Handel's Treasures - Music in Dialogue
Works by G. F. Handel, J.-P. Rameau, a.o.
Handel and Rameau - two stars in the Baroque sky
Members of the Handel Festival Orchestra Halle:
Thomas Ernert (oboe), Birgit Schnurpfeil (violin), Henriette Auracher (violin), Carolin Krüger (viola), Johannes Hartmann (violin cello), Ivo Nitschke (percussion), Cornelia Osterwald (harpsichord)
Discussion partner: Christiane Barth (Museum Director Handel House Foundation)
The special exhibit: Jean-Philippe Rameau, Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique, et sur son principe; ou les moyens de reconnaître l’un par l’autre, conduisent à pouvoir se rendre raison avec certitude des différens effets de cet art, Paris, 1754 [Signatur: 301667 -T]
Venue: Handel House, Chamber Music Salon
18,00 € / reduced 9,00 €
Discounts for pupils, students, trainees, severely disabled persons and - only at the box office - for members of the Friends and Sponsors of the Handel House in Halle.
Reserved concert tickets must be collected from the museum box office in the Handel House up to 30 minutes before the start of the event.
Organiser: Händelfestspielorchester Halle in cooperation with the Handel House Foundation
Programme:
George Frideric Handel: from ‘Rinaldo’, HWV 007a: Overture
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Suite from ‘Les Boréades’, RCT 31
Pierre Danican Philidor: Suite for oboe and basso continuo op. 1 no. 5
Jean-Philippe Rameau: VI Concerto ‘La Poule’
George Frideric Handel: Trio Sonata for 2 violins and basso continuo in A major op. 5 no. 1, HWV 396
Jean-Philippe Rameau: from ‘Les Indes Galantes’: Suite
Handel and Rameau - what connects these two great composers of the 18th century? Did they hear of each other's fame and recognise each other's music? According to a report by a French musician, Handel's extensive music library in 1746/47 contained all the operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully, André Campras and Jean-Philippe Rameau that had been published up to that point. This was followed by Rameau's harpsichord pieces and his various treatises
on art. Handel would therefore have had ample opportunity to borrow motifs from Rameau's oeuvre. However, the quantity found is small. Handel may have been inspired by Rameau when composing a rhythmically lively ‘Tambourine’ for his opera Alcina. This folk dance had already found its way into art music through Rameau in 1724, ten years earlier - in his Suites de Pieces des clavecin II.
Conversely, however, it was Handel's first collection of Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin from 1720 that inspired Jean-Philippe Rameau to compose harpsichord suites again after a twenty-year break. And the first three variations of a Gavotte in A minor from Rameau's Nouvelle Suites des Pieces de Clavecin from 1726/27 are so similar to the fifth movement of the Suite HWV 428 that they can certainly be seen as an ‘homage à Haendel’.
The concert theme refers to the Handel House Foundation's annual exhibition ‘Charme • Esprit • Galanterie - Handel and France’, which can be seen until 7 January 2025.
Handel's Treasures - Music in Dialogue
The discussion concert series HÄNDELS SCHÄTZE - MUSIK IM DIALOG, which has already been taking place successfully for 17 years, is a joint production of the Händelfestspielorchester Halle and the Händel-Haus Foundation.
A special programme selection featuring Handel's music and that of his contemporaries is framed by short informative discussion rounds. The pivotal point for the dialogues between musicians, restorers and musicologists will be exhibits from the collections of the Handel House Foundation that match the programme, be it historical musical instruments or objects from the graphics and picture collection.
In the 2023/24 season, the bass viola da gamba, which is based on a reworked cello by Tomáš Ondrej Hulínský, will be presented, as well as the copperplate engraving "Dom zu Halle" by J. G. Krügner (1749), an anonymous oil painting with a portrait of Beethoven (late 19th century) and a copperplate engraving with a portrait of J.-B. Lully by J. L. Roullet (around 1690).