FULL HANDEL AND BACH THE FAILED MEETING St.Petersburg 2025 Anastasia Meshchanova
Part I Georg Friedrich Handel 13:24 CONCERTO GROSSO A-dur. HWV 329 32:03 Aria “OMBRA MAI FU” from the opera “Xerxes” 36:28 CONCERTO A QUATRO D-dur. For two violins and two cellos 44:51 Aria of Arzamenes in G major from the opera “Xerxes” 48:45 Hallelujah from the oratorio “Messiah” arranged for string orchestra Part II Johann […]
FULL HANDEL AND BACH THE FAILED MEETING St.Petersburg 2025 Anastasia Meshchanova
Video Recording from: YouTube
FULL VIDEO
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: HANDEL AND BACH THE FAILED MEETING
- Composer: GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL, JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
- Libretto: various
- Venue & Opera Company: Yekaterininskoye Sobraniye, St.Petersburg, Tussia
- Recorded: February 28, 2025
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Anastasia Meshchanova
- Conductor:
- Orchestra: Chamber ensemble of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Format: DVD
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Part I
Georg Friedrich Handel
13:24 CONCERTO GROSSO A-dur. HWV 329
32:03 Aria “OMBRA MAI FU” from the opera “Xerxes”
36:28 CONCERTO A QUATRO D-dur. For two violins and two cellos
44:51 Aria of Arzamenes in G major from the opera “Xerxes”
48:45 Hallelujah from the oratorio “Messiah” arranged for string orchestra
Part II
Johann Sebastian Bach
1:11:30 Concerto for two violins in d minor
1:29:59 Aria of alto from the oratorio “St. Matthew Passion”
1:40:41 Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G major
1:53:45 Capriccio from the suite for string orchestra in g minor BWV 1070
The very title of the concert, “Handel and Bach. The Failed Meeting,” contains a spoiler. It is surprising that two titans of musical art, born in 1685, geographically close to each other, never met.
The trajectory of George Frideric Handel’s fate began on March 5 (new style) in the German city of Halle. In an effort to improve himself, the composer went to Hamburg, where the opera house beckoned him. And when it closed, Handel’s path lay in Italy – the birthplace of opera, which attracted the composer so much. The demanding Italian public accepted Handel’s operatic creations, and the composer could have successfully lived until the end of his days, basking in glory and sunshine under the azure sky.
However, a trip to Great Britain changed everything. At first, in Foggy Albion, Handel became famous as an opera composer. After a while, he turned to a new genre for himself, the oratorio (a large-scale work for soloists, choir and orchestra), in which he had no equal. At the same time, his creative treasury was replenished with a huge number of instrumental works, including sonatas, suites, concerti grossi (“large concerts”). Over time, Handel achieved recognition, he began to be perceived as a national composer, his fame extended far beyond the borders of England. In 1759, Handel died and was buried, according to his will, in Westminster.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 31 (new style) in the German city of Eisenach. The composer moved from city to city several times in search of a better place of service, and in his biography, which is outwardly almost unremarkable, it is worth noting the most important stops: in Weimar, Köthen and Leipzig.
Without leaving the borders of the German lands, Bach was at the same time well aware of the work of his colleagues and predecessors. In his legacy, Bach synthesized not only the centuries-old experience of German composers, but also the achievements of other leading composer schools: Italy, France, Great Britain. He worked in all existing genres of his time, bringing them to perfection, but never turned to opera, concentrating his attention on instrumental and cantata-oratorio music.
Bach’s death in 1750 did not become a national tragedy: fame came to him much later. Only decades later did the realization arise that Bach’s work is a unique, gigantic encyclopedia of knowledge and meanings that is unlikely to ever lose its relevance.
So would there be common topics for conversation, if it took place, between these two, on the one hand, completely different composers? Probably, yes. After all, the works of Handel and Bach – creators of the Baroque era, in which the intellectual and emotional principles are intertwined in the most intimate way, are essentially about man and addressed to man outside of time and space.
The musical “meeting” of Handel and Bach within the framework of the concert is timed to coincide with the 340th anniversary of the birth of the composers who gave humanity the opportunity to seek spiritual paths and find true guidelines thanks to the music they created.
The program is dedicated to the 340th anniversary of two titans of the Baroque era – George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach
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