Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival 2023: Abschlusskonzert by Händel, Noiztik (2023/2023), Zuzendaria Richard Egarr, Musik- und Kongresshalle (MUK), Lübeck, Germany

In the final concert of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2023, the NDR Radio Philharmonic will play Georg Friedrich Handel's "Messiah" with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir under Richard Egarr. Hard to believe, but true: if the Irish viceroy William Cavendish had not tried to ask George Frideric Handel for a substantial contribution to the charity concerts in Dublin in 1741, Charles Jennens' libretto might have remained on the shelf. Without the prospect of a performance, Handel composed nothing at all. But the motivated composer, who had been frustrated by the London audience for a few years, saw a perspective for Jennens' text, which was very good in many respects. Within a summer month, Handel, full of renewed enthusiasm for creativity, wrote a celebrated key work in music history on its basis. For the premiere on April 13, 1742 in Dublin, which Handel by choice conducted himself, he only provided strings and trumpets for the orchestra. The London premiere two years later trumped with a soundscape expanded to include oboes and bassoons. Unlike in his Italian operas, this time Handel relied on the native English singing powers and thus set a ball rolling that culminated in the great oratorio movement of the 19th century - and ultimately even today the breeding ground for the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir with his hundred particularly ambitious honorary singers.