Word: handels
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...been done as a cliche. This opera is a wish dream of my grandfather, a revolutionary who failed.* It's actually a monologue-a discourse between himself as Hans Sachs and as Walther von Stolzing-the Wagner of maturity and youth. Musically, it's between Bach and Handel, and between Debussy and modern jazz. The real meaning of Meistersinger is Sachs' lament: 'Fools, fools, all of them fools.' The young growing up to be foolish, and the old. like Beckmesser, becoming foolish despite age. It was always done as a nationalistic, Nazi show...
...first half of the program, devoted to excerpts from Handel's Acis and Galathea, was musically first-rate. Handel was an infallible judge of what singers love to do and should be asked to do. This tale from Ovid was evidently a favorite with him, for he did three settings of it and even plagiarized from it for other works. Schmidt chose the second version with words by John Gay of Beggar's Opera fame. The charming soprano and tenor solos were beautifully handled by Sarah-Jane Smith and Antonio Giarraputo...
Brown was the superb soloist in two sonatas for recorder and basso continuo (viol and keyboard) by Handel and Telemann--the two competitors for the top Trendex rating when Bach was generally considered a negligible talent. The first movement of the Telemann was a good example of the Baroque convention of using descending chromatic scale fragments to express sadness. In both works, Miss Olson's viol was far too weak, although she was fine in her two solo recercadas by Ortiz. In Baroque music, the bass line cannot be too strong...
Biggs' program constituted a virtual historical survey of organ styles, going from the late 16th-century Byrd through Sweelinck, Louis Couperin, Bach, Handel, Soler, Schumann and Franck to Jehan Alain, who was tragically killed in his youth during World...
...musical comedy "The Beggar's Opera" is incomparable. Gay, unhindered by copyright laws, set his verses to popular songs--folk songs today--and the airs of Purcell and Handel himself. Daniel Pinkham of the Festival has followed in this tradition by rummaging through Handel and plucking out a few gems that Gay missed, including the rousing anthem "See the Conquering Hero Comes." His orchestrations, while essentially true to the baroque originals, reinforce these delicate songs without intruding on their simplicity; the flute and string accompaniment of "Youth's the Season" was especially graceful...