During these shortest days of the year, we can use all the light we can get. With three candles in the menorah last night, we’ll celebrate the second day of Hanukkah with a complete recording of Handel’s other holiday oratorio, “Judas Maccabaeus.”
Handel’s overshadowed masterpiece relates the successful victory of the Jewish people over the Seleucids, who would have had them worshiping Zeus! (In 170 BC, that was actually a thing.) Cannily, the premiere was scheduled to take place at Covent Garden in April 1746, to coincide with the return of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and youngest son of King George II, who had only just successfully routed the Jacobites at Culloden. Surfing the predicted wave of patriotic fervor, the 61 year-old Handel had engineered another smash.
We’ll hear a complete performance of the work, following today’s Noontime Concert – another holiday treat centuries in the making – “Nowell Sing We: A Medieval Celebration,” presented by the Brooklyn-based ensemble Alkemie. The program is organized around the theme of Twelfth Night and/or Epiphany, celebrated at the far end of the Christmas season, and illustrated through musical selections from the 11th through 16th centuries.
The performance took place on January 4, 2018, at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, where free concerts are held every Thursday at 1:15 p.m.
The broadcast is made possible in part by Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes artists and organizations in New York City devoted to early music – music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods. For more information and GEMS’ events calendar, look online at gemsny.org.
Immediately following today’s concert broadcast, enjoy Norman Dello Joio’s “Variants on a Mediaeval Tune” – the tune being the familiar Christmas melody “In dulci jubilo.” Then at 1:00, arrange yourself a plate of rugelach and settle in for “Judas Maccabaeus.”
What’s old is new, with the ensemble Alkemie; then get a Handel on the Maccabees, between 12 and 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
