A Handel Celebration Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik Chamber Choir & Ivars Taurins

• George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759): Chorus “Your harps and cymbals sound,” from Solomon:
• 1 Handel: Chorus “Your harps and cymbals sound,” from Solomon 03:28
• Tenor Air “Tune your harps,” from Esther:
• 2 Handel: Tenor Air “Tune your harps,” from Esther 04:14
• Soprano Air “Sweet bird,” from L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato:
• 3 Handel: Soprano Air “Sweet bird,” from L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato 09:23
• Tenor Air/Chorus “Sound an alarm,” from Judas Maccabaeus:
• 4 Handel: Tenor Air/Chorus “Sound an alarm,” from Judas Maccabaeus 04:18
• Soprano Air “In Jehovah’s awful sight,” from Deborah:
• 5 Handel: Soprano Air “In Jehovah’s awful sight,” from Deborah 02:23
• Chorus “Throughout the land Jehovah’s praise,” from Solomon:
• 6 Handel: Chorus “Throughout the land Jehovah’s praise,” from Solomon 03:59
• Chorus “Doleful tidings,” from Deborah:
• 7 Handel: Chorus “Doleful tidings,” from Deborah 02:17
• Tenor Air “Hateful man,” from Alexander Balus:
• 8 Handel: Tenor Air “Hateful man,” from Alexander Balus 04:28
• Soprano Recitative “Shall Cleopatra ever smile again,” from Alexander Balus:
• 9 Handel: Soprano Recitative “Shall Cleopatra ever smile again,” from Alexander Balus 01:05
• Soprano Air “O take me,” from Alexander Balus:
• 10 Handel: Soprano Air “O take me,” from Alexander Balus 05:00
• Tenor Air “To God, who made the radiant sun,” from Alexander Balus:
• 11 Handel: Tenor Air “To God, who made the radiant sun,” from Alexander Balus 03:03
• Chorus “Sun, moon, and stars,” from Alexander Balus:
• 12 Handel: Chorus “Sun, moon, and stars,” from Alexander Balus 02:27
• Tenor Air “Golden columns,” from Solomon:
• 13 Handel: Tenor Air “Golden columns,” from Solomon 03:20
• Soprano Air “Prophetic raptures,” from Joseph & His Brethren:
• 14 Handel: Soprano Air “Prophetic raptures,” from Joseph & His Brethren 09:16
• Chorus “Hallelujah, Amen,” from Judas Maccabaeus:
• 15 Handel: Chorus “Hallelujah, Amen,” from Judas Maccabaeus 02:26
• Chorus “Now Love, that everlasting boy,” from Semele:
• 16 Handel: Chorus “Now Love, that everlasting boy,” from Semele 02:50
• Chorus “Jealousy, infernal pest,” from Hercules:
• 17 Handel: Chorus “Jealousy, infernal pest,” from Hercules 06:56
• Tenor Recitative “Now all this scene,” from Semele:
• 18 Handel: Tenor Recitative “Now all this scene,” from Semele 00:35
• Tenor Air “Where’er you walk,” from Semele:
• 19 Handel: Tenor Air “Where’er you walk,” from Semele 04:47
• Soprano Air “Myself I shall adore,” from Semele:
• 20 Handel: Soprano Air “Myself I shall adore,” from Semele 08:04
• Chorus “Wanton god of amorous fires,” from Hercules:
• 21 Handel: Chorus “Wanton god of amorous fires,” from Hercules 02:02
• Tenor Arioso “Ah, whither is she gone,” from Semele:
• 22 Handel: Tenor Arioso “Ah, whither is she gone,” from Semele 03:41
• Chorus “Draw the tear from hopeless love,” from Solomon:
• 23 Handel: Chorus “Draw the tear from hopeless love,” from Solomon 03:00
• Soprano/Tenor Duet “Who calls my parting soul,” from Esther:
• 24 Handel: Soprano/Tenor Duet “Who calls my parting soul,” from Esther 02:58
• Chorus “Crown with festal pomp,” from Hercules:
• 25 Handel: Chorus “Crown with festal pomp,” from Hercules 03:11
• Soprano/Tenor Duet “As steals the morn,” from L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato:
• 26 Handel: Soprano/Tenor Duet “As steals the morn,” from L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato 06:35
• Chorus “The mighty pow’r/Give glory,” from Athalia:
• 27 Handel: Chorus “The mighty pow’r/Give glory,” from Athalia 04:58
• Total Runtime 01:50:44

Info for A Handel Celebration

Our 45th-anniversary season culminates with A Handel Celebration, a salute to one of the greatest musical dramatists of all time.

A true humanist, Handel responded to the beauty and chaos of the world around him, creating music that explores the full spectrum of our emotional experience—from the purest joy to the most poignant sorrow.

Guest soloists Amanda Forsythe, soprano, and Thomas Hobbs, tenor, join the choir and orchestra directed by Ivars Taurins, who has chosen some of his favourite arias, duets, and choruses from Handel’s oratorios, including Solomon, Hercules, Semele, and Judas Maccabeus. Together they weave a gorgeous tapestry that wraps up our milestone season.

Program Notes by Ivars Taurins: Handel is able at one moment to deal with a panoply of monumental events and in the next to draw us into the most intimate workings of the heart and mind.

Handel’s genius shines out from every page of the scores of his large-scale English works: oratorios, musical dramas, and odes. His uncanny sense of dramatic pacing, and his ability to convey human emotions and psychological struggles in music, gleaned through years of writing for the opera theatre, are evident everywhere. The magnificent choruses reflect Handel’s talent for writing music for grand occasions with bold brushstrokes. He is able at one moment to deal with a panoply of monumental events — battles, feasts, plagues, ceremonies — and in the next to draw us into the most intimate workings of the heart and mind.

The technique known as pasticcio — derived from the Italian culinary word for a kind of filled pie made of many ingredients — was very popular in the 18th century.

I created this Handel Celebration by sifting through his many oratorios and odes, compiling some of his “best” airs and choruses to create a musical whole. This technique, known as pasticcio (derived from the Italian culinary word for a kind of filled pie made of many ingredients), was very popular in the 18th century. It was, if you will, a musical medley of various ingredients borrowed from other pre-existing works. I hope that my Handel pasticcio gives you something of the flavour of the grandeur, pathos, drama, intimacy, and joy to be found in Handel’s English dramatic works. Some will be old chestnuts. Others will, I hope, invite you to explore more of the riches of this great composer.

We open with contrasting images of Music: that of celebration and praise, both extrovert and intimate (Solomon, Esther); the soft, melancholic music of nature (L’Allegro); and the brazen, stirring, and “dreadful” music of battle (Judas Maccabeus). In every conflict there is the victor and the vanquished. Handel is equally adept at, and sensitive to, portraying both sides of war. Indeed, his musical images of grief, woe, and despair are among his most potent, whether for chorus (Deborah) or for solo voice (Cleopatra in Alexander Balus). Turning to celebration, thanksgiving, and solemn praise, Handel paints radiant peace (Jonathan in Alexander Balus, Zadok in Solomon) or joyful triumph (Judas Maccabeus).

In the second half of the concert we turn our focus to love and all its facets: from its “soft delights” to its bedfellows jealousy, vanity, desire, and despair.

Handel had a particular affinity with the English landscape, and his pastoral music is second to none (with the possible exception of Vaughan Williams). From the rustic quality of “Crown with festal pomp” (Hercules) to the idyllic duet from L’Allegro, Handel captures the essence of the “fairest Isle.”

Handel bequeathed his setting of the coronation anthem Zadok the Priest to the nation — it has been a part of every coronation since George II. His masterful sense of grandeur and occasion, whether for secular (Water Music, Royal Fireworks) or sacred (Coronation Anthems) events, was used by him to great effect in his oratorios. The final chorus from Athalia is a brilliant example of this, and a fitting end to a pasticcio drawn from Handel’s many and varied settings of English texts.

Amanda Forsythe, soprano
Thomas Hobbs, tenor
Tafelmusik Chamber Choir
Ivars Taurins, conductor

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Led by Music Director Elisa Citterio and Executive Director Carol Kehoe, Tafelmusik is an orchestra, choir, and experience that celebrates beauty through music of the past.

Founded over 40 years ago on the pillars of passion, learning, and artistic excellence, Tafelmusik continues to bring new energy to baroque music and beyond. Historically informed performances of 17th- to 19th-century instrumental and choral music (led by Chamber Choir Director Ivars Taurins) share the stage with vibrant, insightful multimedia programs, and bold new music written just for the group. Each piece is played on period instruments, underscored and illuminated by scholarship.

Through dynamic performances, international touring, award-winning recordings, and comprehensive education programs, Tafelmusik invites audiences to engage with beauty and experience the breadth of emotion music can inspire.

This album contains no booklet.