Handel's Messiah

in 2020 Saturday 28th March 7.00pm Haydn Insanae et vanae curae Haydn Symphony no 104 [The London] Mozart Requiem Alexandra Oomens soprano Helen Charlston alto James Oxley tenor Grant Doyle bass English Symphony Orchestra Jeremy Cole conductor COME AND SING Saturday 2nd May 10am-5pm Directed by John Rutter All singers are invited to study, rehearse, and perform with this inspiring musician in Wells Cathedral Saturday 14th November 7.00pm Mozart Solemn Vespers K339 Beethoven Mass in C English Chamber Orchestra Jeremy Cole conductor We strongly advise that bookings be made online at:- wcos.org.uk 2 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Messiah (1741) A Sacred Oratorio, words by Charles Jennens Elizabeth Atherton soprano Tim Morgan countertenor Peter Auty tenor Ben McAteer bass Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society Music for Awhile Orchestra (on period instruments) Jean Paterson leader Jeremy Cole conductor This concert takes place in the Cathedral by kind permission of the Chapter of Wells Cathedral. The use of mobile telephones, photography, or recording of any kind is forbidden except by express permission of the Chapter. We are grateful to Battens Charitable Trust for its support of this performance. The New Novello Choral Edition (Shaw) is used in this performance Printed music supplied by Somerset Libraries, Arts & Information Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society is affiliated to Making Music. Programme by Neill Bonham 3 plays) who had previously written libretti for some of Handel’s oratorios. The work foreseen by Jennens was of three parts, taking in the entire sweep of the tradi- tions and beliefs of the Christian faith from the Old and New Testament texts: Part One — Prophecy of Salvation, the birth of Christ Jesus Part Two — Crucifixion and Death Part Three — Resurrection and the promise of eternal life for believers. Handel was a man of deep faith and he immediately started using the texts for his new sacred opera. Beginning work on 22 August, he had completed Part I in outline by 28 August, Part II by 6 September and Part III by 12 Septem- ber—followed by two days of “filling up” to produce the finished work on 14 Sep- tember. Later he was convinced that he had received divine inspiration and assis- This is 260 years since Handel died in tance in the composition of Messiah. 1759. George Frideric had been born in Saxony in Germany in 1685 but from In Dublin his six charity concerts from 1712 had lived solely in England. He was November to February raised £400 for patronised by King George I and then three charities and, as a direct result, George II and enjoyed enormous critical 142 men were released from debtors and financial success, particularly as a prison. Messiah was then premiered at composer of numerous Italian operas. two performances in Dublin in April Unfortunately, by 1741 his fortunes had 1742. Handel had sought and was given changed, with his operas being regarded permission from St Patrick’s and Christ by many as scurrilous and the Covent Church cathedrals to use their choirs for Garden Theatre, which he ran, a ‘den of this occasion. These forces amounted to rascals’. He was close to ruin and the 16 men and 16 boy choristers. The three debtors’ prison. female soloists also had to help with the choruses. The 700 people attending each Out of the blue an invitation came from performance were squeezed into the the Duke of Devonshire for him to visit hall (minus hoops and swords) and it Dublin and provide a series of benefit was an outstanding success. concerts in this fashionable thriving city “For the relief of the prisoners in the Back in London, although Messiah even- several gaols, and for the support of tually became Britain's best-loved choral Mercer’s Hospital in Stephen Street, and work, it had a sticky beginning. For it’s of the Charitable Infirmary on the Inn’s first week of performances the following Quay”. At the same time another letter year Handel had rented the Covent Gar- arrived from Charles Jennens, literary den Theatre. However, this venue was scholar (and editor of Shakespeare’s considered too disreputable and sacrile- 4 gious and an inappropriate place to per- donate works to the charity. There were form the sacred story of the Messiah. then no public art galleries and by effec- The Earl of Shaftesbury noted in his tively creating at the Hospital the UK's memoirs that, “partly from the scruples first public art gallery, Hogarth gave the some person had entertained against public a reason to visit it. The hospital carrying on such a performance in a Play thus became one of London’s most fash- House, and partly for not entering into ionable charities. the genius of the composition, Messiah was but indifferently relish’d”. Conse- Handel recognised the potential of the quently, it was left on the shelf for sev- Hospital’s Chapel as a performance ven- eral years. ue and noted that his royal patron had provided half of the funds to build it. Also In 1742, in Bloomsbury, the founda- In May 1749 he offered to conduct a tion stone had been laid for the Found- benefit concert there. It included the ling Hospital, a major new public build- first performance of his “specially ing built by philanthropist Thomas Co- written” Foundling Hospital Anthem. ram; he had been granted a royal char- This opened with text from Psalm 41 – ter to establish a new charity to care for “Blessed are they that consider the poor abandoned babies. One of its founding and needy”, and ended with the Hallelu- governors was William Hogarth who jah Chorus, taken from his Messiah – persuaded other leading artists, Joshua a work that few of his London audience Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough to would have known. The Foundling Hospital Chapel, 1749 5 Although the Chapel was not finished, and had no glass in its windows, the performance was a huge musical and financial success attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales. This may be the occasion upon which royalty set the pattern by standing during the Hallelujah Chorus. Soon afterwards Handel gave an organ to the new Chapel and the following year he returned to conduct a sec- ond benefit concert—this time he chose Messiah. It was so oversubscribed that Handel had to repeat it two weeks later. In gratitude, the hospital made Handel a governor. For the following 25 years Messiah was performed each year in the Foundling Hospital Chapel, for the benefit of the charity, with Handel conducting or attended every performance until his death in 1759. These concerts helped to Westminster Abbey 1784 secure the Oratorio’s place in the na- tion's affections—and raised the huge Handel Commemoration sum of £7,000 for the charity. As a final cellos, two double-basses, four bas- act of generosity, Handel left in his will a soons, four oboes, two trumpets, two copy of the Messiah score to the Found- horns and drums. In the chorus of nine- ling Hospital, enabling the charity to con- teen were six trebles from the Chapel tinue staging the benefit concerts. The Royal; the remainder, all men, were al- score and orchestral parts were deliv- tos, tenors and basses. The five soloists ered to the hospital three weeks after were required to assist the chorus. By Handel's death and are still in the Found- this time Handel was severely afflicted ling Museum; the Hospital continues to by the onset of blindness,howeverin benefit to this day from performances of 1757 was able to resume some of his the Messiah. Charles Burney, 18th cen- duties; the final performance of Messiah tury music historian, remarked that Han- at which Handel was present was at del’s Messiah “fed the hungry, clothed Covent Garden on 6 April 1759, eight the naked, and fostered the orphan.” days before his death. The original manuscript in the British A fashion for large-scale performances Library’s music collection is scored for began in 1784 at one of a series of com- 2 trumpets, timpani, 2 oboes, 2 violins, memorative concerts of Handel’s music viola, and basso continuo (cello, double given in Westminster Abbey under the bass, and harpsichord). The 1754 perfor- patronage of King George III. A plaque mance at the hospital is the first for on the Abbey wall records that “The which full details of the orchestral and Band consisting of DXXV [525] vocal & vocal forces survive. The orchestra then instrumental performers was conducted included fifteen violins, five violas, three by Joah Bates Esqr.” In a 1955 article, Sir 6 Malcolm Sargent, himself a proponent in 1789 by Mozart to re-orchestrate of large-scale performances, wrote, Messiah for a small-scale performance, “Mr Bates ... had known Handel well without organ continuo but with added and respected his wishes. The orchestra parts for flutes, clarinets, trombones employed was two hundred and fifty and horns. For it he re-composed strong, including twelve horns, twelve some passages and re-arranged others. trumpets, six trombones and three pairs The performance took place on 6 March of timpani (some made especially 1789 in the rooms of Count Johann Es- large).” In 1787 further performances terházy, with four soloists and a choir of were given at the Abbey with advertise- 12. Even Mozart, however, confessed ments promising “The Band will consist himself to be humble in the face of Han- of Eight Hundred Performers”. del’s genius. He insisted that any altera- tions to Handel's score should not be In continental Europe, performances interpreted as an effort to improve the of Messiah were departing from Han- music.

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