Arts-Scène Diffusion

L'Achéron

EARLY MUSIC

Youth cantatas, Georg Friedrich Händel

With Deborah Cachet, soprano

 

Georg Friedrich HÄNDEL was in his twenties when he travelled to Italy, the rite of passage for any artist at the beginning of the XVIIIth century. Initially invited to Florence by Gian’ Gastone de Medici, he remained there for several months, followed by a stay in Venice where he composed his cantata Figlio d’alte speranze in 1706. But it was in Rome that Handel settled and met various patrons such as cardinals Ottoboni, Pamphili and Ruspoli, for whom he composed most of the 60 cantatas written during this transalpine journey. From 1706 to 1709 Handel travelled between Rome, Naples, Florence and Venice, meeting Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti as well as Arcangelo Corelli with whom he frequently played.

These cantatas were played in the reception rooms of Handel’s patrons, whose protégé he had become. For example on Sundays during Cardinal Ruspoli’s Conversazioni at the Accademia degli Arcadi, more often with a single singer and a few accompanying instruments. The cantatas can be situated somewhere between chamber music and opera, and were for Handel a means of experimenting with elements he was to use later on in larger works, rather like miniature operas. The cantatas played here present classical figures: Armide, Agrippina, Abdolomyne.

Despite his youth Handel’s style was already well defined, showing his mastery of the stile moderno and announcing the beginnings of bel canto where the voice no longer only serves the drama in long recitals typical of the XVIIth century, but becomes descriptive and virtuoso in more developed arias. The subtlety and sophistication of these cantatas herald the genius of Handel’s later operas composed in England.

 

6 musicians soprano, 2 violins, viol, archlute, harpsichord

 

Youth Cantatas, Händel (en)
Youth Cantatas, Händel (en)

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