The Anniveraries Start Here

The BBC love anniversaries and in 2009 they are plugging four "composers of the year" who all have anniversaries of some sort. One of the composers is Handel and the latest BBC Music magazine was a Handel special, including the cover disk. The works featured are two Concerti Grossi ( Op 3 Nos 1 and 2 ) and two Chandos Anthems ( As Pants The Hart and The Lord Is My Light ). The Concerti Grossi are taken from a forthcoming Harmonia Mundi release I believe and are played by the Academy of Ancient Music directed by Richard Egarr. Handel was a great recycler of material and these pieces were cobbled together from existing orchestral movements from various operas, oratorios and anthems in order to suit a passing fashion for Concert Grossi. That doesn't make the music any the less engaging and it is repertoire which ideally suits the AAM. The choral Chandos Anthems are performed by the BBC Singers and the Orchestra of the Sixteen under the direction of Harry Christophers. They are so called because they were written for the Duke of Chandos at a time when Handel had a brief period under his patronage. They are typical Handelian oratorio syle woks on a smaller scale and there are notable solo contributions from sopranos Eleanor Meynell and Elizabeth Poole, tenors Daniel Auchincloss and Andrew Murgatroyd, Anthony Robson on oboe and organist Laurence Cummings.