A head full of maggots
This week Donald Macleod focuses on Handel the organist. Today, Handel enriches the orchestration of his oratorio Saul with a carillon, three trombones and a brand new organ.
This week Donald Macleod looks at Handel the organist. Today, Handel enriches the orchestration of his oratorio Saul with a carillon, three trombones and a brand new organ.
When Handel’s librettist Charles Jennens paid a visit to the composer while he was at work on his oratorio Saul, he found his head to be “more full of Maggots than ever” - maggots being not the larvae of flies, but an archaic term for ‘bizarre ideas’. The first thing to disconcert Jennens was “a very queer Instrument which He calls Carillon. ’Tis play’d upon with Keys like a Harpsichord, & with this Cyclopean Instrument he designs to make poor Saul … stark mad.” Then there was the trio of sackbuts (trombones) Handel was planning to use - creatures about as rare in 18th-century London as Muscovy ducks. And to cap it all, there was to be a specially commissioned contraption - “an organ of £500 price, which, because he is overstock’d with Money, he has bespoke of one Moss of Barnet.” The carillon, the sackbuts and the bespoke organ - which features in a number of florid concerto-like movements - all contributed to an orchestral texture that prompted Handel scholar Winton Dean to suggest that “in its richness and grandeur of orchestration, Saul has scarcely a rival in 18th-century music.” Handel kept the trombones for Israel in Egypt, but its predominantly choral sound seems to have had a relatively lukewarm reception from audiences that had previously appreciated his operas.
Saul (Act 1 scene 2, Symphony)
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor
Saul (Act 1, Symphony)
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor
Saul (Act 2 scene 1, ‘Envy, eldest born of Hell’)
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor
Saul (Act 2 scene 5, Symphony)
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor
Saul (Act 3 scene 5, Elegy on the Death of Saul and Jonathan)
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor
Israel in Egypt, HWV 54 (Pt 2, ‘The people shall hear and be afraid’)
The Monteverdi Choir
The English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
Organ Concerto in F, HWV 295 (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale)
Bob van Asperen, organ and direction
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Producer: Chris Barstow
Last on
Music Played
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George Frideric Handel
Saul - Act 1 scene 2, Symphony
Choir: The Sixteen. Orchestra: Sixteen Orchestra. Conductor: Harry Christophers.- Coro : COR16103.
- Coro.
- 20.
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George Frideric Handel
Saul - Act 1, Symphony
Choir: The Sixteen. Orchestra: Sixteen Orchestra. Conductor: Harry Christophers.- Coro : COR16103.
- Coro.
- 1.
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George Frideric Handel
Saul - Act 2 scene 1, 'Envy, eldest born of Hell'
Choir: The Sixteen. Orchestra: Sixteen Orchestra. Conductor: Harry Christophers.- Coro : COR16103.
- Coro.
- 1.
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George Frideric Handel
Saul - Act 2 scene 5, Symphony
Choir: The Sixteen. Orchestra: Sixteen Orchestra. Conductor: Harry Christophers.- Coro : COR16103.
- Coro.
- 20.
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Diana Burrell
Concerto for Brass and Orchestra
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Jukka‐Pekka Saraste. -
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George Frideric Handel
Saul - Act 3 scene 5, 'Gird on thy sword, thou man of might'
Choir: The Sixteen. Orchestra: Sixteen Orchestra. Conductor: Harry Christophers.- Coro : COR16103.
- Coro.
- 20.
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George Frideric Handel
Israel in Egypt - The people shall hear and be afraid
Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.- PHILIPS : 432-110-2.
- PHILIPS.
- 6.
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George Frideric Handel
Concerto No. 13 In F Major Hwv.295 - The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'
Performer: Bob van Asperen. Director: Bob van Asperen. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.- VIRGIN VERITAS : 5-45236-2.
- VIRGIN VERITAS.
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Broadcasts
- Wed 7 Dec 2016 12:00BBC Radio 3
- Wed 7 Dec 2016 18:30BBC Radio 3
- Wed 29 Apr 2020 12:00BBC Radio 3
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