George Frideric Handel Messiah HWV 56 Semenzato · Schachtner · Adam · Stražanac Collegium 1704 & Collegium Vocale 1704 Václav Luks George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Messiah HWV 56 Giulia Semenzato soprano Benno Schachtner countertenor Krystian Adam tenor Krešimir Stražanac bass Collegium Vocale 1704 Collegium 1704 Václav Luks direction SECOND PART CD 2 1 Chorus Behold the Lamb of God 2:49 2 Air (alto) He was despised 9:26 George Frideric Handel 3 Chorus Surely, He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows 1:41 HWV 56 4 Chorus And with His stripes we are healed 1:29 Messiah 5 Chorus All we like sheep, have gone astray 3:43 Libretto: Charles Jennens 6 Accompagnato (tenor) All they that see Him, laugh Him to scorn 0:38 7 Chorus He trusted in God 2:03 8 Accompagnato (tenor) Thy rebuke hath broken His heart 1:50 9 Arioso (tenor) Behold, and see if there be any sorrow 1:29 10 Accompagnato (tenor) He was cut off out of the land of the living 0:16 FIRST PART 11 Air (tenor) But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell 2:13 CD 1 1 Symphony 2:42 12 Chorus Lift up your heads 2:45 2 Accompagnato (tenor) Comfort ye, comfort ye my people 2:48 13 Recitative (tenor) Unto which of the angels 0:17 3 Air (tenor) Ev’ry valley shall be exalted 3:07 14 Chorus Let all the angels of God worship Him 1:21 4 Chorus And the glory, the glory of the Lord 2:32 15 Air (alto) Thou art gone up on high 3:02 5 Accompagnato (bass) Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts 1:22 16 Chorus The Lord gave the word 1:00 6 Air (alto) But who may abide the day of His coming 3:48 17 Air (soprano) How beautiful are the feet of them 4:42 7 Chorus And He shall purify 2:13 18 Air (bass) Why do the nations so furiously rage together 2:36 8 Recitative (alto) Behold, a virgin shall conceive 0:19 19 Chorus Let us break their bonds asunder 1:37 9 Air (alto, choir) O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion 4:52 20 Recitative (tenor) He that dwelleth in heaven 0:12 10 Accompagnato (bass) For behold, darkness shall cover the earth 1:58 21 Air (tenor) Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron 1:52 11 Air (bass) The people that walked in darkness 3:59 22 Chorus Hallelujah 3:18 12 Chorus For unto us a Child is born 3:36 13 Pifa 1:57 THIRD PART 14 Recitative (soprano) There were shepherds abiding in the field 0:12 23 Air (soprano) I know that my Redeemer liveth 5:38 15 Accompagnato (soprano) And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them 0:20 24 Chorus Since by man came death 2:06 16 Recitative (soprano) And the angel said unto them 0:27 25 Accompagnato (bass) Behold, I tell you a mystery 0:35 17 Accompagnato (soprano) And suddenly there was with the angel 0:16 26 Air (bass) The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be rais’d 7:48 18 Chorus Glory to God in the highest 1:48 27 Recitative (alto) Then shall be brought to pass 0:15 19 Air (soprano) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion 4:04 28 Duet (alto, tenor) / Chorus O death, where is thy sting? / But thanks be to God 3:25 20 Recitative (alto) Then shall the eyes of the blind be open’d 0:23 29 Air (soprano) If God be for us, who can be against us 4:26 21 Duet (alto, soprano) He shall feed His flock like a shepherd 3:39 30 Chorus Worthy is the Lamb that was slain 3:29 22 Chorus His yoke is easy, His burthen is light 2:09 31 Chorus Amen 3:37 Collegium Vocale 1704 soprano Jenny Högström, Helena Hozová, Kamila Zbořilová, Marta Paklar, Petra Havránková alto Kamila Mazalová, Aneta Petrasová, Marta Fadljevičová, Daniela Čermáková, Jan Mikušek tenor Václav Čížek, Čeněk Svoboda, Krzysztof Mroziński, Pavel Valenta, Hasan El-Dunia bass Tomáš Šelc, Michał Dembiński, Georg Finger, Martin Vacula, Dominik Kujawa language coach Mark Pinzow Collegium 1704 concert master Helena Zemanová violin I Iveta Schwarz, Markéta Knittlová, Jan Hádek, Luca Giardini violin II Ivan Iliev, Simona Tydlitátová, Martina Kuncl Štillerová, Veronika Manová, Daniel Deuter viola Ildiko Ludwig, Tim Willis, František Kuncl, Ivo Anýž violoncello Libor Mašek, Hana Fleková, Helena Matyášová double bass Ondřej Štajnochr, Attila Szilágyi organ Pablo Kornfeld harpsichord Joan Boronat Sanz theorba Jan Krejča oboe Katharina Andres, Petra Ambrosi bassoon Györgyi Farkas, Stefan Pantzier clarina Hans-Martin Rux, Almut Rux / Aline Théry timpani Daniel Schäbe ENGLISH ENGLISH Handel's Messiah that closes Part 2, and the first full draft of the ora- Notwithstanding Handel’s fluent speed of composing, torio was completed on 14 September. The score had he took special care over special moments, and paid David Vickers been written in only twenty-four days – although such close attention to detailed musical subtleties. A rare prolific speed was not unusual for the composer. Some surviving example of his sketches contains the theme of the oratorio’s familiar highlights were modelled af- for the voice part in ‘He was despised’, on which he ter his own previous compositions. Five choruses drew evidently spent time and trouble trying to get exactly From 1732 Handel introduced English oratorio con- from fourteen books of the Old and New Testaments, upon thematic material from three Italian chamber right. There is an instruction for the trumpets in ‘Glory certs into his opera seasons, but later in the decade thereby presenting a microcosm of Christian doctrine duets, two of which he had composed as recently as to God’ to play da lontano e un poco piano (i.e. ‘in the his Italian operatic ventures on the London stage were and faith that was a suitably solemn entertainment for the previous July: ‘For unto us a child is born’ and ‘All distance and a little quietly’); this is the trumpets’ first hindered by ill fortune and poor health. His 1739/40 Lent. The text was organised into three distinct ‘acts’, we like sheep have gone astray’ were both developed appearance in the oratorio, but they are used sparingly, season at Lincoln’s Inn Fields was the first time he pre- each subdivided into scenes. Part 1 commences with from the duet No, di voi non vuò fidarmi (HWV 189), and their unbridled magnificence is reserved until the sented a public theatre concert series consisting only Old Testament prophecies of Christ’s coming, and con- and ‘And he shall purify’ and ‘His yoke is easy’ each ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, where they illustrate the regal au- of unstaged English works. On 29 December 1739, siders what the arrival of the Messiah will portend for borrowed material from Quel fior che all’alba ride (HWV thority of Jesus’ emphatic victory. The trumpets also during their collaboration on the enlightenment fable the world; it is followed by prophecies of the virgin 192). The vociferous bass air ‘Why do the nations’ was appear in the concluding chorus (‘Worthy is the Lamb’), L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Charles Jennens birth, and then the pastoral scene in which the angels modelled on a rage aria Handel had composed for a although in the meantime the principal player receives wrote to his co-librettist James Harris “I have been pre- appear to the shepherds, proclaiming Jesus’ birth; the high castrato in his penultimate London opera Imeneo the limelight in ‘The trumpet shall sound’, in which the paring a Collection for him [Handel] from Scripture”. first part concludes with a consideration of Christ’s (1740). Elsewhere in the oratorio, the spectre of Italian obbligato instrument represents the arrival of God as Eighteen months later, he had not given up on the idea; redemptive miracles during his mortal ministry. Part 2 music was plain for his audience to hear: ‘He shall feed our judge at the final resurrection. Jennens wrote to Edward Holdsworth on 10 July 1741: concentrates on the Messiah’s redemptive sacrifice, the his flock’ bears an uncanny resemblance to ‘Quanno passion story (from his scourging through to the cruci- nascete ninno’, an Italian folk carol still popular today Within days of completing the first draft Handel eagerly Handel says he will do nothing next Winter, but fixion), his sacrificial death, the resurrection, his ascen- in Sicily, Naples and in the Abruzzi mountains around started composing Samson, on a libretto by Newburgh I hope I shall perswade him to set another Scripture sion back to heaven, and God’s eventual triumph over Rome, where shepherds perform it on zampogna (bag- Hamilton based on several works by Milton (completing Collection I have made for him, & perform it for his those who reject the gospel. Part 3 applies the doctrine pipes) and piffaro (shawms) – hence Handel’s use of its first draft on 29 October 1741).Messiah and Sam- own Benefit in Passion Week. I hope he will lay out of physical resurrection and spiritual redemption to all the term ‘Pifa’ for the little sinfonia setting the scene son were probably envisaged as the new centrepieces of his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition of us, prominently exhorting man’s mortality and the for angels announcing the Birth of Christ to shepherds; London oratorio concerts that would have taken place may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject Day of Judgment, and concluding the oratorio with this adopts an Italian pastoral idiom similar to the final during Lent 1742, but events took an unpredictable excells every other Subject.