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1000 YEARS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC

HANDEL Music for the Royal Fireworks Water Music

VOLUME 16 | BAROQUE & BEFORE FAST FACTS

• Handel is famous as one of the greatest English composers, but he was actually born in , and although he lived in for more than 45 years and became an English citizen, he spoke with a strong German accent until his dying day.

HANDEL • His two most famous works are the oratorio Messiah and the Coronation Anthem Zadok the Priest; all Music for the Royal Fireworks together, he wrote 42 operas, 29 oratorios, and more than 120 other pieces for solo voices and/or choir. Water Music • His most famous instrumental pieces are the Water Music and the Music for the Royal Fireworks. Both are collections, or ‘suites’, of short pieces which are often modelled on popular French dance forms: GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL 1685–1759 elegant minuets, bourrées with their quicker steps, and the sprightly hornpipe. These suites would Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV351 [16’28] typically begin with an introduction or ‘Ouverture’ – French for ‘opening’. 1 I. Ouverture 8’05 2 II. Bourrée 1’14 • The Water Music is one of Handel’s early compositions; he had only been in England for three or four 3 III. La Paix (Peace) 3’05 years, but his music was already a great favourite with the king, George I. It was written as 4 IV. La Réjouissance (Rejoicing) 2’03 for a royal boating along the Thames River one summer’s evening in 1717. There were about 50 5 V. Menuet I & II 2’01 musicians in the orchestra; it’s still a bit of a mystery how they all fi tted on the royal barge!

Water Music: Suite in F major, HWV348 [27’21] • Music for the Royal Fireworks was written quite late in Handel’s career, only a year or two before his 6 I. Ouverture 3’29 eyesight began to fail and he stopped being able to compose. More than 12,000 people came to see the 7 II. Adagio e staccato 2’19 fi reworks, which were put on to celebrate the end of the with – in fact, so many people had 8 III. [Allegro] – 2’31 turned up to a public rehearsal of Handel’s music the day before, that they had caused London’s fi rst 9 IV. Andante – 2’23 traffi c jam! 0 III. [Allegro] da capo 2’34 ! V. [Allegro] 3’05 @ VI. Air 2’46 £ VII. Minuet 2’44 $ VIII. Bourrée 0’45 % IX. Hornpipe 0’54 • London magistrate Henry Fielding establishes the city’s fi rst professional police force, ^ X. [Air] 3’51 a group affectionately known as the Bow Street Runners.

Water Music: Suite in D major, HWV349 [9’29] • Liverpool is Britain’s busiest slave-trading port, having overtaken Bristol two & I. [Prelude] 2’13 years earlier. * II. Alla Hornpipe 3’07 • Birth of the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and of Edward Jenner, the ( IV. Lentement 1’45 English doctor who would invent the smallpox . ) V. Bourrée 1’19 1749 • In the US, Benjamin Franklin points out that lightning and electricity are so similar that ¡ III. Minuet 1’05 they must be the same thing; three years later, he proves it by fl ying a kite with a metal key attached, during a thunderstorm, and receiving an electric shock. Total Playing Time 53’27 • And in London’s Park, more than 12,000 people gather for a fi reworks display, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra which will be accompanied by Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks. Graham Abbott conductor

— 2 — The Bookends of a Brilliant Career then the movements in D major and G major conflated, ending with the D major ‘Trumpet Minuet’. This makes a completely satisfying sequence and it was published in this order in Friedrich Chrysander’s edition in 1886. The two works on this recording represent almost the beginning and the end of Handel’s nearly fifty years in England. Most unusually for a composer whose life’s was based so consistently on composing for the Still, there is historical precedent for performing selections from the whole, and the present recording presents human voice, they are purely instrumental works. Yet they are probably, along with Messiah, his best-known the F major and D major ‘suites’ only. Following the lead of the 1719 score, we have changed the order of compositions, by title if not by content. movements from that presented in the Bärenreiter performance material, to end with the D major minuet. The king’s water were without doubt meant to be seen and heard by the public. In the few years Both the Water Music and the Music for the Royal Fireworks have politics as their point of origin. George I, George had been on the throne, disquiet over the succession had not dissipated, and deep tensions with the formerly Prince-Elector Georg of Hanover, came to the British throne in 1714, and the establishment of the Prince of Wales meant an ongoing PR battle between two rival courts. The 32-year-old Handel’s connection House of Hanover by the accession of a German-born king was controversial to many. George was 52nd in line with the king meant that he was a trusted ally, able to supply music in 1717 which would not only bring glory to the throne, but the first Protestant, and in accordance with the 1701 Act of Settlement (which prohibited to the king but also help the Hanoverian succession in the public’s mind. References to the ‘celebrated Catholics from acceding to the throne) was proclaimed the new monarch on the death of Queen Anne. Water Music’ in subsequent publications prove that, artistically at least, the king had backed a winner. The groundwork had been laid for the establishment of a new German court in London some years before the By the time he came to compose the Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1749, Handel was a very different Queen’s death, and a number of the new king’s former employees found their way to England. One was the composer. The 32 years between the Water Music and this commission had seen him complete a total of more career diplomat Baron Johann Adolf Kielmansegge. As Hanover’s ambassador to Venice he had encountered than 40 operas (the last, Deidamia, was premiered in 1741) and embark on a career as a composer of English the young Handel in 1709; Handel’s opera Agrippina had been a sensational success in Venice that year. oratorio. He became a naturalised British subject in 1727, the year of George II’s accession to the throne, and Kielmansegge made it possible for Handel to become Kapellmeister in Hanover in 1710 after his Italian had gone from being a German import to an English institution. sojourn, and it was Prince-Elector Georg who gave Handel permission to spend an extended period in London almost as soon as he was appointed. When it was clear that Handel had no intention of returning to Hanover, By 1749, with almost all the oratorios written, Handel had mastered the grand statement and the public Kielmansegge had the task of informing Handel that he was dismissed from his post. gesture. It’s interesting, though, that in accepting the commission to compose music for a fireworks display designed to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, he resisted falling into tried and true Kielmansegge came to London to become George I’s Master of the Horse. Handel had been resident there formulas. Far from tossing off some predictable bombast, the 64-year-old master created something since 1712, and had rapidly made a name for himself as a brilliant composer of opera. The new king had already completely unique. shown himself to be a supporter of his former Kapellmeister. He had renewed Handel’s royal pension (originally granted by Queen Anne) and had employed him as music master to the royal princesses. He also supported The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was designed to conclude the messy War of Austrian Succession, which Handel’s operatic ventures consistently; he went to see Handel’s Admeto no fewer than 19 times in seven had largely been fought between England and France. The fact of the matter was that the Treaty was weeks! Thus, the notion that Handel was commissioned to write music for the royal water party on the Thames unfavourable to British colonial interests and widely unpopular. In Christopher Hogwood’s words, ‘Frankly, to effect a reconciliation with the king after his delinquent absences from Hanover (as proposed by Mainwaring there was little to celebrate…and some dramatic spin-doctoring was called for to stimulate (or simulate) in his 1760 biography of Handel) seems to be a myth. public approval.’ Handel’s music was commissioned as part of a campaign designed to dazzle the public with trumped-up celebration. Kielmansegge again is the link here, as it was he who arranged for Handel to compose music for the 1717 water party. Such aquatic were not uncommon – there were at least six in 1715 alone – but the Fascinating correspondence and Court records exist regarding the organisation of the music to be written for event on 17 July 1717 was reported in a number of sources, both public and private, and is the only such event the fireworks display in London’s Green Park. There was some dispute with the composer about whether or with which Handel’s name is directly associated. not strings were to be involved (Handel would have known from the start that strings outdoors would have been unworkable), but most likely this was part of Handel’s negotiating strategy with the organisers, who really These sources tell us that Handel’s music lasted for about an hour when played complete; that it was played had no idea when it came to musical matters. The music for the outdoor event was written in twelve real parts, three times that evening (twice on the way from Whitehall to Chelsea – where the King had supper between for three oboes, two bassoons, three trumpets, three horns and timpani. At the first performance these were 11pm and 2am – and once on the return journey); and that about 50 musicians were involved. Furthermore, played by massed forces; some 24 oboes, 16 bassoons, nine horns, nine trumpets and three sets of timpani the description of instruments used that night exactly accords with the requirements of the music now called were involved, in addition to side drums, contrabassoon and possibly even a serpent. Handel’s Water Music. Handel held a run-through of the music in his house in Brook Street on 17 April 1749. This clearly could not Most frustratingly, though, the composer’s manuscript for the Water Music has not survived. The order of have involved the whole ensemble; most likely it was for the principal players only. Even so, it would have been movements has thus long been open to question, as during the 18th century various publications of the music a squeeze and the neighbours wouldn’t have missed a thing. included different selections in different arrangements. There are in all 22 movements which seem to fall into The organisers of the event pressured Handel into holding a public rehearsal of the music in Vauxhall Gardens three suites with three instrumental groupings, and for many years it has been the practice to arrange the a few days before the actual fireworks display. Handel initially resisted this too; he had planned to present music into these suites: F major with horns, D major with horns and trumpets, and G major with flutes. the music in a fundraising concert for the Foundling four weeks later and was clearly not keen to However, the discovery in 2004 of the earliest known manuscript score for the Water Music, not in the do anything which would make the music less of a crowd puller. He was persuaded, though, and the public composer’s hand but dating from 1719, has shed light on the probable intended order of movements. It seems rehearsal eventually took place on 21 April at 11am. Contemporary reports say 12,000 people were present and the music was almost certainly intended to be a single, hour-long suite which passed through different keys, that they were charged 2/6 for the privilege. Given the size of Vauxhall Gardens, such an attendance figure is something which was most unusual for the period. The 1719 score presents the F major movements first and almost certainly a vast exaggeration.

— 3 — Still, the audience numbers at the rehearsal were large enough to cause London’s first recorded traffic jam. The Handel on Modern Instruments recently-completed Westminster was closed for subsidence repairs, and London Bridge was at virtual gridlock for hours. The development of the Early Music movement over much of the 20th century has changed forever the way we expect music written before 1800 to sound. Saint-Saëns, assuming the superiority of The actual event in Green Park, attended by tens of thousands of people, took place on 27 April. An enormous the modern piano, may have told Wanda Landowska that she was wasting her time playing Bach on the ‘’ was built, a gigantic theatrical set made of wood and canvas in the form of a temple which was harpsichord, but fortunately she ignored him. Pioneers like Landowska, along with Arnold Dolmetsch and Nadia decorated with allegorical figures and representations of George II. It was nearly 35 metres high at the centre Boulanger, paved the way for the major names in early music we know well today from their recordings, such and 125 metres long. The evening started about 6pm, with the king and his entourage touring the edifice, and as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Brüggen. In more recent times this stream has grown it was during this that Handel’s music was played. The fireworks started about 8.30, and went off successfully into a major tributary of the music , both in recording and in live performance. until one end of the wood and canvas structure caught fire. Once this was under control the fireworks continued and the whole event lasted some nine hours, finishing around 3am. Ensembles using ‘period’ instruments – that is, instruments made according to the specifications of earlier times and played in ways appropriate to those times – have done much to enable all musicians and the public Considering Handel’s popularity it is very strange that none of the contemporary reports of either the public to appreciate afresh the glories of early music. Musicians in mainstream, modern-instrument orchestras have rehearsal or the actual performance say anything about his music. Maybe then, as now, the distraction of the over the past twenty or thirty years completely altered the ways in which they approach music from the 18th eyes can lead to a disconnection of the ears… century, largely due to the exciting influence of the Early Music movement.

Still, Handel had the last laugh and eventually got the strings he’d planned for all along. His desire to keep The downside to these developments has been one I am certain the Early Music movement never the music alive by way of a concert performance after the Green Park fireworks made it possible for him to intended. Surely the primary aim of early music research has been to make music of earlier times accessible. present the music indoors with more usual forces. For the Foundling Hospital performance on 27 May, reduced Unfortunately, many musicians have been reticent to perform early music on modern instruments numbers were used for the winds, brass and timpani, and strings were added by doubling the oboe and because of the very success of period-instrument ensembles. In other words, we are so used to hearing bassoon parts. (This explains the high-lying viola part, which mostly doubles the third oboe.) It is this ‘concert 18th-century music performed on period instruments that some have regarded it as out of bounds to scoring’ which has been used in this recording. modern-instrument performers.

The massively imposing Ouverture has to be one of Handel’s most thrilling instrumental creations; it is certainly My opinion is exactly the opposite. Period-instrument performance is wonderful, but this should not discourage one of the most exhausting to perform. The only dance forms represented are the Bourrée and the Menuet, in modern-instrument ensembles such as symphony orchestras from playing early music in a historically the midst of which come two programmatic movements peculiarly appropriate to the occasion. Representing appropriate manner. Modern-instrument ensembles have learned a great deal from the early music specialists, peace and rejoicing, these movements display the mastery of ’s leading theatrical composer. Certainly in and the adoption of the spirit of early music performance practice can open up an entire new world of musical his final years Handel understood that politics is as much about theatre as it is about anything else. And experience to symphony orchestras and – most importantly – their audiences. It would be a tragedy if early vice versa. music were put off limits by a too-narrow application of so-called ‘authenticity’, a term no longer used even by the period-instrument ensembles themselves. Graham Abbott The line is drawn in different places. No-one seems to mind a chamber organ with an electric blower, or Source: Christopher Hogwood Handel: Water Music & Music for the Royal Fireworks (Cambridge Music Handbooks, 2005) the use of an electronic tuner by the oboe, or the addition of tuning holes in allegedly ‘natural’ trumpets. Countertenors in Handel operas are regarded as authentic whereas Handel never used them in this way, and performing spaces are very different from those Bach or Handel would have known. All these practices are common in early music groups and accepted by audiences. While no-one would argue that Handel’s orchestra sounded anything like a modern symphony orchestra, it remains my firm belief that Handel’s music should be open to all, and that it’s the art of the music itself which matters.

Shakespeare’s plays are nowadays almost never given in productions which the bard himself would recognise; ditto the operas of most composers from any period. Yet the art of the creator is still evident, and capable of moving an audience to its core, provided the words or the notes on the page are treated with respect. (And yes, I love Bach on the piano as well as the harpsichord!)

In recording these Handel works with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the players and I have applied many lessons learned from our period-instrument colleagues. Most orchestral players today are very well informed with regard to issues of phrasing, articulation, tempo relationships and style in 18th-century music, and it has been a journey of discovery and delight for all of us in looking again at this wonderful music.

Graham Abbott

— 4 — 1000 YEARS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC THE ALBUM COLLECTION

Explore the history of classical music further at www.1000YearsofClassicalMusic.com, where you can listen to podcasts, watch films, listen to playlists – and discover our album collection.

BAROQUE & BEFORE THE ROMANTIC ERA THE MODERN ERA 93 BARBER Adagio for Strings | Violin Concerto 1 GREGORIAN CHANT 34 SCHUBERT ‘Trout’ Quintet 63 DEBUSSY Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un faune | 94 MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES 2 MEDIEVAL CHORAL MUSIC 35 SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8 ‘Unfinished’ La Mer 95 SCULTHORPE The Fifth Continent 3 SACRED MUSIC OF THE RENAISSANCE 36 BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique 64 DEBUSSY Preludes 96 TAKEMITSU Music for Orchestra 4 ENGLISH RENAISSANCE 37 MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides | 65 ELGAR Cello Concerto | Sea Pictures 97 GÓRECKI Symphony of Sorrowful Songs 5 ITALIAN BAROQUE A Night’s Dream 66 ELGAR Enigma Variations 98 GLASS | NYMAN Music for Solo Piano 6 PURCELL 38 MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto | 67 HOLST The Planets 99 MUSIC OF 7 BIBER Rosary Sonatas Piano Concerto No. 2 68 MUSIC OF SPAIN 100 THE 21ST CENTURY 8 A. SCARLATTI Cantatas 39 CHOPIN Nocturnes 69 R. STRAUSS Four Last Songs 9 VIVALDI The Four Seasons 40 SCHUMANN Music for Solo Piano 70 SIBELIUS Violin Concerto 10 FRENCH BAROQUE 41 SCHUMANN Symphonies 71 SIBELIUS Symphonies 2 & 7 | Finlandia 11 PERGOLESI Stabat Mater 42 LISZT Years of Pilgrimage 72 RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2 12 BACH Brandenburg Concertos 43 BIZET Arias and Overtures 73 RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 2 13 BACH Music for Cello | Music for Violin 44 BRAHMS A German Requiem 74 SATIE Gymnopédies 14 BACH Sacred Arias and Choruses 45 BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 75 RAVEL Bolero | Mother Goose 15 BACH Music for Keyboard 46 BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 76 RAVEL Chamber Music 16 HANDEL Water Music | Music for the 47 VIENNESE WALTZES 77 RESPIGHI Pines of Rome Royal Fireworks 48 DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto 78 SCHOENBERG Pelleas und Melisande 17 HANDEL Messiah 49 DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’ 79 BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra | 18 HANDEL Arias 50 GRIEG Music for Orchestra Violin Concerto No. 2 51 GRIEG Piano Concerto | Music for Solo Piano 80 STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring THE CLASSICAL ERA 52 TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker 81 PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 3 19 C.P.E. BACH 53 TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto | 82 CANTELOUBE Songs of the Auvergne 20 HAYDN Music for Orchestra Piano Concerto No. 1 83 GRAINGER 21 HAYDN Arias 84 ORFF Carmina burana 22 MOZART Symphonies 40 & 41 54 WAGNER Arias 85 VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending | 23 MOZART Piano Concertos 55 VERDI Arias, Choruses and Overtures 24 MOZART Arias 56 VERDI Requiem Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis 25 MOZART Requiem 57 SAINT-SAËNS of the Animals | 86 POULENC Organ Concerto | Music for Solo Piano 26 MOZART Clarinet Concerto Symphony No. 3 ‘Organ’ 87 BRITTEN The Young Person’s Guide to the 27 BEETHOVEN String Quartets 58 MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition Orchestra | Four Sea Interludes 28 BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas 59 FAURÉ Requiem 88 COPLAND Appalachian Spring 29 BEETHOVEN Symphonies 3 & 5 60 PUCCINI Arias 89 RODRIGO Guitar Concertos 30 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 ‘Choral’ 61 MAHLER Symphony No. 4 90 GERSHWIN | BERNSTEIN 31 BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos 62 MAHLER Symphony No. 5 91 SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 8 32 HUMMEL 92 MESSIAEN Turangalîla-Symphonie 33 ROSSINI Arias and Overtures

— 5 — ABC Classics Executive Producer Toby Chadd 1000 YEARS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC Recording Producer Brooke Green Recording Engineer Veronika Vincze THE ERAS Editing Brooke Green and Veronika Vincze Mastering Veronika Vincze Publications Editor Natalie Shea Cover Image MS c.1000 TO c.1750 BAROQUE & BEFORE Booklet Imagecorp Pty Ltd

The age of the church and the court – with music from ancient Recorded 9–11 December 2008 in Federation Concert Hall, Hobart. chant to the treasures of the baroque, including Hildegard, Tallis, 1000 Years of Classical Music Monteverdi, Vivaldi, JS Bach and Handel. Project Concept Toby Chadd, Robert Patterson Executive Producer Toby Chadd THE CLASSICAL ERA c.1750 TO c.1820 ABC Classics thanks Richard Buckham, Martin Buzacott, Matthew Dewey, Wendy McLeod, Ben Eliot The era of – the birth of the symphony, the arrival of the Nielsen, Emma Paillas (ABC Classic FM), Michael Mason (ABC Radio), Steve Beck, Joshua Crowley, piano, the first concerts, and the towering geniuses of Ludwig van Caroline Kinny-Lewis (Digital Business Development, ABC Commercial), Lisa Hresc, Jillian Reeves Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (, ABC Commercial), Virginia Read, Sophie Fraser, Hamish Lane, James Limon, Natalie Waller and Robert Patterson.

THE ROMANTIC ERA c.1820 TO c.1900 www.1000YearsofClassicalMusic.com www.abcclassics.com Revolution, heroism and ambition – told in music through the virtuosic concertos of Chopin, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, and P 2011 Australian Corporation. C 2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Digitally distributed worldwide by The Orchard. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, , lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the operas of Puccini, Verdi and Wagner. the copyright owner is prohibited.

THE MODERN ERA c.1900 TO THE PRESENT

A world of fragmentation and a flourishing of diversity – from music born out of World War I to 21st-century Australia, via French Impressionism, Eastern European minimalism and American classics.

www.1000YearsofClassicalMusic.com

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