YouTube’s algorithm has decided that I really need to listen to the Passacaglia from George Frideric Handel’s Harpsichord Suite in G minor (HWV 432). It’s recommended me four different arrangements since 2 PM and shows no sign of stopping.
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George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) - Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in g-minor, Op. 1 No. 6, HWV 364a, II. Allegro. Performed by Hiro Kurosaki, violin, and William Christie, harpsichord, on period instruments.
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Vicente García de Paredes (Spanish, 1845-1903)
A recital of Handel, n.d.
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Ariodante - Jean Arcelin
French - Swiss, b. 1962 -
Oil on canvas , 116 x 89 cm.
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Dipping a toe into baroque opera
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The Sorceress - Kiri Te Kanawa
Voilà, probably one of the weirdly campest videos ever made: Kiri Te Kanawa's The Sorceress, (filmed in 1993) with English and Italian subs, so even if you are unfamiliar with opera - you have no excuse!
Tiptoeing the fine line between kitsch and camp, Kiri's The Sorceress has been a long favourite of mine. It's not only a video; it's its own mini-genre. Using the very Baroque tradition of the pasticcio (a patchwork piece to enrich an existing piece or following a known plot), The Sorceress is informed by a time that was celebrating the novelties of MTV video storytelling and was still obsessed with John Malkovich's Liaisons Dangereuses a couple of years prior. It's a throwback to the 90s in so many awesome ways. There are many versions of The Sorceress YouTube; I cleaned up one video a little, made translations and added captions in English and Italian so everyone can understand what Alcina is so upset about.
Kiri Te Kanawa
Ensemble: The Academy of Ancient Music
Conductor: Christopher Hogwood
Choreography: Baroque Opera Atelier Toronto
Mise-en-scène: Barbara Willis Sweete
Ruggiero: Andrew Kelley
Bradamante: Jeanette Zingg
Alcina's Servant: Wilbert Hanssen
Music by Georg Frideric Händel
I needed a short mental break, so I wasted a day (and a couple of bucks). The original plan was only to add subtitles in English and Italian, but I ended up scrubbing the video a little, upscaling and cleaning it with AI. Don't expect too much; the best version flying around is 444x360 pixels or something (black frame around it included) - VHS, I believe filmed from a screen too.
tl; dr: I did what I could!
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Watching Trading Places for the first time and the music nerd in me noticed something right off the bat
The movie starts with the overture of Handel's Messiah (I'm pretty sure it's the overture but I know it's from Messiah if nothing else), then begins to branch into the movie's musical themes... in essence, they took an existing overture and made their own overture out of it, establishing both the holiday association with Messiah as well as the movie's own motifs
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I've been using Spotify's AI DJ feature lately and it's been fun. Sometimes it gives me real good mixes, but sometimes it is absolutely unhinged.
Yesterday it played:
In Ha Mood by Ice Spice
Sinfonia from Acis and Galatea by George Freideric Handel
No Children by The Mountain Goats
Today it's been doing pretty well, but I did just hear Silver Springs twice in the last 15 minutes
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#OTD in 1742 – Handel’s Messiah is performed for the first time, conducted by the composer, at Mr. Neale’s Great Music Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin, before an audience of 700.
George Frideric Handel (who had lived in London for many years) decided to visit Dublin. He also had received an invitation from the British Viceroy of Ireland, the Duke of Devonshire in Dublin. At the time, Handel apparently was somewhat discontented with recent London reviews and with the treatment of some of his works, as a result he decided to visit Ireland.
He had completed writing a new…
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George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) - Overture for 2 Clarinets and Horn in D-Major, HWV 424, I. Ouverture (Andante - Allegro ma non troppo). Performed by Ricercar Consort on period instruments.
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Philippe Jaroussky sings "Empio, dirò tu sei" from George Frideric Handel's "Giulio Cesare"
Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt)
Georg Friedrich Händel
Libretto: Fancesco Haym
"Empio, dirò, tu sei"
Philippe Jaroussky
Ensemble Matheus
cond.: Jean-Christophe Spinosi
Casare's aria
Empio, dirò, tu sei
Togliti a gli occhi miei
Sei tutto crudeltà
Non è da re quel cuor
Che donasi al rigor
Che in sen non ha pietà
***
Wicked, I will say, you are
Get out of my sight
You are all cruelty
The heart is not fit for a king
That gives itself to harshness
That knows no pity
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Handel Dixit Dominus HWV 232 Lionel Meunier Vox Luminis
Hey tumblr, apropos of nothing, have my favourite performance of my favourite piece of music of all time. The one that almost had me believing in God. They use the correct instruments and vocals for this version and it is subliiiime. Sometimes they have separate vocalists for the solos but no, this should be a vocal endurance course. I once sang the second soprano in my early twenties and I was sweating by the end.
Handel was 21 when he composed this. And to me it is perfect. If you want some really powerful music and have some good headphones, let yourself get lost in this. I promise you, it’s worth your time. It’s my number-one writing music.
Highlights for me that get my brain crackling every time:
The first sustained soprano note in the first movement Dixit Dominus
In this performance, the countertenor’s heavenly tone in Virgam Virtutis Tuae. His ornaments are incredible
The lovely counterpoint moments in Dominus a dextris tuis and then the baritone just coming in third like hold me beer. This baritone also has an incredible beard I love him. Then everybody comes in and it is just like a waterfall of perfection
The quality of the pianissimos in Judicabit in nationibus
All of Conquassabit, those staccatos are KILLER on your diaphragm but so satisfying to listen to and they ROCKET through them in this recording, I am in AWE
De Torrente is one of my favourite duets of all time, possibly my favourite piece of music ever? The tonal clashes he plays with are so ahead of their time, it gets me literally every time I listen. I do think, in my only critique of this recording, they take it a bit faster than I like, but it’s still stunning. Their vocal quality is perfection.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, the finale. It’s so satisfying. The motif just dances around the chorus with all these little interpolations, then through the viols, then you get these long sustained notes in the baritone and it just floods through the music. Aaaah. And THEN. The huge punches of sound from the tenor and sopranos! AND THEN. Et in saecula saeculorum amen starts getting chucked about and that’s when I think, performing it, I saw stars.
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this has GOT to be one of the most delightful things i’ve ever seen
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