蜜芽传媒

This week Donald Macleod focuses on Handel the organist. Today, Joshua鈥檚 a hit, Theodora鈥檚 a flop - as Handel said, 鈥渢here was room enough to dance there, when that was performed鈥�.

Written at great speed in 1747 during the most disastrous months of the War of the Austrian Succession, Handel鈥檚 oratorio Joshua tapped in to contemporary events with a tale of conflict, heroism and deliverance, and was not surprisingly a huge success with its first audiences. By contrast, the bleak and inward-looking Theodora - about the Christian martyr of that name and her Roman lover Didymus - failed to make an impression, and ran for just three performances. It鈥檚 now widely regarded as one of Handel鈥檚 finest works - the last thoughts of a great master. A month after he finished Theodora, Handel noted what he called a severe 鈥渞elaxation鈥� of his left eye. Within two years his blindness would be complete. Even then he continued to play the organ, though now he had to be guided to it, then back towards the audience to take his bow.

Organ Concerto in D minor, Op 7 No 4 (HWV 309) (4th mvt, Allegro)
Bob van Asperen, organ and direction
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Sinfonia in B flat, HWV 347
Concerto K枚ln

Joshua, HWV 64 (Act 2, 鈥楪lory to God!鈥�)
James Gilchrist, tenor (Joshua)
K枚lner Kammerchor
Collegium Cartusianum
Peter Neumann, conductor

Organ Concerto in G minor, Op 7 No 5 (HWV 310)
Paul Nicholson, organ
Brandenburg Consort
Roy Goodman, conductor and harpsichord continuo

Theodora, HWV 68 (Act 3, 鈥楽treams of pleasure ever flowing鈥�; 鈥楾hither let our hearts aspire鈥�)
Robin Blaze, countertenor (Didymus)
Susan Gritton, soprano (Theodora)
Gabrieli Players
Paul McCreesh, conductor

Organ Concerto in B flat, Op 7 No 3 (HWV 308)
Richard Egarr, organ
Academy of Ancient Music

Producer: Chris Barstow