The Kings Consort: Handel - Mendelssohn: Israel in Ägypten (с канала " Knight Classical")
Filmed live at recording sessions in October 2015, this film provides the fascinating background to the reconstruction by The King’s Consort of Felix Mendelssohn’s astonishing 1833 performance of Handel’s great oratorio "Israel in Ägypten". In 1829, the 20-year-old Mendelssohn had excitedly studied sixty volumes of Handel’s music of which "Israel in Egypt" particularly fascinated him: he spotted that Handel’s manuscript contained movements not included in what was then the only available published score. Four years later, in 1833 in Düsseldorf, Mendelssohn performed, to great acclaim, his version of Handel’s "Israel in Ägypten". That historic performance has itself now been painstakingly reconstructed from fragments and sources spread across Europe. And radically different it is to listeners familiar with Handel’s own 1739 score. The large and colourful orchestra play nineteenth-century instruments, producing vivid new sonorities, and including very different orchestrations. With no organ at Mendelssohn’s performance, he scored the continuo part into the orchestra, and also added a series of recitatives, which he accompanied with the delicious combination of two solo cellos and a double bass. There are also significant changes to the order of movements, as well as new numbers. The text is sung in German, and the work starts with a thrilling, pure-Mendelssohn overture, which mixes life and energy with moments of exquisitely shifting instrumental colours. Incorporating early nineteenth-century performing practice – bringing a notably different approach to portamento, rubato, vibrato, trills and slurring – with striking choral singing from the superb double choir, fine solo work from sopranos Lydia Teuscher and Julia Doyle, alto Hilary Summers, tenor Benjamin Hulett, and bass Roderick Williams, and pitched at A=430, here is a familiar work in wholly new clothing. PERFORMERS: Lydia Teuscher, Julia Doyle soprano Hilary Summers alto Benjamin Hulett tenor Roderick Williams bass Choir of The King's Consort The King's Consort Robert King conductor
Filmed live at recording sessions in October 2015, this film provides the fascinating background to the reconstruction by The King’s Consort of Felix Mendelssohn’s astonishing 1833 performance of Handel’s great oratorio "Israel in Ägypten". In 1829, the 20-year-old Mendelssohn had excitedly studied sixty volumes of Handel’s music of which "Israel in Egypt" particularly fascinated him: he spotted that Handel’s manuscript contained movements not included in what was then the only available published score. Four years later, in 1833 in Düsseldorf, Mendelssohn performed, to great acclaim, his version of Handel’s "Israel in Ägypten". That historic performance has itself now been painstakingly reconstructed from fragments and sources spread across Europe. And radically different it is to listeners familiar with Handel’s own 1739 score. The large and colourful orchestra play nineteenth-century instruments, producing vivid new sonorities, and including very different orchestrations. With no organ at Mendelssohn’s performance, he scored the continuo part into the orchestra, and also added a series of recitatives, which he accompanied with the delicious combination of two solo cellos and a double bass. There are also significant changes to the order of movements, as well as new numbers. The text is sung in German, and the work starts with a thrilling, pure-Mendelssohn overture, which mixes life and energy with moments of exquisitely shifting instrumental colours. Incorporating early nineteenth-century performing practice – bringing a notably different approach to portamento, rubato, vibrato, trills and slurring – with striking choral singing from the superb double choir, fine solo work from sopranos Lydia Teuscher and Julia Doyle, alto Hilary Summers, tenor Benjamin Hulett, and bass Roderick Williams, and pitched at A=430, here is a familiar work in wholly new clothing. PERFORMERS: Lydia Teuscher, Julia Doyle soprano Hilary Summers alto Benjamin Hulett tenor Roderick Williams bass Choir of The King's Consort The King's Consort Robert King conductor