Old Testament Angst

A period instrument performance of Handel's oratorio Saul covering three cd's that buzzes along with great vibrancy with fine singing too. Paul McCreesh directs the Gabrieli Consort and Players with a fine line up of soloists including Andreas Scholl, Neal Davies, Mark Padmore, Susan Gritton, Nancy Argenta, Paul Agnew and Jonathan Lemalu. Based on the Old Testament story of Saul, David and Jonathan etc. Handel moved onto writing oratorios in English when the financial climate became unfavourable for Italian opera and he mined a rich vein of these Old Testament morality tales, as well as Messiah of course. There is a very interesting booklet essay about how the contemporary London audience heard political parallels with the story of Saul and David and associated themselves with the biblical chosen people. modern audiences just see the drama and enjoy the ever involving music. The familiarity of Handel's music makes it hard to find much new to write about it but that doesn't detract from the merit of it. Wasn't it Beethoven who read Handel's scores for comfort during his final illness ?