isrаеl Philarmonic Orchestra
Further info: Georg Frederich Händel (1685-1759) - Dixit Dominus
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English composer of German birth. Handel’s father, Georg Händel
(1622-1697), wanted his son to study law but Herr Händel was also the
barber-surgeon to the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, who once happened to
hear the boy play. The duke changed Georg Händel’s mind. Then he studied
harpsichord, organ and composition with Friedrich Zachow. Handel’s
future career may have been stimulated by a visit to Berlin in 1702,
where he met opera composer Giovanni Bononcini and heard his Cefalo and
Polifemo. In summer 1703, he left Halle for Hamburg and joined the opera
orchestra there as second violinist and continuo harpsichordist. During
the fortuitous absence of Reinhard Keiser, the Hamburg Theater’s
principal composer, Handel composed his first operas in 1705, Almira and
Nero. In the latter half of 1706, Handel traveled to Italy, probably
visiting Florence but certainly Rome by early 1707, where he quickly
earned the patronage of Carlo Cardinal Colonna and Benedetto Cardinal
Pamphili. Handel composed a number of motets, two Italian-style
oratorios and a dramatic cantata. Working in these genres, derived from
opera, honed Handel’s musical-dramatic skills. Finally, in Venice, his
full-length opera Agrippina opened the Carnival season on 26 December
1709, to great acclaim. In 1710, Handel returned to Germany. The elector
of Hanover, future King George I, began his family’s long association
with Handel by appointing him court Kapellmeister. But Handel, allowed
to travel by the terms of his appointment, went on to London ahead of
the elector in the autumn of 1710. Though later than most cities on the
continent, London was falling under the spell of imported Italian opera.
Arrangements and excerpts had been heard since 1705, but Handel’s
Rinaldo of 1711 was the first original full-length Italian opera for
London with an Italian cast. In May 1719, Handel was commissioned by the
lord chamberlain to go to the continent and engage opera singers to
establish the Royal Academy of Music, a joint stock company supported by
King George I and financed by subscribers who hoped to profit. The
Royal Academy, with operatic contributions from Giovanni Porta,
Bononcini, and Attilio Ariosti, provided all Handel’s operatic activity
until it closed in 1728.
On 29 January 1728, John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera opened at the
Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theater. Its popular success, with its simple
English songs and satire of the Royal Academy, is sometimes regarded as
the beginning of the end of Handel’s opera career in England. But Handel
went back to Europe from February until July in 1729 and engaged new
singers to sing in a reconstituted Royal Academy. Over the next 12
years, he persevered under various auspices and venues with 17 more
Italian operas despite political opposition, operatic competition fueled
by a feud between King George II and Frederick Prince of Wales, and a
debilitating illness in April 1737. Many of these operas were not
successful and had to close after a few performances, despite the
excellence of the music. But in 1741 he composed his most famous work,
Messiah, an English-language oratorio, premiered in Dublin on April
1742. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in
popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most
frequently performed choral works in Western music. On 21 January 1751,
Handel began to compose an oratorio on the same story as the Giacomo
Carissimi work that he knew well, Jephtha. But the work was interrupted
by rapidly deteriorating eyesight, and he did not complete the score
until 30 August. He composed no large new pieces after that, although,
through the aid of his assistant, John Christopher Smith, he managed to
effect revisions and contribute some new songs and arias to revivals.
William Blomfield, royal surgeon, operated unsuccessfully on Handel’s
eye in November 1752, as did John Taylor in August 1758. Handel
continued to participate in performances and to revise and revive his
work throughout the 1750s, finishing in 1759 with a revision of his 1749
oratorio Solomon. On 6 April, he attended a last performance of Messiah
and died on 14 April. At his own request, he was buried in Westminster
Abbey, and it is reported that 3,000 people attended the burial service.
