Lots of listening opportunities for Handel lovers coming up! – Week beginning Monday 16 July 2012
Handel is Composer of the Week in the BBC radio 3 series which broadcast at noon each weekday and repeated at 18.00. Expect lots of tasty excerpts from Handel works and the history of his life and times presented in a very accessible way.
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Meanwhile – from the Proms ….
Review from The Guardian
Watch clips from this Prom now on BBC 2 TV iPlayer
video from the BBC
Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel make their Proms debut in this free Late Night Prom, giving Handel’s three Water Music suites and Fireworks Music the big-band, period-instrument treatment. Niquet directs an expanded group of up to 80 musicians to evoke resplendent royal occasions on the River Thames and in Green Park, offering a new slant on London’s favourite party pieces.
- Handel Water Music Suite No. 1 in F major
- Handel Water Music Suite No. 2 in D Major
- Handel Water Music Suite No. 3 in G major
- Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks
Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet conductor,
Performance photo gallery featuring Hervé Niquet in a very fetching jacket
This concert will be repeated on radio 3 Wednesday 25th July at 2pm.
and is to be shown on BBC2 television on Saturday 4 August
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Thursday 19 July 2012 at 19.30
Review from The Guardian
Handel - Judas Maccabaeus (1750 version)
original playbill – they got their money’s worth!
Composed in the wake of the last pitched battle fought on British soil – the putting-down at Culloden of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion – Handel’s oratorio recounts a tale of military prowess on the part of the Israelites of biblical times, with whom Protestant England was keen to identify.
Under the direction of Laurence Cummings – Music Director of the Handel festivals in London and Göttingen – the distinguished line-up of soloists is headed by John Mark Ainsley, a stylish and much-admired Handelian, here tackling a role long considered the pinnacle of the tenor repertoire.
John Mark Ainsley – tenor (Judas Maccabaeus)
Christopher Purves – baritone (Simon/Eupolemus)
Rosemary Joshua – soprano (Israelitish Woman)
Christine Rice – mezzo-soprano,(Israelitish Man)
Tim Mead – counter-tenor (Israelitish Messenger/Israelitish Priest)
Choir of the Enlightenment
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Laurence Cummings director
- Part 1 at 19.30
- 20.25 Interval
- 20.45 Parts II & III
This Prom will be repeated on Monday 23rd July at 14.00 on BBC radio 3
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