Handel
Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. Musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that "Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order." As Alexander's Feast (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742) he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.
Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such as Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and Messiah remaining steadfastly popular.[6] One of his four Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest (1727), composed for the coronation of George II, has been performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign's anointing. Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty years, and since the late 1960s, with the revival of baroque music and historically informed musical performance, interest in Handel's operas has grown.
Handel
HANDEL Largo from 'Xerxes'
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
BARBER Adagio for Strings
RESPIGHI The Pines of Rome
Recorded live in 1955
Total duration: 70:31
New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Guido Cantelli
BACH Prelude and Fugue in E-flat, “St. Anne”
BACH Toccata and Fugue in D minor
BENJAMIN Overture to an Italian Comedy
BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1
CHAUSSON Symphony in B-flat
DVOŘÁK Carnival Overture
DVOŘÁK In Nature’s Realm
ELGAR Enigma Variations
GLAZUNOV The Seasons
GLINKA Ruslan and Ludmila - Overture
GOLDMARK Rustic Wedding Symphony
GRIEG Peer Gynt excerpts
MENDELSSOHN A Midsummer Night’s Dream excerpts
R. STRAUSS Also Sprach Zarathustra
R. STRAUSS Aus Italien - On the Shores of Sorrento
SAINT-SAËNS Danse macabre
SMETANA The Bartered Bride - Overture
STOCK Symphonic Waltz
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture
TCHAIKOVSKY Marche slave
WAGNER Siegfried - Forest Murmurs
WAGNER Die Meistersinger - Prelude
plus music by: Bizet, Carey, Dohnányi, Enescu, François Schubert, Glière, Handel, Ippolitov-Ivanov, J. Strauss II, Järnefelt, Liadov, MacDowell, Meacham, Mozart, Paganini, Ponchielli, Rezniček, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Schumann, Sibelius, Simonetti, Suk, Suppé, Thomas, Toch, Volkmann, Walton, Weber and Wolf-Ferrari
Studio recordings, 1930-1941
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Frederick Stock
J. S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
J. S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 6
J. S. BACH (arr. Wood) Orchestral Suite No. 6
HANDEL Messiah - Choruses
Studio and live recordings, 1925-35
Total duration: 76:20
Various Orchestras
conducted by Sir Henry Wood
HANDEL Water Music Suite (arr. Harty)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Concerto for Oboe and Strings in A minor
ELGAR Falstaff, Op. 68
Recorded 1945
Total duration: 75:50
Mitch Miller, Oboe
The Columbia Broadcasting Symphony
conducted by Bernard Herrmann
HANDEL Overture to Berenice
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 3 in D, D200
RAVEL Ma Mère l'Oye
Recorded 1946
Total duration: 45:41
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Erich Kleiber
VARIOUS COMPOSERS A selection of shorter works
Studio recordings, 1928-1930
Total duration: 72:54
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York
Willem Mengelberg, conductor
