Cheap Handel: Alexander's Feast; Concerto grosso in C "Alexander's Feast" (Music) (Stephen Varcoe, George Frideric Handel, John Eliot Gardiner, Ashley Stafford, Amanda MacNamara, Alastair Ross, English Baroque Soloists, Donna Brown, Nigel Robson) Price
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| ARTIST: | Stephen Varcoe, George Frideric Handel, John Eliot Gardiner, Ashley Stafford, Amanda MacNamara, Alastair Ross, English Baroque Soloists, Donna Brown, Nigel Robson |
| CATEGORY: | Music |
| MANUFACTURER: | Polygram Records |
| TYPE: | Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Concerto, Concerto Grosso, Oratorio |
| MEDIA: | Audio CD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 028942205321 |
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Customer Reviews of Handel: Alexander's Feast; Concerto grosso in C "Alexander's Feast"
Libretto by John Dryden If Messiah is the greatest Christian oratorio, then I nominate this a candidate for the pagan crown. The poem is high art most worthy of a Handel to set it to music all the while being scrupulous with the text. But no more of my amateurish opinions, here are some random shorts from Winton Dean's liner notes:
"Alexander's Feast" was an immediate and lasting success. Of Handel's major works only "Acis and Galatia" and Messiah were performed more frequently performed during his life."
"There are seven accompanied recitatives, the most dramatic of all gestures-- and exceptional number even in a three act work-- all of outstanding quality. Most of them occur in the fourth and sixth stanzas where Handel makes the most of his new technique. When the music has excited the King into fighting his battles over and over again and bread a mad over confidence, Timotheous reduces him to humility and tears by recounting the fate of [Persian Emperor} Darius."
"A present deity," they shout around:
"A present deity," the vaulted roofs rebound.
With ravish'd ears
The monarch hears,
Assumes the god,
Affects to nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.
Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain;
Fought all his battles o'er again;
And thrice he routed all his foes; and thrice
he slew the slain.
The master saw the madness rise,
His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;
And, while he heav'n and earth defied,
Chang'd his hand, and check'd his pride.
He chose a mournful Muse,
Soft pity to infuse;
He sung Darius great and good,
By too severe a fate,
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And welt'ring in his blood;
Deserted, at his utmost need
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
" ...Another stroke of genius is Handel's treatment of the famous line "Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen... He contracts the word to a monosyllable (fall'n), repeats it at unpredictable intervals, both of time and pitch, over pedal notes and staccato violin ostinato, suggests the tragedy of Darius' fall in the harmony, and then varies all these components when the line is repeated by the chorus. It is a supreme example of music's power to enlarge a poetic idea."
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Phillip's includes an unusually large and well illustrated booklet.
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Donna Brown Soprano
Carolyn Watkinson Contralto
Ashly Stafford Countertenor
Nigel Robson Tenor
Stephen Varcoe Bass