Download Handel Fireworks CD Booklet

HANDEL
MUSIC FOR THE
ROYAL FIREWORKS
Water Music Suites 1 & 2
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Graham Abbott
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL 1685-1759
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2
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Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV351
I.
Ouverture
II. Bourrée
III. La Paix (Peace)
IV. La Réjouissance (Rejoicing)
V. Menuet I & II
[16’28]
8’05
1’14
3’05
2’03
2’01
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Water Music: Suite in F major, HWV348
I.
Ouverture
II. Adagio e staccato
III. [Allegro] –
IV. Andante –
III. [Allegro] da capo
V. [Allegro]
VI. Air
VII. Minuet
VIII. Bourrée
IX. Hornpipe
X. [Air]
[27’21]
3’29
2’19
2’31
2’23
2’34
3’05
2’46
2’44
0’45
0’54
3’51
&
*
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Water Music: Suite in D major, HWV349
I.
[Prelude]
II. Alla Hornpipe
IV. Lentement
V. Bourrée
III. Minuet
[9’29]
2’13
3’07
1’45
1’19
1’05
Total Playing Time
53’27
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Graham Abbott conductor
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The Bookends of a Brilliant Career
The two works on this recording represent almost the beginning and the end of Handel’s nearly fifty
years in England. Most unusually for a composer whose life’s work was based so consistently on
composing for the human voice, they are purely instrumental works. Yet they are probably, along with
Messiah, his best-known compositions, by title if not by content.
Both the Water Music and the Music for the Royal Fireworks have politics as their point of origin.
George I, formerly Prince-Elector Georg of Hanover, came to the British throne in 1714, and the
establishment of the House of Hanover by the accession of a German-born king was controversial to
many. George was 52nd in line to the throne, but the first Protestant, and in accordance with the
1701 Act of Settlement (which prohibited Catholics from acceding to the throne) was proclaimed the
new monarch on the death of Queen Anne.
The groundwork had been laid for the establishment of a new German court in London some years
before the Queen’s death, and a number of the new king’s former employees found their way to
England. One was the career diplomat Baron Johann Adolf Kielmansegge. As Hanover’s ambassador to
Venice he had encountered the young Handel in 1709; Handel’s opera Agrippina had been a sensational
success in Venice that year. Kielmansegge made it possible for Handel to become Kapellmeister in
Hanover in 1710 after his Italian sojourn, and it was Prince-Elector Georg who gave Handel permission
to spend an extended period in London almost as soon as he was appointed. When it was clear that
Handel had no intention of returning to Hanover, Kielmansegge had the task of informing Handel that
he was dismissed from his post.
Kielmansegge came to London to become George I’s Master of the Horse. Handel had been resident
there since 1712, and had rapidly made a name for himself as a brilliant composer of opera. The new
king had already shown himself to be a supporter of his former Kapellmeister. He had renewed
Handel’s royal pension (originally granted by Queen Anne) and had employed him as music master to
the royal princesses. He also supported Handel’s operatic ventures consistently; he went to see
Handel’s Admeto no fewer than 19 times in seven weeks! Thus, the notion that Handel was
commissioned to write music for the royal water party on the Thames to effect a reconciliation with the
king after his delinquent absences from Hanover (as proposed by Mainwaring in his 1760 biography of
Handel) seems to be a myth.
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Kielmansegge again is the link here, as it was he who arranged for Handel to compose music for the
1717 water party. Such aquatic processions were not uncommon – there were at least six in 1715 alone
– but the event on 17 July 1717 was reported in a number of sources, both public and private, and is
the only such event with which Handel’s name is directly associated.
These sources tell us that Handel’s music lasted for about an hour when played complete; that it was
played three times that evening (twice on the way from Whitehall to Chelsea – where the King had
supper between 11pm and 2am – and once on the return journey); and that about 50 musicians were
involved. Furthermore, the description of instruments used that night exactly accords with the
requirements of the music now called Handel’s Water Music.
Most frustratingly, though, the composer’s manuscript for the Water Music has not survived. The order
of movements has thus long been open to question, as during the 18th century various publications of
the music included different selections in different arrangements. There are in all 22 movements which
seem to fall into three suites with three instrumental groupings, and for many years it has been the
practice to arrange the music into these suites: F major with horns, D major with horns and trumpets,
and G major with flutes.
However, the discovery in 2004 of the earliest known manuscript score for the Water Music, not in the
composer’s hand but dating from 1719, has shed light on the probable intended order of movements.
It seems the music was almost certainly intended to be a single, hour-long suite which passed through
different keys, something which was most unusual for the period. The 1719 score presents the F major
movements first and then the movements in D major and G major conflated, ending with the D major
‘Trumpet Minuet’. This makes a completely satisfying sequence and it was published in this order in
Friedrich Chrysander’s edition in 1886.
Still, there is historical precedent for performing selections from the whole, and the present recording
presents the F major and D major ‘suites’ only. Following the lead of the 1719 score, we have changed
the order of movements from that presented in the Bärenreiter performance material, to end with the
D major minuet.
George I’s water parties were without doubt meant to be seen and heard by the public. In the few
years he had been on the throne, disquiet over the succession had not dissipated, and deep tensions
with the Prince of Wales meant an ongoing PR battle between two rival courts. The 32-year-old Handel’s
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connection with the king meant that he was a trusted ally, able to supply music in 1717 which would
not only bring glory to the king but also help cement the Hanoverian succession in the public’s mind.
References to the ‘celebrated Water Music’ in subsequent publications prove that, artistically at least,
the king had backed a winner.
By the time he came to compose the Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1749, Handel was a very different
composer. The 32 years between the Water Music and this commission had seen him complete a total
of more than 40 operas (the last, Deidamia, was premiered in 1741) and embark on a career as a
composer of English oratorio. He became a naturalised British subject in 1727, the year of George II’s
accession to the throne, and had gone from being a German import to an English institution.
By 1749, with almost all the oratorios written, Handel had mastered the grand statement and the public
gesture. It’s interesting, though, that in accepting the commission to compose music for a fireworks
display designed to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, he resisted falling into tried
and true formulas. Far from tossing off some predictable bombast, the 64-year-old master created
something completely unique.
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was designed to conclude the messy War of Austrian Succession, which
had largely been fought between England and France. The fact of the matter was that the Treaty was
unfavourable to British colonial interests and widely unpopular. In Christopher Hogwood’s words,
‘Frankly, there was little to celebrate…and some dramatic spin-doctoring was called for to stimulate (or
simulate) public approval.’ Handel’s music was commissioned as part of a public relations campaign
designed to dazzle the public with trumped-up celebration.
Fascinating correspondence and Court records exist regarding the organisation of the music to be
written for the fireworks display in London’s Green Park. There was some dispute with the composer
about whether or not strings were to be involved (Handel would have known from the start that strings
outdoors would have been unworkable), but most likely this was part of Handel’s negotiating strategy
with the organisers, who really had no idea when it came to musical matters. The music for the outdoor
event was written in twelve real parts, for three oboes, two bassoons, three trumpets, three horns and
timpani. At the first performance these were played by massed forces; some 24 oboes, 16 bassoons,
nine horns, nine trumpets and three sets of timpani were involved, in addition to side drums,
contrabassoon and possibly even a serpent.
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Handel held a run-through of the music in his house in Brook Street on 17 April 1749. This clearly could
not have involved the whole ensemble; most likely it was for the principal players only. Even so, it
would have been a squeeze and the neighbours wouldn’t have missed a thing.
The organisers of the event pressured Handel into holding a public rehearsal of the music in Vauxhall
Gardens a few days before the actual fireworks display. Handel initially resisted this too; he had planned
to present the music in a fundraising concert for the Foundling Hospital four weeks later and was
clearly not keen to do anything which would make the music less of a crowd puller. He was persuaded,
though, and the public rehearsal eventually took place on 21 April at 11am. Contemporary reports say
12,000 people were present and that they were charged 2/6 for the privilege. Given the size of Vauxhall
Gardens, such an attendance figure is almost certainly a vast exaggeration.
Still, the audience numbers at the rehearsal were large enough to cause London’s first recorded traffic
jam. The recently-completed Westminster Bridge was closed for subsidence repairs, and London
Bridge was at virtual gridlock for hours.
The actual event in Green Park, attended by tens of thousands of people, took place on 27 April. An
enormous ‘machine’ was built, a gigantic theatrical set made of wood and canvas in the form of a
temple which was decorated with allegorical figures and representations of George II. It was nearly
35 metres high at the centre and 125 metres long. The evening started about 6pm, with the king and
his entourage touring the edifice, and it was during this that Handel’s music was played. The fireworks
started about 8.30, and went off successfully until one end of the wood and canvas structure caught
fire. Once this was under control the fireworks continued and the whole event lasted some nine
hours, finishing around 3am.
Considering Handel’s popularity it is very strange that none of the contemporary reports of either the
public rehearsal or the actual performance say anything about his music. Maybe then, as now, the
distraction of the eyes can lead to a disconnection of the ears…
Still, Handel had the last laugh and eventually got the strings he’d planned for all along. His desire to
keep the music alive by way of a concert performance after the Green Park fireworks made it possible
for him to present the music indoors with more usual forces. For the Foundling Hospital performance
on 27 May, reduced numbers were used for the winds, brass and timpani, and strings were added by
doubling the oboe and bassoon parts. (This explains the high-lying viola part, which mostly doubles the
third oboe.) It is this ‘concert scoring’ which has been used in this recording.
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The massively imposing Ouverture has to be one of Handel’s most thrilling instrumental creations; it is
certainly one of the most exhausting to perform. The only dance forms represented are the Bourrée
and the Menuet, in the midst of which come two programmatic movements peculiarly appropriate to
the occasion. Representing peace and rejoicing, these movements display the mastery of Europe’s
leading theatrical composer. Certainly in his final years Handel understood that politics is as much
about theatre as it is about anything else. And vice versa.
Graham Abbott
Source: Christopher Hogwood Handel: Water Music & Music for the Royal Fireworks
(Cambridge Music Handbooks, 2005)
Handel on Modern Instruments
The development of the Early Music movement over much of the 20th century has changed forever the
way we expect music written before 1800 to sound. Saint-Saëns, assuming the superiority of the modern
piano, may have told Wanda Landowska that she was wasting her time playing Bach on the harpsichord,
but fortunately she ignored him. Pioneers like Landowska, along with Arnold Dolmetsch and Nadia
Boulanger, paved the way for the major names in early music we know well today from their recordings,
such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Brüggen. In more recent times this stream
has grown into a major tributary of the music industry, both in recording and in live performance.
Ensembles using ‘period’ instruments – that is, instruments made according to the specifications of
earlier times and played in ways appropriate to those times – have done much to enable all musicians and
the public to appreciate afresh the glories of early music. Musicians in mainstream, modern-instrument
orchestras have over the past twenty or thirty years completely altered the ways in which they approach
music from the 18th century, largely due to the exciting influence of the Early Music movement.
The downside to these developments has been one I am certain the Early Music movement never
intended. Surely the primary aim of early music research has been to make music of earlier times
accessible. Unfortunately, many musicians have been reticent to perform early music on modern
instruments because of the very success of period-instrument ensembles. In other words, we are so
used to hearing 18th-century music performed on period instruments that some have regarded it as
out of bounds to modern-instrument performers.
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My opinion is exactly the opposite. Period-instrument performance is wonderful, but this should not
discourage modern-instrument ensembles such as symphony orchestras from playing early music in a
historically appropriate manner. Modern-instrument ensembles have learned a great deal from the early
music specialists, and the adoption of the spirit of early music performance practice can open up an
entire new world of musical experience to symphony orchestras and – most importantly – their
audiences. It would be a tragedy if early music were put off limits by a too-narrow application of socalled ‘authenticity’, a term no longer used even by the period-instrument ensembles themselves.
The line is drawn in different places. No-one seems to mind a chamber organ with an electric blower,
or the use of an electronic tuner by the oboe, or the addition of tuning holes in allegedly ‘natural’
trumpets. Countertenors in Handel operas are regarded as authentic whereas Handel never used them
in this way, and performing spaces are very different from those Bach or Handel would have known. All
these practices are common in early music groups and accepted by audiences. While no-one would
argue that Handel’s orchestra sounded anything like a modern symphony orchestra, it remains my firm
belief that Handel’s music should be open to all, and that it’s the art of the music itself which matters.
Shakespeare’s plays are nowadays almost never given in productions which the bard himself would
recognise; ditto the operas of most composers from any period. Yet the art of the creator is still
evident, and capable of moving an audience to its core, provided the words or the notes on the page
are treated with respect. (And yes, I love Bach on the piano as well as the harpsichord!)
In recording these Handel works with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the players and I have
applied many lessons learned from our period-instrument colleagues. Most orchestral players today are
very well informed with regard to issues of phrasing, articulation, tempo relationships and style in
18th-century music, and it has been a journey of discovery and delight for all of us in looking again at
this wonderful music.
Graham Abbott
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Graham Abbott
Sydney-born Graham Abbott is a graduate of the Sydney
Conservatorium. His repertoire in orchestral, choral and operatic
fields spans almost every conceivable period and style and he has
been a frequent guest conductor with all six Symphony Australia
network orchestras as well as other orchestras, choirs and various
new music and early music ensembles throughout Australia. He has
also worked with Opera Australia and all the state opera companies.
Graham Abbott has been Musical Director of the Adelaide Chorus,
Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and
Musical Director of the Melbourne Chorale. During 1997, he was the
acting Chorus Master with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
and guest conductor with the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, Royal
Scottish National Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.
In 2008 Graham Abbott was music advisor for State Opera of South Australia’s Baroque Project, also
conducting The Marriage of Figaro for the company, in addition to concerts with Adelaide and
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras and a Save the Children Fund Gala in Melbourne. In 2009 he
conducted Fidelio for Opera Queensland and concerts with the TSO and Sydney Chamber Choir, as
well as the Classic FM Classic 100 Symphony gala concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Other recent appearances have included The Creation (Opera Queensland), Dvořák’s Stabat Mater
(Prague Chamber Orchestra), Israel in Egypt (Adelaide Intervarsity Choral Festival), Bach’s St Matthew
Passion (Perth Festival), Aida and a Mozart Gala (SOSA), The Elixir of Love (Opera Queensland) and
Symphony under the Stars with Barbara Bonney and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
A respected music educator, Graham Abbott is in demand as a teacher and workshop leader, and has
undertaken a residency engagement at the Singapore American School. Since 2003 he has been
producer and presenter of Keys to Music on ABC Classic FM and in 2007 received the University of
Melbourne’s Bernard Heinze Award in recognition of his services to music in Australia.
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Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
For more than six decades the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has been at the forefront of
concert life in Tasmania. Established in 1948 and declared a Tasmanian Icon in 1998, the TSO gives
more than 40 concerts annually including seasons in Hobart and Launceston, and appearances in
Tasmanian regional centres. In recent years the TSO has performed at City Recital Hall Angel Place in
Sydney and at the Adelaide Festival, and makes its debut at Melbourne Recital Centre in September
2011. International touring has taken the orchestra to North and South America, Greece, Israel, South
Korea, China, Indonesia and Japan.
Resident in Hobart’s purpose-built Federation Concert Hall, the TSO has a full complement of 47
musicians. German-born Sebastian Lang-Lessing has been the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic
Director since 2004.
Australian music is one of the TSO’s focal points. The Australian Music Program, which was founded in
2003, champions music by Australian composers through recordings, performances and commissions,
and nurtures promising careers through the annual Australian Composers’ School.
Mindful of its mission to be a source of pride for all Tasmanians, the TSO performs a wide variety of
music. Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Alfred Brendel, Lisa Gasteen, Nigel Kennedy, Sara
Macliver, Howard Shelley, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Richard Tognetti are among the soloists who have
appeared with the orchestra. Popular and jazz artists who have performed with the orchestra include
Rhonda Burchmore, Kate Ceberano, Roberta Flack, James Morrison, Anthony Warlow, Human Nature
and The Whitlams.
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Executive Producers Martin Buzacott, Robert Patterson
Recording Producer Brooke Green
Recording Engineer Veronika Vincze
Editing Brooke Green and Veronika Vincze
Mastering Veronika Vincze
Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb
Publications Editor Natalie Shea
Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd
Cover Photo Fotosearch / Photolibrary
Photo p9 Lisa Tomasetti
Recorded 9-11 December 2008 in Federation Concert Hall, Hobart.
ABC Classics thanks Laura Bell and Virginia Read.
For Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Managing Director Nicholas Heyward
Manager, Artistic Planning Simon Rogers
Orchestra Manager Greg Low
Orchestra Coordinator Evan Woodroffe
www.tso.com.au
 2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 훿 2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by
Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting,
lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.
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