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Dorothea Craxton Leif Meyer, Harpsichord and Organ Dorothea Craxton graduated from the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Cologne with the Artistsʼ Diploma and continued Leif Meyer took his organ diploma with Hans Fagius at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and studied harpsichord her studies with Anna Reynolds and Barbara Schlick. She has appeared as a soprano in numerous and with Karen Englund and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. He has participated in master-classes with Harald Vogel, Hans-Ola concert performances of early music, as well as contemporary music premières and in chamber music. She gives Ericsson, Christophe Rousset, and others. Leif Meyer has appeared in Denmark and elsewhere with ensembles such HANDEL regular Lieder recitals and in recent years has given particular attention to the work of women composers of the as Ars Nova Copenhagen, Leipziger Kammerorchester, and The Harp Consort. He has numerous recordings to his romantic period, especially Clara Schumann and, in collaboration with the pianist Babette Dorn, the published and credit. unpublished songs of Fanny Hensel. In 2009 her recordings of the complete Clara Schumann Songs and the first Nine German Arias • Violin: Fredrik From: Mathias Stautinger, 1756 / Hanna Ydmark: Joannes Georgius Hellmer, 18th century volume of Fanny Henselʼs Songs were released by Naxos. She first joined the Immortal Bach Ensemble, conducted Cello: Clive Morris, 1988 • Violone: Robert Knudsen, 2000 by Morten Schuldt-Jensen, in 2004, recording some highly acclaimed CDs for Naxos. She has received invitations to Harpsichord: Matthias Kramer, 2001 • Organ: Henk Klop, 2002 Dorothea Craxton, Soprano festivals such as the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern, the Handel Festspiele in Pitch: aʼ = 415 Hz • Temperament: Neidhardt, 1729 Halle and the Europa Bach Festival in Paris. From • Ydmark • Steffensen • Baunkilde • Meyer Fredrik From, Violin Fredrik From studied at the Music High School in Gothenburg and the Royal College of Music in London. He is a leader of Concerto Copenhagen, Göteborg , and Ensemble1700 Lund. In addition he appears regularly with ensembles such as Barokksolistene (Norway) and the Amsterdam String Quartet. Fredrik From has toured in the United States, Japan, Australia, and all over Europe.

Hanna Ydmark, Violin Hanna Ydmark studied with Aureliusz Golinski at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and has participated in master-classes with Rachel Podger, Enrico Gatti, Clive Brown, and Alfredo Bernardini. She appears frequently as a baroque violinist and has toured in Europe, the United States, and Japan as well as participating in opera productions, CD recordings, and concerts with ensembles such as Concerto Copenhagen, Ensemble1700 Lund, and Barokksolistene (Norway). Dorothea Craxton Fredrik From Hanna Ydmark Photo: © Frank Domahs / Photo: © Per Bengtsson Photo: © Per Buhre fotobildner.de Kjeld Lybecker Steffensen, Cello Kjeld Lybecker Steffensen studied with Henrik Brendstrup at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, after which he specialised in baroque cello and performance practice with David Watkin in London. During his two years in England he also participated in master-classes with teachers such as Roy Goodman and Lucia Schwartz. Since returning to Denmark he has been much in demand by early music ensembles both at home and abroad and has appeared in a number of radio and CD productions.

Lars Baunkilde, Violone Lars Baunkilde studied in Copenhagen, Aalborg, and The Hague. Since 1991 he has played in Concerto Copenhagen and various other early music ensembles, touring in Europe, Japan, the United States, and Brazil. His numerous recordings include the highly praised disc “The Viennese Violone”. In addition to the double bass and violone Lars Baunkilde has also specialised in playing two rare string instruments, the baryton and the arpeggione. Kjeld Lybecker Steffensen Lars Baunkilde Leif Meyer Photo: © Jesper Jørgensen Photo: © Sven Berggreen 8.572587 5 6 8.572587 572587bk Handel EU_572587bk Handel EU 25/08/2011 11:06 Page 2

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) a Serenata, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, with a possible Handelʼs Nine German Arias set poems by Barthold lesson of the poem. The original context and intention of No. 5: Singe, Seele, Gott zum Preise (Sing, soul, in further excursion to Venice for the opera season. In the Heinrich Brockes. It is probable that Handel would have each of these is clearly indicated in the 1724 publication. praise of God), like Aria No. 3, is from Der Garten, and Nine German Arias, HWV 202-210 • Gloria, HWV deest winter of 1709 his opera had a successful encountered Brockes in Halle, where, like Handel, he was Aria No. 1: Künftʼger Zeiten eitler Kummer (Idle accompanied by characteristically Handelian There is something paradoxical about Handelʼs career. Italianate melody, with English texts usually of sound staging in Venice, where Cardinal Grimani had proved a a law student, in his case from 1702 to 1704, and held worry over future times) is from Der Mittag (Midday), the instrumental figuration. Aria No. 6: Meine Seele hört im German by birth, he was invited to England as a Protestant origin, allowing audiences a sense of moral useful contact, and by the spring of 1710 Handel was on private weekly concerts. After the Grand Tour, a mark of title of which is followed by lines from Psalm cxlv, 15-16: Sehen (My soul hears in seeing) is from Die unsere composer of Italian opera and in the later years of his life superiority, coupled with enjoyment. With royal patronage his way north again, this time to Hanover. his familyʼs importance and prosperity, Brockes settled in Thou givest them their meat in due season: thou Sele, durchs Gesicht, zur Ehre Gottes aufmunternde created the English oratorio. was under Queen Anne and her successor George I, Elector of The years in Italy had allowed Handel experience at his native Hamburg, where he was able to indulge his openest thine hand and fillest all things living with Schönheit der Felder, im Frühling (The Beauty of the born in Halle in 1685, the son of a well-to-do barber- Hanover, Handel was a dominant figure in English music first hand of the major source of his musical language and literary interests at his leisure, until, in 1720, becoming a plenteousness. In a gentle triplet rhythm, it opens with a Fields in Spring, encouraging our Soul, through sight, to surgeon by his second wife. His early interest in music in his own lifetime and his posthumous influence was brought a remarkable series of compositions, including senator. His Passion text, Der für die Sünden der Welt statement of the theme by the violin, before the entry of the Glory of God). The middle section starts with a call to was discouraged by his father, but after the latterʼs death equally strong. two operas, two , cantatas and works for the gemarterte und sterbende Jesus (Jesus, who was the voice. In the same key, Aria No. 2: Das zitternde attention, Höret nur! (Only hear!). and a short period at Halle University, he left to devote One is bound to speculate as to the course Handelʼs Catholic liturgy. Among these last was a setting of the martyred and died for the sins of the world), published in Glänzen der spielende Wellen (The shimmering Aria No. 7: Die ihr aus dunkeln Grüften (You who himself fully to music, at first as harpsichordist and then as career might have taken had he remained in Italy. In Gloria, written seemingly in the summer of 1707 for the 1712, was set by various composers, including Keiser, brightness of the sporting waves) is from Das Wasser im from dark caves) is taken from Der Abend (Evening), a composer at the Hamburg Opera. From there he moved Hamburg he had met Prince Gian Gastone deʼ Medici, Marquis of Ruspoli, to be performed at his country estate Mattheson and Telemann, as well as by Handel, whose Frühling (The Water in Spring), with a superscription with words from Psalm cxli, 2: Let my prayer be set forth in 1706 to Italy, the source from which his musical style brother of the Crown Prince of Florence, Ferdinando at Vignanello and scored for soprano, accompanied by setting of the in 1715 or 1716 was first from Psalm civ, 10: He sendeth the springs into the in thy sight as the incense, and let the lifting up of my derived, and remained there for some five years, winning deʼ Medici, who had urged him to move to Italy. It was first and second violins with continuo. A copy was found performed at the Cathedral in Hamburg on 3rd April 1719 rivers, which run among the hills. This also begins with hands be an evening sacrifice, its text a rebuke to those success with patrons and in the opera-house. A meeting probably in the spring of 1706 that Handel travelled south together with copies of Handel arias at the Royal College under Mattheson. J.S. Bach included seven numbers the instrumental introduction of the principal theme. Aria who favour gold over the beauty of the earth. Again the in Venice with Baron Kielmansegge, deputy Master of and he was to spend the following years in Italy, at a time of Music in London, once apparently in the possession of from the Brockes Passion in his , and No. 3: Süßer Blumen Ambraflocken (Sweet flowersʼ middle section starts with a command, Sprecht nicht: es Horse to the Elector of Hanover and husband of the of particular political conflict. It has been suggested that the singer William Savage, who had taken part in a Brockes also translated Thomsonʼs The Seasons, the amber petals) is from Der Garten (The Garden), a ist nur Farb und Schein (Say not that it is but colour and Electorʼs half-sister, led to Handelʼs appointment as he went first to Venice, then briefly to Florence. By the number of Handelʼs operas and oratorios, and then of basis of Baron van Swietensʼ text later set by Haydn. cantata with the biblical text from the Book of shining). Aria No. 8: In den angenehmen Büschen (In Kapellmeister to the Elector, from whom he sought beginning of 1707, at the latest, Handel was in Rome, Savageʼs pupil, R.J.S. Stevens. While widely enough The nine poems by Brockes later to be set by Handel Ecclesiastes, ii, 5: I made me gardens and orchards, and the pleasant bushes), like Aria No. 4, is from the immediate leave to visit London for the staging of his where the papal prohibition of opera, later to be relaxed, known, the Gloria had seemed of doubtful authenticity. were taken from Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott, (Earthly I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits, its contrasting Betrachtung des Mondscheins, and the final Aria No. 9: opera . Although he returned to Hanover in due had allowed the proliferation of pastoral cantatas, a genre Since its rediscovery in 2001, however, it has become an Pleasure in God), the title used for the nine volumes of middle section, in the relative major key, illustrating the Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden (Rose aflame, course, by 1713 he was again in London, his home for the to which Handel made a notable contribution during these accepted element in Handelʼs Latin church music, having poems by Brockes to be published between 1721 and text, describing the fall of the flower and the rise of the ornament of the earth) is from Die Rose (The Rose) and rest of his life. years. In Rome Handel not only made himself known to provided the English press at first an opportunity for 1748, the year after the writerʼs death. The poems set by soul towards heaven. finds a place for relatively elaborate melismata for the In his earlier years in England, Handel, while leading musicians there, including Corelli and the unusual attention and musical hyperbole. Handel, scored for soprano with solo violin (the exact Aria No. 4: Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle (Sweet word ʻbezauberndeʼ (ʻbewitchingʼ), providing a splendid contributing to the repertoire of English church music and Scarlattis, but also to leading patrons, to Cardinal The first part of the Gloria, in B flat major, is instrumentation unspecified in the surviving autograph) stillness, gentle source) is from Betrachtung des conclusion to a highly characteristic work. other genres, was chiefly involved in Italian opera. During Pamphili, Cardinal Colonna, Cardinal Ottoboni and the introduced by the two violins in imitative entries and and basso continuo, seem to have come from the 1724 Mondscheins in einer angenehmen Frühlings-Nacht the following decades he took a leading part in the art, Marquis of Ruspoli. His compositions included liturgical continuo, before the entry of the singer in similarly florid second edition of the Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott and the (Contemplation of Moonlight on a Pleasant Spring Keith Anderson writing new operas, recruiting singers and directing settings, cantatas and the oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo. In figuration. Et in terra pax is in 3/4 and the key of G minor, settings date from between that date and 1726 and were Night), with the text from Ecclesiasticus xliii, 6: The performances. There were political rivalries and recurrent the autumn of 1707 he visited Florence, where his opera its final Phrygian cadence leading to the quadruple metre known to Brockes, who mentions Handelʼs work in a moon in all the world must shine in its season. Here the 1 Donald Burrows: Preface to Händel: Neun deutsche Arien difficulties. Italian opera was the object of changing was staged, and on Easter Sunday 1708, with Laudamus te and change to triple time at the words further volume of his poems published in 1727. The voice enters in the first bar, with the violin offering its für Sopran, Violine (Flöte, Oboe) und Basso continuo, fashions and always had to contend with the strong Handel in Rome once more, his oratorio Gratias agimus tibi. The Domine Deus is an Adagio, nature of the poems, intended as parts of cantatas, and brief and appropriate comment in the following bar. Aria HWV 202-210, Wiesbaden, 2002. tradition of spoken drama in the London theatre, as well di Nostro Signor Gesù Cristo was performed before an accompanied only by the continuo with its figured bass, Handelʼs settings are fully described in the edition of the as other national prejudices against what was to be elaborate stage setting at the Marquis of Ruspoliʼs Bonelli modulating from D minor to G and followed by the C minor arias by Donald Burrows1. All the arias, except for the described as an exotic and irrational entertainment. In the Palace, attracting some critical papal attention that led to Qui tollis. Quoniam tu solus sanctus restores the original eighth, In den angenehmen Büschen (In the pleasant 1730s and more fully in the following decade, when he the immediate replacement of a female soloist, Margherita key of B flat, marked Andante before the Allegro of Cum bushes), which ends with the return of the opening had virtually abandoned opera, Handel turned to the Durastanti, by a castrato as Mary Magdalene. Durastanti Sancto Spiritu and the extended ornamentation of the ritornello, are in da capo form, with the middle section in invention and development of a new form, the English was to appear in Handelʼs next opera and was to sing for Amen. a contrasted key and generally containing the moral oratorio. This, in his hands, had the advantage of him later in London. Summer brought a visit to Naples and 8.572587 2 3 8.572587 4 8.572587