Listening to Handel

David Hurwitz, a music critic, author, and percussionist, is the founder and executive editor of Classicstoday.com, the Internet’s first classical music review magazine. His many books include Unlocking the Masters titles on Richard Strauss, Mozart, Mahler, Sibelius, Haydn, Dvorák, Shostakovich, and Bernstein. Hurwitz’s other writings include works on Beethoven and Brahms, and his articles have appeared in Nineteenth-Century Music Review, Music and Letters, Early Music America, and other scholarly periodicals. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

• Introduction: Listening to the Mysterious Mr. Handel Chapter 1: The Curse of The Harmonious Blacksmith: (Too?) Popular FavoritesThe Harmonious Blacksmith (1720)Largo from Xerxes (Serse) (1738) Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749) Zadok the Priest (1727) Messiah (1741) Chapter 2: It’s Saul Good: Exploring the English Oratorios and Associated Instrumental WorksBlood and Guts The Waratorios Pastoral Fantasies Choral Characterization Two English Operas The New Testament What To Do During Intermission (Concertos and Orchestral Music) Chapter 3: A Pair of Acis: Same Story, Different Music Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Serenata or Dramatic Cantata) 1708 Acis and Galatea (Variously called a Masque, Serenata, Oratorio, Pastoral Opera, Little Opera, etc) 1718 Chapter 4: Sex and Drugs and Da Capo Arias: The Operas The Handel Opera Revival: How It Really Happened Ariodante: Handel’s Operatic Paradigm A Dozen Great Handel Operas (excluding Ariodante) Aria Recitals and Collections Chapter 5: Channeling Cleopatra: Musical Characterization Chapter 6: A Lotta Cantatas and Serenatas: Early Italian Pieces, Sacred Music, and English Ceremonial WorksEarly Italian Instrumental Cantatas and Serenatas Sacred Music Ceremonial Music Chapter 7: Secondhand Handel: Borrowing and Musical MoralityTrack 1. “Eternal source of light divine” (Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne)Track 2. “Dominus a dextris tuis” (Dixit Dominus) Track 3. “Disserratevi, o porte d’Averno” (La Resurrezione) Track 4. “Ogni vento” (Agrippina) Track 5. “Ombra mai fù” (Serse) Track 6. “Se tanto piace al cor” (Ariodante) Track 7. Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 1 Track 8. “Fammi combattere” (Orlando) Track 10. “Lascia ch’io pianga” (Rinaldo) Track 11. “Sibilar l’angui d’Aletto” (Aci, Galatea e Polifemo) Track 14. “Rejoice, O Judah! Hallelujah! Amen” (Judas Maccabaeus)