FULL Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline (Handel) Antwerp 2023 Muzikaal Ensemble Alegría
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline
- Composer: Handel George Frideric aka Händel Georg Friedrich Libretto:
- Libretto: Edward Willes, from the Biblical books of Lamentations and Job
- Venue & Opera Company: Sint-Pauluskerk, Antwerpen, Belgium
- Recorded: May 6, 2023
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers:
- Conductor: Mannu Wuyts
- Orchestra: Muzikaal Ensemble Alegría
- Chorus: Muzikaal Ensemble Alegría
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: AlegriaMuzikaalEnsem
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, HWV 264, is an anthem by George Frideric Handel. It was composed and first performed for the funeral of Caroline of Ansbach[ at Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1737. Handel slightly re-worked the anthem and used it for the opening section of his oratorio Israel in Egypt in 1739. The theme of the first chorus was taken by Mozart as the theme for the Requiem aeternam movement of his Requiem Mass. The anthem is approximately forty minutes in length.
Background
Queen Caroline, consort of George II, had been friend and patron to Handel for more than thirty years when she died in 1737. An accomplished amateur musician herself, Caroline took a lively interest in artistic and intellectual matters, and was widely mourned at her death. Handel received the commission for her funeral and composed the anthem within a week to a text chosen by the sub-dean of Westminster Abbey, Edward Willes, mostly from the Biblical books of Lamentations and Job. At the funeral, according to contemporary accounts, “…the great Bells of the Cathedral of St. Paul and of many Churches in London and Westminster were tolled. And the Tower Guns kept firing all the while, at a Minute’s Distance between each”. Handel’s anthem was performed in Westminster Abbey by “near 80 vocal performers and 100 instrumental from His Majesty’s band, and from the Opera, etc.” The Duke of Chandos, Handel’s former patron, wrote of the anthem “the composition was exceedingly fine, and adapted very properly to the melancholy occasion.”
Scoring
The anthem is written for four vocal soloists, soprano, alto, tenor and bass, a mixed choir and orchestra of strings, two oboes, and continuo instruments.
Quoted from Wikipedia