Western religious music from different centuries.
Today we will listen to music from two rivals: Georg Friedrich Händel and Giovanni Bononcini.
Bononcini arrived in England in the autumn of 1720, after The Academy of Ancient Music had invited him, mainly to have him compose operas and frustrate Händel’s success. English opera fans subsequently fell into two musical camps, though there was also a political side to the ‘opera war’ that followed.
In this program, we focus of course on religious (or sacred) music. We start with one of the Chandos Anthems from Händel. He composed these anthems for the small ensemble that James Bridges, the Earl of Carnarvon — later the Duke of Chandos — had put together at his Cannons estate. Händel was affilliated with him from 1717 to 1720. Originally, these anthems were meant for a small size ensemble and not a full orchestra, but Händel later arranged them for solo voices, choir and orchestra. In this episode, we will play you Let God arise in its original arrangement.
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
1. Let God arise (HWV 256a)
Ensemble William Byrd, L’Académie Sainte Cécile conducted by Graham O’Reilly
(CD: “Music for Cannons – 3 Chandos anthems” – l’empreinte digitale ED 13072, 1997)
Bononcini not only composed operas, but also religious music for the Academy of Ancient Music among others. They possibly also commissioned his Te Deum, which he arranged again later in Vienna. The choir in the Te Deums by Händel – for example in the Utrecht Te Deum – have been given an important role, in contrast to Bononcini’s arrangement where it’s the soloists that lead.
Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747)
2. Te Deum
Rowan Pierce, soprano. Esther Lay, mezzo-soprano. Helen Charlston, alto. Guy Cutting, tenor. Giles Underwood, bass. Choir of Queen’s College Oxford, Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Owen Rees
(CD: “How are the mighty fallen” – Signum Classics SIGCD905, 2024)
addition:
Georg Friedrich Händel, arr John Marsh (1752-1828)
3. Zadok the Priest (HWV 258)
Johannes Geffert, organ
(CD: “Händel in London” – Querstand VKJK 0115, 2002)
Image: Cannons House (Wikipedia)
