Handel

Handel's 'Brockes Passion' has had rather a bad press, suffering rather in comparison with Bach's passions. In fact, Handel's 'Brockes Passion' was written written at about the same time as 'Esther', some eight years before Bach wrote the St. John Passion. One of the subsidiary impulses which led to the creation of 'Esther' may have been a desire, on Handel's part, to hear some of the music from the passion performed as 'Esther' re-uses some nine numbers and others were re-used in 'Deborah'.

Bridget Cunningham marks St Patrick’s Day with a new harpsichord CD that gives a glimpse into Handel’s fascinating time in Dublin. In 1741 at the age of 56, following a financially difficult time in London and with fashions turning against Italian opera, Handel went to Dublin for 9 months – a thriving musical city and the 2nd largest in the British Isles after London. The story of this fascinating trip is told in both music and detailed accompanying notes by harpsichordist and musicologist Bridget Cunningham. This disc is part of Cunningham’s ongoing series with the ensemble London Early Opera, which has already seen releases of several volumes of Handel’s music, including Handel in Italy and Handel at Vauxhall.

Gripping choral singing, but weighty and deliberate with an expressive palette better suited to Handel's later, more grandiose choral works than his earliest. The soloist are pleasuring pure and clean in tone.

Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate is a sacred choral composition in two parts, written by George Frideric Handel to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, ending the War of the Spanish Succession. The combination of a Te Deum and Jubilate, the Psalm 100, follows earlier models. The official premiere of the work on English texts was on 13 July 1713 in a service in St Paul's Cathedral in London.