The music on this disc, among the least-known of Handel's mature productions, shows that the popular perception of him as excelling in big, public works (oratorios, operas, the Water Music) is mistaken; he was equally effective in genres that, because of the course of his musical career, he rarely touched. The program here consists of nine German-language sacred arias for soprano and instrumental ensemble, broken into three groups of three by a pair of trio sonatas. No choir is involved, nor are any Lutheran chorales, but ...
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The music on this disc, among the least-known of Handel's mature productions, shows that the popular perception of him as excelling in big, public works (oratorios, operas, the Water Music) is mistaken; he was equally effective in genres that, because of the course of his musical career, he rarely touched. The program here consists of nine German-language sacred arias for soprano and instrumental ensemble, broken into three groups of three by a pair of trio sonatas. No choir is involved, nor are any Lutheran chorales, but the music has affinities with the arias in Bach's cantatas: it is contemplative, lyrical-spiritual, and modest in dimension. The texts are by Heinrich Brockes, who wrote a version of the Passion story that Handel had set in 1716; Telemann and many other composers made their own Brockes-Passion settings later, and it was adapted for use in Bach's St. John Passion. The arias date from around 1725, by which time Handel was well ensconced in England and composing music primarily in...
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