HANDEL Solomon

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Junge Kantorei The Junge Kantorei was established in 1965 by Joachim Carlos Martini for the Evangelical Church of Hess and 2 CDs Nassau. The choir has since then won a reputation for its many performances of music in Germany and abroad from HANDEL the Baroque to the contemporary and has enjoyed a happy collaboration with the Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra. The choir schedule has brought regular participation in festivals of major regional importance, notably the Whit celebrations at Kloster Eberbach im Rheingau and in the church of St Peter in Heidelberg, and has done much to inspire a love of choral singing. The Junge Kantorei has, in particular, given attention to a series of recordings of Solomon the work of Handel, including, for Naxos, the oratorios Athalia, Deborah, Saul, Gideon, Nabal and Il Trionfo del Tempo e della Verità. (Oratorio in Three Parts) Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra The Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra was established in 1986 by Joachim Carlos Martini and fellow musicians, in Wolak • Scholl • Wemyss • Schoch • Vieweg conjunction, in particular, with the work of the Junge Kantorei, and has joined in performances throughout Germany and abroad, notably in Paris, London, Oxford and Amsterdam. At the heart of the repertoire are the oratorios of Junge Kantorei • Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra Handel, although the orchestra also extends its activities to the classical and early romantic periods, in its special attention to the principles of early music performance practice. Joachim Carlos Martini Violin 1 Double Bass Bassoon Timpani Judith Freise Viola Martin Heinze Trudy van der Wulp Eckhard Leue Christoph Hesse Marinette Troost Mechthild Alpers Anne Schumann Dymitr Olszewski Flauto traverso Lute Seija Teeuwen Werner Saller Marion Moonen Horn Yasunori Imamura Tamara Mkrtychyan Wibke Oppermann Helen MacDougall Violin 2 Anneke Scott Cembalo Eva Scheytt Violoncello Oboe Ludger Rémy Frank Polman Anna Carewe Peter Frankenberg Trumpet Dorothea Vogel Cassandra Henriette Gröger Helen Barsby Cembalo / Organ Malina Mantcheva Luckhardt Mark Geelen Rien Voskuilen

Joachim Carlos Martini Joachim Carlos Martini was born in Valdivia, in Chile, to German parents, returning with them to Germany, where he studied Philosophy, German Studies, History, Cultural History, Musicology and Music. His study of conducting with Kurt Thomas and Helmuth Franz was followed by conducting courses with Dean Dixon and Hermann Scherchen. In 1968, with the youth pastor of the Evangelical Church in Hess and Nassau, Fritz Eitel, he set up the Junge Kantorei, to the direction of which he has for some years chiefly devoted himself. At the same time he conducts the Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra, established together with friends, an ensemble that specialises in historical performance practice, bringing together for this purpose musicians from all over Europe. Both organizations have concentrated attention on the oratorios of Handel, with comprehensive performances of this repertoire. Joachim Martini has also, through the establishment of a Frankfurt Archive on musical life under National Socialism, conducted research into Jewish musicians in the Third Reich with publications that include Music in Auschwitz and Music as a Form of Spiritual Resistance, Jewish Musicians from 1933 to 1945.

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George Frideric Nicola Wemyss The Scottish soprano Nicola Wemyss completed her study at the Birmingham Conservatoire with distinction, subsequently specialising in Baroque singing at the Royal Conservatorium of The Netherlands in The Hague with HANDEL Rita Dams and Marius van Altena. She took first prize in Baroque song at the 2000 Chimay Competition, the start (1685-1759) of her solo career. Since then she has appeared with leading orchestras and ensembles in Europe, including Les Arts Florissants, the Huelgas Ensemble, the Utrecht Barock Consort and the Bochum Symphony. She has collaborated with the conductors William Christie, Ton Koopman, Steven Sloane, Paul van Nevel and Jos van Veldhoven, among Solomon others. Her oratorio and concert repertoire ranges from the early renaissance to the late classical, and her operatic rôles have included principal female parts in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Polissena in Handel’s Radamisto, Juno in (An Oratorio in Three Parts) Lully’s Isis and the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Her recordings include music by Charpentier with Les Arts Florissants and the rôle of Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with Musica ad Rhenum. Solomon ...... Ewa Wolak, Mezzo-Soprano Knut Schoch Pharaoh’s Daughter, Queen / Second Woman ...... Elisabeth Scholl, Soprano The German tenor Knut Schoch studied singing in Hamburg with Wilfried Jochens and Alan Speer, completing his Nicaule, Queen of Sheeba / First Woman ...... Nicola Wemyss, Soprano studies by attending a series of master-classes. With a repertory that ranges from the medieval to the contemporary and includes oratorio, chamber music, Lieder and Baroque and Classical opera, he specialises particularly in the Zadok / Attendant ...... Knut Schoch, Tenor historical performance practice of music written before 1800, notably the oratorios of Handel and Bach’s Passions. Levite ...... Matthias Vieweg, Bass He is much in demand as a soloist both at home and abroad and regularly appears at leading festivals including the Fête d’Automne in Paris, the Göttingen Handel Festival and the Schwetzingen, Schleswig-Holstein and Vienna Festivals. Radio and television recordings as well as CDs reflect the breadth of his activities. He has worked with many well-known ensembles, including the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Musica Fiata of Cologne, the Dutch Bach Society and the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, and has appeared with conductors of the highest distinction. Among the awards that Knut Schoch has received are the 1995 Masefield Grant from F.V.S. Society and first prize at the 1999 International Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges. In 1993 he was appointed visiting professor of Junge Kantorei historical performance practice at the Hamburg Conservatory, and from 1999 to 2002 served as professor at the Hamburg Musikhochschule. Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra Matthias Vieweg Joachim Carlos Martini The baritone Matthias Vieweg was born in Sonneberg in Thuringia, and grew up in Mengersgereuth-Hämmern. He had his first piano lessons at the age of five, and his musical education took him later to Wernigerode, where he was a member of the Radio Youth Choir and completed his schooling. He studied singing at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule with Günther Leib, qualifying also in piano and piano accompaniment. He participated in master- classes with Hans Hotter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Rudolf Piernay and Peter Schreier. He has participated in opera productions at the Berlin Staatsoper, the Komische Oper, the Potsdam Hans-Otto-Theater, the Rostock Volkstheater, the Berlin Konzerthaus and in various festivals. He has won success in a number of competitions, taking First Prize in the Richard Strauss Society Competition in Munich in 1997 and in 1998 the Bach Prize at the Leipzig International Bach Competition. He has appeared on the concert platform with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Helmut Froschauer, Helmuth Rilling and René Jacobs, and with ensembles including the Cologne Radio Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and others. He was a guest performer at the Nuremberg International Organ Week, the MDR Summer Music, the Halle Handel Festival, the Innsbruck Festival Week and the Potsdam Festival at Sanassouci, as well as the Dresden Music Festival.

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receives her with great friendliness and attention and a great caravan of numberless camels. Solomon is no CD 1 81:06 asks his singers and musicians to play for the royal guest less generous. With moving words they praise God, & of human passions, of lovely music, of the blasphemous together with the priests, and with mutual good wishes PART I Air: Indulge thy faith (Zadok) 2:44 aggressiveness of men, of mortal despair that scorned they take leave of each other. 1 Ouverture 3:41 * Recitative: My blooming fair (Solomon) 0:14 love brings, finally to let the music sound once more, as ‘The name of the wicked shall quickly be passed / 2 Allegro 2:31 ( Air: Haste to the cedar grove (Solomon) 3:07 it can, to soothe rebellious feelings and lead souls into But the fame of the just shall eternally last’. With this ) Recitative: When thou art absent from 0:12 the state of rest. comforting promise the oratorio comes to an end. Scene 1 my sight (Queen) The Queen of Sheba is overwhelmed. She gives 3 Chorus of Priests: 3:39 ¡ Air: With thee th’unshelter’d moor I tread 2:08 thanks with the gold, precious stones, incense and spices Joachim C. Martini Your harps and cymbals sound (Queen) that she has brought with her from Sheba on the backs of English version: Keith Anderson 4 Air: Praise ye the Lord (Levite) 4:44 ™ Recitative: Search round the world (Zadok) 0:17 5 Sung texts for this release are available as PDF files online at www.naxos.com/libretti/solomon.htm Chorus of Priests: With pious hearts 4:26 £ Chorus: May no rash intruder 3:16 This measure is designed to help keep our releases at an affordable price and maintain Naxos’ position as 6 Accompagnato: Almighty pow’r! (Solomon) 2:27 leader in the budget-priced market. 7 Recitative: Imperial Solomon (Zadok) 0:44 PART II 8 Air: Sacred raptures (Zadok) 4:16 Scene 1 Ewa Wolak 9 Chorus of Israelites: 3:11 ¢ Chorus: From the censer curling rise 5:21 The Polish mezzo-soprano Ewa Wolak was born in Wadowice and began her musical education at the age of six. Throughout the land Jehovah’s praise ∞ Recitative: Prais’d be the Lord (Solomon) 1:07 At the age of fourteen she entered the Kraków Conservatory to study singing and viola, graduating with distinction 0 Recitative: Bless’d be the Lord (Solomon) 0:24 in the vocal department of the Kraków Academy. She continued vocal study at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule, § Air: When the sun o’er yonder hills (Solomon) 4:40 holding a scholarship from the Stuttgart Bach Academy and from the Karlsruhe International Handel Academy. ! Air: What tho’ I trace (Solomon) 5:52 ¶ Recitative: Great prince (Levite) 0:28 Successful in a number of competitions she won, among other awards, the Oratorio Prize at s’Hertogenbosch and a • Air: Thrice bless’d that wise 3:17 Silver Medal in the Grand Prix Maria Callas. Her international concert career has brought collaboration with the Scene 2 discerning king (Levite) Stuttgart Bach Collegium under Helmut Rilling, and the Kraków Philharmonic, Polish Radio and Czech National @ Recitative: And see my Queen (Solomon) 0:45 Philharmonic Orchestras. She has appeared at a number of European festivals, including, at the invitation of # Air: Bless’d the day (Queen) 5:11 Scene 2 Krzysztof Penderecki, the Belgian Chimay Foundation and at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival. $ Recitative: Thou fair inhabitant of Nile 0:39 ª Recitative: My sovereign liege, two women 2:05 (Solomon / Queen) stand (Attendant / Solomon / First Woman) Elisabeth Scholl % The soprano Elisabeth Scholl began her career as a singer in the Kiedrich Children’s Choir. She studied musicology Duet: Welcome as the dawn of day 3:29 º Air & Terzetto: 5:30 and completed her training as a singer with Eduard Wollitz, studying early music and historical performance at the (Solomon / Queen) Words are weak to paint my Fears Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Richard Levitt and René Jacobs. She has since appeared in concert with ^ Recitative: Vain are the transient beauties 0:40 (First Woman / Second Woman / Solomon) distinguished conductors, including Frieder Bernius, Konrad Junghänel, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Ton (Zadok) Koopman, Mario Venzago, Rolf Beck, Michael Schneider, Sigiswald Kuijken, Bruno Weil, Andreas Spering, Federico Maria Sardelli, Michel Corboz, and with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik, Concerto Köln, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Hanover Hofkapelle, the RIAS Chamber Choir, and the Toronto Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. She has appeared at the Tokyo Summer Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Leipzig Bach Festival, Flanders Festival, Colmar Festival Les jeudis d’été, Helsinki Festival, Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, the Göttingen Handel Festival, Festspielen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Festwochen Luzern, Händelfestspielen Karlsruhe and the BBC Proms. She gives regular Lieder recitals with Burkhard Schaeffer. In 1999 her first CD of Goethe settings by women composers was released, followed in May 2001 by a solo CD with operatic arias and scenes by Reinhard Keiser.

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CD 2 79:01 Synopsis

PART II (CONT.) CD 1 well knows that he owes his knowledge, his wealth and Scene 3 his might only to the grace of God, which has brought ^ 1 Recitative: What says the other 1:23 Recitative: Sweep the string (Solomon) 0:16 1 & 2 Overture and Allegro him from darkness to light, from misery and mortal need (Solomon / Second Woman) & Air (Solomon) & Chorus : 2:52 to life, and he realises that to praise God is for him the 2 Air: Thy sentence, great king 2:07 Music, spread thy voice around Part I most important task of his life. (Second Woman) * Air (Solomon) & Chorus : 1:51 3 - ! Scene 1 ª 3 Recitative: Withhold the executing hand 0:14 Now a diff’rent measure try At the centre of the first scene stands the Temple that Scene 2 ( Recitative: Then at once (Solomon) 0:38 Solomon, at the behest of his father, David, has had built A servant enters and announces that there are two (First Woman) in Jerusalem. For seven long years the builders and women standing at the gates of the palace who are in ) Chorus: Draw the tear from hopeless love 2:23 4 Air: Can I see my infant gor’d 4:49 carpenters, sculptors and painters, have worked on it; violent dispute over the maternity of a child and want the (First Woman) ¡ Recitative: Next the tortur’d soul release 0:21 but now, finally, it is finished and Solomon opens the King to settle the matter. 5 Accompagnato: Israel, attend (Solomon) 2:01 (Solomon) doors and enters, together with the crowd of priests, the 6 Duet: Thrice bless’d be the king 3:41 ™ Air (Solomon) & Chorus : 2:53 High Priest Zadok and the Levites, to bring a sacrifice to CD 2 (First Woman / Solomon) Thus rolling surges rise God and beg his blessing. Their prayer is heard, the 1 @ 7 Chorus of Israelites: 2:39 £ Recitative: Thy Harmony’s divine 1:05 sacrificial fire starts to glow and announces that the Lord - Scene 3 (Queen of Sheba) of the Heavenly Host is present. Deeply moved the The two women storm in. One of them claims that the From the east unto the west priests proclaim the grace and mercy of God, and other has stolen her child from her. She lives together ¢ Air: Pious king, and virtuous queen (Levite) 2:50 8 Recitative: From morn to eve (Zadok) 0:25 Solomon understands that all his knowledge, all his with her in the same house. the child of the other is dead, 9 Air: See the tall Palm (Zadok) 5:09 ∞ Recitative: Thrice happy king (Zadok) 0:48 wisdom without God’s help would be empty and as and the neighbour in the night has replaced the living 0 Recitative: No more shall armed bands 0:18 § Air: Golden columns, fair and bright (Zadok) 2:57 nothing. baby with the body of the dead child. Now she claims to (First Woman) ¶ Chorus: Praise the Lord 4:48 be its mother. The other woman claims this is false and ! Air: Beneath the vine (First Woman) 6:29 • Recitative: Gold now is common (Solomon) 0:26 @ - £ Scene 2 that she alone is the child’s mother. It is now for The Queen, Solomon’s wife that he loves above all, Solomon to find the truth. Solomon decrees that the two @ Chorus of Priests: Swell the full chorus 2:37 ª Air: How green our fertile pastures look 2:11 (Solomon) enters. Solomon promises her, as a sign of his love, to women should both have their portions and that the child have built a palace of cedar, decked with gold and be cut in two, so that each should have an equal part. º PART III Recitative: May peace in Salem ever dwell 0:43 precious stones, that will not have its equal in splendour. One of them agrees to this cruel decision, but the other Scene 1 (Queen of Sheba) Deeply moved, the Queen praises the day on which she begs for the child’s life to be spared; rather would she # Sinfonia 3:06 ⁄ Air: Will the sun forget to streak 5:50 was married to him, and they are both united in their renounce her claim to the child than see it killed. In this $ Recitative: From Arabia’s spicy shores 1:12 (Queen of Sheba) knowledge of the mutual tenderness of their love. Zadok way she has given proof of her claim to be the true (Queen of Sheba / Solomon) ¤ Recitative: Adieu, fair queen (Solomon) 0:25 blesses their union, based on love, trust and fidelity, and mother, and so Solomon gives her the child, while he Solomon urges her away to be united with him in the banishes the other woman from his sight. % Air: Ev’ry sight these eyes behold 4:20 ‹ Duet: Ev’ry joy, that wisdom knows 2:42 (Solomon / Queen of Sheba) nearby cedar grove. She follows him, not without (Queen of Sheba) expressing once more in wonder her deep love for him. Part III › Chorus: The name of the wicked 2:34 Their friends, however, implore the flowers to surround # - › Scene 1 the lovers with their fragrance and the nightingales the The astonished witnesses of Solomon’s wisdom unite in lovers with their song. praise and thanks. Wonderful music is heard and the Queen of Sheba enters Solomon’s palace. His reputation Part II as the wisest of the wise among rulers induced her to ¢ - • Scene 1 undertake the strains and dangers of a long journey The Israelites rejoice and praise Solomon’s good through the Arabian desert and now she stands before fortune, wishing him eternal life. Solomon, however, him to learn of his ‘heavenly wisdom’. Solomon 8.557574-75 4 9 8.557574-75 557574-75bk Handel US 14/5/06 3:07 pm Page 8

makes recrimination hardly more possible. She is ill and A performance of this work must, for this reason, George Frideric Handel 1685–1759) depressive, so ill that she cannot be healed either in the always be uncut. The world into which the composer Solomon Arcadian world of Solomon. Handel does not hide the leads us, is the paradise of a Hieronymus Bosch, a world divergence and since this contradiction is not to be in which nature, still unprofaned, is ready to receive It was in the mid-1740s that George Frideric Handel Epistles for the Ladies of 1749 that such concerts might surmounted, this unfortunate woman disappears, as if human souls, a world in which people still understand succeeded in making a great breakthrough with his ‘go a great Way in reforming an Age, which seems to be she were swallowed up into the ground. how to trust nature, that they may speak to it with the biblical oratorios. There was enthusiastic approval for degenerating equally into an Irreverence for the Deity, At the centre of the oratorio stands the scene of the imagery of their souls. This expressive ability his music and the plot, the dramatic course of the text, and a Brutality of Behavior to each other; but as this fulfilment of a true miracle, the Temple of Jerusalem. It constitutes the wonder of Handel’s music; in it these not only in London but in the whole of England, and Depravity of taste, of Principles, and Manners, has stands as a sign of the religious bond of the people of images find ever again new possibilities of life. To Handel further succeeded in winning over all the spread itself from London even to the remotest Parts of Israel and their king with God, their Lord. At the same articulate these images and to acknowledge oneself in relevant social classes of the time, a result of a series of this Island, I should be glad there were Oratorios time, however, the Temple is also a sign of the living them as one of nature’s own, their essence immediately complex developments in British society. established in every City and great Town throughout the and everlasting grace of God. In the course of Part III originating and coming from God, and to grant to all One factor in this development was that the music Kingdom; but even then, to be of general Service, they Handel lets Solomon, at the request of the visiting men this ability to express and understand is Handel’s composed for the oratorio now also appealed to people ought to be given gratis, and all Degrees of People Queen of Sheba, conjure up visions in the air. This proper tribute and it is a tribute to the whole of for whom, because of an educational deficiency, the allowed to partake of them, otherwise it is but an magic panorama glides into the representation of the humanity, sustained by God. result of their background and their social milieu, a visit inconsiderable Number, in comparison with the whole, Temple. Zadok, the High Priest, outlines, together with to the opera did not appear particularly attractive. The whose Fortunes would admit of their being improved the Levites, before our inner eyes the image of an Joachim C. Martini representation of court life with all its tricks and this Way’. 3 immeasurably magnificent building, the most wonderful English version: Keith Anderson intrigues, the usual subject of operatic plots, generally Hand in hand with this development there were treasure of which is the representation of angels praising found no response in the souls of the middle class, while changes also in the circle of those collaborating in God, Cherubim, who praise God unheard in the the ‘blood-and-thunder Judaism’, as Winton Dean puts oratorio performances. Choirs started increasingly to be ‘Sanctus’. Here the chorus immediately joins with 1 Dean, Winton: Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques, it, of a Judas Maccabaeus or Joshua did 1. made up of amateur singers, and at the same time ‘Praise the Lord’ and introduces the elements of an Oxford, 1990, passim Christopher Hogwood makes this way of thinking orchestras declared themselves ready to take gifted initially particularly aesthetically marked imagery, clear with the aid of a letter from Lady Luxborough to amateurs into their ranks. In the place of Italian opera where they had their origin, namely in the world of faith. 2 Hogwood, Christopher: Handel, London, 1984, p.212 the poet William Shenstone. She reported that her stars there were more and more singers from Ireland, I mention it since it brings with it a much wider steward was ‘highly entertained’ at a performance of England, Scotland or Wales who, while they might meaning, to take this chorus from its context and present 3 ib. p.212 Judas Maccabaeus and concluded that musical sometimes perhaps lack the Italian virtuosity so prized it as a final chorus. My experiences with Handel’s understanding was no longer necessary for people of this by the nobility, lacked nothing of heart, engagement and compositions are that he chose his texts with great care 4 Baselt, Bernd: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis: kind to enjoy such performances. 2 charisma. and paid precise attention to their sequence. I rely, Oratorische Werke, Vokale Kammermusik, Kirchenmusik, The public that in increasing numbers began to Handel composed his powerful oratorio Solomon in therefore, on the version he proposed. Händel-Handbuch, Bd. 2, Leipzig, 1984 show interest in performances of oratorio came no less than six weeks between 3rd May and 13th June longer from the aristocracy but also from the middle 1748, and after a short break sat down at his desk to start classes, and, as we can understand from Lady the score of Susanna, finishing it during the last week of Luxborough’s letter, not only from the upper middle August. The writer of the texts of both oratorios is not class. In addition to the music for a broad circle of new known. Winton Dean suggests that both texts are from audiences there were also moral and socio-cultural the pen of a poet, since they are very similar in their aspects of no negligible importance. diction and their choice of many metaphors derived Christopher Hogwood quotes Catherine Talbot, who chiefly from nature. Thomas Morell, mentioned by some in December 1743 heard the oratorio Samson and music historians as the author, in the opinion of Winton summed up her impressions with the opinion that ‘this Dean as also of Bernard Baselt 4, on stilistic grounds, but kind of entertainment must necessarily have some effect above all on account of his earlier prosaic way of in correcting or moderating at least the levity of the age’. thinking and expression, cannot be considered. We read further that Lady Elizabeth Heywood, inspired The unknown librettist used as sources the First by a performance of the oratorio Joshua, wrote in her Book of Kings, chapters 3-11 and chapter 22, 28-29, and 8.557574-75 8 5 8.557574-75 557574-75bk Handel US 14/5/06 3:07 pm Page 6

the Second Book of Chronicles, chapters 1-9, and also before this he undertook a series of cuts and alterations with the actual Utopia of a bourgeois-aristocratic, to the cedar grove’ in all his words: strength alone does The Early History of the Jews (VIII, 2-7) of Flavius that affected the plot and dramatic structure. He struck humanistically orientated and tolerant society, which, not change into despotic power if it is reflected, acquired Josephus, and made from these a text that could out the whole of the first part up to the aria ‘Haste to the under the rule of a God-fearing king, had risen to the and realised always as springing from the relationship of correspond completely to the long outstanding change in cedar grove’; the second part of the first version became highest form of possible perfection. God to men and exclusively through the relationship of mental attitude of the composer and inspired him to the new first part; the third part of the first version was Perhaps Handel’s thoughts in fact ran on these lines, a definite phenomenon. music that is among his most extraordinary and divided between the new second and third parts, and but it is certain that the London public did not accept this The music of this text is fragile and transparent, and wonderful creations. expanded through new phrases and the aria ‘Haste to the hommage and I mean that it had a fine nose for the fact it makes it very clear what great efforts are needed to Winton Dean describes the change of Handel’s cedar grove’ from the former first part. that this music finally was far from all the criteria of a win and to preserve a natural balance between power world view and, associated with it, the change of his Handel himself set a quite different value on his tribute composition. It may be that the erotic atmosphere and humility. This is witnessed by the introductory image of himself as a way of distancing himself from oratorio than that of his public. How much he loved the of the first and last parts had led to general irritation, but music of the chorus ‘With pious hearts’ in sounds that emotional openness, of objectivisation tending in work can be measured by the fact that before the first it rather seems to me that first the image of the king was could turn our world upside down, if people only had the performance to the confession of his personal belief, a performance he used some parts of it for one of his many the cause of confusion and uneasiness. ears to hear it. There had never before been such music belief that God is found also in nature. In Otto Erich charity concerts for the chapel of the Foundling Hospital This Solomon is neither a daring warrior nor a brutal in the world; then it was ‘unheard’ and so it is still too Deutsch we find the text of the announcement of 17th and found a refuge for many arias paraphrased in other killer, no ruler who, with a harsh hand, had been able to today for our ears. Solomon knows of his ‘mighty’ March 1749 and the advertisement of the first oratorios. force together under the yoke of the crown the Irish, loneliness before God and the world. Could the love of performance. The General Advertiser wrote: ‘At the Yet how is it possible to explain this open Welsh and Scots, no fundamentalist, who used his a woman hold him? When the two lovers sing their duet Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, This Day will be contradiction between the composer’s personal power to impress his own truth on those of other beliefs, of wonderful union and each concentrates all feelings perform’d a New Oratorio, call’d SOLOMON. With a valuation of Solomon on the one hand and the clear and still less an enlightened despot, who had for the for the other beloved being in an aria in their own CONCERTO … (to begin at Half an Hour after Six indifference, if not outright rejection of the work by the benefit of the welfare of his subjects maintained fashion, it can be heard how differently the woman feels o’Clock.)’ London public? The changes that Handel undertook in bourgeois freedoms and the right to poverty or to wealth. from the man. Worlds lie between them who yet are so The singers were: 1759 affected particularly the love scenes, and they were The question that worries the Solomon of this oratorio is near. And how directly the composer, in the scene of the Solomon - Signora (Caterina) Galli, mezzo-soprano radical enough; he struck them completely out of the how to control the consuming phenomenon of power so judgement of Solomon, brings the world of the harlots Zadok - Mr (Thomas) Lowe, tenor score. The quality of the music could hardly have given that it does not turn into despotism. This question, into that of the court! There is no distance, no possibility A Levite - Mr (Thomas) Reinhold, bass occasion for such cuts; the music of Solomon counts however, always precedes the experience of the of the exchange avoiding the physical as well as the Pharaoh’s daughter (Queen to Solomon) - among the most wonderful music that Handel wrote. destructive might of power. psychological human reality of the harlots. In this world Signora (Giulia) Frasi The reservations cannot have been because of the This power has a number of forms and must never the wide range of the possibilities of human existence Nicaule (Queen of Sheba) - Signora Frasi dramatic course of the narrative, as the plot, apart from be so blatant as the composer portrays it in Part III with are shown as unbroken and there is no distinction of any First Harlot (First Woman) - Signora Frasi, soprano the judgement scene in Part II, leads on to no dramatic the representation of hybrid, blasphemous lust for battle kind between the personal experience of each who hears Second Harlot (Second Woman) - climax. It can only be supposed that the tender and direct which, I think, is not without inner terror: ‘Shake the it and that of the world of the harlots, at least what Signora Sibilla, soprano’ openness of these scenes had worried the prudish dome and pierce the sky …’. It can also send out maternal love, gratitude and tender experience there may sensibility of the audience so that the composer felt it invisible rays and destroy not only those who are close be in the world, as also each individual listener may There seems no clear explanation of why Handel should necessary to remove them from the structure of to the powerful but also bring to nothing those from experience or imagine the world of the harlots. That no have given priority to the first performance of Susanna Solomon. Yet I am sure that there are other explanations whom power proceeds. It is not always the body that qualitative distinction is audible can be an occasion for over that of Solomon. I have also been unable to find any for the failure of the work. visibly perishes, but also, above all unnoticed, the soul. some consternation! In that respect there can be no reports of how the London public reacted to its first The majority of all relevant musico-historical Then the chorus ‘From the east unto the west, who so proper debate as to whether, in the sources of the hearing of Solomon. The performance was repeated only performances start from the idea that Handel composed wise as Solomon?’, a eulogy on the wisdom of Solomon, libretto, the two women were really prostitutes in the twice, on 20th and 22nd March 1749, after which it was the work as a tribute to the England of his royal patron, changes abruptly from a light-footed gavotte into a narrow sense of the word. In the usage of the Near East put aside for many years. That Solomon won little George II, and also to the country in which he had world of sound that makes clear that the man who cannot an unmarried woman who gives birth is a ‘whore’. It is popularity is witnessed by the fact that during the finally settled and to the society that had received him so keep his soul safe within the structure of political, social hardly credible that the translation of the Hebrew word composer’s life there were no other performances hospitably. According to this interpretation the world of or psychic power, burns to death like a moth in a candle- as ‘harlot’ was a philological coinage. The composer’s outside London. Solomon reflects the world of England, its landscape, its flame. representation of the exchange between the two women First in March 1759, a few weeks before his death, society, its culture, as the composer had experienced Solomon’s perception of the fragility of all human would not have pleased the contemporary public. The Handel resolved to perform the oratorio once more, but them, idealised, but at the same time a real encounter existence is found, with the exception of the aria ‘Haste abysmal despair of the ‘wicked’, childless woman, 8.557574-75 6 7 8.557574-75 557574-75bk Handel US 14/5/06 3:07 pm Page 6

CD 2 79:01 Synopsis

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For information on the recordings of the Junge Kantorei see www.junge-kantorei.de 8.557574-75 12 557574-75rear Handel US 14/5/06 3:06 pm Page 1

CMYK NAXOS NAXOS Universally recognized as one of Handel’s finest masterpieces, Solomon is the most sensuous of his biblical oratorios. Magnificent, intricate choruses, seven of which are in eight voice parts, alternate with rapturous, intimate love music, as when Solomon, on the completion of his Temple, at the end of Part I, beckons his Queen towards the cedar grove where ‘amorous turtles… love beneath the pleasing gloom’. Part II deals with Solomon’s 8.557574-75 HANDEL: HANDEL: wisdom in deciding who is the mother of the new-born baby. Part III, which opens with the ever popular Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, portrays the visit of the Queen and her DDD amazement at the splendour of Solomon’s court, yet another instance of Handel paying astute homage to his patron, George II. Playing Time 2:40:07 George Frideric Solomon Solomon HANDEL (1685–1759) Solomon Solomon ...... Ewa Wolak Pharaoh’s Daughter, Queen / Second Woman ...... Elisabeth Scholl Nicaule, Queen of Sheba / First Woman ...... Nicola Wemyss Made inCanada www.naxos.com/libretti/solomon.htm Sung textscanbeaccessedat: Booklet notesinEnglish Naxos RightsInternationalLtd. Zadok / Attendant ...... Knut Schoch www.naxos.com

Levite ...... Matthias Vieweg 2004 & Junge Kantorei • Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra Joachim Carlos Martini 2006 CD 1 81:06 CD 2 79:01 1-£ Part I 58:39 1-@ Part II (cont.) 31:52 ¢-º Part II 22:27 #-› Part III 47:09 8.557574-75 8.557574-75 Recorded live at Kloster Eberbach, Rheingau, Germany, on 30th May, 2004 Producer: Mark Buecker • Engineers: Joachim Carlos Martini and Andrea Hellbach Booklet Notes: Joachim Carlos Martini • Please see the booklet for a detailed track list Cover Picture: King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba by Adriaen van Stalbemt (1580–1662) (Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library)